Years ago I used to be a PalmOS user. I used it daily to keep track of many things in my life, from my schedule, bank accounts, all the way through my weight loss. At one point I decided I wanted to upgrade to a newer version. I searched every model available at the time, and one of the features I decided I couldn’t live without was missing, without spending a LOT more money to get it. WiFi. I wanted to be able to e-mail and browse the web in the palm of my hand. In the end I decided to make a move I never thought I would… Switching to PocketPC.
After switching I always liked many things better, such as the color display, the greater availability of software, and greater compatibility with my Office applications. Sure there were color displays available on the new Palm models, and I could have paid for software to solve the Office compatibility, but I actually liked my new device. The one thing I never could find a replacement for was the Eat Watch application. This was a companion program to the Hacker’s Diet weight loss program I was following. There were some applications that came close, but none of them were quite what I wanted, and therefore I was unwilling to pay the $50+ pricetag to purchase them.
I happened to stumble upon a site the other day called the Physics Diet, which is essentially a 3rd party online version of EatWatch, inspired by the original program. I was getting all set to start using it, and was browsing the user forums to see what others had to say about it. One of the posts pointed to an online version of the original Eat Watch program recently released by the original author! I was literally beginning the planning phases of porting over the original Palm code to Windows Mobile when I made this discovery, but was very glad to see it ready to use on the web!
I’m still considering building a Windows Mobile version, but now I’m thinking it may be better to create a client to the website that will allow offline entry, rather than writing the whole entire program. For now I’m going to enjoy using the online version through the mobile web browser on my phone/PDA. Thank you John Walker!
13 June 2009, 5:12
Greetings from Durham NC!
I have been using EatWatch on PalmOS and am getting ready to switch to Windows Mobile. If you decide to build a WinMo version, can you please notify me? As much as I am a fan of cloud computing, for some reason I’d prefer to keep EW on the device.
And yes, kudos and thanks to John Walker!
Kind regards,
Jack
13 June 2009, 22:39
Thanks for checking in! I am still considering porting it over to Win Mobile, though I have no current plans or timeline on when I may get to it. I have a lot of irons in my fire right now, hence the absence of regular posts on my blog the last couple of months. If you’re willing to help beta test that will be most helpful should I get going on that project. Is that something you’d be interested in doing?
Have a great day!
Jeremy