I bought my Zoomer in the big Costco rush last year, but never used it much
because of several limitations that I felt it had, namely terrible
handwriting recognition and slow performance. About a month ago, I bought
Palm Connect and Graffiti, upgraded my Zoomer to expert mode, and all I can
say now is: I love my Zoomer!!! Here's why:
1. Face it, the handwriting recognition that comes with the Zoomer is
useless. Graffiti is fast and accurate. I has alot of nice features (like
shortcuts) that let you automate your entry. It is singlemost reason that I
use my Zoomer today. It's so easy that I no longer bring a pad and paper
into meetings; I just bring my Zoomer. Graffiti is available from Palm
Computing for $79.
2. To load Graffiti, you'll need the serial transfer cable. You can get
one at Radio Shack for about $20. I opted to buy Palm Computing's Palm
Connect (which comes with a cable), but only because I got a deal ($50!,
usually $110). Palm Connect gives you file linking capabilities between
your PC and the Zoomer and includes a PC version of the Geos operating
system, along with the main apps in the Zoomer. If you don't want to spring
for the software, buy the Radio Shack cable and use the freeware program
ZDOS, available for download in a number of places.
3. Another option for file linking is Palm's Ensemble. It's available for
about $80 (without the cable). It also is a PC version of the Geos
operating system and includes a number of nice apps like GeoWrite and a
bunch of utilities. Note that you won't be able to load most of these apps
on your Zoomer unless you buy a RAM card and are willing to fill it with a
number of required system files. Ensemble also gives you the same file
linking capabilities as Palm Connect. In fact, if you don't want to use
ZDOS, I would recommend Ensemble with the Radio Shack cable over the Palm
Connect package. For a test drive, download the shareware version (called
GeoPublish).
4. Once you have file transfer capability, update your Zoomer to expert
mode. It's pretty easy to do, but make sure you backup your data files
first (the files in the "documents" folder). Expert mode allows me to keep
all the apps I regularly use open, which makes switching between them
relatively fast. This is probably the secondmost reason that I now use my
Zoomer. For more information on expert mode, consult the FAQ. I was lucky
enough to stumble across a uuencoded version of the files that need to be
changed when I was going through the Zoomer mailing list archives.
I know all of this probably seems basic to Zoomer power users, but it took
me hours of poring through the mailing list archives to get me to a comfort
level where I was willing to spend additional cash on the Zoomer. My final
recommendation (in a nutshell): Buy Graffiti (it'll be the best eighty
bucks you've ever spent), buy the $20 PC to Zoomer transfer cable, and
download Geopublish. Use Geopublish during its 30 day evaluation to backup
your Zoomer and make the expert mode changes. If you feel that the file
transfer capability and the additional apps in Ensemble are worth it,
register the software.]
Hope this helps!
Jeff
jpedigo@pacrain.com