My new job involves developing a desktop application for tax related purposes, mainly targeted at multi-national companies. The development team is pretty small right now (6 people plus the CTO). The CTO tries to implement XP (extreme programming for those who mistaken it as Windows XP, the OS) for this project and thus we are encouraged to pair program. (If you have read my previous post about XP, you will see how much I like the whole XP concept!)

However, there is (always) a silver lining to this. To facilitate pair programming, each of us are issued two monitors connect to the PC with dual output video card! So for the very first time in my professional life (or any other life) I have multiple screens/desktops setup! Imagine the amount of desktop real estate I will have (1280×1200 X 2 = 2560×1200)! I can have VS.NET opens in one screen while FireFox and/or Outlook open on the other. And I can move MSDN help off VS.NET into external help and have it displays on the other screen at the same time as my code. Too many possibilities to think of!

With my new job vastly different from my last (programming vs. coordinating), my need for the PDA function of a smartphone has dramatically decreased. Now I am more interested in getting an improved cell phone than an all in one smartphone.

I would love to go back to Nokia as I had great experiences with their phones but none of the phones in their current lineup (that works in the U.S., i.e. tri-band) take my fancy. So I turn to Sony-Ericsson again and the Z600 seems to fit my requirements. I especially like the built-in antenna which is one of my primary reason for not liking flip phones.

Despite receiving great reviews (MobileBurn and Mobile-review.com), none of the U.S. carriers have plans to supply it officially on their network. And with my T68i locking up randomly throughout the day, I am forced (!) to purchase an unlocked Z600 when my first paycheck arrives later on this month.

Michelle wrote about her new found obsession on digital music with her iPod x’mas present.

I’ve found throughout the years that there are a number of gadgets that are invaluable to my life, but not until I took the plunge and tried them out. Here are the short list (and by no mean exhaustive):

• Mobile Phone
• iPod
• TiVo
• Laptop with Wi-Fi and broadband

Continue reading “Don't knock it till you try it” →

I’ve just found this great Palm OS launcher, AppShelf, via ClieSource. After trying it out for couple of hours, I’ve paid the very reasonable $12 for it at Handango . This launcher looks much more modernized than my previous launcher, Launcher X. The one really great feature of AppShelf is the calendar/to-do list display on the main screen. This is similar to the “Today” view in PocketPC which is missing as part of Palm OS 5.

Previously I’ve discussed my preference on input methods in PDA/Cellphone. But this new handwriting recognition software, Decuma, is really something else. No longer there is the need to learn special writings like Graffiti. It can recognize natural handwriting, though not 100 percent perfect. It has problem recognizing my ‘f’ and ‘i’ but after I entered a custom ‘mapping’, it works great. I do have problem ‘unlearning’ my graffiti muscle memory and occasionally write that into Decuma!

If I were not waiting to get the P900 next year I would not hesitate in buying Decuma for my Clie.