Hot on the heals of free software for the Palm Centro and Treo platforms (who says Palm is dead?), here’s another one - Gizmo 5 is a long time player of VoIP and IM for mobile devices and they just released a native Palm client (yes, native PRCs, not midlets/MIDP) that, among other things, allows interoperable IM between the major IM networks - Yahoo, MSN, MySpace, Jabber). It does VoIP through SIP as well so if that’s your thing, it’s a damn good reason to get this installed. Since this thing hooks to Jabber, you get all the IM networks Jabber supports. Until Skype (if ever) comes out with a client for Palm OS, this is a viable alternative to VoIP-enable your Palm device. And just in case you’re wondering, yes, this thing does run in the background (this also means you should remember to disconnect it manually to avoid running up a small fortune on your data bill). Get Gizmo5 - here.

Gizmo5 isn’t the only player in the IM space. Long time software developer Geodisic (formerly Causserie IIANM) also has a client available called MunduIM. It supports MSN, Yahoo, GTalk, Jabber and AIM (among others). MunduIM is shareware though but it is cheap at $11 for lifetime use (but only throughout the same version). Geodisic has been known to release major version updates which requires a new license with no upgrade options. I understand that development costs has to be recouped in a way and being so cheap, I guess it’s unavoidable. But I thought any potential customer should know about this before hand. With free software coming out all the time, MunduIM has to add more value or risk being rendered irrelevant by the competition (much like the subcription-based Verichat and expensive IM+).

Now if you still want choices (that’s the good thing about using a Palm, you’re never short of them), there’s yet another IM client to choose from. And this one is free too. Webmessenger Mobile for Palm is relatively new as I’ve only heard a Palm OS client recently. Other than being slightly sluggish, it’s pretty solid and stable in my limited testing. Again, major networks such as AIM, MSN, Yahoo and Google Talk is supported, but this one has a extra network support - Skype! So if you’ve got a host of Skype contacts, this is the one to get.

So with 3 choices of great IM software, Palm OS users need not fret about being left of in the cold in the IM-space. The way I look at it, why let the excellent Treo/Centro keyboards go to waste ? Now if only I have an unlimited data plan…

Here’s an interesting software for the Palm Centro and Treo devices - a mobile blogging application that allows posting of pictures, text and - get this - video. Supported sites include popular social sites such as Flickr, Facebook, YouTube, twitter and myspace.com (for a more complete list, see here). Palm OS along with other popular smartphones running on Windows Mobile and Symbian are also supported. Hint to cellspin - please allow downloading of the program to a PC instead of forcing subscribers to download from a link from a cellphone. Not everyone has an unlimited data plan.

Here’s what’s not so hot (yes, I’m nitpicking) - you gotta sign up for yet another service. Instead of just working transparently, there’s yet another portal to check and all your content actually goes to cellspin’s own portal. I don’t know about you but I’m pretty happy with Wordpress as my core blog, flickr as my photo site and Facebook as my social site. It’s cool if I just get mobile clients to post directly to these sites. Not too hot that I have to sign-up for another one, just to track these three. But hey, that’s just me.

Check out the free CellSpin beta. As an alternative, Palm has a Facebook client as well.

Along with the announcement that there is now a GSM unlocked model of the popular Palm Centro in the US, Google is debuting a new Google Maps version that uses GSM towers triangulation or GPS hardware to determine the phone’s location called MyLocation. I’ve seen this in action when I was using my iPAQ 6965 (GPS) and also on the iPhone (via a 3rd party software that piggy backs on Google Maps). I certainly didn’t know that it wasn’t available on Palm OS devices. I’m without an unlimited data plan so I’ve not been playing with Google Maps much.

With Palm Centros selling in the millions and software freebies like this and the earier Facebook application, Palm OS is still going strong. Malaysian users interested in getting their feet wet in an extremely powerful and mature smartphone should take a look at the RM1299 (RRP) priced Palm Centro. Street price is going for less than that or with freebies.

It’s a simple dish. You dip sticks of meatballs, seafood, veg into boiling water until they cook and choose from a choice of sweet sauce, peanut spiced sauce or garlic chili sauce. You eat standing too. Sounds like a poor man’s food eh? Wrong, because these sticks of food can rack up quite a bill if you’re not careful (hint: keep a count while you’re busy eating)

Malaysia’s not perfect. The government could be better, price of cars is ridiculous, racial policies, etc. But one thing it has going for it is the food. Being multi-racial, we get to taste foods from different cultures.

OK, that was a bad header. Who cares? The important thing is, I got a new lens! In preparation for the trip to Bali the end of the month, let me introduce the new member of my family, the Sigma 10-20 f4-5.6 ultra-wide angle lens. Purpose of the lens - to capture the dramatic landscapes of Bali. Got it second hand off another photographer who’s less inclined for ultra-wide angles and wanted to sell it off (gotta love these rich kids ). Reviews of the lens:

• http://kenrockwell.com/tech/digital-wide-zooms/comparison.htm
• http://www.shutterasia.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3168 (local forum)
• http://www.nikonians.org/nikon/nikkor-12-24mm/super-wide_shootout_3.html
• http://www.ephotozine.com/article/Sigma-10-20mm-f4-56-EX-DC
• http://www.photozone.de/Reviews/Nikkor%20/%20Nikon%20Lens%20Tests/308-sigma-af-10-20mm-f4-56-dc-ex-hsm-lab-test-report–review

I’m loving the lens so far. It has an odd distortion effect for a non-fisheye lens @10mm but I’m OK with it. In fact, used properly, the exaggerated angle and distortion works. Can’t wait to try this thing out in the field!

Was alerted that Firefox 3.0 Final is available on Mozilla’s download server. I’ve been running FF3 since RC2 and it’s been stable so far. No reason why not to use this over the aging Internet Explorer. Check out Firefox’s cool plugins while you’re at it. Plenty have been upgraded to play nice with the latest and greatest version of this browser.

Update: Download counter