What's New

October 28, 2002

 
New Handhelds from Palm

Today, Palm announced two new handhelds. The Tungsten T is one of the smallest Palm OS handhelds to date, and features a sliding Graffiti area that closes up when you're not using it. The Tungsten T offers a Texas Instruments ARM-based OMAP1510 processor and the new Palm OS 5. It is optimized for a wide range of multimedia and BlueTooth wireless capabilities. It features a new color screen, a built-in voice recorder, a 5-way navigator button for one-hand operation, plus an SD/MMC expansion slot and Palm Universal Connector. The Tungsten T retails for $499, and is available now.

Also announced today, the Tungsten W is Palm's answer to the Handspring Treo and RIM Blackberry, and features built-in tri-band GSM/GPRS wireless capability (offered through AT&T Wireless in the U.S.), and an integrated Blackberry-style keyboard. The device also features a 65,000-color 320x320 pixel high-resolution display, the new 5-way navigator button, 16MB of RAM, a Universal Connector, and an SD/MMC expansion slot, but continues to rely upon Palm OS 4.1.1 and the 33MHz Dragonball VZ processor instead of the newer processor and OS used by the Tungsten T. The Tungsten W will be available in early 2003 at a retail price of $549.

These announcements follow the recent release of the new Palm Zire handheld, a $99 entry-level model that will likely be of little interest to medical users due to its limited 2MB of RAM.

Palm Ultra-Thin Keyboard

Along with its new Tungsten line of handhelds, Palm also announced the Palm Ultra-Thin Keyboard, a full-size, collapsible keyboard. It remains rigid when in use and then folds into a compact stainless steel package. Designed and manufactured by Think Outside, it is one of smallest touch-typeable keyboards available and is 30% lighter and half the thickness of the previous Palm Portable Keyboard. It uses the Palm Universal Connector and will work with a variety of handhelds from Palm, including the new Tungsten T. The Palm Ultra-Thin Keyboard will retail for $99 when it becomes available in late November.
posted by Kent 6:00 PM | |

October 27, 2002

 
USDA Offers Free Nutrient Database

A handheld version of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) National Nutrient Database, listing more than 6,000 food items, is now available for download free of charge for Palm OS devices. The application allows users to browse a given category by scrolling through an alphabetical list of foods, and includes a "portion modifier" feature. The database contains information on over 30 nutrients for each food listed in an easy-to-access format. The program requires approximately 2 MB of RAM (memory expansion cards are not supported at this time).
posted by Kent 9:44 PM | |

October 26, 2002

 
Memory Expansion Made Ridiculously Simple

Confused about how to run your favorite application from an expansion card? Check out LaunchPlug.com, an online guide to memory card expansion on the Palm OS. The site contains online tutorials to help you set up programs to run from expansion memory on various models of Palm OS handhelds. Learn the differences between VFS, PiDirect II, PiRun and other similar programs. Other technical issues are covered as well. For users who like to get into the guts of their PDA, this site is definitely worth bookmarking.
posted by Kent 11:02 AM | |

 
Unbound Medicine and PocketMedicine Partner

Unbound Medicine, Inc. and PocketMedicine.com, Inc. have announced an agreement to add PocketMedicine titles to CogniQ, the leading platform for personal knowledge management on mobile electronic devices. This partnership combines the premier, all-original list of PocketMedicine titles with Unbound Medicine's award-winning handheld and Web technologies.

Unbound Medicine will distribute PocketMedicine titles as new channels on the CogniQ platform for both Palm OS and Pocket PC devices. Product rollout will begin in November. Titles will be drawn from PocketMedicine's Treatment Strategies, Checklist, and Clinical series. Each PocketMedicine title is completely original, written by international experts, and designed specifically for handheld devices.
posted by Kent 10:46 AM | |

October 18, 2002

 
Palm Reading

Here's a link to a very well-done article in the Canadian Medical Association Journal regarding the use of Palm OS handhelds at the bedside. It's in PDF format, so you'll need to have Adobe Acrobat (freeware) installed in order to view it online.
posted by Kent 12:25 PM | |

October 9, 2002

 
ePocrates Rx Pro Now Available

Today, ePocrates announced the much-anticipated successor to its popular drug reference product. While the free version of ePocrates Rx is still available (and upgraded to version 6.0), ePocrates Rx Pro includes:

• Alternative medicine monographs and interactions
• ePocrates ID
• Clinical tables and treatment guidelines
• MedMath, clinical calculator
• Non-expiring application
• Free initial phone support
• Compatible with color devices

ePocrates Rx Pro is available at an introductory price of $49.99 for an annual subscription.
posted by Kent 9:29 PM | |

October 3, 2002

 
First Palm OS 5.0 Handhelds Announced

The first handhelds featuring Palm OS 5.0 and an ARM-compliant CPU have been announced. The new OS offers enhanced PIM applications in addition to support for the faster CPU to provide exceptional overall performance. Surprisingly, these first devices come not from Palm, but Sony. In Sony's usual cryptic fashion, the new devices have been termed the NX Series, and currently include the PEG-NX70V and PEG-NX60. The handhelds will retail for $599.99 and $499.99 respectively, and differ primarily in that the PEG-NX60 lacks the NX70V's built-in camera with MPEG-4 video recording/playback capability. Both feature a 200 MHz Intel XScale PAX250 CPU, 16MB of RAM, a high-resolution 320x480 TFT backlit color display with "virtual" Graffiti area, an integrated QWERTY keyboard, a built-in MP3 player complete with remote control and headphones, a new built-in voice recorder, a Memory Stick slot, and a new wireless slot for an optional wireless LAN (802.11b) card. The units themselves closely resemble the currently-available PEG-NR70V with their magnesium clamshell cases and rotating displays, but are a bit thicker in order to accommodate the wireless card slot, measuring 0.94 in. compared to the NR70V's 0.69 in. Although the NX series will not be available until sometime in early November, you can preorder them on the Sony web site. If you're looking for the Mercedes-Benz of Palm OS-compatible handhelds, look no further than the Sony NX series, although their relatively large form factor (compared to the Palm m5xx and Handspring Treo series) may turn off some potential buyers.
posted by Kent 7:02 PM | |

October 1, 2002

 
Palm Pilots quickly get patient information to doctors

This article in journalnow.com discusses the implementation of Palm OS handhelds at Forsyth Medical Center, using software provided by MercuryMD.
posted by Kent 7:01 PM | |

 
mobileGPnotebook

General Practice Notebook is a clinical database with over 27,000 pages of content. The publishers have just launched speciality-based channels for download to PalmOS and Pocket PC devices, called mobile GPnotebook. Each channel contains 800-1000 pages of content and is available for about $8 US. For more information, visit the GPnotebook site. The downloads can be accessed by following the 'mobile GPnotebook' link from the main menu.
posted by Kent 6:56 PM | |

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