A new major update of Bonsai Desktop v5.0.1 beta has been released. The install is for Bonsai desktop-only and Palm OS Desktop Edition users. User of Bonsai for Windows Mobile will be getting a new build with this update soon. This is a paid upgrade release for Bonsai Palm/Desktop Only v4 users. The new features target the desktop application; No changes have been made to the Palm OS app. More details including the download link can be found in the forum.

Changes in this beta update include:

• Bonsai Desktop support of outline to outline file sync. Can be used by Bonsai USB users wishing to keep their outlines in sync between their local desktop and corresponding outlines on their USB drive.
• Support for syncing outlines to Palm Pre devices for use with Bonsai for Palm OS software ***VIA*** the Classic emulator by MotionApps. Bonsai for Palm is certified for the Classic emulator and Bonsai Desktop can sync your desktop outlines with the Pre when it is connected as a USB mass storage device.
• Improvements to the Find/Replace operations.
• New Quick Filter feature.
• Optimized Bonsai background processing, particularly improving CPU usage when the Bonsai app is placed into the background.
• Support for importing and exporting of Bonsai outlines files in a Bonsai Palm (.pdb) format.
• Added Alt+’0’ desktop shortcut to mirror the Shift+ Keypad ‘+’ shortcut for expanding the entire outline. This shortcut is easier to access on laptop PCs verses the keypad version and complements the Alt+’1′ … Alt+’4′ shortcuts for expanding the outline to level ‘n’.
• The “Edit/Insert File Link” menu now allows multiple file links to be inserted.

Fathers Day is coming up this weekend, but you don’t have to be a dad in order to take advantage of our sale. When purchasing Natara products through our web site, you can take 15% off any order that is under $20. Double that offer (30%) if your order is $20 or more. 

• DayNotez 3 Palm Desktop Edition: Normally $34.95, just $24.47 with the discount.
• Bonsai 4 Palm Desktop Edition: Normally $37.95, just $26.57.

Save up to 30% depending on how much you spend. Any of our products, any upgrade!

For purchases of $20 (USD) or less, take 15% off use Coupon Code: fdsale1509

For purchases of $20 (USD) or greater, take 30% off use Coupon Code: fdsale3009

(And with the money you save, you can still afford to get dad the tie he deserves! )

[offer expires June 22nd, 2009]

For those of you who have “scored” a Palm Pre and want to run some of our apps under the MotionApps Classic emulator, we have gotten certification for Bonsai, DayNotez, and Project@Hand.

So, what does certification get you? From the MotionApps web site:

The Classic Certified Logo will help you easily identify Palm OS applications that are fully compatible with Classic and run well on a new powerful Palm Pre. Those apps will perform well and provide a familiar user experience. Even better, you can expect to see a significant improvement in the performance as Classic will be faster and more responsive then Treos and Centros were with Palm OS apps.

Keep in mind that Classic still does not support hotsync back to a desktop application, so running our apps on the Classic emulator means running them as “device only” apps. Quanto (one of our few apps that currently has no desktop counterpart anyway) was also tested on Classic (and works fine) but was not made into a certified signed application since there was a limit of 3 apps per developer at the time we submitted our products. Also, although Comet may work in Classic on the Pre, I doubt it would be very useful since the Pre’s call history log is not accessible from the Classic emulator.

The signed (Certified) Palm version of of Bonsai, DayNotez, and Project@hand can be download from the appropriate download pages on our site.

A new Bonsai Desktop v4.2.8 beta has been released. More details including the download link can be found in the forum.

Changes in this beta update include:

• Added toolbar for WM touch screen devices. The toolbar is not configurable at this time. The ability to configure the toolbar will come at a later time, possible sometime after the initial release of the WM product.
• Find command is now supported. The find can be activated using the toolbar or the Menu/Edit/Find menu. The find supports incremental searching as you type. Options for the find can be accessed by clicking the “>>” button and include options to match case, include notes in the search and select direction of search. Currently the search begins at the current cursor location and ends at the top or bottom of the outline. I plan to change this so the search will wrap around to the top/bottom of the outline and continue until it gets back to the starting location.
• Added note pane to the outline view in the WM application. The note pane can be shown and disabled via the View/Note menu. The size of the note pane can be adjusted on touch screen devices by tapping, holding and dragging the splitter (the divider between the outline and the note pane). For non-touch screen devices, the size of the note pane is fixed. The setting of the note pane status (enabled state and size) is not currently persisted but this will be added soon.
• Fixed problems handling non-English characters by the WM application. The outline files written by Bonsai on the WM device will be in a UTF-8 encoding. The PC version of Bonsai can read this format but currently only writes the outline in a “local code page” encoding. The sync engine also behaves in the same way. This means that if non-English characters are used in an outline, the region settings on both the PC and WM device must match. With this change and the proper regional settings, non-English characters can be used both in the outline and in the outline file names.
• Fixed problem browsing the outline list after opening an outline.
• Resolved crash that sometimes occurs when configuring an item’s keywords.

We are happy to announce that we have now officially released Comet 2.3.1 (both desktop and handheld). This is mainly a maintenance release, but you should update your existing software when you get a chance.

For those of you not familiar with Comet, it is our call log history tool for Palm OS smartphones (Sorry, no Windows Mobile.. Only Palm OS Treos and Centros)

On the desktop side, changes since the last official release include:

• Fixed sorting issue with duration column
• Added column header "glyph" (graphic) to Call Type, Note Icon, and Peak Hours column headers.
• Fixed issue where recovering a desktop file neglected to add notes from handheld side.
• Notes that exist on the desktop for entries on the handheld that do not contain notes are now restored.
• Deleted records on desktop are now also deleted on next sync to handheld. (known issue: deleted records on Handheld are not yet picked up by desktop)
• Updated grid version
• Updated toolbar version
• Safeguards against corruption when switching users
• <user>.dat.sync maintenance file now added
• Fixed issue with manually deleted records not staying deleted.

And on the handheld side:

• Fixed issue with Comet posting wrong phone number when using "dial alternate".
• Fixed issue with Comet dialing extra (extensions) when using "dial alternate" if not done via the spacebar.

You can download the update or a trial copy from HERE

It’s been a long time in coming, but we’ve finally done an official release of DayNotez for Palm OS version 3.0.5.

Some of what’s changed since the last release include:

• Improved sync code responsible for opening the desktop db. It will now be able to locate the db if the “My Documents” folder is moved by the user.
• Fixed problem where under certain conditions the database could not be created if the directory did not exist.

and in the handheld app itself:

• Fixed an issue which caused a crash on some systems when closing the SD archive after you modify an entry.
• Fixes problems being launched from external apps and the maintenance (hidden) launch after each hotsync.
• Is now aware of DateBk6 new range of IDs 
• Resolved a problem where private entries become unhidden in certain circumstances.

Those that already own DayNotez 3 or would like to trial it for 30 days can get the new version from out download page.

Anyone wishing to purchase DayNotez 3 can do so from our purchase page.

This new version of DayNotez for Pocket PC resolves a minor installation issue found with the initial 1.5 release.

This is a free update for all DayNotez for Pocket PC v1.x users. See the README for more details or download the setup HERE. Since the update is mainly targeting the installation, if you have already have DayNotez v1.5.0 installed, there is little need to update.

It’s been a long time in coming, but we’ve finally done an official release of Project@Hand 2 and Project@Hand 2 MSP, version 2.6.1.

Some of what’s changed since the last release include:

• Ability to sync to a storage card instead of just main memory
• Better installation on Vista systems
• Slightly improved configuration dialog layout
• Ability to open a folder to the path of each configured project file
• Ability to toggle the read-only and sync state of projects directly in the list
• Ability to launch each project file in Microsoft Project

and in the handheld app itself:

• Corrected some crashes that can occur with older Palm OS4 devices
• Scheduling with constraints bug fixed

Those that already own Project@Hand 2 or would like to trial it for 30 days can get the new version from out download page.

Anyone wishing to purchase Project@Hand 2 or Project@Hand 2 MSP (version that syncs directly with Microsoft Project) can do so from our purchase page.

This new version of DayNotez for Pocket PC resolves  compatibility issues with DayNotez running on Windows Mobile 6.1 devices that have SQL Server Compact 3.5 in ROM.

Changes include:

• DayNotez now uses .NET Compact Framework v2 and SQL Server Compact v3.5 SP1 software. These components are now being include in ROM on the very latest versions of Windows Mobile 6.1 OS and provides the best compatibility with these devices.
• The database is now named DayNotezDb3.sdf. Be sure to update your backup procedure if you backup your DayNotez database by name.

This is a free update for all DayNotez for Pocket PC v1.x users. See the README for more details or download the setup HERE.

From now until the 1^st of the next year (2009) any order totaling $20 or more placed directly from Natara can take an additional 30% off by using coupon code:

NSWHOLIDAY08

It does not have to be a single item, but any combination of products over $20 can take advantage of the coupon. Offer is good for Palm, Windows Mobile, and/or desktop products.

The staff at Natara would like to wish all of your readers a happy holiday season and a great 2009!

Rich, Bryan and George

(Orders must be placed from the Natara site. The coupon code does not apply to other retail sites such as Handango, MobiHand, or PocketGear.)