Comments on: HandStory Suite 2.0 Adds Offline Web Browsing
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Did I Get This Right?
If you have used the new version and can tell me whether or not that's really how it works, let me know.
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News Editor
RE: Did I Get This Right?
I am also a registered user of iSilo and HandStory has (at least for the time being) replaced it on my Palm. I mention iSilo because the clipping function in HandStory does much the same thing. In addition to the clip service on the web site you can also create custom clips. I cannot say how well the custom clips work with none handheld formatted pages as I have not tried it yet but with handheld formatted websites it works very well. Although I am having some problems with a couple of my regular sites it has work with aplomb for most, for example, Newsday's mobile pages will not download properly but the NY Times, CNet and SciFi.com's do (and the Newsday pages contain no graphics0. Also the Windows component of HandStory 2.0 allows you to set channels to update automatically or manually and with or without graphics. My sole beef with this set up is that the time for the automatic update is not customizable, it is done when the software is notified of a date change (so if your computer is always on it will update right after midnight). Also all documents downloaded to the Palm can be save to expansion media. Handstory takes an interesting approach to card management, in that it works in conjunction with the Palm install tool yet uses its own directory on the card. To the best that I can tell, after the install to the default directory, when you run HandStory it scans the default directory and moves its documents to the HandStory directory on the card. This approach requires waiting at the intial launch of the program after a hotsync of HandStory documents but thereafter the files load quickly. I actually don't have a problem with this method as doc files created by HandStory are not picked up by PeanutReader once this transfer is complete.
If you have any other questions regarding this software let me know.
BTW, I recommend the program highly, with this clipping feature and the integration with IE to pull text from web pages this is a great combo reader.
RE: Did I Get This Right?
RE: Did I Get This Right?
I don't think the way HandStory handles the card is the same as iSilo does. iSilo has it own HotSync conduit which installs the documents directly to the iSilo directory on the expansion card. HandStory does not have an independent conduit and utilizes the Palm install tool as well as the HandStory Palm program to place the files in the HandStory directory. iSilo's process is a one step process for the user and HandStory's is more like one and a half steps.
I agree that iSilo is much more customizable but for my purposes HandStory fits the bill so far. While I can certainly live without color background to pages, I would like links that are a different color from the rest of the text.
BTW, I forgot to mention above, that with HandStory custom channel I think you can convert web pages stored on your hard drive as well (have not tried this yet but I seem to recall the literature saying this was possible).
RE: Did I Get This Right?
These websites are saved in a .ixl file.
When you want to update, crack open the .ixl file with iSiloX, convert all of the sites [or just individual ones] and you're good to go.
It just converts the documents, and then places them in the Install folder, and .pdbs for each site you have configured.
Then, when you synch, the .pdbs are installed, and the iSilo content is updated.
Currently there is just a beta of iSiloX [the convertor to make things into iSilo format] and its for MacOS 9 [Classic]. I tried to use iSiloX in Classic mode while I am booted in OS X and it doesn't work.
So, unfortunately, you need to boot in OS 9 to convert things with iSiloX... This is just a beta though, hopefully they will address that issue, and perhaps make an OSX-native version.
There is a command-line version of iSiloX for MacOS X - but the documentation is VERY sparse, and I couldn't figure out for the life of me how to get it working...
RE: Did I Get This Right?
RE: Did I Get This Right?
If money are a problem, look at plucker (www.plkr.org) It's great, does a similar thing like handstory and isilo and it's free!
Cheers,
Dan.
RE: Did I Get This Right?
Graphics look great, but SLOW
RE: Graphics look great, but SLOW
i'd wish that it had a tap and drag feature like avantgo, where you could tap on the screen and drag it to move the page up or down. it does this in the picture viewer part of the program, but not the clip part.
Some clarifications
I'm the PR manager for HandStory. I just wanted to clarify some items in the news story about HandStory Suite 2.0.
- Not all of the sites listed in our Clip Service are formatted for handhelds. Thanks to our scripted conversion technology, HandStory Converter is able to reformat non-optimized web sites before syncing to Palm.
- You can already load any arbitrary web site with HandStory 2.0, not just the ones listed on our web site. Simply use the Add Custom button in HandStory Converter. Of course, if the site is not optimized for handhelds, it may not look great on your PDA. To address that, we'll be releasing a Script Editor in the near future that will let users write their own scripts to tell the Converter how to reformat particular sites. These scripts will be shareable among users.
- The sites that are featured on our Clip Service site are enabled for "Fast Clip". If you select the Fast Clip option for a particular site in the Converter, that site will be downloaded as a preconverted PDB file from HandStory's server. This is *much* faster than downloading the site itself.
Thanks,
Chulsung Kim
PR Manager
HandStory
RE: Some clarifications
This sounds like a very interesting concept. I'll be interested to hear how well this works. The thought of a non-PDA-friendly website looking significantly better on a high-res Palm than on a PPC is intriguing.
Scott
RE: Some clarifications
Browsing
..so I never liked clips, channels and whatever. I want to browse my news-sites "real-time".
Does this browser also do "direct" browsing? I have e.g. Slashdot configured so it displays well on the Clie, but I have not yet found a browser that use the higher resolution on the device - something that would really make a difference.
BTW: My old PSion Revo+ has a full blown Opera browser, but the screen on it is shows age and is not so nice and clear compared to the Clie.
RE: Browsing
So no, it doesn't provide "real-time" web browsing like the Avantgo app.
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