While I didn't investigate all of the technical details, I can tell you that SplashPhoto is truly a pleasure to use. After a relatively painless 1.7MB download from the SplashData Web site (at http://www.splashdata.com) and a quick installation process, I was ready to start converting digital photos and installing them on my Palm device. The SplashPhoto desktop allows you to easily choose the pictures you'd like to convert, as well as the color depth. This is important because color depth influences final file size. SplashPhoto desktop is pictured in Figure A.

FIGURE A


Choose the photos you wish to convert with SplashPhoto desktop. Roll over picture for a larger image.

If you have a Palm IIIxe, for example, you'd want to choose 4-bit (which takes up about 15K of space on your handheld), if you have a Palm IIIc, you'd choose 8-bit (about 25K), and 16-bit color is supported only by the Visor Prism at the moment, though the new Palm m505 will also have 16-bit color support when it's available (about 50K). The SplashPhoto application itself requires about 70K of memory on your Palm device, which is less than comparable programs such as MGI PhotoSuite (at http://www.mgisoft.com).

Once you've located the photo you want to convert, you also have the option of rotating it, if necessary, or zooming in or out. You aren't limited to only JPG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) photos. SplashPhoto will work with BMP (Bitmap) and GIF (Graphic Interchange Format) files, as well. If you wish, you can name the photo, type in a few notes about it, and assign it to a category. Brightness and contrast can also be manipulated with the desktop, ensuring the best possible image conversion. Support for the built-in Palm Security application is also included, which you can activate by marking certain photos private before you convert them.

There are zoom buttons in the middle of the SplashPhoto desktop that allow you to zoom in and crop your photo before you place it on your Palm device. Not only does that save memory space by only transferring the portion of the photo you're interested in, it also provides an enhanced viewing experience (as well as providing a quick fix for less than perfect photography).

Picture quality on the Palm device is simply excellent, as you can see from the following sample photo of a child playing in the water, pictured in Figure B.

FIGURE B

This sample shows the excellent picture quality.

While nothing can compare to a printed photo, the convenience of being able to carry an entire album's worth of pictures in your handheld simply can't be denied. Even better, SplashPhoto provides an integrated slide show feature that is ideal for sharing your photos with others. You can set the automatic delay anywhere from two seconds to thirty seconds and hand your Palm OS handheld to someone else to view your pictures with no stylus or screen tapping required. It's also possible to view a list of the photos by name, as large thumbnails (six to a screen, as shown in Figure C), or as small thumbnails (12 to a screen).