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Palm OS Easter Eggs

Posted By: Ryan Friday, April 21, 2000 6:03:49 AM

Just in time for the Easter holiday, we have a small tutorial on Palm OS Easter eggs. An Easter egg is a hidden secret or function embedded in a program deigned to amuse the end users. Impress and amaze your friends and coworkers with two "secret tricks" found in the Palm operating system. The Easter egg and the Taxi have been in the Palm source code for years and now on the IIIc they are in color!

The Easter Egg
There is an easter egg that is actually an easter egg! It enables a other Easter eggs and displays a small-decorated egg in the general Prefs screen.
Procedure:
Open up the preferences general category.
In the Bottom right hand corner of the screen (above the calculator) draw a tiny clockwise circle. 		Preferences Easter Egg
The Taxi cab
With the taxicab easter egg a small taxi drives across the screen. Why a taxicab? The prototype code name for the original Pilot was the Taxi.

To see the taxicab first you must have the Easter egg enabled.
Switch to the standard Memo pad.
Then hold down the PageDown button while drawing a line from the middle of the graffiti area to the left edge of the case.
What's interesting about this egg is that if you leave the easter egg active sometimes the Taxi will drive across the screen at random intervals for no apparent reason. 		The Taxi Easter Egg


This is by no means a complete list of Palm OS Easter eggs! For a comprehensive list check out PDALife's Easter Egg page.

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The Inchworm

Ed @ 4/21/2000 7:37:14 AM #
My favorite Easter Egg is the inchworm that appears on the General Preferences screen. To make it appear, first activate the Easter Egg Ryan described in the article then draw a # with graffiti (which is . h) and wait 9 or 10 seconds for the inchworm to appear.
RE: The Inchworm
I.M. Anonymous @ 9/4/2001 1:51:15 AM #
how u turn the worm off


Also works in other apps...

Dig Dug @ 4/23/2000 3:00:07 AM #
The taxicab should appear in most other standard Palm apps, including the Prefs applet itself.

That's funny, on my Prism it's a Porche!

I.M. Anonymous @ 4/14/2001 12:43:39 AM #
Seems like Handspring developers made one other nice feature in their incarnation of the PalmOS for the Visor. If I follow the above instructions on a Visor Prism, instead of a cheesy looking Taxi I see a Porch!

Hinda like Handspring's stock price compared to Palm's right now. Ha ha!



RE: That's funny, on my Prism it's a Porche!
Lara @ 4/17/2001 10:22:18 AM #
What?!

RE: That's funny, on my Prism it's a Porche!
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/28/2001 8:35:57 PM #
a red one

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