I am the proud owner of a Psion netBook, and I have owned a Series 5mx, and 3mx. They are wonderful little machines, and despite some shortcomings, usually in the multimedia area, when it comes to any sort of work, they beat anything going.
There most impressive features are:
Battery life - Forget 1-3 hours off a laptop, the netBook will run for a day and the Series 5 for 20-30 hours. Stability - EPOC doesn't crash!! (Unless you REALLY try) Built in functionality - Why pay for an office suite, when these have one built in?
The machines themselves are of fantastic design and the 5mx and 7/netBook look fantastic!
Here I am going to share some software suggestions, website links, and a few ideas.
This list is now fairly out of date as I have the excellent ExtraBars installed (see the Pscience5 site under Xtra Software) that lets you have serveral seperatley named Extras bars you can flick through. Although, the software below is mainly what I use so I won't bother adding a longer list of software I don't really ever start. If, like me, you like an organised launcher (Games panel, Office panel, Utilities, Comms, etc etc) please visit Pscience5 to have a look, and you can get a lot of other stuff to try out too!
As well as the installed system software such as Word, Sheet, Email, Opera, Contacts, Agenda, Time, Calc, and Jotter here are my extras...
Alignment is an excellent shareware game from PocketIQ. It is a logical game where you must place pieces to make lines of four of the same colour while the computer places pieces randomally. Seriously addictive to anyone who likes a logic game.
Bombs is the built in Psion clone of Minesweeper.
CheckDisk is part of the commercial Essential Disk Utilities package similar to ScanDisk for Windows.
Chess is a Series 5 game so it only fills the top half of the screen, but is an excellent commercial chess program.
Citymaps is the commercial TomTom route planner software for inside cities. Supporting GPS it makes a wonderful Autoroute replacement, coupled with Route it allows you to make your way anywhere.
Clock5 is a simple piece of freeware that gives you a fullscreen clock/calendar/screensaver.
CoBuild is the commercial Collins dictionary for the Psion giving excelent definitions and thesaurus facilities beyond that of the standard Word spellchecker.
Comms is the built in terminal emulation software.
Convertor is a freeware application that simply allows you to convert units ranging from weights to electrical variables.
Data is the built in database software.
Defrag5 is a piece of freeware software designed to defragment the internal memory after an application fails to give it all back.
EBook is now freely available from Pscience5 and it for reading etexts such as Palm PDBs and has many options for viewing.
Editor is the free Symbian Text Editor, similar to Windows Notepad.
EPlayM is an MP3 player for EPOC and it free, it has playlist facilities and on the netBook is capable of playing any bitrate without problem.
FileLink allows the creation of shortcuts similar to that of Windows. Available as freeware.
Find is a more advanced file find function than the built in EPOC one, and as freeware its well worth it!
FreeCrypt is a freeware file encryption program.
FrotzS5 allows you to play Infocom text adventure games on your Psion. Freeware.
Graph32 is a freeware graphical calculator, very simple to use.
HexEditor, a very powerful, very useful, very free hex editor for the Psion.
Imaging is a freeware image viewer.
Locker is a freeware program that allows you much more control over your password entry. Instead of being limited to once a day or never or at switch on etc you can specify 1 hour, 15 minutes etc.
MBMView is now freeware at Pscience5 and I think personally the best image viewer for your Psion.
Monopoly, a commercial game by Psion, now with a free colour upgrade from Pscience5, is a wonderful version of the classic board game.
Navigator gives the user a Windows like desktop and multiwindow view for the Psion. It is a commercial piece of software and also gives integrated zip file manager.
nConvert adds to the Psion the very missing function of PC file compatability. With this shareware software installed you can convert between most PC file formats (Excel, RTF etc) to Psion formats (Sheet, Data, Word etc).
NetHack is a free Psion version of a classic dungeon exploration game.
NetStatRF is a built in piece of software for monitoring the WiFi connection of a netBook.
NetUtils is a free package for pinging, fingering, scanning and doing other things on networks.
nFTP is built in software for netBooks to access FTP sites. It does it very well.
NightKeys is free software for displaying an on screen keyboard for use either in low-light conditions or when you really don't fancy the keyboard.
OPXscan is a free tool that lists the OPX libraries on your Psion along with their links and versions.
PacMan is a shareware game that it very close to the original.
Pdf+ is the commercial version of the free PDF software. This is an excellent piece of software and since PDFs are so very common now, a very useful piece of software.
PhoneMan is now free software from Pscience5 and gives you the ability to connect your Psion to your phone for the purpose of looking at and sending messages, playing with and backing up of your phonebook. Amazing.
plBeam is free software (as far as I can tell, it says shareware but I've never been asked to pay) that 'upgrades' your infra-red so it is compatable with almost anything since the onboard is only compatable with other Psions and for basic transfer of vCards.
plOpen adds the Windows "open with..." dialog to your Psion, 'nuff said. Shareware.
Presentation Maker is now free and gives you Powerpoint on your Psion.
Program is the built in OPL programming language editor.
psAddle is a wierd number puzzle game from FreEPOC. Again, another logic game, and it's wonderful.
PsiDat is a free advanced database program. Also works as a nice website creator, for example, Pscience5 is run from a netBook with this software!
PsiJong is a shareware tiles game, and it's a VERY good one. Sorry, another puzzle game.
Psynergy is, you got it, a puzzle game, it's free, fun and annoying.
QuoteOn is a simple freeware app that displays a random quote from a Data file whenever you switch the unit on.
Record is the built in Psion voice recording and playback software. Simple but useful.
ResCodes is simply a bit of free software to calculate resistor values or to generate colour codes from values.
Route is TomTom's commercial software companion to Citymaps and allows for route planning inter-city.
SimCity is possibly the best game ever for the Psion. Now with a colour upgrade. It is commercial and well worth buying. It is compatable with the PC version and looks almost identical to it. A well written, well presented, excellent game.
Sketch is the built in graphics program for EPOC, similar to Windows Paint.
Solun is a wonderfully free astronomy program for the Psion. WELL worth looking at.
Spell is the built in spell checker for EPOC, and it also available from inside Word as the Spell Check option.
Splitter is yet another free puzzle game for the Psion, in-describable, if you like puzzle games, check it out.
Terra Force is a free action shooting game, it looks great, and it runs smooth. You're in a tank, there are other tanks. Fire.
ThesLink integrates the onboard thesaurus into Word so at the press of a key you can call up a synonym. Simple. Efective. Free.
Tile Fall is a shareware version of the old SameGame. Another puzzle game. Another excellent game.
TomeRaider is a shareware TomeRaider file reader, if you plan or do read books on your Psion, this program is excellent.
Vexed is a freeware game that took me and my friends many weeks to complete at college. One hell of a game. The name explains it.
Z80 is a wonderful and free Spectrum emulator for the Psion and gives you access to over 6000 games.
Zheroes is kind of a free Worms clone. No where near as good, but as good as it gets on a Psion.
Xtras is a free replacement for the Extras bar. And a very good one!!
Apart from these I do run another program on my Psion that doesn't appear on the Extras bar, EDoom. It requires a WAD pack from your own copy of Doom, but it does allow you to run Doom on your Psion. Cool!!
