A Great Program For Those of Us Without Wireless Modems
Written: May 21 '01
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Browse the web without a modem; Add your own pages to download
Cons: The more you download - The more memory you take up
The Bottom Line: If you have the memory to spare, I would definitely give this program a try.
|
|
|
| Sparky83's Full Review: Avantgo |
Upon opening my palm pilot and starting to fool around with it, I was disappointed by the way there were many applications which required either a cellular phone or a connection using a palm modem. I didn't have the extra money to go out and spend, yet I wanted to be able to browse the web with my pilot.
That's when I found AvantGo, a piece of software bundled with my Palm m105. This has to be one of the best palm programs I have ever found. It allows you to sync your palm to specified sites on the net and browse them anytime when your away. I use this program often to read the newspaper or read the weather forecast when I'm out and about.
Here are several reasons I love this product:
Many Different "Channels" -- AvantGo has already set up thousands of channels (presorted web pages that are checked and will work flawlessly with AvantGo), in different languages, that will download newspapers, reviews of products, cartoons - you name it and they probably already have it set up. This takes the hastle out of trying to find the content yourself on a page and setting it up to download. AvantGo already has it set up for you.
Ease of Installing and Removing Channels -- This is the easiest part of this software! When browsing on the AvantGo site with your desktop, and you find a channel you want to add, you can just click the add channel button on the web page and the next time you sync your pilot, it will be automatically downloaded! You don't have to set anything on the pilot. The same goes for if you subscribe to a channel on the palm pilot. It will automatically sync it with their site also. You really don't have to be a rocket scientist for this one!
Ability to Add Your Own Sites -- Even if you're browsing around and don't find exactly what you want, or if you were hoping you can get your work's cafeteria schedule from their internet site, you can do that to. By just typing in what URL you want, the pilot will automatically download that page everytime you sync as well.
Connect Using a Wireless Modem -- If in a couple years or so you decide to buy a palm modem or connect your palm to a cell phone, AvantGo can adapt to that as well and can connect to the servers itself and download your channels wirelessly.
Cons:
Memory -- That's the one bad thing about AvantGo, is the more channels you install, the more memory it takes up on your palm. AvantGo does put a limit on each channel as to the extent of it's memory usage, but most of the channels are about 100k on average. I have about 6 channels installed and the channels plus the AvantGo program itself takes up about 1000k.
I would not recommend this to the palms out there with less than 4MB of RAM. The new m100, for example, would not be able to handle this. The m105, on the other hand, with 8MB of RAM, which is what I have, is fine with it. I still have plenty of RAM left over to put many more programs on it.
Overall, I feel that if you have the memory for this program, it is one of my most recommended programs for Palm Pilots. It allows you to view almost any web page, without the expense of a net connection. The feature for adding your own sites are nice if you want to monitor specific things, especially sites on a local intranet. Any person who wants to stay up-to-date and has a palm should download this program.
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
Sparky83
|
|
Member: Jeff
Location: Warren, MI
Reviews written: 4
Trusted by: 0 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.