Aladdin Systems' GoBar 2.5 converts your Palm operating system into a functional Windows lookalike.
Do you miss the familiar look and feel of Windows when starting up your PDA? Well, pine no longer: Alladin Systems' GoBar 2.5 (free as an upgrade, US$15 street for first time buyers) provides your Palm OS-based PDA with customised navigation reminiscent of your Windows desktop. The latest version of this elegant little utility adds drag-and-drop functions, colour backgrounds, and icon status displays for a PDA's battery and memory. An affordable option for your launcher, you might be surprised by how much more productive GoBar's shortcuts will make you. The GoBar launcher displays applications on the main menu in rows or lists in the standard Palm OS icon format. Options enable you to display 9, 12, or 20 icons per menu page. You cannot view Palm's Info Menu list of application properties from the GoBar launcher, but we found that this omission is offset by GoBar's reset feature. This option allows you to conveniently reset your PDA by tapping a menu instead of pressing the reset button on the back of the device.
At the top left of the GoBar screen is a drop down menu of customisable application folders. To organise your applications by folder, just hold the stylus on an application icon and drag it to the designated folder name. The top of the GoBar screen has application Delete and Beam icons. Application lists are displayed by tapping the Delete or Beam command icons, or you can drag and drop individual application icons to either command icon. You can also change a colour PDA's main menu background from blue to red or green by tapping GoBar's paintbrush icon.
The Start button on GoBar's bottom left command bar launches a vertical menu with horizontal hierarchical menus for Program, Recent Apps, Documents, and Settings. Other vertical menu selections include Find, Help, Run, Brightness, Lock, and Shut Down. Another convenient option is the ability to tap Settings to access Palm Preferences, GoBar Preferences, GoBar Setup and Folders, and Reset Device from the Start menu. If you don't like the label name Start, you can even rename the menu button. We named ours 'GoForIt' .
To quick launch your latest applications, access the pop-up list at the bottom menu bar. If you tap on the battery power icon, GoBar displays the voltage and the amount of free memory in percentage and kilobytes. It also displays a time and date bar in the lower right-hand corner of the screen.
GoBar 2.5 is full of new and easy navigation capabilities, and the added colour options are a more than welcome change on a Palm IIIc. Should you become nostalgic for your old launcher, you can even switch between the GoBar and Palm OS launchers with a few quick screen taps. GoBar 2.5 provides welcome shortcuts for a reasonable price.
GoBar 2.5
Company:Alladin Systems
Price:US$14.95 Web Download (free upgrade from prior versions)
Requires:386 processor; 16MB RAM; 103KB free hard drive space; Internet connection; Windows 95, 98, 98SE, Me, 2000, NT 4.0 or higher; PDA running Palm OS 2.0 or higher with 106KB of free memory
Rating:
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