In Defence of Starbucks

I don't fully understand why all the vitriol aimed at Starbucks these days?

Starbucks would be the bad guy if they arrived on your local corner selling coffee for 39 cents. The mom'n'pop shops would cry that the big bad soulless corporate behemoth was undercutting them out of business. But, Starbucks doesn't do that; quite on the contrary, when they show up and overprice their coffee, they drive business to the mom'n'pops (studies are in - local coffee shops overwhelming do better when Starbucks is nearby) - that's not so bad, is it?

MyLocation now available on Palm OS GSM devices

Palm inc. continues to frustrate its remaining core users, but one of its strengths is its strong 3rd party developer community. This latest offering is extremely cool, but also telling of issues at Palm that must be more alienating than endearing.

While Palm Inc. says that a Google Maps location-finding feature is only available on "newer Palm phones", the developers at Razix are proud to present MyLocation, for use with Treo 650 and 680, and get this - it's free.

I won't get into a rant on how frustrating it is to be a Palm user these days. Right now I just want to enjoy the benefit of being in a community that will do as much as it can, no matter how little effort Palm Inc. puts into supporting us.

Enjoy!

Palm's Identity Crisis

Handheld electronics include several distinct though related devices: cellular phone, personal digital assitant (PDA) and the hybrid smartphone.

The convergence of a cellular phone and PDA makes sense, since they both share common data - the contacts. It's also easier to carry one device rather than two.

A robust operating system provides a platform to converge additional devices we may want to carry around - mp3 player, gps, etc... why carry a cell phone, a PDA, an mp3 player, a digital camera, and gps receiver in separate devices if we can do it all in one?

Review of IntelligentFind and FindWiz

Like many of us, I do a lot of things on my Treo 680. I listen to MP3s, watch TV shows and movies; I view and edit Microsoft Office documents and spreadsheets; I find my way around with Google Maps; I've got a Bible, a dictionary; I browse the web, send/receive email and text messages; I've got a voice recorder which is great for recording a conversation while I'm driving and can't write down some information. I do all kinds of things on my Treo 680, but the main reason I have a PDA, the single most important thing I do is not as exotic or glamorous: I manage my "life data" - personal ID info, online user IDs and passwords, family dates and obligations, the kids' doctor's appointments, work-related info, notes on speaking engagements (where, when, subject, etc...), travel information, notes to self, contacts information, to-do lists...