Howdy from old time Palm fan

[rvham]

I am trying to decide which phone to upgrade to. I had almost decided to get the Moto-Droid; then this announcement. I have used the Palm OS devices for maybe 15 years and I have tons of info in Palm Desktop. My early inclination was to stick with Palm and to see if the rumors that VZW would be fielding the Pre or Pixi would materialize. But the more I read, the better I liked the Droid. So I began manually transferring my Desktop data to Google and Evernote. Halfway through, I found that there was an application that would have done that, but I would have had to purge all my work. I needed to do a bit of housecleaning anyway. Now there is this to consider. We are way past new every two on both of our phones. I am happy to have this opportunity to follow the experiences of others. One concern I will have to resolve is that of a keyboard. I really like the one on the Treo 700. I agree that the one on the Droid sucks. So maybe I need to get used to the idea of a virtual one. Another concern is my need for Epocrates. I am a bit miffed at Epocrates as they have not fielded a version for android OS. They say that "there has not been enough interest yet" but that they are working on one! I am looking at another medical app, Skyscape, that does have an android version. If anyone has any experience with this, I would appreciate hearing from them. All for now. Caio

[barryp3403]

Hi, rvham.
I switched from a flip phone and Palm Tx to the Droid in November, about one week after it came out. I too rely on Epocrates so for now am still carrying my TX. I believe they will be releasing a native version for the Droid in this quarter, according to their support forums.

I don't think the Droid keyboard is too bad but I don't have anything to compare it too other than computer key boards. It certainly comes in handy for longer typing and is, IMHO, much easier than the screen keyboard. I would be curious about your experience when you make your final decision.

The three other Docs I know who are gadget friendly seem to be enjoying their Droids including one Doc who went from a Treo phone with full keyboard (700 series).

[abolis]

Hey guys,

I also have a lot of data on palm desktop/Treo and am wondering if you have found a way to transfer easily to Android? I have a lot of data in the memopad and cringe at having to re-type it.

[rvham]

Hi abolis. I went through the process of transferring from Palm OS PIM to Android. There may be an easier way but what I did was to load Evernote on both my computer and my Droid. Evernote is a very neat program that provides a lot of functionality. The good news is that you do not have to re-type your memos. I simply copied the text of each memo to one of the notebooks in Evenote. I did have to work a little with Evernote to determine how to organize the information in Palm Memos to put into Evernote. Basically I created a notebook called "INFO". Once you put a note into Evernote it appears automatically in the Evernote app on the Droid unless you encrypt one of the notes. I encrypt my lists of passwords. Once encrypted, the note remains only on the device that encrypted it. I used the Palm tasklist extensively for upcoming tasks. When I moved from Palm Calendar to Google calendar, I had to do that manually which I preferred anyway since I had experienced difficulties when moving the calendar from one Palm version to another. Google calendar has a tasklist but it does not include a notification utility. I have resorted to putting time dated tasks on the Calendar since it gives me a reminder on both the computer and the Droid. There is another app for android called "toDo" that can be used for tasks. I am using it somewhat but have not come to depend on it too much. It does not have a notification utility either. There is nothing that comes close to the functionality or ease of use that the Palm OS PIM offers but the browser and email utilities on the Droid are really awesome compared to my Treo. If I can help further feel free to contact me off forum at w4cth@amsat.org.

Joe Thompson

[abolis]

Thanks for the tips. I have Evernote and your solution is awesome!! However I'm a little disappointed with Evernote because it always has to synch with the cloud in order to retrieve data(instead of keeping a copy always available on the device) This prevents access to me at work as I get spotty coverage(I sometimes work below ground level). I have found 3 banana notes to be better for me but it does not have a sound recorder or web clipper. I'll see if I can use your method with 3 banana. For tasks I recently downloaded Astrid and it is great.

[rvham]

I just downloaded Astrid and it looks promising. Thanks for the tip and good luck with the transition from Treo to Android.

[z3124442]

I don't think the Droid keyboard is too bad but I don't have anything to compare it too other than computer key boards.

[rvham]

When I wrote the initial message, I had not yet changed to the Droid. The comment about the keyboard was relative to the one on the Treo. My problem was that the Droid keyboard is very flat and, for me at least, it is difficult to touch type. Having said that, like many Droid users, I adapted quickly changed to the stock virtual keyboard and use it almost exclusively now.

[mdgwind]

Originally Posted by rvham

I am trying to decide which phone to upgrade to. I had almost decided to get the Moto-Droid; then this announcement. I have used the Palm OS devices for maybe 15 years and I have tons of info in Palm Desktop. My early inclination was to stick with Palm and to see if the rumors that VZW would be fielding the Pre or Pixi would materialize. But the more I read, the better I liked the Droid. So I began manually transferring my Desktop data to Google and Evernote. Halfway through, I found that there was an application that would have done that, but I would have had to purge all my work. I needed to do a bit of housecleaning anyway. Now there is this to consider. We are way past new every two on both of our phones. I am happy to have this opportunity to follow the experiences of others. One concern I will have to resolve is that of a keyboard. I really like the one on the Treo 700. I agree that the one on the Droid sucks. So maybe I need to get used to the idea of a virtual one. Another concern is my need for Epocrates. I am a bit miffed at Epocrates as they have not fielded a version for android OS. They say that "there has not been enough interest yet" but that they are working on one! I am looking at another medical app, Skyscape, that does have an android version. If anyone has any experience with this, I would appreciate hearing from them. All for now. Caio

i have had a palm for about 15 years and have thousands of memos and contacts. Do you know if there is a way to transfer this to a droid?