Leslie Franke

ZLauncher themes are everywhere. There are plenty available for download on at places like PalmGear and Handango. Some are free but many cost money. Often it is not always easy to tell how well a ZLauncher theme has been created and it is what an individual desires. For themes that are free, this is not really a problem, just download them and try them out. For commerical themes here are some tips to help you figure out if the theme is of high-quality and fits your needs.

I have found that two basic types of ZLauncher themes exist: those that allow for customization and those that require a specific ZLauncher setup to work. There is nothing wrong with either approach, the themes I create fall under the former category but some of my most favorite themes fall under the latter category. When selecting a ZLauncher theme that allows for customization, look at several features of the theme to judge the quality of the theme and the amount of customization it will provide you.

I was going to create a sample ZLauncher theme to demonstrate some of the following points but I ran across a theme on PalmGear, “FirstSkin ZLauncher Skin 1″ by Organize Software (shown in the screen shot on a T3), that made the following claim; “There are many Zlauncher skins available today, the difference is in how well they are made. Every image should look professional and be clear and easy to understand. Every detail is important when we build a Zlauncher skin.” Why not then put this theme to the test?

1. Does the theme include the signal and plugin bitmaps and icons?

ZZTechs, the developers of ZLauncher, are constantly adding new features to ZLauncher that require additional graphics. This means that any theme not updated in the last few months will probably not include all of ZLauncher’s features. As you can see the “FirstSkin ZLauncher Skin 1″ does not include the plugin bitmaps. You can still see the information presented but the area appears white on the screen.

2. Will the theme look good on both light and dark backgrounds?

If you like to use custom backgrounds in ZLauncher this point is very important. Most themes will look good with a light background. The exact opposite is true with dark backgrounds. Icons that do not have crisp clear borders will not look good on dark backgrounds. The “FirstSkin ZLauncher Skin 1″ is a perfect example of this (see #2), you can see the jagged edges of many of the icons when using a dark background.

3. How does the theme look when the top or bottom bar of the theme are transparent?

Many theme developers try to get around the issue mentioned above by putting part of the bottom/top bar’s graphic into the background on an ZLauncher icon grahpic. This will make for some funny looking screens if you set the top or bottom bar to transparent. Secondly, you will find that, as mentioned above, may of the icons may have jagged edges (see #3).

4. Will the theme work in both portrait and landscape hires+ mode?

This is only going to apply to hires+ screens. Most themes will work correctly but I have seen some that begin to repeat some of the graphics on the screen when switched from portrait to landscape mode.

5. Do the tabs look good in all four positions?

This may only be a problem under one circumstance, if you like seeing the tabs at the bottom of your screen. If the theme developer is customizing the size of the tabs, in any way, it becomes very hard to line up both the top and bottom tabs correctly. From my experience very few people have their tabs positioned at the bottom of the screen, but if you do you need to take this into consideration.

Very good and funny poem at erasing.org called I Ate iPod Shuffle.

“No need to make a big kerfuffle.
But yes, I ate my iPod shuffle.”

The IE blog is reporting that Microsoft will be releasing a new version of IE this summer. It looks like Microsoft’s plans to use Longhorn as the delivery vehicle for browser upgrades has been reversed. Do not hold your breath, but we can only hope that the new version of IE includes support of various Web standards such as Cascading Style Sheets, the PNG image format and XML. In many ways this seems like Microsoft is attempting to get corporations and orgainizations to stay with IE for a little longer and not switch over to a different browser.

CNet has an article about this here. Included is a nice quote, “I think it’s a response to both the delay of Longhorn and the challenge of Firefox,” said The NPD Group analyst Ross Rubin, who said Firefox was probably more of a spur. “Were there no Firefox, they’d have more leeway to sit on it until Longhorn.”

Good news for those of use who like to convert websites and newsfeeds for offline reading on our Palms. Laurens Fridael has reconsidered and reversed his earlier decision to drop the PalmOS version of his Sunrise viewer.

“After long deliberation I’ve decided to restart work on the PalmOS version of my viewer. (Earlier I had decided to abandon work on the PalmOS version.) The main reason for reversing my decision is that the existing Sunrise userbase is almost entirely PalmOS-based. From a business standpoint, it would be foolish to just ignore all these users. Also, many people have asked me to reconsider, so I know there is demand for my product.”

An issue that I often see pop up on various Palm web sites deals with the legality of copying electronic media from one format to another. For example, it appears to be the opinion of many that making a copy of an copyrighted ebook, that an individual has purchased, into another format is illegal. In fact, this line of thinking has been pushed by certain industry groups in the U.S., but it is not completetly true. Section 1201 of the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act makes it illegal to circumvent any copy-protection scheme. This is in direct contrast with existing U.S copyright laws. The right to create copies of the media that you have purchased, for personal use, has long been accepted part of the “fair use” doctrine in U.S. copyright laws. (Fair use is generally defined as allowing individuals to duplicate copyrighted materials for criticism, education, research, etc. without compensation to the copyright holder. ) Fair use, generally speaking, falls under time-shifting (home taping of television programs), space-shifting (ripping a purchased CD into a MP3), and personal backups .

There have been conflicting rulings in the court system on both sides of the issue. I suspect that as the cases wind their way through the court system and evenntually to the Supreme Court that fair use will eventually be established as the consumers right. This has happened to other technologies in the last 25 years or so (see VCRs). Basically, an individual is well within their rights to make copies of legally purchased work for their own entertainment in another format.

It does not take much looking to find groups of people, through the web, using illegal copies of software on their PDA. According to a forum thread at MobileRead.com it appears that the developer of Pocket Mechanic has added some coding to the program to fight back.

If someone uses a pirated serial number with certain versions of Pocket Mechanic the software detects the pirated key and hard resets the PDA. Maybe it is just me but this goes way to far. In the United States we have laws against this kind of thing, you cannot take justice into your own hands. Secondly, this is just stupid. It is a fight that the developer cannot win. Those cracking the software will always stay one step ahead, all the developer of Pocket Mechanic is doing is alienting honest pontential buyers of his software. It would seem wise to stay away from all software developed by Anton Tomov. This list includes Pocket Hack Master, Pocket Mechanic, Pocket Battery Analyzer, PocketPC Mark, GPRS Keep Alive.

Check out the latest entry into Google’s Lab: Google Maps. It looks very promising. Hopefully it will do for maps what Gmail did for web based mail.