Sometimes I need to read pdf files on my Palm handhelds. Adobe does offer a pdf reader, Acrobat Reader for Palm OS, but in my opinion, that’s too clumsy, too much trouble to use. First, one must convert the pdf file into some sort of Palm pdb database to be handled by the Adobe Acrobat Reader for Palm. Second, the performance of the Acrobat Reader for Palm sucks, big time.
Fortunately, there is an open source software that can read native pdf files without converting first. The name of the software is PalmPDF, from MetaViewSoft. It’s a sleek software, much better than the one from Adobe.
I am not a fan of portable video player, although I am very fond of my iPod, but I don’t think it a good idea to watch videos on a tiny screen. However, from time to time, the need arises, and one need to know something about the portable video players.
Of course, the most famous one is Apple’s video iPod. Also, there are offerings from iRiver, Archos, and other vendors. However, I just read about them, and never had first hand experience with those players.
However, I tried the Kinoma video player for my Palm Tungsten T2, and I am quite satisfied with it. It came with the Palm handheld, with the converter software for the desktop. Although transcoding took some time on the desktop side, the resultant video plays rather smoothly on the handheld. I am pretty sure that it is not as good as the video players on the PSP, but for some casual use, it is very serviceable.
Use the Kinoma desktop application to transcode video files into Kinoma pdb file, then, copy the resultant Kinoma pdb file to the storage card, /PALM/programs/kinoma/ directory. Then, on the handheld, one can open the video files inside Kinoma player.
