This tip isn’t so much a tip as a list of resources. Most are probably obvious to you, but for those who are very new to the Clie and Palm world, here are several good sources for information, news, and third-party applications. In no particular order:

PALM APPS

PalmGear.com
This has been the “definitive” source for acquiring Palm apps. Recently, they have instituted a new policy for downloading, but they are still an excellent resource. With some minor exceptions, if you can’t find it here, you can’t find it. Palmgear offers freeware, shareware, and commercial software, but they seem to push shareware.

Handango.com
This is a another app site that has grown considerably over the years. They offer an excellent selection of freeware, shareware, and commercial apps for the Palm and other PDA platforms.

FreewarePalm.com
Lots of popups, but you do get what you pay for! This site focuses exclusivly on freeware Palm apps. The quality of apps ranges from extremely poor to better than most commercial apps. he programmers who provide apps for this site are not trying to make a buck, but put out excellent software for the sake of the challenge and self-gratification. If you are on a budget, check out this site. You are bound to find lots of great apps.

Note: Just please be aware that for ALL of these sites, all programs may not work on the latest Clies running PalmOS 5.

INFORMATION & NEWS

PalmGear
Yes, they carry apps, but scroll down their home page, and you will see the latest news from the Palm world. This site is updated as new news comes in.

Palm Info Center
Up-to-date, thorough, and informative. This site gives you all the latest news and buzz in the Palm world. Each article also has a comment section so you can voice your opinion and view the opinions of others. This site is updated as new news comes in.

CliePlanet
This UK site maintains all news that is Clie. From the latest apps to the latest hardware, this site is updated daily with the latest news. There is also a linked discussion forum for your and others’ views.

ClieSource
I stumbled on this site shortly before buying my Clie, and it has been invaluable. They offer news and a discusson forum that can’t be beat, It is heavily trafficked and is, in my opinion, the best source of Clie-related information. They suffered an unrecoverable system crash several months back losing everything, but today, you would never know. The information flows fast and freely. If you have a Clie question, you are guaranteed to get an answer from this site.

The Gadgeteer
This site specializes in news and reviews of the latest Gadgets. It’s not limited to the Clie or the Palm. In fact, you will find stuff there you never new you needed!

PDAGeek
While not devoted to the Palm or Clie, this site offers a lot of great general PDA news and reviews.

cbulock’s Clie Home Page
Cameron Bulock’s NX Page is a good starting point for some excellent Clie NX information. He also has a Yahoo Groups forum set up which is a nice resource.

TankerBob’s Clie Home Page
Tanker Bob’s Palm OS Device Page has a lot of good Clie and Palm information.

PDA Buyer’s Guide
Looking for a new PDA? This site has excellent reviews and comparisons of just about any PDA you could want.

JimsTips.com
OK, time for the shameless plug. JimsTips.com has a number of tips available to Clie NX users, new and old. I also added to this site www.wondersilkskins.com, a resource for free skins for the WonderSilk program. And for you Mobile users, point your browser or offline reader (such as HandStory, AvantGo, etc.) to mobile.jimstips.com for the latest tips in a Palm-readable format.

As always, all my information is free, but if you like what you see and would like to help support JimsTips.com, please click on the “Donate” button. Your financial support, no matter how large or small, helps keep this site alive and kicking.

My name is Jim Barr and I am a Mobile Information Addict. OK. There. I said it. I am a Mobile Information Junkie, and I’m not ashamed, in fact, I’m excited about it!

The Sony Clie NX70V has given me the ability to have all sorts of information with me at all times. From Dictionaries, to clipped Web Sites, to pictures of family & friends, to multiple translations of the Bible, to maps of my surroundings, my Clie provides the information I need and the information I want. There are a many tools out there to enable carrying mobile information, but I am going to focus on one: HandStory.

HandStory (found at HandStory.com) is an information tool that lets you manage and view various types of information. It manages “Memos”, “DOC” files (the most common Palm ebook format), “eBook” (a handStory proprietary format), Web Clips, and images. Organizing and viewing are done through one simple interface.

HandStory includes two main components: a Desktop component and a Palm component. The Desltop component is where all the fun begins. Copy any text or image to your Windows Clipboard, and then click on the HandStory icon that sits in your System Tray. Up pops a dialog box that lets you name the file, determine where to install it (RAM or Memory Stick), categorize it, and in the case of Images, determine the color depth and size of the image. Clicking “OK” quickly converts the copied text or image into a HandStory file that gets queued up to install the next time you HotSync.

Further, HandStory integrates with Internet Explorer adding “Save to Palm” and “Clip to Palm” to IE’s right-click context menu. “Save to Palm” lets you instantly save pictures or selected text. “Clip to Palm” renders the HTML page you are currently viewing (with graphics, if you choose) to a format that is readable on the Clie. I have been told that there are other offline viewers for the Palm that do a better job of rendering the pages (for example, handStory doesn’t do tables) but for most things, HandStory works well.

To me, the important thing isn’t so much how HandStory works, but that it works. Web Surfing no longer is limited to sitting at a PC. If I see something of interest that I would like to look at later, I just Clip it using HandStory, HotSync, and take it with me. This makes standing in line or waiting at a long train crossing much more interesting. And it’s not limited to Web information. Just about any text or graphic image (.jpg, .bmp, .gif, etc.) can be instantly converted to a format that is fully portable.

To use an annoying TV cliche, “But wait…there’s more!” HandStory offers a “Web Clipping” service similar to AvantGo and the HandStory Desktop component can automatically update Web clips for you daily. For example, I have mine set up to provide the latest weather, news, movie listings, etc. daily. I always have fresh, interesting content to take with me. And you can also create your own web clips to auto-update. Admittedly, not all sites work. Sites that use java or other “funky” programming may not render. HandStory (like almost all other Palm-based offline readers) work best with sites that don’t bombard you with eye-candy. Just about any site that works with AvantGo, Plucker, or iSilo should work just fine with HandStory.

For more discussions on HandStory, check out the forums at ClieSource.com and do a search for “HandStory” or “Web Clip”

The tools are at hand, so why not take it with you?!

Note: I am not affiliated with HandStory other than being a very happy and satisfied customer.

As always, all my information is free, but if you like what you see and would like to help support JimsTips.com, please click on the “Donate” button. Your financial support, no matter how large or small, helps keep this site alive and kicking.

I know this tip is VERY specific, but it has been VERY useful to me. I own a Sena Case from SenaCases.com for my Clie NX70V, and while I think it is a good quality case, one of its shortcomings is that over time, the leather “pouch” that holds the the Clie into the case has stretched making it a lose fit.

So, to remedy this, I just cut a two inch piece of adhesive-backed Velcro and applied the “hook” side to the case and the “fuzz” side to the Clie. I mounted it right over the Clie logo on the back near the top. Now when I put the Clie into its case, it secures very nicely.

The Velcro doesn’t interfere with the cradle nor the operationo of the flip-screen.

It’s unobtrusive and makes a decent case into a more secure and reliable case.

As always, all my information is free, but if you like what you see and would like to help support JimsTips.com, please click on the “Donate” button. Your financial support, no matter how large or small, helps keep this site alive and kicking.

The included Clie Viewer program, while good intentioned, suffers from lethargy. Take more than a handful of pictures with your Clie Camera, and you sit and wait, and wait, and wait for the Clie Viewer to generate thumbnail images. It doesn’t cache these thumbnail images, so the next time you want to view images, you have to wait, and wait, and…

An alternative is to purchase one of the several third-party Imager Viewer apps. One such app is AcidImage from RedMercury.com These third-party viewers add functionality and speed not available to the native Clie Viewer.

For example, AcidImage adds a “file manager” function that lets you choose to view pictures stored anywhere on yout Memory Stick. This is very handy because you can organize your pictures into folders either on-board using a program like ClieFiles or “externally” using MSImport and opening a Windows Explorer window to manage the files on the memory Stick. You can select one, selected, or all photos to view. You can view the thumbnails in various sizes or view a text list of the photos. Very flexible.

Another nice feature is the ability to view “other” image types imported to the Memory Stick using MSImport. The Clie’s camera takes pictures in .jpg format, but AcidImage can display .gif and .bmp, and several other graphic file types. This is especially useful if you want to carry graphical information with you. You are no longer limited to viewing just Photos taken with your Clie, but you can carry with you and view images from just about any source.

For example, say you are Web Surfing and go to MapQuest.com to find a map of a specific place. Once it displays on your PC, just right-click on the image, and (in Internet Explorer) select “Save Picture As…” and save the picture to your PC. Then, use MSImport to load the picture onto your Memory Stick. Viewing the image in AcidImage lets you Zoom, Pan, and Rotate the image quickly.

There’s also a slideshow function that cycles through your images.

Admittedly, one nice thing about the Clie Viewer is that you can use it as a “launching point” to view Photos, Movies, listen to Voice Recordings, etc. but these functions can be easily done by launching the associated apps separatly. This integration is something I would gladly give up to have an image viewer that is quick and simple to use.

A Third-Party image viewer can open the door to many other uses for your Clie!

Note: I am not affiliated in any way with Red Mercury other than being a happy customer.

As always, all my information is free, but if you like what you see and would like to help support JimsTips.com, please click on the “Donate” button. Your financial support, no matter how large or small, helps keep this site alive and kicking.

True one-handed Launcher operation:

I don’t like the default CLIE Launcher and I can’t wait for new OS 5 compliant launchers. I tried to like the new launcher, but it seems to take too many jog dial turns to find and select a program, and I find it hard to navigate from category to category using the jog dial–it really requires stylus tapping. I REALLY am stuck on the Launcher iii, Launch’em, LauncherX style of launchers. So, what to do? None of the “good” launchers are fully OS 5 complient (yet.) So, why not go back to the “Classic” style.

But wait…don’t use the default settings! In my opinion, by default, the preferences aren’t very friendly: There is no way to easilly change categories short of clicking the dropdown and selecting a category.

-Go into Options and select “Go To Standard view”
-Next, go into “Options” and click “Preferences”
-Check all boxes and change the “Jog Select” dropdown to “PopUp”

Finally, edit the categories and rename them to whatever you want, and use the “Categories” menu item to assign categories.

OK, what does this give you?

Pressing the jog dial cycles you through the categories in the order that the categories are sorted (see bonus tip below to sort otherwise unsortable categories.) The “Unfiled” category is ignored, which is nice because it allows you to “hide” unused or infrequently used programs. Rolling the jog dial brings up a popup list of all apps in that category through which you can scroll and select. Pressing the jog dial on the selected entry in the popup starts the app. Is the popup displayed, but you want to go change categories? Press the “Back” button and it will dismiss the popup allowing you to then press the jog dial to cycle the categories.

Also, pressing and holding “Back” from within any application takes you back to the launcher.

Bonus tip:

Don’t like the way the categories are sorted? Rename the categories by prepending numbers to the names. For example, “Main” becomes “1. Main”, “Games” becomes “2. Games”, etc. Adjust the numbers to your liking, and you can determine the sort order!

It’s not perfect, but I can actually select any app from within any category with just a couple jogs and presses.

More tips coming as I uncover them!

Update:

Even if you don’t enable the “PopUp” function, you can still use the Jog dial to scroll through the apps. Now, this is my preferred setting. If you have an app highlighted and want to go back to selecting a category (because pressing the Jog Dial will launch the app) just press the “Back” button! So simple!