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PRODUCT REVIEW
Watch Star Wars fan films and other fun shorts with TealMovie
By Jen Edwards
Movies are definitely one of my favorite sources of entertainment. If it's a big one, I'll go and see it the day it comes out, and if I really like it, I'll buy the DVD when that hits the streets. Up until now, my only use of a Palm OS device in relation to the movies was to categorize my personal collection of tapes and DVDs, and to use Showtimes to download theater schedules and plot summaries. But now there's TealMovie (at http://www.tealpoint.com/softmovi.htm).
TealMovie is a Palm OS application that actually lets you watch movie clips on your handheld, with sound, as shown in Figure A.
FIGURE A
TealMovie lets you play short movies on your Palm handheld.
While you certainly couldn't watch anything full-length on a Palm handheld, it does provide an extra diversion and extends the digital photo album concept even further. After all, quite a few people keep pictures of their husbands, kids, pets, etc. on their handhelds, so why not convert a few of your own movie clips if you have a digital camcorder and the right software on your computer?
As you can see, the possibilities are really limitless, since TealMovie also comes with a conversion program that allows you to create your own movies. But if you aren't quite that adventurous, you can still start out with an excellent selection on the TealPoint Software Web site. Simply download the TealMovie application, along with the movie clips that you'd like to put on your device.
TealMovie installs like most other Palm OS applications; simply use the Palm Install Tool to install TealMovie.prc to your device, along with whatever movie files you desire. My personal favorite and highest recommendation is Stick, a laugh-out-loud parody of the whole martial arts movie genre, complete with sound effects.
TealMovies are available in a wide range of genres, including drama, education/children, home movies, humor, science fiction, science and technology, sports and entertainment, and travel. Under science fiction, there are three Star Wars fan film trailers you can download: Running Rebel, a trailer for a Star Wars fan movie made in Germany, Run N Hide, about a man running and hiding because an imperial soldier (in full Speederbike uniform) is looking for him, and JediFight, a silly piece in which two Jedi meet in a suburban shopping mall.
If you happen to have one of the latest Palm OS devices with an expansion slot, you'll be glad to know that TealMovie is VFS compatible. That means that you can load up a big Memory Stick or SD (Secure Digital) card will all sorts of large movie files. And as you can see from Figure B, you can play, beam, delete, rename, or get detailed information on each file from the main screen of the TealMovie application.
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