The Official Palm Blog

(Food) Season's Greetings

Well, here we are again: Food Season. That's what I call the roughly two-month period between Halloween and New Year's Day when my usually good eating habits fly out the window. What can I say? Temptation abounds. And with the gorge-fest that is Thanksgiving just passed, I could use some assistance keeping tabs on my indulgences. So this year I'm trying an application called Mobile Diet & Fitness on my Treo. It was recommended to me by a friend who is one of those people who actually carries a "food journal" to track her calories/fat/carb/protein intake and her workouts. I've never been that dedicated... but even I have to admit that the Mobile Diet & Fitness app makes it pretty easy.

You just enter your stats and goals - age, height, start weight, goal weight and the time frame - and it calculates your calories per day to maintain your weight and your calories per day to reach your goal weight. Then you just enter your daily food intake via the Food Log, which has lots of food items already entered and available (even items from your favorite fast-food restaurants), and any daily exercise you're getting in the Fitness Log. The application calculates the calories, carbs, fiber, protein, fat and saturated fat consumed, as well as calories burned, and feeds the info into your Daily Chart, where you can see your daily caloric goal, total calories consumed, calories burned and your day's net calories toward your goal. Pretty darn easy.

While it won't stop you from having the extra piece of pie or from grabbing that handful of chocolates from the 2-lb. box on your coworker's desk, the Mobile Diet & Fitness app can help you keep an eye on what you're consuming this holiday season, and that's half the battle. Believe me - it can be sobering (I won't tell you my caloric intake for Thanksgiving Day - EEK), but knowledge is definitely power.  And when you're in the middle of Food Season, every little bit helps.

-Paul Araquistain, Public Relations Manager

If you want to give it a try, you can check out a trial version of Mobile Diet & Fitness at:
http://software.palm.com/us/html/display_palm_product.jsp?navCategoryld=&id=prod3640686

Here are a couple of similar applications to check out:

Diet Lose Weight with UCM

6 Health Calculators

 

In the Queue – Windows Mobile 6 for AT&T Treo 750 Smartphones

-Palm Windows Mobile Team

This month we started taking orders via our inside sales teams for multi-unit business orders: link http://www.palm.com/us/business/solutions/try750.html for the AT&T Treo 750 smartphone with Windows Mobile 6 pre-installed. Our commercial launch of the WinMo 6 update for those already using the AT&T Treo 750 is just around the corner.

Windows Mobile 6, especially when combined with Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, offers many enhancements from both a business and individual point of view. Below are some of the key improvements in Windows Mobile 6.

Stand Alone Benefits

·         Improved Calendar with Day-at-a-Glance bar

·         Smart On-Device search in Messaging

·         Outlook Flags

Treo plus Exchange Server 2007 Benefits

·         HTML e-mail formatting

·         Exchange search of messages still on the server

·         Meeting attendees and status

·         Meeting request & scheduling conflict improvements

·         Set Out of Office message

·         Receive and follow SharePoint Links

        

IT Management and Security Improvements via Exchange 2007

·         Password and PIN improvements

·         Storage card encryption

        

As we do with many of our business customers looking to make multi-unit purchases, we have a Trial program in place today that allows them to try a Treo connected directly to the Exchange Server for 30 days.  For details, visit: http://respond.palm.com/content/treo750tryme?affID=110807TTM_3.

Business or personal, Windows Mobile 6 has tremendous benefits. Stay tuned and shortly we’ll have instructions for those of you who already have Treo 750’s with Windows Mobile 5.0 and want to install the update.

Happy America Recycles Day!

In the spirit of America Recycles Day, we just wanted to reiterate that Palm fully supports recycling. As mentioned in a previous post, Palm's recycling program is free and takes cell phones and handhelds in any condition, from any brand and also any old accessories that go with it. If you want to participate, just download a pre-paid mailing label here, or pick one up at a Palm retail store. (Don't forget to erase all your personal information before sending it in).

Here are the links to Palm's recycle site and the National Recycling Coalition. And of course there's no reason not to recycle everyday!

-Palm Recycle Team

Tips for Being a Good Cell Phone Citizen

My mother was visiting last weekend and I took her to dinner at a favorite restaurant of mine in Berkeley, CA, and as usual, it was crowded and loud. After sitting down to dinner, Mom realized that she hadn’t checked in with her husband, so she checked her voice mail. After doing so, she explained to me that she had a worried message from her husband and that she had to call him immediately. So not to disturb others in the restaurant, I asked her to go outside to make the call, but she refused. Mom had difficulty in hearing his voice in the noisy restaurant, which caused her to raise her voice while speaking to him. Several glares were shot our way from the surrounding patrons.

This got me thinking about what standards there are for cell phone etiquette. Similar to a restaurant, planes are places where you’re in close proximity to other people. Wired referenced TripAdvisor’s recent survey where 78% of international travelers believe that cell phone usage shouldn’t be permitted on plane trips. Companies like Qantas are currently testing in-flight cell phone usage and may make this possible soon (personally I hope not because I am against cell phone use on planes as well). Regardless of whether you’re in a restaurant or in the air, here are a few tips on cell phone etiquette.

1.      Silence is golden – Turn your phone to vibrate or silent, or better yet off, in movie theaters, school, business meetings, church or any place you know a ringing device will get annoyed stares from others. If you really need to talk on your phone in a public space, try text messaging or mobile Instant Messaging.

2.      Use your “indoor voice” – You don’t have to shout for the person on the other end to hear you. Talk in your normal tone but if the person can’t hear, be considerate to those around you and call back later.

3.      Look ma, no hands! – Buy a headset so if you have to answer your phone in the car, your attention is still kept on the road. It used to be funny steering without your hands when you learned to ride a bike, but it’s not so cool when you’re driving…remember, safety comes first.

4.      Short and sweet – Keep phone conversations brief when you’re with other people; they’ll appreciate it.   

5.      Pay attention – E-mailing and text messaging from your mobile device are great ways to distract yourself – like when you are standing in the check-out line at the grocery store or making a deposit at the bank. But keep it to a minimum so people aren’t stuck in already long lines even longer because you aren’t paying attention.

What do you think? I’d love to hear your ideas for being a good cell phone citizen.

- Maureen Keating, Manager, Planning & Research

Check out these other opinions on the web:

Mind your cell phone manners

Decoding Cell Phone Etiquette

You know the guy in the movie theater whose phone is ringing? Don't be THAT person.

The Basic Rules of Cellphone Etiquette

We're Seeing Red...Ruby Red...

The Ruby Red Centro is now available for $99 (two-year contract, after rebates and instant savings) in Sprint stores, Palm stores, and online at www.sprint.com and www.palm.com/centro.

Are you seeing red?

-Stephanie Richardson