Why carry a cell phone, a laptop, a PDA, lockbox keys and a number of other connectivity and productivity devices when you can set up ONE device that does it all? Let me introduce you to the best little pocket-sized device on the market – and teach you how to customize it for the needs of your real estate business.

Mobility You Can Use

Welcome to the world of the Treo 650. It’s a device that many real estate agents are discovering, but only a few have learned to “trick out” to serve their every need and every whim.

I’ve been writing articles about mobility for several years, I’ve blogged about it on WickedBlog.com for ages, and I’ve even taken the time from my own marketing consultation and writing business to create a website (WickedTreo.com) to help teach real estate agents and other mobile professionals how to use the Treo to improve their business. I know it helps me, and I want to help others learn how to use this all-in-one device to organize and improve their businesses and their lives. I believe in the importance of unwired mobility for real estate professionals and I volunteer a good deal of my own time to promote it and show others how to use it. (more…)

A recent article about the “newest thing” for little girls appeared in the New York Times last week.

There’s a new doll that has voice recognition, facial expressions to ’show emotion,’ and the ability to identify objects defines this doll equipped with the latest technology-based bells and whistles.

The doll, Amazing Amanda promises to be hot this Christmas season, but it leaves me feeling a bit cold.

I have a daughter that’s amazingly creative — and her imagination is a 24/7 production machine. Probably even more noticeable to me, as a parent that works in a home office, is the fact that her vocal chords match her thoughts — they are constantly in motion. Go figure.

This child even talks in her sleep! There is no escape. It’s one of the things that amazed Wayne most about her when we started dating seriously enough for him to be around during naptime. “She even talks in her SLEEP!” he announced one day. (As if I didn’t already know).

When bereft of all toys, the child has been known to make her fingers talk to one another and to fashion “horses” out of her hands and have them gallop along any available surface — complete with sound effects.

So, why should I buy this creepy little doll, with it’s creepy little changing facial features, and add not only another power-toy to the family collection , but also one that will increase the current din and clamor of my daily existence? I don’t think I will. It would have to come with headphones, and I doubt it will.

I’ve not seen it in person yet, but the Times article showed dismembered moving heads that gave me the willies, so I’m not sure seeing it in person will help to alleviate those.

Am I the only one that has an issue with this? I was reading just the other day that pet adoption has suffered from the digital revolution and that fewer pets are finding homes because kids are now spending more time with their digital companions than they do with flesh and blood ones.

And, I see the attraction in my own daughter when she asks me a dozen times a day if I’ve checked on PalmPet lately.

Hmmmm…. it’s almost enough to make me rethink buying Alexzandria that new GameBoy DS with NintenDogs for Christmas. Almost.

But then, the digital dogs won’t pee on my carpet, chew up my shoes, cause me to get out in the wee hours in (always) horrid weather to form a search party because they can’t be found this second, or cause a family trauma by finding some untimely end.

I love dogs. I have one. Zoe. But do I want to help a 7-year old train one right now? Nay.

But, it’s a shame that the NintenDog site doesn’t do a feature on real flesh-and-blood adoption options in coordination with the Humane Society. That might help to blend the two. Who knows, maybe taking care of a digital pet would be the best possible training ground for preparing for care of a living, breathing one. Hmmm….

In an attempt to bring all my various program platforms together, I read the info on the Palm Desktop, and despite the poor ratings on PalmGear.com, I gave it a whirl.

It looks pretty, but it’s useless for my needs. The first thing I noticed was that some of my appointments for today didn’t show up.

So I opened my Palm Desktop and yup, there they were. So I ensured that I’d removed any filters from Agendus and looked again. They were still gone.

So I added another appointment to my calendar this evening. It appeared on Agendus, but not on the Palm Desktop. I added one on the Palm Desktop, but it never appeared on Agendus.

At first, I was impressed with the fact that I can send an email directly from the contacts list in Agendus. Being a user of FireFox and Thunderbird, I like programs that “play nice” with these two.

Although the send worked great, whenever I wanted to update my “recent emails” listing in Agendus, it launched Thunderbird — right over the top of the Agendus Desktop. So, I’d have to “x-out” or minimize the email program every time. Not very user friendly.

Since I want solutions, rather than more problems, I uninstalled the Agendus for Palm Desktop within 30 minutes of downloading it.

This may be an “up and coming” program for my needs, but it’s not “arrived” yet.

You know, every time I ignore the user responses on software, I end up being one of those negative responses. Seems like I’d learn, doesn’t it?

I’m going to let you into the corners of my little SD card and share with you the list of games I thought were good enough to buy and were worth the space on my Treo.

I have several purchased games that didn’t make this list, either because they lost their charm, or because I noticed that I never played them — so I didn’t reload them onto the “new” Treo.My Treo Game Favorites:

• Scrabble
• WordPop
• Village Sim
• Tradewinds
• Zap!2016 (came with the Treo 600)
• Klondike (came with the Treo 650)
• Monopoly
• Little Palm Pet (my daughter’s favorite)
• NubbsRevenge (great, inexpensive adventure game for all ages)
• Fish Tycoon
• BeJeweled2

Below is a list of the “freebie” games I keep on my Treo 650.

Most of these are available at PalmGear.com or you can look them up by name on Google.

I offer these because, you don’t have to pay alot to enjoy some quality games on your Treo.The Free Games on my Treo 650’s Expansion Card Include:

• FreeJongg
• Inverti
• Blocks
• Pegged
• Pionmor
• Sea War MP
• OpenChess

There are dozens of other free games available. I’ve tried quite a few, but this is the list of the ones I decided to keep “onboard.”

Have fun!

Yeah, I carry music, and alot of it on my Treo. At the risk of dating myself by listing some of the music I have on my Treo at this moment… I’ll forge ahead.

I use the RealPlayer that comes factory-installed in the Treo 650 as my player. I used PTunes when I had the Treo 600, and liked it enough to upgrade to the “bells and whistles” edition.

I find that, until my video player offers background play as an option, the RealPlayer does a fine job with a simple interface.Below is a list of the artists I have in my music collection on the Treo 650 at the moment. Some artists only rated one song, others got an album, so the listing of an artist isn’t an indication of the number of songs. I’m running just over 600 megs of music on my expansion card.

But, this means that no matter where I am or what I’m doing, I can have stereo quality sound while I’m away. I even turn on my Treo and listen to music while its in the cradle here on my desk sometimes — but the sound quality suffers when the tiny speaker is used instead of the stereo headphones.

Music (by artist in no particular order) currently loaded on my Treo in MP3 format:

• Pink
• Sheryl Crow
• Pure Prarie League
• Caldwell Shine
• Shania Twain
• Travis Tritt
• Natalie Merchant
• Collective Soul
• Suzy Bogguss
• Bob Seger
• Melissa Etheridge
• Elton John
• Harry Chapin
• Pam Tillis
• Aerosmith
• Dixie Chicks
• Edie Brikell and the New Bohemians
• Bad Company
• A.J. Rosales
• Peter Gabriel
• Alanis Morissette
• Hootie & the Blowfish
• Bonnie Raitt
• Lee Ann Womak
• John Michael Montgomery
• Vince Gill
• Loreena McKennit
• BTO
• Guns ‘n’ Roses
• Lou Reed
• Aimee Mann
• Elf Farm Raffle
• Garbage
• Jimmy Buffett
• Lynyrd Skynyrd
• Madonna
• Rush
• Cherish the Ladies
• Bach
• Gary Girouard
• Vivaldi
• Joan Osborne
• James Taylor
• Live
• Rod Stewart
• Eurythmics
• Lisa Loeb
• Missing Person Soup Kitchen
• Joan Hammel
• Cartier
• Indigo Girls
• Tom Petty
• Fleetwood Mac
• Kenny Wayne Shepherd
• REM
• Clannad
• The Chieftans
• Seal
• Simon & Garfunkel
• Robert Cray Band

So, no matter where I am, what I’m doing or what mellow or funky, laid back (or even country) mood I’m in, I can play the music to match.
Ahh, it’s good to be eclectic . ;o)

Aside from the eBooks listed earlier, I also carry a wide selection of Audible’s Audio Book Content. This permits me to listen while driving, it’s a great way to soak up information while taking a stroll, I use it when my eyes are too tired to read, or when I’m just too lazy to read for myself and would rather have it read to me.

It’s convenient, it’s a luxury — and it’s nice to have books read to you. Kinda takes you back to “bedtime stories” in your youth. Of course, few of those were articles in FastCompany, Books about the art of writing, marketing-industry related or even best sellers. ;o)

The Audible Audio Content currently loaded on my Treo 650:

Recent editions of:

• Brain Brew
• MarketPlace
• Fast Company

Books and Special Editions:

• China, Inc
• On Intelligence
• On Writing
• All Marketers are Liars
• The “Consumerization” of High Technology
• eBoys
• The Art of Fiction
• The Art of Nonfiction
• War and Peace (yeah, it’s really on there - but just part one)
• Magic Street
• The Wall Street Journal Special Report on Telecommunications
• Margaret Atwood Reads
• Library of Congress Lectures on Digital Future - (8 full lectures)
• Selling the Invisible
• Scientific American Mind: Creativity

Books I listen to WITH my Daughter:

• Eragon
• InkHeart
• Kingdom and the Elves of the Reaches
• The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

These are a few of the Audible Audiobooks I own, and the only ones I’m carrying right now. I like to listen to my books at a fairly high quality, so this represents about 25% of my 2 gig card.

If you are interested in trying out Audible’s Books, they are running a 50% off sale through August 31st. (I picked up a few more titles during this event, myself.)

I’ve had a few questions about what I carry on my own Treo 650 lately. I’ll have an exhaustive list in an article when the rebuild process is complete.

But for now, as I rebuild between client projects, I’ll share the data “types” and try to group them logically for you.

Rebuilding is a good time to clean house and keep only the really good stuff and this entry will give you the complete “cleaned up” ebook library that I carry on my Treo and the expansion card.
I can’t (unfortunately) get all the books I want in a single format. I have, however, limited my formats to two: eReader and iSilo formats. I wish I could find a “universal” reader that would read all the top formats with a single full-featured program (like iSilo). But until then, I carry two.

The current list of ebooks on my Treo 650 (in no particular order):

Reference library:

• Copy of the US Constitution
• Encyclopedia Britannica Concise 2005
• Travel & Wilderness Medicine
• Terrorism Medical Response
• Dietary Guidelines for Americans (updated)
• 2005 CIA World Fact Book
• General History for Colleges
• Wrong Word: Homonyms, Homophones and Language-Related Booby-Traps
• Write it Right: A Little Blacklist of Literary Faults
• US Army Survival Field Manual
• Ancient Egyptian Handbook
• Aesop’s Fables
• Bulfinch’s Mythology
• Who Was Who: 5000 BC to Date

To Entertain Me:

• Entire Gutenberg Twain Texts
• Collected Works of Poe (five volumes)
• Anthem
• Works of Samuel Johnson (two volumes)
• Biography on Samuel Johnson
• The Art of Writing
• The Efficiency Expert
• ShoGun
• Crime and Punishment
• Ringworld
• Wheel of Time, Book 1: The Eye of the World
• Stranger in a Strange Land
• Rising Sun
• Gone with the Wind
• American Gods
• Lives of the Necromancers
• Slow River
• Fight Club
• Meaning of it All: Thoughts of a Citizen Scientist
• Ender’s Game
• The Green Mile
• The Five People You Meet in Heaven
• Digital Fortress
• Lord of the Flies
• The Minority Report and Other Classic Stories
• Forty Centuries of Ink
• Zen and the Art of the Internet
• Tea Leaves
  (… and a couple “racy” ones I’ll decline to list here)

To Entertain My Daughter:

• A Series of Unfortunate Events
• Friendly Fairies
• Just So Stories
• Le Morte D’Arthur
• Life/Adventures of Santa Clause
• Water Babies
• Marvelous Exploits of Paul Bunyan
• Alice in Wonderland

Yes, I carry alot of books, but I’m never without something really GOOD to read. And this list changes out as I read books and add new ones. This is only a small selection of my entire ebook library, but it’s what I carry at this moment.

For those interested, this represents less than 20% of the space on my 2 gig card. How else could I carry a virtual library shelf full of reading material in a “fat postage stamp-sized” storage device?

It’s good to go digital!

I’ve been doing the natural foods/organic deal for quite a few weeks now. And the hardest thing has been the “snacks” to tuck away near my desk for that 3:00-4:00 p.m. “slump” that I hit.

I think I’ve finally found what will work — a little organic combination of goodies!

I’ve discovered dried Organic (unsulphured, unsweetened) Mango. It’s delicious! I think I like it almost as much as my organic dark chocolate squares and my daily handful of organic almonds or walnuts.

It’s not cheap, and I guess you would have to love mangoes as much as I do (which would be a feat) — but if you are looking for a quick to grab, good-for-you little mid-afternoon pick-me-up — try some dried mango slices.

Simlar to “fruit leather” concepts, but this one is not chopped and “reformed” — it’s just sliced and dried and that’s it.

I got mine at Wild Oats Lexington, Kentucky. But, I’m sure you can order them from anywhere.

One of the first steps my real estate clients take is bundling up every single scrap of marketing literature, materials and what-not that they currently use, or have used in the past — and they send it to me to review.

Usually their business cards, letterhead, brochures and other marketing pieces are cluttered with a slew of phone numbers. So many, in fact, it’s a point of distraction.

Why make your clients and your potential clients work to reach you? Why shouldn’t making the decision to call you be decision enough? Why must they then decide if they want to visit you on the web, email you, call you at home, dial the “main number,” dial the direct line, call your cell, send a fax or punch in your pager number? (more…)

Another must-have program, for me, is FastHide developed by Palmosters. It’s a quick little hack that allows me to “hide” away the icons I don’t want to wade through a dozen times a day — like the “welcome” tour.

Once you have done that once, do you EVER want to do it again?

Originally, I created a category to hold all that stuff that I didn’t want to view all the time, but I still had to cycle through it when searching for something.

Now, I can hide all but my essential programs — and I can easily turn them back “on” by going into the quick, easy to use interface. If the eye icon is open, I can view it, if it’s closed, it’s hidden.

It means my essential programs are at fingertip access and the stuff I don’t use, but can’t uninstall — like VersaMail, the Welcome Tour, the SIM information, etc — is not on my primary screens.

You can “try before you buy” with this one to see if you will use it. There is a 21 day trial. I bought it within two days of my trial download. And, as an aside, I wish all the palm program developers offered a nice registration interface that only required the use of a stylus like FastHide does, instead of a keypad. It makes registration (one of the most bothersome aspects of running paid palm software) a breeze.

Look for it on PalmGear.com.

I’ve decided to rebuild my Treo 650 by hand from a hard reset — so I can be SURE there’s nothing I don’t want on it. I like neat, clean systems. I’ve decided that I will be repairing the old one as a “test” device.

So, finding the best and the brightest for my WickedTreo readers won’t mean putting the Treo I use a hundred times a day, at risk.

As I rebuild my Treo 650, I rediscover some of the little programs I took for granted. Like TAKEphONE.

TAKEphONE is a great little program (available from PalmGear.com, of course)– it will be greater when there are more skins available for it. Right now, there are only a few and most of them are blue — which is my least favorite color in the world, with the possible exception of “teal” — you know, the color that dead flesh must surely turn. But I digeress…

Anyway, the TAKEphONE is a wonderful little program from the Iambic Software website “TAKEphONE is a wrapper for the Palm OS address-book application, designed to enhance & simplify the most common tasks: Finding phone numbers & Creating/editing contacts. These tasks can be done without the use of a stylus, and with just a few taps on the screen.”

And we all like doing as much as possible without the sylus, unless it’s required, don’t we? I don’t want to use my stylus to make a phonecall, or take a picuture, for example. ;o)

This joins the other programs on my “must have” list for my own Treo 650. Once I completely rebuild this machine, I may post a list of “whats on my Treo 650″ for my readers.

A cool little hack (and it’s a free program) makes it possible to take a photo without touching your Treo 650’s screen.

So now you can click a quick photo of that new residential real estate listing and send it to you latest potential relocation client or local buyer, without the “shake” effect of the touchscreen button.

You can now designate your volume keys or the side button as the “shutter” button for the Treo camera.

The program TreoShutter, is available at PalmGear.com and I’ve now tried it on a new, stripped Treo 650. It works like a charm.

I’ll be adding this to the “must have” list for my own Treo. It makes it easier to take photos without the “shake” I get from holding it with one hand and using my stylus to push the onscreen button with the other.

Enjoy!

Ok, I now have two Treo 650 handhelds. One is in perfect condition, one is a bit less pristine.

Although the old Treo seems to be working better every day (which is really weird and reminds me of the “self healing” chip article I just read in this month’s Wired Magazine), it’s still not perfect.

So, I’m looking at what to do with a broken Treo.

With my work on Treo for testing and manipulating programs to report here on Wicked Treo, I’m seriously considering getting the old one fixed to keep on hand.

The reasons are two-fold:

1.) It would give me a system to use to test programs and to try some of the “wicked” Treo 650 hacks from Shadowmite and to pre-test any upcoming firmware upgrades.

2.) If something took it down, it wouldn’t hobble me personally.

3.) If something happens to the “new” unit, I’d have a backup and could be back up and running with a quick sync.

PalmOne will repair the Treo 650 for $179. Warranty is covered by Cingular, according to the Palm website, but Cingular (at least in my area) won’t warrantee the Treo. Kinda a screwed situation, but that’s what happens when there are crevices between the manufacturer and the distributor.

Finding the repair information on Palm isn’t easy, so here’s the repair information for a Treo 650 from Palm in case you ever need it.

Now, usually I just pull things apart myself, and fix them. I always did that with my desktops, but times have changed. I don’t even attempt internal repairs on my laptop these days. I’d be willing to swear those suckers are spring loaded. And, as soon as you open them, you can’t ever get things back in just the way they came out. Computers, unlike old cars, don’t work so well if you have “extra parts” when the repair is over.

I felt bad about that for awhile, until I realized that best buy’s “geek squad” won’t even touch a laptop on site, they send them out. It made me feel a bit better.

Now, here’s a resource site for you BRAVE folks who want to Repair a Treo 650 Yourself. This site doesn’t do much with the Treo 650 per se, and gives very little support for the 600, but they do add new stuff from time to time, and they have basic “how to” guides that are step-by-step instructions for generalized Palm repair that you can download.

(And, they offer some good prices on accessories, too.)

Me? I’ll probably send it in to Palm. I’m not feeling real hardware-repair oriented lately. And, I’d hate to demolish the little guy, he’s been awfully good to me. :O)

Warning… the following is a RANT… with a few useful tips.

Overall, I love working with real estate agents. They are great clients, willing to try new things, and my own clients tend to be rather tech-savvy — or they want to be tech savvy — and are willing to learn. That’s all well and fine. It makes me happy. (more…)

While developers are busy with a chip in your cell phone which will permit you to leave your credit card behind (it’s in there), your keys at home (an electronic key’s in there) and all your personal data, contacts, files, music, movies, books (it’s all in there too with products like the Treo 650) — a new product launch in Japan uses the veins in your hands as an electronic “house key.”

So you use what you carry naturally to verify your identity before allowing condo access. More accurate than fingerprinting and iris scanning, this marks the first residential use of this type of technology.

This new device is a “touch free” model for germaphobes, is difficult to dupe (vein structure is subdermal, so it’s hard to fake) and has an incredible success rate (less than .0008% false acceptance rate and .01% false rejection rate).

Due to be used in a new residential condominium scheduled for construction completion in early 2006, Fujitsu’s security tool has already been used in financial institutions, hospitals and universities in Japan.

To read “all about it” visit www.Japancorp.net.

Personally, scanning body parts has always given me the wiggins. I have even declined to be fingerprinted when my kids were born and I won’t bank in any location that requires such things. I love technology, but I like my privacy more.

For those of you unfettered with such hangups — its a “Brave New World” out there! ;O)

My monthly columns (WordMagic and TechMagic) on Epowernews.com usually bring in a few questions, but this month’s article on using the Treo for Real Estate Agents really brought in a lot of questions, emails and calls.

Apparently there are MANY real estate agents, brokers, Realtors (and even virtual assistants, offsite contractors and remote professional outsourcers for this group) interested and asking questions about how to get started with the Treo.

My first recommendation is that you begin with the “Treo: The Basics” Topic in the upper left hand corner of this site.

I’ve answered as many of these questions personally as I can today — and I thought today would be a slow day to catch up!! Ha!

There are several other questions that have been asked that aren’t covered in the basic information there. Some of it may be covered in the “Treo: All Business” section or in the “Treo: Just for Fun” section.

If you are advanced, you may want to check out the “Tech Tips and Tricks” section.

Some quick answers to a few of the questions I got today are below:

Do you really use your Treo for everything like you say?

Well, lets just say that my MOTHER called me to see how I was doing without my Treo the other day, while I was awaiting the new one to be shipped. My MOTHER! So, you know it’s a serious thing. LOL. The new one arrived yesterday, but I’ve spent my “tweaking” time today answering questions on the Treo, rather than getting mine up and going. Maybe tomorrow…

What are the bare essential additional products for a new Treo, in your opinion?

Well, this site is dedicated to helping answer that question as a whole, but a quick, off the top of my head list of my “dirty dozen” would include: NoteStudio, Snappermail, TCPMP, SuperUtility, Audible, Card Export, BackupBuddy, iSilo, HiLauncher, Think Outside’s Stowaway Keyboard, Mundu IM 3, and eWallet. You can use the site search to read full writeups on these from previous posts here on WickedTreo. Or, if you read the newsletter at www.epowernews.com, you will see my article on the best of the best next month in my Tech Magic column.

I’d also highly recommend a good document program (I use Documents to Go right now, but am always looking for a better option), an excellent, protective case (I’m researching this again now — and will report my findings soon), and a great security program (Again, I’m still looking for that little gem myself).

And for goodness sakes — USE a SCREENPROTECTOR!!!

What Contact Database is the best?

That’s the million dollar question for any real estate agent, broker or Realtor — using any device, isn’t it? The Treo is no exception. I use the Palm desktop, but am looking for a nicer option. I’ve read so many bad reviews about the programs currently on the market, that I’m awaiting a newer, better version on some of the existing programs, or a new program altogether before I consider a change.

Some agents use palm-friendly versions of their online contact database programs and their website database programs. There are more of these out there than you might imagine at this point. None of them are “golden” according to the agent’s I’ve asked.

The main issue and concern here is to be sure what you use works — for the way you work. If you are carrying an outdated contact list in your palm, or if it doesn’t sync without fail to your computer or your online database — you have a big problem. Be sure you can export to a universal format when you are considering a contact database (tab or comma delimited files) so you can ensure that it’s portable without hand-keying everything, should you decide to change systems in the future.

There are programs that will make the Treo sync with Act! (I had the Palm version of Act! didn’t care for it much) and Outlook (several of these get good reviews, but I refuse to use Outlook on my computer due to security issues. It may work fine for you, the sync between Outlook and palm programs has improved recently).

So, what’s the best contact database? One that you use, that’s simple and makes it easy to find the information you need when you need it. One that synch with your data back at the office or online.

If the one you use isn’t easy and readily available you WILL lose data. That’s why a palm conduit is so important. If you wait “until I get back to the office” — the info will be lost as often as it’s recorded.

Now, it’s time for me to call it a day, I hope this helps.

I’ve had a few questions from Realtors and agents this morning about the usefulness of the Treo’s camera for daily applications. It made me realize that, although I blogged and illustrated with photos on my www.WickedBlog.com site, I’d not done it here. So, if you want to see how the photos look, bear with a couple examples from my personal collection — taken while I was on vacation.Below are a few examples of some of the photos I took, one both sizes available when using the Treo. I should also mention that there is a black and white and a sepia option on the camera as well. The photos have not be adjusted or changed in any way. This is the way they look immediately after taking them with the Treo. So, depending on how large you want the image, or how small you need it to be for those working without the mega-expansion cards I carry, I offer the following examples containing my daughter and some of the Colorado landscape:

You will note that the photo taker here wasn’t exactly steady — these were quick shots and some required quick responses — like the one that captured the butterfly in flight. Others had movement — like the mountain stream.

It’s not the quality I’d recommend for showcasing houses, but it’s great for sending quick pictures of a new listing by email, capturing an image on short notice and recording some moments that would be lost forever if they depended on carrying and unpacking a digital wherever you go. (And, between you and me, the grandparents LOVE the emails of the grandkids sent the second they do something cute… but I digress.)

We all carry our phones, now you can carry a camera too — without any additional devices, weight or hassles. Personally, I’ll be downloading and trying the program that permits taking pictures with the side buttons, instead of a screen press, before my next trip out and about.

Andriod, a secrecy-cloaked startup company headed by former Danger, Inc founder, was just purchased by Google, according to a report in Business Week Online.

The Android website, www.android.com, gives little information about the company, and consists of three maps with office locations and a hardhitting track of synthesized music for visitors. That’s it.

To read the whole story, visit the

Business Week article online.

Personally, I can’t wait to see what Goggle is up to next. I love Google.

Although many have lost the rosy view of Google since they became the leading SE online, I still can’t shake the feeling that this “superpower” in the world of the Internet will continue it’s historical pattern of cutting edge betas and expanding the way the masses use the information on the Internet — both wired and mobile!

As you know, I’ve raved about the “unstable” version 0.65 version of TCPMP player for video files on the Treo 650.

Yesterday, I learned that they had released the latest version, beta version 0.66.

The SECOND I get my new Treo up to snuff on the basics, this will be my first “new” download to the new handheld.

It really saved my sanity, and increased my comfort level, during the long ride to Colorado and the even LONGER ride home earlier this month.

I find the old “unstable” version to be one of the most stable programs I use. I can’t wait to learn what’s new in this version. They do not guarantee anything, and I’ve not tried the new version yet, but I’ll let you know how it goes. I’d love to be able to play music using this in the “background” — that’s one of the reasons I still have another music player (realplayer) still on my Treo — because I like listening to music on my headphones while doing other things like surfing the web, sending email, typing on a document, or even playing a game!

It’s built under GNU public license, which means it free (although they do offer a contribution option).

I contribute to a few software companies and a few websites that offer exceptional services. I think this one will make my list this year too.

So, if you haven’t checked it out, now is the time. Visit them at http://tcpmp.corecodec.org/about to download your own copy.

And look in my archives for information on how to get the program to “rip” DVDs from your own collection to view while out mobile.

I completed the entire first season of Dead Like Me while on the road to Colorado, and when I stayed awake a bit longer than everyone else in the RV — so I didn’t disturb their sleep.

Try it, you’ll like it! :O)