TidBITS#811/09-Jan-06
=====================
After a much-needed holiday hibernation, we're back and ready
for the busy week ahead of us at Macworld Expo (be sure to check
the ExtraBITS Web page to stay current on what's announced!).
While in San Francisco, we may wish that we had a Garmin iQue 3600
GPS device, which Travis Butler reviews in this issue. Also this
week, Geoff Duncan eulogizes the late Microsoft Internet Explorer
for the Mac, and we note the releases of History Hound 1.9 and two
new AirPort firmware updates, as well as a program to exchange CDs
for an iPod.
Topics:
MailBITS/09-Jan-06
Internet Explorer Officially Fades Away
Increasing Your Cartographic iQue
Hot Topics in TidBITS Talk/09-Jan-06
<http://www.tidbits.com/tb-issues/TidBITS-811.html>
<ftp://ftp.tidbits.com/issues/2006/TidBITS#811_09-Jan-06.etx>
Copyright 2006 TidBITS: Reuse governed by Creative Commons license
<http://www.tidbits.com/terms/> Contact: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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MailBITS/09-Jan-06
------------------
**The Latest AirPort Base Station Firmware Released** -- Apple
releases new firmware for its AirPort Express and AirPort
Extreme Base Stations every few weeks, which is testament
to the difficulty of maintaining Wi-Fi and operating system
compatibility while keeping the units stable. The latest firmware
updates (5.7 for AirPort Extreme and 6.3 for AirPort Express)
appeared last week. The issues addressed range from major - LAN
performance with AirPort Extreme - to obscure, such as improved
support for RADIUS authentication. RADIUS isn't obscure for those
who use it, of course, and a bug I found in testing a server that
used RADIUS for Wi-Fi logins may be fixed in this update.
<http://www.apple.com/support/airport/>
As with previous base station firmware releases, I recommend
waiting to install these upgrades for a few days or weeks unless
you are experiencing a specific problem enumerated in the release
details. There are routinely reports of firmware installation
problems when upgrades are released, and Apple often ships a
quick fix a few weeks later. [GF]
**History Hound 1.9 Now Indexes and Searches RSS** -- Hot on the
heels of SmileOnMyMac's new browseback (covered in TidBITS-810_),
St. Clair Software has released an update to HistoryHound, their
utility for indexing and searching visited Web pages. Along with
normal Web pages that you've viewed in Safari, Internet Explorer,
Firefox, OmniWeb, Camino, Mozilla/Netscape, Opera, and Shiira, or
in the built-in browsers of the NetNewsWire 2 and PulpFiction RSS
readers, HistoryHound 1.9 now indexes and searches RSS feeds that
you've visited or bookmarked in Safari. The update also includes
fixes for troublesome URLs; resolves a launch-time crashing bug;
and clears the search result list when you start a new search,
rather than after the new search completes. Version 1.9 is a
free update to registered users; new copies cost $20. It's a
2.2 MB download. [ACE]
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=08369>
<http://www.stclairsw.com/HistoryHound/>
**Trade Old CDs for an iPod - Really** -- A store in
Charleston, South Carolina, will accept good quality CDs
in exchange for iPods. 130 used CDs that meet their quality
criteria gets you a 30 GB iPod, for instance. That's under
$3 a CD. The one variable is that if you live outside the area
and ship them discs, you might have to pay for return shipping
if they don't agree with their evaluation of your collection.
<http://www.millenniummusic.com/trades.html>
A quick tour of Half.com and Amazon.com's Marketplace section
would probably help quite a bit. Many folks amassed enormous CD
collections over the last two decades and listen to few of them
now. I've tried to sell CDs in the past, but the peculiarities
of the market supply now at Half.com et al. mean that popular
CDs often have low prices because there are so many in circulation
for resale. [GF]
**DealBITS Drawing: Midnight Mansion Winners** -- Congratulations
to Tomas F. Serna of ngsec.com, Rob Hennessy of hyperion.com, Lynn
Nebus of cox.net, James Feinberg of jamesf.com, and Chuck McDonald
of log.on.ca, whose entries were chosen randomly in last issue's
DealBITS drawing and who each received a copy of ActionSoft's
Midnight Mansion. Even if you didn't win, you can save 10 percent
off Midnight Mansion by placing an order using the third link
below; this offer is open to all TidBITS readers through 17-Jan-06
and drops the price to $18. Thanks to the 443 people who entered,
and keep an eye out for future DealBITS drawings! [ACE]
<http://www.actionsoft.com/midnightmansion.html>
<http://www.tidbits.com/dealbits/midnight-mansion/>
<http://www.actionsoft.com/mm/dealbits/register.html>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=08373>
Internet Explorer Officially Fades Away
---------------------------------------
by Geoff Duncan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Although Apple's introduction of Safari caused Microsoft to
put the Mac version of its Internet Explorer Web browser into
"maintenance mode" way back in June 2003 - ceasing development
while pledging to make bug fixes or patch security loopholes
in the even-then-aging browser - Internet Explorer on the Mac
has now officially come to the end of its life cycle. Microsoft
stopped supporting the Mac version of Internet Explorer on
31-Dec-05, and will remove it from its Mactopia Web site on
31-Jan-06. (So grab a copy now for your archival software
collection or stable of programs for HTML testing!)
<http://www.microsoft.com/mac/products/internetexplorer/internetexplorer.aspx>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=07227>
Although Internet Explorer remains a dominant browser for Windows
(where it's creeping toward a version 7 and served as a focus of
Microsoft's long antitrust battles), Internet Explorer on the Mac
was always a somewhat distant cousin, having been birthed back
in 1996 by what would eventually become Microsoft's Macintosh
Business Unit (MacBU), made up of genuine Macintosh programmers
at a time when Apple seemed to be careening towards dissolution.
Even its first beta release (version 2.0, which I reviewed back
in TidBITS-311_ using my shiny 28.8 Kbps modem!) one could see
Mac-centric design features, and its last major revision (which
Adam reviewed in TidBITS-523_ back in March 2000) pushed to offer
useful and powerful features for the time, like a scrapbook and
auction tracker, plus a serious attempt at a platform-agnostic
page rendering engine.
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=01169>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=05872>
Internet Explorer made the jump to Mac OS X early on and, like a
thorn in Apple's paw, remained the operating system's default Web
browser until Apple shipped Safari in early 2003. Despite some
longstanding, glaring issues (cookie management, anybody?) and
never having been updated to offer features like tabbed browsing,
pop-up window blocking, and RSS support, Internet Explorer's
integrated scrapbook was a phenomenally good idea, and, to my
knowledge, its auto-completion feature has been matched only
by OmniWeb. Internet Explorer also provided the only built-in
access to suffix and file-mapping settings in Mac OS X: now, as
installed, Mac OS X enables users to configure only default email
and Web applications, and you can't even do that within system-
wide preferences but must instead adjust those settings within
Mail and Safari. Users with more sophisticated needs must use
programs like RCDefaultApp, MisFox, or More Internet.
<http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omniweb/>
<http://www.rubicode.com/Software/RCDefaultApp/>
<http://www.clauss-net.de/misfox/misfox.html>
<http://www.monkeyfood.com/software/moreInternet/>
So, it's hard to say we'll miss Internet Explorer: after all, like
Netscape, it stopped coming to Macintosh parties a few years ago
and hardly ever writes or calls anymore. But there was a long
period - preceding and during the so-called Internet Boom - where
Microsoft led the pack amongst Mac Web browsers and jauntily kept
getting better, while Apple was struggling for air and Internet
Explorer's main competitor, Netscape, publicly writhed in its
own agonies and drifted further away from the Mac. I may not be
speaking for everyone here, but Internet Explorer and the Mac
walked a long way together, and some of it was uphill in the snow,
both ways, on some very cold days. So, thanks, IE: ya did good.
Increasing Your Cartographic iQue
---------------------------------
by Travis Butler <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
With all the driving I do, the out-of-town consulting I've been
doing, and Adam's reviews of GPS (Global Positioning System)
devices, I've been tempted by GPS navigation units for a year
or two - but they've always been too expensive for me to consider.
One that caught my eye was Garmin's iQue - a GPS navigation
unit built into a Palm OS handheld, promising either a much more
intelligent GPS or a more capable Palm - but it, like the others,
was too expensive. Recently, though, Geeks.com had the iQue 3600
refurbished on sale for $300; after a consulting payment, that
was close enough to be doable, and after some waffling, I sprang
for it.
<http://www.garmin.com/products/iQue3600/>
<http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=010-N0264-11&cat=CON>
So far, I've used it on one major trip and a fair amount of
testing around town, and am overall pleased, though the experience
has not been without its warts. By far the biggest one is Garmin's
half-hearted Mac support; although they've relented to the extent
of posting a Mac OS X version of Palm Desktop that supports the
iQue, the map generation software still requires a PC to run.
You can work around this fairly painlessly by using Virtual PC,
but that's still a hassle.
**The iQue 3600 as a Palm Handheld** -- The Palm models I've used
most recently have been a Tungsten T2 and a Tungsten E. The iQue
3600 feels roughly contemporary with these units from a software
standpoint - all three run Palm OS 5.2.1, handle input using
Graffiti 2 character recognition, and have a high-resolution
display. All of my normal Palm software installed and ran on the
iQue 3600 without a hitch. Garmin modified several of the standard
Palm applications, such as Address Book and Date Book; in all
honesty, though, the only difference I noticed outside of a GPS
context was the Find feature. Garmin's Find button takes you to
the application QueFind, which includes the standard Palm OS Find
feature as one option, along with a variety of "finds" related to
the navigation features (such as Waypoints, Cities, or Food and
Drink).
<http://www.palm.com/us/products/handhelds/>
The biggest software difference from the T2 and E models is
the iQue's "soft" input area at the bottom section of the
320 by 480 display, which is comprised of active pixels instead
of the Tungstens' silkscreened writing area; the area works much
the same as the soft input area of the Tungsten T3, T5, and TX
models, though not exactly. For example, on the T5, the on-screen
keyboard replaces the writing area when activated; on the iQue
3600, the keyboard pops up in the main display area. However,
reader programs like Mobipocket, iSilo, and Plucker recognized
and used the extra display space without trouble. When the writing
area is minimized, the small control strip left at the bottom of
the display displays GPS-related items, versus the Palm's default
buttons.
From a hardware standpoint, the iQue 3600 is also comparable
to the T2 or E. In addition to the high-resolution display, the
iQue includes an SD/MMC memory slot (though it apparently does
not support SDIO cards for Bluetooth or Wi-Fi), a built-in
speaker, a headphone jack for audio (Garmin bundles their own
audio player instead of the RealOne Player Palm includes), and
a recording microphone similar to the T2. It uses the no longer
universal Palm Universal Connector of the vintage that came in
with the M500 and went out with the T3.
The iQue 3600 has 32 MB of RAM, again comparable to the T2 and E,
although only about 10 MB of that is free after installing the
included software; this isn't any particular handicap for me,
because I use SD cards for any serious storage (such as ebooks).
The main processor is a 200 MHz Motorola Dragonball, instead of
the TI OMAP processors used by the T2 and the E, but I didn't
notice any major speed differences; the iQue's interface response
does occasionally feel a bit sluggish when making a lot of screen
taps quickly, as with a solitaire game, but applications launch
and redraw about as fast (sometimes faster) on it than on the
others.
The controls are closer to an older Sony Clie than a Palm; the
iQue 3600 uses basic up/down buttons, instead of the five-way
navigator used on almost all Palms since the Tungsten T, with
a "jog dial" (not an actual rotating dial, just a spring-loaded
rocking switch) and an Esc button on the left side of the unit.
I've been using the five-way navigator for a couple of years now,
and find it hard to adjust to up/down plus jog dial; I expect
Clie users would have a much easier time of it.
Different controls aside, the iQue 3600's construction feels about
the same as the E's - plastic case and controls, buttons with a
firm click, plus a metal stylus. About the only construction weak
point I worry about is the jog dial, but I don't really use it.
The iQue as a whole doesn't have the heft and solidity of the T2,
but it feels perfectly serviceable and should wear well as long
as you take reasonable care of it. The iQue is slightly taller and
about a third thicker than the E, mostly due to the GPS antenna;
the case thins going away from the antenna, and at the bottom is
about as thin as the E. I wouldn't try carrying it in a pants
pocket, but I wouldn't try the E in one either; it should fit
fine in most shirt and jacket pockets.
On the whole, I could easily live with the iQue 3600 as my only
Palm handheld; the controls are somewhat disappointing compared
to newer Palms, but I could get used to them in time. It's not up
to the performance or features standard of the newest high-end
models, but it's perfectly fine for everything I use a Palm for:
calendar, address, portable reference for things like serial
numbers, and ebooks and simple games to pass the time.
**The iQue 3600 as a GPS Navigator** -- Unlike Palm handhelds,
I have very little experience with GPS navigation units; the
iQue is the first I've used for more than a few minutes. With
that understood, I've been impressed with it and am very glad
to have it.
The iQue's standout feature as a GPS navigation system is
undoubtedly its Palm OS base - both the integration with standard
Palm software, and the use of Palm OS applications to handle the
GPS navigation features. While a few interface widgets are unique
to the Garmin software, by and large the GPS application suite
follows Palm OS conventions, making it easy for me to pick it up
with minimal reference to the manual. Integration with standard
Palm applications ranges from the very useful - a new button
in the Address Book takes you straight to the QueFind Address
application with the proper fields filled in, and the resulting
location is stored with the address - to the mildly helpful
(for example, a location can be attached to an appointment in
the Date Book, and can then be routed to via GPS navigation).
And I can't help feeling that the use of Palm applications makes
the system somewhat more powerful and full-featured than the
equivalent stand-alone unit; the tools for searching the map
database are one example.
Unfortunately, the integration is not always clear or consistent;
I kept banging my head against the navigation system's route
generation. In the various categories of the QueFind application,
which searches the map database, you always have a Route To button
that creates a route to the selected item. The iQue also lets you
create routes using saved locations attached to Address Book or
Date Book entries - but there is no Route To button to make this
easy or even apparent. Instead, you have to bring up the (normally
hidden) menu bar, then select Route To from the Que menu. To be
fair, there's also a method that works the same for both areas:
select the item, then tap the Route icon to bring up the Route
control panel. A new banner across the top of the control panel
reads "Route to <selected item>"; the banner looks like display
text and not an interface button, but tapping on it generates
a route to the selected item.
Interface quirks are not the biggest issue I have with the
iQue, however; that lies with the completeness and accuracy
of the underlying map database. The Garmin City Select maps
that come with the iQue are from NavTeq, which, according to
gpsinformation.org, is the same database used by most built-in
car navigation systems, as well as MapQuest and Magellan GPS
units.
<http://www.gpsinformation.org/dale/mapmakers.htm>
I understand that it's not possible to keep up-to-the-minute with
new neighborhoods, roads, and the like. However, I really think
the iQue should be able to find my mother's correct address on
_North_ Kellogg Street in Galesburg, IL, instead of constantly
trying to route me to that street number on _South_ Kellogg
Street, when she's been living in the same place for a decade.
Likewise, as often as small restaurants can open and close,
I don't expect the iQue's listing to be completely up-to-date;
however, having an attempt to route me to a restaurant in
Jacksonville, IL dump me into a well-established residential
area does not inspire confidence. This was using the version
of City Select that shipped with the iQue 3600, version 6.02;
Garmin's Web site lists a version 7 update that I've ordered,
and we'll see if that is improved at all. I'm still not inclined
to excuse the errors I encountered, though; neither location had
changed for years, to all appearances. One comment I did see in
a couple of places online is that NavTeq started expanding their
coverage area in 2001 by including data of lesser reliability,
which could be what I ran into.
(As a side note, trying to find map update information on Garmin's
Web site was overly frustrating. Apparently there are two major
navigation maps compatible with the iQue 3600 - City Select and
City Navigator - as well as specialized topographic and marine
maps. However, after close to an hour of shuttling around the
Garmin Web site, I could not find a single clear explanation of
the difference between City Select and City Navigator, beyond a
mention in passing that City Select comes with certain GPS units;
in particular, I was hoping to see whether City Navigator would
offer improvements that would make it worth buying if I already
had City Select. And as Adam noted in his review of the Garmin
StreetPilot c330, you get only one free map update from Garmin;
update prices range from $50 to $125 otherwise, with most products
costing either $50 or $75.)
<http://www.garmin.com/unlock/update.jsp>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=08121>
Since the full detailed map database covering the entire continent
would be far too large to fit in the iQue's internal memory or in
most SD cards, the iQue uses a base map covering major highways,
combined with detailed street-level navigation maps for specific
areas. You generate the street-level map for areas you want using
a program called Map Install. Unfortunately, Map Install is
Windows-only, integrated into Palm Desktop for Windows; it does
run (if slowly) under Virtual PC. The program itself is simple
to use, if tedious; a map of the coverage area is divided into
(rather oddly delineated) segments, where clicking on a segment
adds it to the map you are building. Building a map of any
significant size that includes major metropolitan areas is likely
to require a lot of scrolling around and/or zooming in and out.
Map Install does show the segments you currently include on your
map, with sizes listed and a running total at the end - a nice
touch when you're trying to fit a map into a smaller memory card.
After all the complaints above, you may wonder if the iQue is even
worth it. Trust me - it is. Adam already described the advantages
of a GPS navigation system in his prior articles, and I have at
least one more advantage to add.
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=08111>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=08203>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=08335>
I tend to be somewhat obsessive about knowing where I am when
driving. Even if I know the route I'm taking on a long trip,
I'll still pull out the road atlas frequently to check my progress
against the map, unless I've driven it often enough to have an
instinctive feel for how far I've come and how far I have to go.
Or, I may know the proper route to a particular location in a
city, and the route to a different location, but I want to know
how they fit together in relation to each other - especially if
there are any odd, winding roads along the way. Having a good GPS
navigator satisfies that obsession; I can always look at the map
and see where I'm at, how far along the route I am, and zoom and
scroll the map to get a picture of my surroundings. I love that.
Despite the integration flaws I mention above, in general I find
the iQue easy to use as a GPS navigator. Scrolling can be done
easily by tapping and dragging; the up/down buttons give a simple
way to zoom in and out, and a pop-up menu lets you select from a
broad range of map scales. The iQue does a generally intelligent
job of auto-scaling; as you approach a turn on the route, it
automatically steps down to lower scales, showing an ever more
detailed picture of your change in course, and pops up turn
preview dialogs as you approach. The iQue also has voice
notification - though as with two of the units Adam reviewed,
it's limited to comments such as "turn left in 500 feet" and
does not read street names. I don't find this to be a particular
problem, as the screen displays the full information and is easy
for me to read at a glance. Map displays are limited to a 2D
top-down view; again, this doesn't particularly bother me, as
I find the clarity of the overhead view easier to decipher at
a glance than the 3D displays I've seen in screenshots of other
GPS units.
Like the units Adam reviewed, the iQue has an automatic re-route
feature that takes over when you leave the programmed route; also
like what Adam described, it seems overly fond of getting you
back on course by turning you around instead of moving you on.
(There is an option you can enable to block U-turns, which the
iQue mostly honors, but it likes to circle you around the block
instead.) A Route Via function allows you to make a list of
several destinations to be visited on a trip, with a nice feature
that will put them in order to minimize driving time; Route Via
can also be used to alter your route manually (to avoid accidents
or construction, for example), but it's not well-suited for this
task. I'd prefer an "avoid this spot" feature of some kind;
the iQue has a Detour function, which is supposed to bypass
the originally selected roads for a distance you specify, but
I rarely see it alter the route significantly.
The only other serious complaint I can make about the GPS
interface is that the on-screen controls are scaled to Palm OS
size, making them hard to hit at arm's distance, especially
without a stylus. When you turn on the GPS circuitry by opening
the antenna, a splash screen gives you what appears to be a
boilerplate warning about operating the device while driving -
and I would take that seriously.
Geeks.com sold the iQue 3600 in a Garmin bundle pack, which
adds an automobile mount and power adapter to the iQue's
standard equipment. Instead of a suction cup, the iQue mount
uses a flexible rubberized surface meant to sit on top of a
dashboard, with four weighted beanbag flaps to help hold it
in place, and the cradle attaching on top. This mount worked
well for me; I have a relatively flat dashboard and the mount
was stable, yet easy to reposition for best viewing. It was also
easy to pull it off completely if I wanted a closer look or to
hide it at a rest stop. The cradle itself swivels, and has angle
adjustments at top and bottom; as long as your dashboard is flat
enough to hold the base without sliding off, you should be able
to find a comfortable viewing position. The DC adapter includes
an amplified speaker (with volume control) that makes it easy to
hear voice directions, Palm alarms, or even MP3 music, although
the added bulk may be a problem for some people's 12V lighter
sockets. (Music continues to play in the background when the
GPS is active, and voice navigation alerts will cut out the Palm
sounds for a moment while the voice speaks. However, the speaker
sound quality is worse than an AM radio, so I don't recommend it
for in-car listening.)
The iQue can be used as a GPS outside of the car, of course,
though the battery life suffers considerably. The GPS antenna
is a slab that flips out from the back of the iQue, and can be
rotated to several angles; for best reception it needs to stay
relatively level to the horizon. I had no trouble with reception
outdoors or in the car. I can't get a good lock-on from inside my
office's building, but surprisingly I could see enough satellites
to lock-on in my top-floor apartment. There's also a socket for
an external antenna, though I'm not sure how many people will
actually need it.
Overall, I have to give the iQue 3600 a good grade as a GPS;
it's not perfect, but it's good enough that I'd buy it just to
use it as a GPS, without regard to its PDA functionality. Even at
the $600 list price, it seems to be as good a product as the first
two GPS units Adam reviewed, for significantly less money, and at
the $300 I paid for mine, it was a steal.
**Using the iQue 3600 with a Mac** -- And now we come to the real
bugaboo, right? Garmin has become semi-notorious among Mac users
for its hostility to the Mac; how hard is the iQue to get working
with a Mac?
The answer is: surprisingly easy, in fact, when it comes to the
PDA side of the equation. Garmin has posted a Mac OS X version
of Palm Desktop in its iQue 3600 software update section, dated
August 2004; this version installed and ran without problems on
an iBook G4 running Mac OS X 10.4.3. If you already own a Palm
unit with a version of Palm Desktop installed, however, installing
the Garmin version will likely cause problems with your current
installation; in that case, you may want to consider a program
called PDiQue. PDiQue modifies the property list files Palm
Desktop uses to recognize supported machines, so that the iQue
3600 is recognized. I tested it with Palm Desktop 4.2.1 Rev D,
the most current version on Palm's Web site, and it allowed the
iQue to HotSync without apparent problems.
<http://www.lycestra.com/ique.htm>
Getting an iQue set up as a GPS unit is... considerably harder.
PDiQue's author, Joe Garcia, has a set of notes on using the iQue
with a Mac that I found very useful, although they haven't been
updated since 2004. The procedure below is based heavily on his
notes, with my own interpolations based on my experiences.
<http://www.lycestra.com/iQueDoc/?1>
As noted above, the map creation software runs only on Windows.
In addition, the initial software install for Windows creates
several Palm packages (such as the base map) that need to go on
the iQue before you can use it to navigate. Therefore, you need
access to either a regular PC or Virtual PC to use the iQue as
a GPS navigator. Using Virtual PC is complicated by the fact
that you cannot HotSync with it; something that surprised me,
as I got my start with Palm products using Virtual PC to HotSync
an original Palm Pilot, until the Claris Organizer-based Mac
Palm Desktop was released. You can still set up the iQue with
nothing but Virtual PC, but the process is more complicated.
In a nutshell, you do all the required steps in Virtual PC,
up to the point where you'd HotSync; at that point, you instead
copy the resulting files from the install folders in Virtual PC
to the Mac side, and then HotSync them with the Mac version of
Palm Desktop.
* Do the initial setup of the Garmin software in Virtual PC; as
part of the process, you'll create a name/user account for your
iQue. After the Palm Desktop setup, it will ask you to plug in
your iQue to HotSync it; stop the installation at this point.
* Go to the Install directory created by Palm Desktop during
the setup. (By default, the directory should be something
like "C:/Program Files/Palm/[User Last Name followed by first
initial]/Install".) You'll see the initial setup files that need
to go on the iQue; copy them to a folder on your Mac. In a normal
Virtual PC install, you can do this just by dragging them from the
directory window in Virtual PC to a folder on your Mac desktop.
* Open HotSync Manager on the Mac, and choose Install Handheld
Files from the HotSync menu. Then drag the files you copied to
your Mac into the list in the Install Handheld Files dialog.
* HotSync your iQue. At the end of the HotSync, you'll need
to reset it.
* If you're going to store your detailed map file on a memory
card - and map files grow large enough that you almost have to -
you must put a file in your user directory in Windows Palm Desktop
so that the Map Install program will know you're using an SD card.
Joe Garcia links to a copy of the file (with somewhat longer
directions) at the URL below; the default location for the file
should be "C:/Program Files/Palm/[User Last Name followed by
first initial]/"
<http://www.lycestra.com/iQueDoc/?18>
* Generate your map with Map Install; be sure to specify the SD
card when it asks you for an install location. The newly created
map file will be in the "CardInst/Slot-SD/" subdirectory of
your user directory; by default, this should be "C:/Program
Files/Palm/[User Last Name followed by first initial]/CardInst/
Slot-SD/GMAPSUPP.IMG" Copy this file to your Mac, just as you
did with the initial setup files.
* Launch HotSync Manager and open the Install Handheld Files
dialog, again as you did before; this time, after dragging the
GMAPSUPP.IMG map file to the install list, click on the Change
Destination button to have the map file sent to the Secure
Digital Card.
* Insert your SD card into the iQue, if you haven't already,
and HotSync again; the map file will be copied to the SD card,
which can take a long time.
And now, you're set to go! If you create new maps in the future
(and you undoubtedly will), simply repeat the last three steps:
create the map with Map Install, copy the resulting map file to
the Mac side, and install it with HotSync Manager.
**My New Travelling Companion** -- As I've already said, the iQue
3600 isn't perfect. It has several minor flaws in the software,
and I've stumbled over holes in the map database. As a Palm PDA,
it's nice, but the design is definitely showing its age compared
to the newer Palm models. It was cutting-edge when it was released
but now lags behind the curve to some degree and has gaps in its
feature set (like the lack of SDIO support, making it impossible
to use an add-on Bluetooth or Wi-Fi card) compared to newer units.
And most important - while Garmin has tossed a bone to Mac users
by posting a Mac OS X version of Palm Desktop for the iQue, their
attitude to Mac users continues to be "Oh, well, if you _must_,
but don't expect us to help you."
<http://www.garmin.com/products/faq.jsp?product=010-00264-00#faq25>
In the end, though, the flaws don't weigh heavily in the balance
for me. Having a full-fledged GPS navigation system for a price
I could afford is worth some hassle; having a still quite capable
Palm OS handheld included is a bonus. And the synergy between
the Palm and GPS sides of the iQue creates a unit that, while
blemished, is still greater than the sum of its parts.
Hot Topics in TidBITS Talk/09-Jan-06
------------------------------------
by TidBITS Staff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
The first link for each thread description points to the
traditional TidBITS Talk interface; the second link points to
the same discussion on our Web Crossing server, which provides
a different look and which may be faster.
**Printing a list of messages in an Entourage folder?** A reader
wants to print just a list of email messages, not the messages
themselves, and is rewarded with an AppleScript solution.
(2 messages)
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2829>
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/671/>
**Apple's Calculator vs. decimal places** -- Calculator (the
application, not the Dashboard widget) sometimes rounds decimal
points incorrectly. But is it actually a feature instead of a
bug? (11 messages)
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2830>
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/672/>
**Word processor for a book** -- Attempting to write an entire
book in a single Microsoft Word file is an invitation for trouble.
Find out what other word processors are recommended by TidBITS
Talk readers. (7 messages)
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2831>
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/673/>
**Cleaning up iPhoto Library** -- iPhoto Buddy is nominated as
a suggestion for taming a 5 GB iPhoto library. (2 messages)
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2832>
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/674/>
**UMN Mapserver** -- Readers offer advice on running a mapserver,
plus some information about one of the companies involved.
(3 messages)
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2833>
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/675/>
**Super 8 Transfer** -- What do you do with all those Super 8
movie rolls in storage? Several ideas emerge, ranging from
re-shooting the projected movies to sending them out for
professional digitizing. (7 messages)
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2834>
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/677/>
**Firefox bookmark location** -- After updating the Web browser
Firefox to the latest version, a reader's bookmarks disappear.
In addition to discovering where Firefox stores its bookmark
file, other folks chime in with their various Firefox experiences.
(7 messages)
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2836>
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/678/>
$$
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