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While the Instant FM Music USB drive might be old hat for recording music directly from FM and Web-based radio stations, it goes one up with the pre-loaded Snaptune One software that is capable of recording and identifying the tracks on its own. This makes your job much easier when transferring the file over to your MP3 player or computer. Is the Snaptune One software really all that is trumped up to be, or is it a turkey? Hoepfully there are readers who will be able to shed some light on the $49 Instant FM Music USB drive. Whatever the case, it is keeping the blonde extremely ecstatic in the picture.

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by Rick Broida

Your Palm PDA can do a lot more than just contact and calendar management. Stock it with the right software and it can play music, stream RSS feeds, keep you entertained on the road, and even get you where you’re going.

What will the “right software” cost you? In some cases, nothing at all. A few shareware apps will set you back a sawbuck or two. And if you want door-to-door navigation, be prepared for sticker shock.

Here are a dozen of my favorite Palm apps.

FREEWARE

1. AvantGo
Long before there was RSS, there was AvantGo. This browser-like reader displays news and information “channels” that get updated every time you HotSync. In keeping with the times, the latest version supports RSS feeds as well, so you can stay up to date with your favorite sites (cough *Lifehacker* cough). For years I’ve held AvantGo among my favorite freebies, as it gives me something good to read wherever I go.

2. Avvenu
Avvenu enables you to access your home or office PC via your web-connected Palm or Treo. The utility itself runs in Windows; you use your handheld’s web browser to establish a link with your PC. Once connected, you can browse the files on your hard drive, download them to your PDA, and share them with other users. Avvenu could come in mighty handy if you’re on the road and realize you forgot an important document.

3. Epocrates
If you’re a doctor, healthcare worker, or someone who takes a lot of medication, you need to know about ePocrates Rx. It’s a regularly updated drug database filled with extensive information on over 3,300 drugs–everything from adult and pediatric doses to contraindications, drug interactions, and adverse reactions. The latest version also includes a pharmacology section and a Multicheck feature that lets you look up potentially harmful interactions between two or more drugs. Needless to say, whether you’re the one prescribing the medication or the one taking it, this kind of information could prove invaluable.

4. eReader
Most books I read these days, I read on my Palm. eReader does just what an e-book viewer should: stays out of your way while still providing plenty of features. These include bookmarks, notes, auto-scroll, and fine control over the look and layout of book text. As for the books themselves, eReader.com is home to thousands of mainstream titles, from Dan Brown to Stephen King. They’re not free, of course, though you can find lots of compatible public-domain titles at sites like MemoWare. And don’t forget the very best thing about e-books on your PDA: You can read in bed without disturbing your spouse.

5. PowerBtn
As many a frustrated Palm owner has discovered, power buttons wear out. Rather than pitching your PDA in the trash and jumping ship to Pocket PC (horrors!), install PowerBtn. This tiny utility turns any of your handheld’s application buttons into a new power button. Don’t you just love software that can rescue you from hardware failure?

6. Traffic
Similar to the awesome real-world puzzle game Rush Hour, Traffic challenges you to rearrange blocks within a square so that the red one can “escape.” This is one of those games that’s easy to learn, challenging to beat, and endlessly addictive. Plus, it nabs a mere 12K of your Palm’s memory. That’s some tight programming, people!

SHAREWARE

7. CalorieKing.com Handheld Diet Diary
If you can do math, you can lose weight: Just burn more calories than you consume. Of course, counting those calories can be a nightmare–unless you use Diet Diary ($29.95). Tell the software your desired weight, then log the foods you eat and exercises you perform. It keeps a running tally of your consumed/available calories so you know exactly where you stand. The 50,000-food database makes it easy to record your meals and snacks. The interface isn’t the most glamorous I’ve seen, but I can tell you firsthand that Diet Diary helps with weight loss.

8. eWallet
Your Palm can be a handy place to store account numbers, PIN numbers, passwords, and other secret codes, but stuffing them all into a memo isn’t the most practical solution. Ilium Software’s eWallet ($19.95) organizes and protects all this critical data. You need to remember only one password to access all your neatly categorized information. eWallet also has a Windows-based counterpart, so you can manage and access the information on your PC. To me this is just as valuable as the Palm version.

9. Numberz
Do you Sudoku? The number-puzzle craze that’s sweeping the world comes to the Palm as Numberz ($14.95), and it’s just as addictive as its paper-based counterpart. Numberz offers five skill levels and can generate up to two billion unique puzzles. You can even enter your own puzzles from newspapers or wherever. Although the interface takes a little practice to master, it’s easy once you get the hang of it. Buyer beware: Your productivity may take a serious nosedive.

10. Pocket Tunes Deluxe
Most Palms come with the standard version of Pocket Tunes, so why spend $34.95 on Deluxe? In a word: PlaysForSure. Pocket Tunes Deluxe enables your Palm to play DRM-protected songs purchased from services like Napster, Rhapsody, and Yahoo Music Unlimited. Even better, it supports subscription downloads, so you can pack your Palm with all the music it can hold. (Time to start shopping for a 4GB SD card; try eCost.com, where I recently spotted one selling for .) Even iPods can’t do that.

11. Today
I will say this for Pocket PCs: The Today screen rocks. If you want something similar for your Palm, try the aptly named Today ($8). It shows a summary of your tasks, appointments, and inbox, plus owner information and the date and time. It also provides a memory gauge, week/month calendar views, and a row of icons to quick-launch the built-in apps (or any others you choose). Well worth the eight bucks.

12. TomTom Navigator 5
Pair this $150 (ouch!) program with the cheapest Bluetooth GPS receiver you can find on eBay (I recently nabbed a solar-powered model for around $80) and turn your Palm into a killer navigation system. Seriously, this software rocks: It provides real-time driving directions with voice prompts; millions of points of interest; itinerary planning; navigation from your address book; and a choice of 2D or 3D maps. It’s an order of magnitude better than any other Palm navigation software, and I’ve tried them all. I’d be (sorry) lost without it.

You can find even more of these kinds of handy apps in my book, 101 Killer Apps for Your Palm Handheld. What are your favorite Palm apps? Let us know in the comments!

Rick Broida, founder and former editor of Handheld Computing magazine, still enjoys a good Palm-versus-Pocket-PC debate.

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What happens when you combine a digital photo frame and a desktop clock? Why, you get a child that is called the Desktop Digiframe Clock. Yes sir, this desktop accessory is capable of running through 63 of your best memories in the digital format for all and sundry to see, as well as tell the time and temperature simultaneously. The photos change every 10 seconds and are displayed on the 1.4″ 65k color CSTN display in 240 x 108 resolution. The Desktop Digiframe Clock supports BMP, JPG, PNG, GIF, and TIF files and comes with just 1MB of flash memory, so you can forget about uploading any hi-res pics inside. Powered by a couple of AAA batteries, the Desktop Digiframe Clock will set you back by approximately $72.

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Here’s a nice Firefox gem: if you’ve opened a lot of tabs (so many that the scrolling arrow appears on the right), put your mouse on the row of tabs and try to scroll with the mousewheel: you’ll see the tabs move from left to right, making it very easy to find the one you need.

A gem, indeed! Thanks, Andreas. — Rick Broida

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It makes sense for Nokia to enter the GPS navigation market as they deal with mobile devices as their bread and butter. Nokia has finally released a press release concerning the Nokia 330 Auto Navigation device that enables you to traverse the whole of Europe without getting lost, courtesy of clear spoken and visual directions. The 330 boasts a 3.5″ color touchscreen, an integrated GPS receiver, a 2GB memory card that comes with Europe-wide map data and detailed travel information, an adjustable 2D/3D display, and a day or night view. You can even turn it into a portable jukebox or movie player whenever you’re waiting for a bus or cab. The Nokia 330 will make its debut sometime in Q4 2006 and will retail for approximately 360 Euros without taxes.

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The boys in red are at it again sicking their new Radeon X1650 XT card on Nvidia’s GeForce 7600 GT. Both cards are mid range graphics cards capable of getting you through all of today’s games (though not always at the highest settings) and the X1650 XT is ATI’s somewhat tardy reply to the dominating 7600 GT. The X1650 XT comes with 256MB of DDR3 memory, HDCP support, and is CrossFire-ready, ditching ATI’s dongle approach for a less obtrusive bridge connection. AnandTech was at the playground as both cards duked it out and had this to report. . .

The X1650 XT is a capable card, standing tall against the 7600 GT, but unable to give the 7600 GT the death blow, instead it kept falling a few frames shy of knocking the 7600 GT out in their gaming benchmarks. As a result, they ultimately gave the nod to the 7600 GT, which unlike the X1650 XT is already out in stores. But if you’re not in a rush, the X1650 XT looks like it’s worth the wait, if you can hold off till November and find it with a $150 price tag. – Louis Ramirez

ATI X1650 XT [via AnandTech]

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We’ve been hearing rumblings about the Nokia 330 dedicated navigation device for a while now, but today the company makes it official, vowing to release it sometime before the end of the year in Europe. Its 3.5-inch touchscreen will give you voice guidance and visual directions using NavTeq map data, and it also includes a music and video player with DivX playback.

This looks like a highly capable GPS unit, but we didn’t see any mention of Bluetooth or speakerphonage in the specs, which would be odd since Nokia is such an ace with cellphones. The company didn’t mention when we would see this little navi stateside, but estimated an unusually low retail price in Europe of €360 ($457) before taxes. Bring it, Nokia, post haste! – Charlie White

Nokia 330 Auto Navigation [Navigadget]

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Amex Digital must have fired their entire marketing team, leaving only engineers to run the show by introducing the lawsuit-attracting i Talk Nano. The IT-N501 i Talk Nano is a Skype phone by all means, but the name and slim form factor clearly shows where its inspiration comes from. Features include a multi-language LCD display, a hands-free speakerphone function, and echo cancellation for full-duplex communication. The i Talk Phone measures 105mm x 42mm x 11mm and retails for $25, making it one of the more afforable Skype handsets around. Too bad it is not wireless, leaving you confined to your desk during a VoIP conversation.

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Remember that super-small iPod Shuffle v2.0 from the Showtime event well over a month ago? The good news is that this player is finally shipping. Way too long after it was announced, in my opinion. Nevertheless, it is still a nifty little MP3 player, and it is made by Apple, so we can’t hate on it for too long. Go pick it up from an Apple Store or order it online—just in time for the holidays. – Travis Hudson

Product Page [Apple]
iPod Shuffle v.2 to hit shelves any day now [MobileMag]

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This has to register highly on the ‘cute’ scale when it comes to iPod speakers. Forget white plastic and moulded corners, this is soft, fluffy, and friendly. Yes, it’s the DJ Bear (though that’s perhaps a little grand given that…

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