Zoomer review, part 5: some of the applications
brian (Brian Smithson)
Message-id: <m0opqEy-0001nZC@grot.starconn.com>
Date: Wed, 20 Oct 93 19:59 PDT
From: brian (Brian Smithson)
To: zoomer-list-1993
Subject: Zoomer review, part 5: some of the applications
Status: OR
This is part 5 of my Casio Zoomer review: the applications. Well, actually
its about all of the content, including utilities like the File Manager
and data like the Nutrition Guide.
Overview
========
The content is as follows, listed here in the structure one finds them
from the launcher menu. A "*" indicates an item which is accessible
directly from fixed icons at the bottom of the screen.
Launcher *
Calculator *
America Online
Dictionary
Form Calculator
Language Translator
Games
Pyramid
Solitaire
Uki
Address Book *
Date Book *
Note Book *
Pocket Quicken *
World Clock *
Reference
Consumer Information
United States Information
World Information
File Manager
Preferences
Printer Status
In addition to that, there's a help system.
Help system
===========
I'm starting with the help system because it is the best example of
Zoomer's hypertext browser, which is used in the Reference application
as well. It's pretty nice and could be used for other things as well.
I wish there was a little hypertext authoring tool on the Zoomer. :-)
Invoking help brings up a resizable window with two buttons in the top
of the frame, one which puts the window away and the other which provides
help on help. At the top inside of the window are three buttons:
Contents, Go Back, and History. Contents lists hyperlinks to the
contents of the help system for the current application, plus (for the
Palm applications) a hyperlink to "General Topics". Go Back takes
you back one link. History lists the links which you've visited
and lets you select them directly.
Within the window is the usual kind of help text -- more helpful than
most I've seen -- and sometimes the text contains embedded hyperlinks
and/or hyperlinks at the end of the text for "related topics". The
particular style the help text varies somewhat, depending on the
application authors.
I haven't used the help system extensively, a fact which I interpret
to be a Good Thing, but from what I've seen it's more than adequate.
Launcher
========
The Launcher is a cascading menu system for activating all of the
applications on the Zoomer. There isn't a lot to say about it,
except that for this and all of the other pulldowns and pullrights,
you only need to tap on a selection -- you don't need to keep contact
with the screen.
Calculator
==========
The calculator is pretty unimpressive -- it has basic +, -, /, *,
percent, and square root. You can store to, add to, or subtract from
a single memory. It has a scrollable "tape", and you can select data
from the tape and put it on the clipboard. Oh yes, and you can write
the numbers rather than having to key them on the keypad.
America Online
==============
I'd like to be able to say a lot about AOL on the Zoomer, but without
a serial cable or PCMCIA modem, it's kind of boring :-(. Here's what
I can say, without going into all of the details of AOL's usual interface.
In particular, AOL has a nice user setup mechanism which I won't detail,
other than to gripe about one thing: it can only be set up for a 2400
baud modem, even though the serial interface port goes up to 19.2K baud.
Grrr... Does anyone out there actually know why this is? I could
speculate that its some combination of AOL's software and the Zoomer's
slow CPU, or maybe AOL likes to collect connect-time charges, or someone
was very short-sighted.
It is slooooww to start up, much like the PC-GEOS version. It has a
row of soft icons (very small and difficult to distinguish from one
another) for commonly used functions like sending mail or taking
snapshots of text. The menu bar (if you put it up -- see previous Parts
of the review for more about that) has the usual File, Edit, Go To,
Communicate, and Window pulldowns.
One nice find in the File menu is a general purpose text editor.
Unlike the Notebook application, this reads and writes plain text
files, and so one can browse system files and stuff like that.
More about that adventure in some future Part of the review about
"Internals".
The nicest feature, at least from the perspetive of someone who hasn't
actually been able to use it :-(, is the off-line mail composer and
spooler. The composer lets you pull in e-mail addresses from your
Address Book, and then you can write a message directly with HWR or
attach files. The spooler lets you review what's queued and selectively
send, edit, or cancel them.
I've probably missed some important or at least interesting features,
but I'll leave that for someone who's actually used Zoomer AOL.
Dictionary
==========
The dictionary/thesauras has the usual writing space for entering a word,
and four buttons: Lookup, Flash, Jumble, and History. Lookup looks the
word up in the dictionary, and provides a definition (if available),
a list of synonyms (hyperlinks, so you can easily look them up), and
suggested spellings if the word doesn't spell check OK. Flash performs
a flash-card exercise, pulling words out of the dictionary at random;
you're supposed to think of the definition and then tap Lookup.
Jumble performs the standard word-game jumble, but only on words of
up to eight characters. History lists the words you've looked up
and lets you select them for review. I can't really comment on the
quality of the dictionary or thesaurus content, but so far it has
found the words I've wanted to look up. That puts it ahead of most
paperback dictionaries I've used, but it's probably not as good as
the O.E.D. on CDROM :-).
Form Calculator
===============
The Form Calculator consists of a preset bunch of fill-in-the-form
calculations. Under the "general forms" heading, it has conversions
for various physical measurements and geometric solvers for circles
and triangles. Under the "financial forms" heading, it has currency
conversion (Dollars, Yen, Pounds, F. Francs, and D. Marks; you set
the current rates), various percentage (margin, mark-up, change)
and time-value (loan, savings, effective rate, baloon payment)
calculations.
The most humorous form is the "bill splitter". You enter all but one
of the bill amount, number of people, % tip, and per-person amount,
and it calculates the remaining one.
I wish that there was even a simple form-builder for creating my own
forms!
Language Translator
===================
The language translator has approximately 1,000 words in each of 60 or so
languages. You select a "from" language and a "to" language, and then
select a word from the scrolling list. You can move more quickly through
the list by selecting a letter from the alphabet to the right of the
list. It's all done in English characters, which may or may not be useful.
Games
=====
I won't detail the games, except to say that there are three of them:
Pyramid, Solitaire (aka Klondike), and Uki. They're fun, but the card
faces are a bit difficult to read.
Stay tuned for future Part(s?), in which I'll talk about the
Address Book, Date Book, Note Book, Pocket Quicken, World Clock, Reference,
File Manager, Preferences, and Printer Status.