It took me a while to get accustomed to holding my Palm device with the PalmPix attached. Although I have a couple of regular cameras, I'm not much of a photographer. When I first started using the PalmPix, I got some good views of errant fingers, probably because I'm accustomed to a camera's lens being in its center (rather than the upper right corner), and the button that fires the shutter being in the spot where the PalmPix's lens is situated. I learned to hold the PalmPix so that my right index finger rests on the beveled edge pointing upwards, which positioned my right thumb to press the Date Book button.

The PalmPix software
The PalmPix Image List, pictured in Figure C, is where you set your options.

FIGURE C

Set your options with the PalmPix Image List.

The clock-like icon in the bottom left corner of the Image List functions as a self-timer, which gives you ten seconds to get in the shot. To the right of the self-timer is the resolution indicator. The left side of the resolution indicator lets you select 320 x 240 dpi (dots per inch) resolution, and the right side is for 640 x 480 dpi resolution. The number to the right of the resolution indicator indicates how many more pictures can be taken at the given resolution. In the figure above, I selected 640 x 480 dpi, and my Palm IIIx can hold five more pictures.

From the Image List, tap the Menu silkscreen to access the Record and Options menus. The Record menu lets you beam or delete the selected image, and the Options menu lets you choose the images to be synchronized to your PC or deletes all the images on your Palm device, as you can see in Figure D.

FIGURE D

The Options menu lets you choose the images to be synchronized and lets you delete all the images.

Once you take a picture, you can tap Details in order to add more information to each picture. You can categorize it, change the name, or mark it private. The default name given to pictures as you take them is not very informative. You can change the name of the image here to make it more descriptive. Figure E shows you the Details dialogue box.

FIGURE E

By tapping Details, you can add more information to each picture.

Synchronizing your pictures
You synchronize your pictures to your PC using the conduit Kodak provides. The default is to store pictures in the c:\palm\<username>\palmpix directory as .JPG images. The PalmPix software will install a conduit into your HotSync Manager. To change the HotSync action, tap the Change button. The HotSync defaults for the PalmPix conduit can be found by tapping the Advanced button.

You can change the format in which your pictures are saved on your PC, whether or not you want to delete the pictures after a HotSync, and the directory in which the pictures should be saved. The default settings for the PalmPix are displayed in Figure F.

FIGURE F


Here you can see the PalmPix default settings. Roll over picture for a larger image.

Pictures will be synchronized every time, unless you make changes in the conduit settings or use the Image Uploads menu under Options. Note: If you keep the default naming convention, the pictures will be uploaded as "000002.jpg" on the first time you synchronize, "0000021.jpg" the second time, and so forth.