NOTE: This was extracted from the January 10, 2000 edition of the Monday Morning Messenger.

CE HOT TIP - FLIPPER

I know that many of you are also eagerly awaiting the day when your inspection reports can be created on the little pen driven palm top machines. You have read previously that I am banking on the Casio E-100/105 Cassiopeia to be the hot machine for the year 2000. Some of you have already purchased the machine in anticipation of the pending CE software.

Those that are currently using their machines have found a major FLAW in the software that comes with the machine. It turns out that there is no easy, built-in way to toggle or switch from program to program. Currently you have to click on the START, then SETTINGS, then SYSTEM, and then the TASK MANAGER. Once there it requires that you click on the already opened application and finally by clicking the SWITCH TO you will arrive at the program you desire...... What a royal pain.

Let me give you a real life scenario. You are inputing the information into the Casio (or any other CE palmtop) and you click on the speed key for the cool electronic voice recorder. This immediately switches the machine over to the voice recorder. Once the message is recorded then you are stuck on the voice recorder screen. You see, they do not provide a quick return button to get back to the previous program (in this case it is the Home Inspection program). When I say "they," I am referring to that great conglomerate called Microsoft. They offer quick switching for the larger machines, but not for the Palmtops. To get from the Voice Recorder back to the inspection software you have to once again click on the START, then SETTINGS, then SYSTEM, and then the TASK MANAGER. Once there it requires that you click on the already opened application and finally by clicking the SWITCH TO you will arrive back at the inspection program.

Now comes the great news. I found a very inexpensive program on the internet called Flipper. It sounds like a pinball game, but the program is represented by the mascot of the old dolphin TV show starring Flipper himself. Their full program Flipper Pro 2.5 costs $14.95 and they have a Flipper Lite that is a free limited running program. I splurged on the full program after the delight I felt using their Flipper Lite program. The full program gives me the other much needed feature of a battery meter as well as some specialty toggling features.

Here is the introduction information on the Flipper Pro and Flipper Lite from their download site at: http://www.sticky.co.uk/.......

What are the two things Palmsize PC owners want the most from their User Interface?

That's easy:

1. A way to shut down open applications.

Microsoft's guidelines for the Palmsize PC request that developers don't include any options to close currently running applications. The idea is to let Windows CE look after the memory management itself, leaving you to just to get on with using the computer. If you are finished using the Notetaker for example, you just start the next application and Notetake will vanish into the background. If you need it again, you launch it from the Start menu as before and WindowsCE will move it to the front of the display. In theory this is a great idea. In practice, many users don't feel right about it. We want to shut down the programs we no longer need. We even go the extent of opening the pop-up keyboard and entering CTRL and Q to do it "manually". We still want the control over our programs which the Handheld PC and desktop versions of Windows give us. We don't want to wait for WindowsCE to run out of memory and shut down the applications: we want to do it ourselves!

2. A way to quickly return to frequently used applications.

As you normally don't or can't shut down applications, the programs in the background are wasted: they sit there sucking up resources. To get to them, you have to open the Start menu and find and launch them again - what a waste of time! How much better if you could just jump to them with a few taps on the screen. Quicker, easier, more logical and more consistant with the Microsoft ideal of keeping the applications open in the first place.

FEATURES

No other task control utility offers all these features in one, easy-to-use program.

Flip to other running tasks with a single tap
Jump to any running task by name, using the menu
Close any task with a double-tap
Kill all running tasks with a menu option
Assign application launch button to flip tasks
See at a glance how many applications are running
Generate sound effect on power-up (CF card required)
Automatically kills unused applications
Flipping to tasks without bringing the desktop forward
Opens the hidden "Run" dialog
Check memory and power levels, and launch control panels
Online help

This hot CE software tip is probably premature for most of the MMM readers, but I recommend that anybody considering a future Palmtop conversion should go to the Flipper site and download the Flipper Lite program. It will be of little use until you finally make the Palmtop purchase, but the Flipper company might just change their minds and discontinue the free Flipper Lite program. It is only 880k and takes up very little room on your hard drive, so I recommend downloading it now. At the very least you can refer back to this issue of the MMM at a later date.

|RETURN TO 3D & COMPUTER TIPS|

Changing the Way Real Estate is Inspected in Northern Utah!

For more information E-MAIL Us