Brayder Technologies Discontinues Operations

In either a sign of things to come, or the end of an era, Brayder Technologies has closed up shop. While parts of the old web site are active (http://www.brayder.com/products, etc.), visitors to the home page see a blank page with the terse message "Brayder Technologies has discontinued operations." Brayder were the developers behind Jack Flash and Jack Sprat, two popular utilities that opened up additional flash ROM memory for use on older Palm handhelds.

Brayder, an Alberta, Canada based software designer, took over the software work on the products pioneered by Handera which enabled early Palm users to increase available RAM by using add-on cards and extra flash memory, long before there were ever secure digital cards and Springboard slots. (Remember Handera??? The TRG Pro? Does *anyone* else remember the internal memory slot on the Palm IIIx?).

Brayder helped mold Flashpro into a new product "Jack Flash" and "Jack Sprat" which also introduced such capacity into Palm OS 5 devices. In the days when 4 megabytes of RAM was the ceiling, having another 8 megabytes via add-on board, and a few hundred in flash was a big deal.

Now that devices routinely come with 64 megabytes and secure digital cards can offer 2 gigabytes of RAM, products like those sold by Brayder have become marginalized. In a sense, they have become the blacksmiths of the PDA industry.

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Thanks for Jackflash and Jacksprat !

RoelvdV @ 9/7/2006 3:22:43 PM # Q
It's been several years since I've used the Brayder products on my Tungsten|T, but I am still impressed with what these guys made possible and the support you would get from them. At one moment they have provided me with a especialy written debugprogram to find a problem I had using their programs.

So here's a big thumb up from me! It's understandable that these programs have become a bit obsolete, but a few years back these where very handy to have running on you Tungsten|T !

I hope they will stay focussed on PalmOS pda's (for as long as they will be around...) and will bring us some nice utilities someday.

Greetings,
Roel van der Vegte
www.palmclub.nl

RE: Thanks for Jackflash and Jacksprat !
G M Fude @ 9/7/2006 5:56:03 PM # Q
Agreed. Companies come and go, but while Brayder were with us, their software and support were, for me anyway, a must-have for a PDA. I simply could not have used my Palm III or Tungsten T as effectively without the additional memory both of these fine products opened up. I found Jackflash and Jacksprat exemplary: stable, intuitive, and products that do as advertised.

------------------------------
- Steve Smith
RE: Thanks for Jackflash and Jacksprat !
Haber @ 9/7/2006 7:03:06 PM # Q
I'm sad they're gone. I have Jackflash 2.7b1 on my Palm Vx, and it's been a neat little utility. It's too bad they couldn't create another neat niche product, but at least I supported them by buying one of their products, I guess.

RE: Thanks for Jackflash and Jacksprat !
Altema @ 9/10/2006 1:03:37 PM # Q
I've got JackFlash, JackSafe, and JackSprat on my T3. Loved being able to delete unused ROM apps and having 9.8MB of extra space that survives a hard reset. Their tech support was always been useful, even though JackFlash has run on several of my devices for years without problem. Guess their decision was logical, they would have had to rewrite the code to work with the NVFS nightmare, and few users would find the product critical in today's market.

RE: Thanks for Jackflash and Jacksprat !
itspatrick @ 2/15/2007 4:29:55 PM # Q
Hello !

I have recently got a used T3 with various programs installed in Rom (?), including jacksprat 3.0b5, JackFlash & jacksafe. I have visited the Brayder site, but it seems they are out of business. Where can I get( buy?) the activation codes for these programs ?

Thanks for your help,

Best regards,

Patrick



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Nice thoughts

e_tellurian @ 9/7/2006 8:40:23 PM # Q
Very kind.

i am sure those they really appreciated your thoughts.

E-T

e-tellurian

Completing the e-com circle with a people driven we-com solution
WiFi & BT? No strings attached
we_tellurian@canada.com

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By by Palm OS

legodude522 @ 9/7/2006 11:32:13 PM # Q
We will miss you and your large library of apps!

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just wanted to buy it

fanoush @ 9/8/2006 5:10:16 AM # Q
Rats. Just finally got myself internet credit card today and wanted to try it on buying JackFlash for my T2. The link to handango shop from product page no longer works. Would be great if they published the source or make it a freeware. Too bad such great code will probably just rot on developer's harddisk. Both Jackflash flashing code and MemoryJack virtual memory code could be very interesting and useful.

RE: just wanted to buy it
Konstantin @ 9/9/2006 3:49:18 PM # Q
Better yet release the romcrafter.


RE: just wanted to buy it
HiWire @ 10/4/2006 2:35:41 AM # Q
The PalmSource page still seems to list JackFlash 3.1.1 for $19.95

Palm m505 User
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