When you're bored in an airport, it's not long before playing with your address book starts to lose its charm. Pick up 500 Essential Palm Programs, and add some zing--and added features--to your handheld. While 2000/2001 schedules for many baseball and basketball teams might not be considered "Essential," the program does cover neat utilities like the iSilo document reader and MobileDB database, each of which is worth the price of the disc. Also, there are dozens of electronic books and stories; guides to foreign countries and cities; and scores of database files on topics as diverse as computer terminology, wine selection, and drug interactions. There are surprisingly few games, although the ones that are provided are challenging and fun--there's even a set of crossword utilities that will download your favorite puzzles for later work.
The search and download interface is a cool imitation of the Palm monitor, down to the LCD-like graphics. It's easy to find what you need by category, price (40 programs are shareware), or quality rating; also, users can mark items for later retrieval or as favorites. The manual gives a little inside information on the Palm OS, and contains several links to such goodies as a PC Palm emulator, online Palm tools, and programming information. Although you certainly won't need all 500 programs, odds are that you'll have a hard time prioritizing the ones that you'd like to fit into memory. --Rob Lightner
Pros:
- 460 free applications and database files
- Wide assortment guarantees items of interest for all users
- Easy access
Cons: - Some programs shareware
- Some information out of date
- Many programs of limited appeal
