Twelve Black Code Monkeys

I know that most of my columns recently have been about the Treo and related software, so I apologize to those of you who aren’t Treo owners (potential or actual). But having recently upgraded to the 650, I can’t help but be fixated with the new and existing software out there which adds more functionality to the phone.

A couple of items in the news over the last day or so have caught my eye so I thought I’d share them and some brief thoughs.

First, over at MyTreo.Net, Marc Blank, the developer of ChatterEmail, is interviewed. I’ve owned ChatterEmail since an early beta came out last summer and it is the application I use by far the most on my Treo. Probably more than all other programs combined. You know how they say email is the killer app? Well, in my mind ChatterEmail is the killer email program for the Treo. I’d tried others like Snappermail, Versamail, the old standard mail program on the Treo 600, and a couple of others that I can’t recall the names of. ChatterEmail’s killer feature for me was push, which is instant notification of emails, ala the Blackberry. If you are coming from a Blackberry and want that experience, ChatterEmail is the only one to provide it at this point - or at least the only affordable one. The one item keeping people away from ChatterEmail is that it’s only IMAP, and many email hosts still only support POP. But in this interview Marc talks about his next beta that will for the first time support POP. He also makes some interesting technical points about the inefficiency of POP and how we should all be using IMAP if at all possible. Marc is a great guy, truly devoted to his customers. Even during the holidays this year he was continually churning out new beta versions with fixes and additional functionality on almost a daily basis!

Over at Treonauts, Andrew has been polling readers and researching himself the different PIM options for the Treo. PIM standing for Personal Information Manager and relating to the “core” applications of the original Palm platform which are still available on the Treo - the Calendar, Contact List, To-Do List, and Memo Pad. For anyone who needs their Treo to keep them organized, these apps are critical. The ones that come standard with the Treo are ok, but pretty basic. They get the job done for anyone who doesn’t have thousands of contacts, is a sales person, or is just incredibly anal! However, a bunch of different 3rd party apps expand greatly on these and Andrew has a good rundown on them. Personally I still use the built-in apps and part of the reason is that many of the 3rd party ones require several megs of memory, something that is in short supply on the Treo 650. Aside from which I simply don’t have a very hectic schedule, I’m horrible at keeping up with a to-do list, and my contacts number around 200 or so. I simply don’t need something as full-featured as many of these are.

Finally, I recently happened upon a new product which to me may rival ChatterEmail as my killer app. I think I’ll hold off on talking about it right now because I’m still evaluating it and want to do a full write-up and review, which will take some time. Hopefully I will have something for you within a few days…