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From Palm OS to Android (Droid)

In Google Play just search for "graffiti" It's by Access Co. Ltd. It is graffiti 1, not 2. Access Co. Ltd, I believe was the original graffiti developer & bought it back from Palm.

I got the pro version a while ago when Amazon had it as their free app of the day.
 
glassmancheck said:
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Hello all. I just discovered this thread and wanted to put my 2 cents in. Wow, it's over 2 years since it was started. I am a new Android user. I purchased a Samsung Galaxy Player 5.0 around a month and a half ago. My trusty TX was crapping out, so I was on a mission to repair it or replace it since last Fall. I found guy in Minnesota that repairs Palm devices and got a quote on refurbishing it. I thought about doing it until I found the SGP5.[/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]I have been through a few Palm devices. I bought the "Palm Pilot" when it was first introduced back in 1996, shortly after it was introduced. I think it came with 256k or 512k memory. I still have it! Replaced my yearly Franklin Planner for good. I upgraded a few years later to a Handera, then a Clie, and finally a TX. I wore them out.[/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]I'll bet there are a lot of us Palm users out there lurking around waiting for a device that is a serious organizer as they say "out of the box" that will replace their Palm devices. I was one of them till now. The Samsung Galaxy Player is that device for me. All the organizer apps aren't on the device. But that's the idea of the app market. Something to be said for putting it together as I want it, not like Samsung thinks I want it. And I spent a lot of $ on add in apps for my Palm devices over the 15 years of using them. Many were organizer add ons to customize it to my needs.[/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]I am very pleased with the Android as a replacement. And I sync it to my PC just like my first Palm Pilot. And the amount of useful Android apps is incredible. Swype is incredibly accurate (and it is built in). I have in essence duplicated my Palm environment with my Android using a combination of Pimlical for Android, DejaContacts, DejaMemo, DejaTask and CompanionLink. PC (Palm Desktop) to Android; no cloud for me.[/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]All the apps that I relied on from my Palm have replacement Android apps. I've always been a basic user so it was easy for me. Documents to Go, ConverterPad, and Grafitti Pro have stepped right in. Plus a new app or two. One is ScanBizCard, cool as all get out. Take a pix of a business card, then import it into your contacts. Couldn’t be simpler. [/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Any Palm users looking for a replacement path: I have found one that works for me.[/FONT]
Click to expand...
How is Pimlical working out for you? I was a diehard DtBk user but I have heard that Pimlical is rather buggy. I just switched to Android and am researching calendar apps.
 
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]I've taken an entirely different route since going to Android in February. I started out testing DejaOffice, which worked pretty good while syncing with Palm Desktop 6.2. I then purchased Pimlical for Android (PfA) and they worked good together. I bet you remember the DateBK6 funny codes that are put on the Palm Desktop in the Notes field, which was fine, you just didn't play with them. PfA does the same thing. Then I got the idea from looking at the Pimlical for Windows Desktop (PfWD) that it would be real cool to have the old Palm Dbk6 on the desktop along with PfA. The organizer apps are real important to me in my work and personal life, this is what I bought the Android device for, and it looked as though the two would work great together. So I gave it a test. This was a big mistake. I'm not sure what went wrong, but I could never get the data to sync accurately. Duplicates showed up, contacts wouldn't sync addresses, To Dos and Memos wouldn't sync properly, and on and on. It was a mess. I played with it for hours, and days, looking for solutions. I couldn't get it resolved. I probably would have gone back to DejaOffice and Palm Desktop had I not stumbled on something I liked better.[/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]While in the middle of this debacle I discovered two apps that I tried and worked perfect for me. MyPhoneExplorer and B-Folders. I got rid of DejaOffice, PfWD restored my device, and have settled on these two apps to keep me organized. 2 months later, no problems. One thing I did through this process was keep separate backups of my Palm Organizer, and did my experimenting on a spare computer while using my ailing Palm TX as my organizer so as to not screw up my data that I've used for years. I also kept my Android device clean until I was sure of the path that would work for me. That took a few "device wipes". This gave me some time to learn the Android OS before moving my data. It was a real learning experience.[/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The most important things to me are Contacts, Calendar and Memos. Memos with password protection was real important. And they must be able to reliably sync directly to my PC. If I had been able to get DejaOffice to work with a minimum of problem it would have been perfect. It worked great until I tried to get it to work with PfWD. After experiencing how flawless MyPhoneExplorer and B-Folders synced, it was hard to go back to DejaOffice.[/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Here's my current set up for staying organized, with pros (+) and cons (-):[/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]MyPhoneExplorer (Contacts and Calendar)[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]+ Free, and ad free (although donations are accepted, which I highly recommend)[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]+ Flawless synchronization. I have successfully synced 1 device on 2 pc's with no issues to date.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]+ Desktop to edit data[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]+ Backup options to backup device. This is really useful.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]- Todos and Memos are very basic, but still useful. I use B-Folders for this.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]- No security (password protection). But that's what B-Folders does for me.[/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]B-Folders (Memos and ToDos)[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]+ Excellent password protection[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]+ Palm Memo data easily imported[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]+ Flawless synchronization. I have successfully synced 1 device on 2 pc's with no issues to date.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]+ Good search capability.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]+ Easy import of Memos[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]+ Recently updated. Now has new useful features for ToDos, Contacts, daily agenda, and other things I have only begun to use. I really like this app![/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]- ToDos have no easy import from Palm Desktop, but this wasn't a concern for me because I deleted them when finished. Not much to do here.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]- Doesn't seem to work with native Android Contacts.[/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Pimlical for Android[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]+ Floating events[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]+ Good calendar app, syncs perfectly through MyPhoneExplorer[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]+ Contact linking, but limited[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]- Contacts, memos, and todos not supported as in Dbk6[/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Contact Lookup Fast (I needed better Contact search ability)[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]+ Excellent app to search Contacts. Native Android search didn't cut it for me.[/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]To answer your question, I'm happy with PfA. But it only slightly resembles the old Dbk6. I think a lot has to do with whether you want to work directly with your PC or through "the cloud". If you want to sync with your PC, I am very happy with my setup after using it for a couple months. I have no experience working in the cloud, which many others do. If the cloud is the direction you plan, other solutions may be better.[/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Here's a couple links I would suggest looking at. I followed this and others before settling on my setup:[/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]http://androidforums.com/android-applications/26431-best-calendar-app.html[/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]http://androidforums.com/android-applications/509333-i-know-topic-has-been-beaten-death-already-but-outlook-sync.html[/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]What is it that you want your Android to do? Do you want to sync to your PC? What apps from the Dbk6 were most important to you?[/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Hope this is some help.[/FONT]
 
Yes, this is very helpful, as I had not heard of either of these two apps yet (the names leave a bit to be desired; would probably have never even looked at them). I had kind of (reluctantly) resigned myself to only have a cloud interface but I much prefer a desktop interface as well. Just last week, I had no internet access all week on my laptop.

And thanks for the Contact Lookup Fast info as well. I agree about the native contacts search.
 
DAE51D said:
As a former PalmOS fan myself, and pretty much HandyShopper was the main reason, I'm telling you rShopping is awesome. He also has a Facebook page. He updates the app with some frequency now and it's quite robust IMHO. I don't miss HandyShopper at all now. I'm sure if there were some features you missed, he'd be very open to trying to implement them. Super nice guy.
Click to expand...
Thanks DEA51D!
 
Thank you!! This is the first comparison of DejaOffice/CompanionLink (why don't they just call it DejaSync or something?) and B-Folders I've seen.

glassmancheck said:
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]After experiencing how flawless MyPhoneExplorer and B-Folders synced[/FONT]
Click to expand...

Do you mean they sync with each other, or that each of them separately syncs with its own separate app on the PC? What's the process you go through to get everything synced?

Do they (either of them) stay synced with Palm Desktop?


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]MyPhoneExplorer (Contacts and Calendar)[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]- No security (password protection). But that's what B-Folders does for me.[/FONT]
Click to expand...

Do you mean, B-Folders adds security to your MyPhoneExplorer contacts and calendar, or do you mean, the B-Folders stuff does not include contacts and calendar, so those are not secure?


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]B-Folders (Memos and ToDos)[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]- Doesn't seem to work with native Android Contacts.[/FONT]
Click to expand...

Do you mean MyPhoneExplorer does work with native Android contacts? Does that mean it syncs them with your gmail account contacts? Have you checked?

Also, do your MyPhoneExplorer contacts play well with making calls, the call log, making txts, the txt logs, making emails?
 
The first Palm OS smartphone was by QualComm, and it sucked in terms of integration. But they worked on it and then sold it to Kyocera, who worked on it some more. I had a Kyocera 7135; I think they did one more generation of Palm phone after that.

Here's the thing: you could go every which way between the phone, contacts and txts. So you could
Dial or txt from a contact.
Create a contact or txt from the phone call log. (At any later time, not just within 5 seconds of hanging up.)
Jump from the call log to the contact with one click.
Create a contact for a phone number, and the phone call log and txt log would update themselves to show the name instead of the number.
Dial a call or create a contact from a received or sent txt.

The Kyocera features made the 7135 Palm-like. So streamlined it seemed almost obviously right (though I admire the vision and work to do it).

Palm (or one of those confusing spinoff companies) made some bad smartphones, but finally the Treo... which had the same set of apps (Phone, Call Log, Contacts, Messaging) as the Kyocera, but only about 2/3 of the integration links between them. I don't know why Palm didn't buy them back from Kyocera. Their lack made the Treo annoyingly less Palm-like than the Kyocera, even though Treo was a nicer device.

And now the Android OS has very little sense of focus and integration. But I don't want to go back to the Treo, I want to go back to the Kyocera 7135.

So I guess this is written for some future developer: it's nice to be able to replace individual apps or even whole suites of apps. But what we really need is a backplane that
o links all the apps mentioned above in the ways mentioned above
o allows any of those apps to be swapped for a competitor, keeping all the data and linkage
o lets them all sync, incrementally, whether to cloud or private storage
o does selectable "private" records like Palm, with real encryption like B-Folders
o supports searching, tagging, categories and folders even if all the apps don't
o allows an "Android Desktop" in the sense of a synced instance of your phone's data and apps, but on your PC.
 
Amen to the sync. Palm programs could integrate with the PC programs very well.
Act, Documents to Go, Acrobat, Quicken to name a few.
 
I need to add what I finally found out, did, and am using.

B-folders holds onto "items"--Note, Task, Journal entry, Bookmark, Login Password, Contact, Card, Credit card--each with a format unique to B-folders and syncing with nothing but b-folders. In fact they only exported, not imported most of their types of items until a release that just came out today. But, they do (claim to) encrypt their database. So I imported all my password and private stuff as "notes" into their database, and I sync b-folders on my Android to b-folders on my Mac.

Private contacts, I just imported the raw vcard text for each as a note in b-folders.

For non-sensitive contacts, I went through a laborious process of exporting .vcf files from the Palm Desktop, massaging them to import into Apple Address Book. I needn't necessarily have done this, all of the info would have gone straight into Address Book directly, just with errors like home instead of work, phone instead of fax, and certain fields being appended to the note field instead of still being fields in themselves.

I use Missing Sync for Android to sync between Address Book on the Mac and the standard Contacts app on the Android. The Android Contacts doesn't recognize a lot of the minor information (like groups) in the database, and it shows notes within contacts but doesn't let long ones be edited. It won't dial phone numbers at all if they have extra info in them (like an extension). But on the Mac side the full information works and doesn't get deleted, and on the phone side I can deal with each problem as it comes up.

When you create a new contact on the Android, it asks you to pick which "account" to create it in. To have a contact that syncs with the Mac instead of Google, you have to pick the Missing Sync "account" instead of the gmail account you're originally required to create. I also set up a conventional email account with the built-in Email app, which creates another "account" for contacts, but the Missing Sync contacts seem to work with Email.

For the calendar, which is a lot less critical for me, Missing Sync will only sync with "fliq Contacts," their own, free, slightly modified version of the standard Android Calendar app. The two apps don't share event databases somehow, and I made the mistake of first putting my events into the standard Calendar. But a free app called "iCal Import/Export" exports to standard formats and let me move over to fliq Calendar fairly painlessly.

For photos and videos I take on the phone, Missing Sync for Android handles a DCIM incompatibility that some Androids (including mine) have, and also imports into iPhoto.

So, I need to sync both b-folders and Missing Sync. I do both over WiFi although both can do Bluetooth.
 
DefyAnt:[FONT=Arial, sans-serif] My apologies for not responding to your question last month. I don't follow the threads as much as I used to. I missed your question last month. [/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]It looks like you have transitioned to the Android well.[/FONT]
 
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