http://www.palm.com/us/software/chatteremail/

This application turns your Treo/Centro into a Blackberry with support for push IMAP. I find this feature rather scary though.

What is useful for me though is the summary folders feature, that allows you to select several folders from multiple accounts and display it in one virtual inbox grouped by day, sorted by time and color coded based on your settings.

This helps me with quickly getting an overview of emails, and then schedule and organise emails that have tasks. Then while there, quickly file or delete emails.

Related: Email Manages You!

http://elijah.pinoguin.com/blog/blog-view/article/sync-treo-650-on-ubuntu-linux.html

This link should get you there, but I'll find time to have a graphical walk through the Centro and Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron.

Don't forget to restart the bluetooth service. Also click on the bluetooth icon in the notifier and don't forget to enable network services.

Not as fast as USB sync, but definitely less troublesome without the wires.

http://kaeru.inigo-tech.com/blog/archive/2008/03/18/ubuntu-bluetooth-and-digi-gprs-edge

Needed to use sdptool to check the channel for DUN, and on the Centro it's 2 and change the MAC address of the phone. That's all.

Don't forget to restart bluetooth service, if you had a previous configuration. I wasted some time due to this oversight.

Doing this will drain the batteries on the phone even faster, so unlike my T|X which I could go without recharging for a few days, I need to now diligently recharge my Centro every day.

Now to learn about DateBk6 keyboard shortcuts so I can enter things quicker without needing the stylus.

With the dead touch screen on my T|X dead, I decided to go for the Palm Centro. It's a really good deal for a phone in Malaysia. Instead of a Razr you get a complete Palm OS phone.

Pros so far:

• Integrated phone + sms + contacts + calendar (Palm), no need to sync.
• Only need to carry one device now.
• The keyboard is much more usable than expected, especially now that I can use my TextPlus auto complete with hundreds of custom words and phrases. Much faster than input with any phone. I hte sms txt lk ths. thx.
• Easy to turn off the phone function.
• Threaded SMS (called chat)

Cons:

• No grafitti input (other than CJK) by default. The stylus is still faster for my calendaring needs. So switching between stylus and keyboard is not very efficient when I could quickly write on screen while I'm there.
• Headphone jack is 2.5, need to get a converter.

Overally I'm happy with it, it'll hold until hopefully the next generation of Linux Palm OS devices coming out next year. Will take me a while to get used to it though.

Syncing with Ubuntu is dead simple. Change the setting in gpilotd to usb: and click on the hotsync button.

I hate Murphy's law.

Touch screen decided to die, now I can't write anything into my PDA. My older backup one also has a rather large dead spot.

Now if only... we could get a decent Palm OS PDA other than the T|X as a replacement. Looks like I'll be getting another one as it's already past the warranty.