| Road Scholar CD from Palm, Inc. |
Reviewed by: Davis Chastain
I was lucky enough to win the Road Scholar CD by Palm at the Jan 16th meeting. The CD contains a number of apps as follows:
I am not reviewing all the programs on this disk, but here is what I think of the following:
Thesaurus
This is a very simple to use app that could come in very handy if you need such a reference at hand. It takes a while to search for the word, I'm sure that's due to the large database that comes with it (50,000 words, 295K). You enter a word and select "Find Word". That's it. You can filter the results to show only adjectives, adverbs, nouns, etc. Also, if you misspell the word, the program corrects to the nearest match. This could be good or bad, depending on how closely you spell the word. [Rating: 5 Needles - ease of use, depth of database]
Britannica Traveler
This is a PQA for the Palm VII (or other devices able to use the Web Clipping apps) to access a very large encyclopaedia. The access was very quick, I was able to download four diverse topics in about a minute. The search engine used by Britannica is very quick and gave many results to my enquiries. [Rating: 5 Needles - speed and depth of response]
DiddleBug
This is a freehand doodling program that allows you to draw directly onto a page. This is great for a quick sketch of a map; or if you can't write in Graffitti fast enough, you can put your note here and transcribe later. It also has an extensive alarm setup which makes little sense to me. Perhaps it's to keep the budding Rembrandt from losing track of time? [Rating: 3 Needles - no help file, confusing application of alarm]
Zillionaire
A remarkably addicting trivia game, this is modeled after the "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" TV show. The silly approach made this a funny game to play. Some of the multiple-choice answers made me laugh out loud! [Rating: 4 Needles - Good trivia questions database, lack of color]
powerOne
This a multi-function calculator program that you can use to replace the native calculator in your Palm OS device. This color app includes standard arithmetic calcs plus-
Business: Sales Tax, Mark-up, % Change
Math: %, inverse, power, square, square root
General: Tip, Calc Log, date calc.
Very good program. [Rating: 5 needles - ease of use, comprehensive, pleasing design]
AvantGo
This program has actually been on my IIIc for many months now. It is a very powerful web reader--you subscribe to "channels" and download the content to your palm for off-line viewing. You can also use it as a browser, although it has limitations. This program is great if you want to download a news channel and read at a later date. Since it is a rather complex program, I'll leave the review for another time or person...
Yet Another Unit Converter
A straightforward converter. What makes this program good is the number of units it addresses. Everything from mass to acceleration to paper density! The conversion is context-sensitive so if you pick kilograms, for instance, the drop-down list of optional units all have to do with mass. [Rating: 4 Needles -comprehensive, easy to use, not much visual flair]
Big Clock
While installing, there is a warning message that indicates there are read-me files on bugs, etc. In fact, there is a specific bug that has a fix recommended by Palm that is disputed by the software author!
This is a very complicated, feature-rich and user-definable app, especially considering it is a clock program! Even the alarm sounds can be configured.
There are four main windows: Time, Alarm, World, and Timer. Each window has two optional display tabs. You can set up to four alarms, four World time zones, and the timer is either count up or count down. The layouts of each window can be configured with any module (i.e. alarm1, date, timer, etc) which can render the window labels moot, depending on what you configure that window to display.
The analog view of the clock had one strange glitch: the hour hand moves only in increments of an hour, so consequently, at 8:59 for example, the minute hand is at :59 and the hour hand is at 8:00. When you glance at the clock face, it looks like one minute 'til 8:00.
All world time entries require you to know +/- time of Greenwich, so there is a fair amount of diddling to get this thing to where you like it.
This is a very powerful, highly configurable clock program that is for those who want to be able to customize to a fine detail. If you want a simple world time/alarm program with preset cities, this isn't it. You'll get bogged down with the setup. [Rating: 3 Needles - complex, not user-friendly -or- 5 Needles - very flexible, highly configurable]