Proud Geek

Whether you’re an intrepid Treo user like me or a novice like my partner, you’ve surely noticed that the newer Treos (the 680, 755p, and Centro, among others) have wimpy batteries.  They simply don’t last all day, and my partner and I often jockey over the extra battery chargers in the kitchen and in our cars.

This becomes especially pronounced when we use battery-intensive applications on the Treo - like Chatter, Causerie or any other IM programs, and web browsers.  Fortunately, aside from carrying a charger or an extra battery with us all day, there are some things we (and you!) could do to lengthen our Treo’s battery charge throughout the day.

Here’s the tip du jour:  turn off automatic date / time settings.

See … The newer Treo’s running Palm OS (and surely Window Mobile too but I’m not familiar with these) can keep checking the phone network to get the local date and time.  Very handy for keeping your Treo’s time and date accurate to the second.   Very useful when you’ve got to catch a train every day (like me).  But this is a constant power drain on our Treo’s batteries.  Turning this feature off and setting the date / time yourself (if necessary) saves a bit of battery power throughout the day.  After all, every bit helps!

Here’s how:

• Press the “house” button on your Treo to view a list of applications installed.
• Select the “Prefs” application.
• Once inside Preferences for your Treo, select “Date / Time”.
• The first option you see will be “Automatically set:”.   The drop-down menu under that has three options:
  • Nothing
  • Date and time
  • Date, time and time zone
• Set this setting to “Nothing.”
• Under “Manually set:”, make sure your location, date, and time are correct.  If the location isn’t correct, either select a city near you in the same time zone or scroll down to the bottom of the Location list and select “Edit list …”
• Press “Done”

Ta-da!  You’re on the way toward saving a bit of battery power per day.  This may not be enough to keep you going all day without re-charging, but every little bit helps - especially in these eco-conscious days.

Stay tuned for more battery power tips!

It seemed too good to be true.

One of my favorite Treo applications developer, Hobbyist Software, announced two nights ago that he has developed Bar Booster, a new Treo application (still in beta) that would increase my signal strength by one or two bars - at the expense of a slightly increased battery drain.

Since I take a commuter train through farmland and then the subway through underground tunnels, the signal strength of my Verizon Palm Treo 755p can go from 4 to just one or none in a matter of seconds. I’d wished that I could boost my signal strength. And so, Bar Booster seemed to be a godsend!

So, yesterday, I installed Bar Booster. Just 11k, which I thought was very small — yet I knew also that this is typical of Hobbyist Software’s other applications - they all have small “footprints” as well.

Maybe it was my imagination, but I could see a slightly better signal strength as my train choo-choo’ed across pastoral farmland. Emails continued to arrive, signal strength continued to fluctuate, I continued to browse the web. All was normal, yet I thought I saw a bit better signal strength.

When I changed trains and took the subway, I felt that signal strength was about the same as my train went thru the various underground tunnels. What a disappointment.

So, this morning, April 2nd, I got on the commuter train once again and opened Bar Booster to see if I could configure some settings. And what did I see but this message:

Ok folks, you probably guessed it. This was pure April Fool.

I hope you enjoyed it, you should probably disable it now!

Rob, the Hobbyist developer, certainly got me! Grumble grumble laugh. It certainly was too good to be true. Good one, Rob.

(I currently use several Hobbyist Software’s more legit offerings - Butler, Power Hero, Initiate, and Genius!, and have written about Genius! in the past.)

Got a hankering to know just exactly what time it is, whereever you are? Wanting to synchronize time with your pals but can’t decide whose watch / smartphone has exactly the correct time?

Go pay time.gov a visit on your mobile device / smartphone / pager.

But what’s that? Time.gov’s Java-enabled functions doesn’t work on your smartphone? (These Java pages make it possible to see the time in real time on computers and Java-enabled phones - with the seconds running.) Don’t fret. Almost buried in a corner of many time.gov pages is a tiny link saying “Disable Java Animation” — clicking on this link allows you to see a non-Java version of that page. In fact, when you find your time zone and then get the non-Java version of that page, don’t forget to bookmark it on your smartphone’s web browser so you can quickly refer to it again. But keep in mind that, unlike Java versions of these pages, non-Java time.gov pages only show the time at the exact time the page was loaded onto your browser - that is, the time isn’t updated automatically unless you refresh the page.

I know many smartphones - including the Palm Treos - can automatically get the time and date from the network. But leaving this functionality on can be a huge power drain for the Palm Treos (and possibly other devices) - so that’s where having a bookmark to time.gov can come in handy if you leave this functionality off.

I’ll make it easy for you. Here’s a list of links to the non-Java pages of the various USA time zones. Gosh, ain’t it interesting how many time zones there really are in the USA and its territories? And remember when Alaska’s number of time zones changed from the previous four to just two now?

Happy times are indeed here! (And yes, I had previously blogged about checking time.gov from your computer.)

List of non-Java versions of time.gov time zone webpages:

• Atlantic time zone
• Eastern time zone
  
• Central time zone
• Mountain time zone
  
• Mountain time zone (Arizona, non-Navajo, no Daylight Saving)
• Pacific time zone
• Alaska time zone
• Hawaii / Aleutian time zone (Aleutian Islands, no Daylight Saving)
• Hawaii / Aleutian time zone
• Samoa and Midway time zone
• Marshall and Wake Islands time zone
• Kwajalein Island time zone
• Federated Islands of Micronesia (Caroline) time zone
• Chamorro time zone
• Palau time zone

Long-suffering Proud Geek readers may (will!) remember that I’m a huge fan of Chatter Email on the Palm Treo because Chatter gives the Palm Treo true-biz Push Email. Only, for a true Push Email experience, you had to be using an email service that has IMAP (rather than POP) access. Yahoo Mail doesn’t have this, and neither does Hotmail / Live mail. For a long time, Google’s Gmail didn’t either, until a few weeks ago. I enthusatically blogged about Gmail’s IMAP addition, and then a few days later I blogged with dismay that Chatter’s problems with Gmail’s IMAP has forced me to go back to my old email system (Fastmail.fm).

A few days ago, Marc, the creator of Chatter has released a new version (3.0.10) that now plays nicely with Gmail’s IMAP access. Hooray! I’m now using Gmail instead of Fastmail.fm, and push email works flawlessly except for two things: photos sent from Tmobile Sidekicks don’t seem to come attached to emails when pushed to my Treo (while photos from other sources and other smartphones come across just fine, strangely enough), and I occasionally get a “Delete Failed” error when deleting an email on my Treo. Those two issues were with a beta version of the now-stable 3.0.10 release, so I’m curious if I still see these issues with this release.

Although my recent blog post with instructions on how to configure your Chatter to work with Gmail via IMAP is still good, I noticed that Marc added a “Gmail (IMAP)” option to the drop-down list of account types when creating a new account. So, modified instructions below.

1. You need to configure Gmail to allow IMAP. Within Gmail on the computer screen, click on “Settings” then the “Forwarding and POP / IMAP” tab. Then click on “Enable IMAP”. (NOTE: if you don’t see this yet, then try logging out and then into your Gmail account. Sometimes this will do the trick. If you still don’t see this, then wait a bit longer …)
2. Within Chatter on your Treo, pull down the top menu and select “New Account”
3. In the “Quick Setup” window, under “Choose the account type …” drop-down menu, select “Gmail (IMAP)”
4. Under “Your Name,” type a name that you want to show up when sending emails
5. Under “Login Name,” type your full Gmail email address (including the “@gmail.com” or your Google Apps extension)
6. Under “PW,” type your Gmail password.
7. Make sure “Always Online” is checked.
8. Click on “OK”

And there you have it. Super-duper-easy — well, sorta. Don’t forget to go to “Edit Account” and configure your options if you want to load emails older than 14 days, customize your delete options, increase the “load” (the initial size of emails that Chatter pulls before asking if you want “More”), notification, etc.

Thanks, Marc, for continuing to update what is inarguably (at least by me and legions of loyal Chatter users) the best email program for the Palm Treos!

(Update 11/26/07: A new version of Chatter fixes all of these problems!  See related blog post for more details and instructions on how to configure Chatter.)

When Gmail began allowing IMAP access, I thought it’d be the start of a terrific relationship. Like the beginning of every relationship, I thought it’d be all champagne and roses.Unfortunately, like every relationship (including Brad and Angelina’s), there were problems between Gmail and me. And in this one, pretty serious problems that has already led to a trial separation between Gmail and myself just one day after the relationship began. And I’ve returned to my ex, Fastmail.

Ok, let me explain …

Firstly, IMAP is a way for my emails on my Palm Treo (via Chatter) to stay current with my emails on Gmail (or whereever else - like my ex-ex Fastmail.fm). If I get new email on Gmail or Fastmail, IMAP access makes it show up immediately on Chatter on my Treo — that is, emails are pushed to my Treo. If I delete an email on Gmail, it’d be deleted on my Treo (and vice versa). If I reply to a message, a small icon shows up on both the Treo and Gmail showing that it has been replied to (well, it’s supposed to - see below). If I file the email into a folder on the Treo, it’s tagged and archived in Gmail (and, again, vice versa).

After just a day of using Gmail’s IMAP access via Chatter on the Palm Treo, I’ve come across some serious problems. And according to this forum thread (and also this forum thread), I’m not the only one. These problems have driven me away from Gmail and back to Fastmail.

• Most seriously, some emails being sent to me are apparently in Base64 format (one of many email formats - the most common being uuencode, I believe) and come across as pure gibberish in Chatter. Seems to happen mostly to emails being sent from Blackberries and Sidekicks. Here’s what an email sometimes ends up looking like on my Treo:

SXRzIG9rIG5vdy4gWm9yYSBzIHJvbGxpbmcga
GVyIGJvZHkgb24gdGhlIGhpbGwNCi0tLS0tT3Jp
Z2luYWwgTWVzc2FnZS0tLS0tDQpGcm9tOiAiSm
9zaCBNZW5kZWxzb2huIiA8am9zaEBlbGxpbWVu
ZC5jb20+DQoNCkRhdGU6IDI3IE9jdCAyMDA3ID
E5OjAyOjAwIA0KVG86PGJhcnJ5ZUB0bW8uYmxh
Y2tiZXJyeS5uZXQ+DQpTdWJqZWN0OiBSZTogYW
xzbyAuLi4NCg0KDQpvaWMuICBKYWNrZXRzIGFy
ZSBpbiB2YW4gZ3JyLg0KLS0tLS1PcmlnaW5hbC
BNZXNzYWdlLS0tLS0NCkZyb206ICI9P3V0Zi04
P0I/UW1GeWNua2dSV3hzYVc5MGRBPT0/PSIgPG
JhcnJ5ZUB0bW8uYmxhY2tiZXJyeS5uZXQ+DQpE
YXRlOiBTYXR1cmRheSwgT2N0IDI3LCAyMDA3ID
Y6NTIgcG0NClN1YmplY3Q6IFJlOiBhbHNvIC4u
Lg0KVG86IFJlcGx5LSAgICBiYXJyeWVAdG1vLmJ
sYWNrYmVycnkubmV0VG86ICJKb3NoIE1lbmRl
bHNvaG4iIDxqb3NoQGVsbGltZW5kLmNvbT4NCg
0KWWVhaCBwbHVzIHNoZSdzIG92ZXJleGNpdGVk
IGdvaW5nIHRvIGdhbWUuICBJdHMgYml0IGNoaW
xseSBoZXJlLiBHcnJyDQotLS0tLU9yaWdpbmFs

This seems to happen most often when I’ve already responded to an email and am getting a reply on Chatter from someone using a Blackberry and Sidekick (so far). When this happens, I have to log onto the mobile version of my Gmail account via Blazer on my Treo to be able to read my email. Quickly becomes annoying. Very annoying. And this is the primary reason I am breaking up from Gmail so quickly and returning to my old flame, Fastmail.

• When I get emails with attachments, Gmail doesn’t seem to be passing these attachments on. A friend says to me, check out this photo of his daughter. What photo? There is nothing attached, at least on the Treo. But then when I check the same email on Gmail, the photo’s there.

• Flags (showing that an email has been replied to or forwarded) are supposed to show up on both the Treo (in Chatter) and on Gmail for the same email. But unfortunately, these flags aren’t being synced. I reply to an email on Chatter, and I see a small icon next to the email saying that I’ve replied to it. But a short while later, when it syncs with Gmail, the flag / reply icon disappears.

• Emails with HTML in it aren’t coming across very well in Chatter. When I get email with HTML formatting in Fastmail and then onto Chatter via IMAP, these emails are pretty well-rendered and well-formatted. But when I get the same email via Gmail, all of the HTML formatting codes show up in the email on Chatter - lots of “<page>” and “<img>” codes burying whatever important text there is.

I don’t know if these are problems caused by Gmail, or by Chatter’s inability to recognize some new (?!) stuff used by Gmail. Whatever the cause is, I truly, truly hope that these problems get ironed out. In the meanwhile, I’m going back to forwarding all my Gmail emails to Fastmail, and then sycing between Fastmail and Chatter via IMAP …

(Update 11/26/07: Chatter has been updated, and this has been fixed! See related blog post and updated instructions on how to configure Chatter.)

(Update 11/20/07: A new beta version of Chatter Email fixes problems with Gmail’s IMAP. I’ve begun using Gmail once again, and I love it!)

(UPDATE 10/30/07: Problems with how emails look after going through Gmail’s IMAP has forced me to go back to Fastmail. See related blog post.)

Gmail now allows people to connect via IMAP — effectively giving people the “power” to instaneously push Gmail emails to their mobile devices, computer programs, and favorite webmail services. And if you’ve been a regular reader of my blog, you know how much an advocate I am of using Chatter on Palm Treos, using Gmail AND Fastmail.fm. Now that Gmail offers IMAP, you can just drop Fastmail and use Gmail by itself.

Wonderful! I’ve been so looking forward to moving from Fastmail to Gmail.

Here’s how you can set Chatter to do IMAP with Gmail (at least until Chatter is updated to automatically configure Gmail with IMAP):

1. You need to configure Gmail to allow IMAP. Within Gmail on the computer screen, click on “Settings” then the “Forwarding and POP / IMAP” tab. Then click on “Enable IMAP”. (NOTE: if you don’t see this yet, then try logging out and then into your Gmail account. Sometimes this will do the trick. If you still don’t see this, then wait a bit longer …)
2. Within Chatter on your Treo, pull down the top menu and select “New Account”
3. In the “Quick Setup” window, under “Choose the account type …” drop-down menu, select “Generic IMAP Account”
4. You’ll be taken to “Account Definition.” Under the “Define” tab, fill in the following. Name: (type in a nickname for this account); IMAP Server: (type “imap.gmail.com”); Login Name: (type your email address including the “@” — i.e., “johndoe@gmail.com”. If you have a Google App account, use the account domain name and email — i.e., “john@johndoe.com”); Password: (type your Gmail password)
5. Under the “Deliver” tab, make sure the following boxes are checked: “Sync Messages”, “Keep Flags Synced”, and “Use SSL”. Everything else is up to you.
6. Under the “Other” tab, the settings are up to you.
7. Under the “SMTP” tab, and after saying yes to “Do you want to create a SMTP profile?”, set the following: Server: (type “smtp.google.com”); Login Name (make sure your gmail email address is spelled correctly here); Password (type your gmail password); Return Address (same as your gmail email address); Full Name (type whatever full name you want here). MAKE SURE there is a check next to “SSL”.
8. Click on OK.
9. Chatter should now connect to Gmail — and you will now be able to receive and send emails via your Gmail account.

Update: here’s the official announcement from Google about Gmail getting IMAP.

Update #2: here’s my original blog post explaining how to set up Chatter on your Treo with Fastmail and Gmail. I’ll do a new blog post soon with this info, but leaving Fastmail out. Bye bye Fastmail, you were good to me, yet it’s time to say bye.

Update #3: here’s an official blog post from Palm saying that while Versamail won’t work nicely with Gmail’s new IMAP access, Chatter will indeed work well.

If you know me even passably well, you will know that I have my nose to my Palm Treo pretty much all the time. I walk while reading / using my Palm Treo. I use it in the car while waiting at red lights. I use it in the elevator at work. I stand in line at Starbucks while reading someting on my Treo. I whip out my Palm Treo whenever I’ve got a few spare SECONDS.

So … Just what am I doing on my Palm Treo 650?

Ah, here’s a quick list of what I might be doing on the Treo at any given moment:

• Checking out my Mobile Facebook page (including reading and writing on people’s walls, checking on who just joined as a new friend, and reading new Facebook emails;
• Reading and sending emails via Chatter (see my blog post about setting up push email using Chatter)
• Reading e-books that I purchased via eReader (believe me, it becomes easy after a while to read books on the Palm, and it’s difficult to go back to the printed page!);
• Catching up with everyone’s blogs as well as news headlines using Google Reader’s mobile page;
• Making sure there’s no traffic on my way home via Google Maps Mobile;
• Checking out my Proud Geek blog stats via WordPress’s admittedly bare-bones mobile page;
• Playing either Bubblet or WordPop!;
• Maintaining my to-do list and generally managing info via either Vitalist’s mobile page or Bonsai;
• Checking the weather via Accuweather’s mobile page;
• Writing documents and spreadsheets via Docs to Go;
• Browsing the Internet using Googlizer (via Google’s mobile page) to optimize webpages for smartphones;

If you’re thinking, “Wait a minute, Mr. Proud Geek makes it sound like his Palm Treo 650 is just like a laptop!” then you’re exactly right. Exactly right.

That’s me, Mr. Proud Geek, in the photo below. I’m at the Miami Seaquarium, holding my younger daughter and using my Treo while dolphins frolic and splash us all. (In the photo, I’m actually emailing fellow Treo fanatic Chris.  Click on the photo for a larger version.)

Good news: my younger daughter finally quit her pacifier a few days ago. Hooray!

The latest Palm Treo model has been unveiled!

The Palm Treo 500v is the slimmest Treo ever, and it comes with a nice upgrade of features, including:

• Delivery of MSN/Hotmail, Yahoo, and Gmail emails as they arrive — a very nice touch, considering that it was difficult in the past to get push email on Windows-based Palm Treos without an Exchange server
• 2.0 megapixel camera for sharp pictures and videos
• 150mb of memory — plenty for all of your music and videos that you’d play with the built-in Windows Media Player Mobile.

(EDIT: Some downsides. The screen is non-touch — the first time ever for a Palm Treo. Makes it more akin to a Blackberry, eh? Also, the keyboard’s smaller than other Treos, so if you’re stubby-fingered, well …)

You want one? If you’re living in North America, you’re outta luck for a while — the Palm Treo 500v is only available in several countries in Europe for the time being.

Do I want one? No, because I want a Treo that runs on Palm OS. But I could be swayed if the software is right …

If you’re wondering — yes, the “500v” is a lower number than some of the latest Palm Treos out there (680, 700, 755). This apparently reflects the fact that this would be more inexpensive, and may be available for just $99 with a good voice plan.

Palm Treos look great, but they’re starting to look aged in comparison to all the newer phones coming out — especially the iPhone. Now there’s a way to dress up your (and my) Palm Treo — with a “Fun Friend” case on sale at mytreo.net.

Honey, I want one for Hannukah / Christmas! In fact, I want the Ruphus case.

I know, I know, putting a Fun Friend case on my Treo 650 will make it difficult to put into my favorite case — the Smartphone Experts P6 Pouch Case. Who cares. Maybe I can squeeze Ruphus in.

Mytreo.net’s blog has some photos of butch military folks (of both genders) in cameo fatigues enjoying Fun Friends on their smartphones / iPods. With friends like these, you can’t go wrong …

Remember my recent blog post suggesting that a new Palm Treo would be coming soon? Palm apparently got tired of all the leaks and rumors, and “leaked” a more official photo of the upcoming Palm Centro (probably also named the Palm 800p). Here it is.

Makes me drool! According to unofficial reports, the Centro is the smallest Treo ever, and may sell for just $99 with voice / data plans. May be only under Sprint for several months before being opened up to other carriers.  But some limitations. Keyboard seems a bit small, and so is the screen. No wi-fi.

Nonetheless, a new look for the Treo is always welcome!

(Thanks, Treonauts!)