Palm TSAR was intended to be released publicly in early 2002 but hit problems with using listing content. The project is on hold (possibly indefinitely). This page is for information purposes only.

What is Palm TSAR?

Palm TSAR (Television Schedule And Reminders) is a program for Palm devices that allows you to view TV listings and manage the programmes you watch. Palm TSAR is not quite ready yet and needs a few details ironed out before it's released. I hope to get it ready for the beginning of 2002 but in the meantime here's a list of features:

• Complete - The program provides full listings for all UK terrestrial, digital, satellite and radio channels. Up to seven days' worth of listings can be stored at once.
• Cheap - I intend to release Palm TSAR as freeware or even open source but I don't intend to provide the listing content. I need to reach an agreement with a content provider so there may be some restrictions on its use.
• Compact - The actual program itself uses 14KB of Palm memory. The listings are stored in a separate database. The database is compressed using an algorithm that gives reasonable compression ratios but fast decompression times. At the maximum detail level, 7 days' worth of listings for all 5 terrestrial channels takes approx. 160KB. The main terrestrial channels tend to have the most detailed descriptions therefore a database for 32 digital channels has a proportionally smaller payload and weighs in at around 575KB. The level of detail is configurable and you can store between 1 to 7 days' worth of data.

Requirements

Palm TSAR requires PalmOS v3.0 or later (this basically covers everything from the Palm III onwards). To create the database you'll need access to a PC running a 32 bit version of Windows with the Palm Hotsync Manager installed.

Screen Shots

Since you can't download the program yet, here's some screen shots to whet your appetite.

The screen shot above shows the channel summary page. It displays the complete programme listing for one channel for one day. The channel and day can be easily changed using the on-screen controls. In addition the 'hard' buttons on the Palm device are re-programmed to give quick access to these functions. Tapping on any programme title brings up a detailed description in a separate form.

The level of detail displayed depends on the options selected when the database was created. The screenshots above show the descriptions at three detail levels. The screen on the left is at the maximum level and the database is 575KB for 32 channels over 7 days; an intermediate settings, shown in the centre, gives a 470KB database; and finally the lowest detail level, on the right, comes from a 270KB database.

To help you not to forget to catch your favourite programmes, Palm TSAR can be configured to set alarms to remind you. The screen shot above left shows setting a reminder 5 minutes before the program start. The listing view shows an alarm icon beside the programmes with reminders, as shown in the screenshot above right.

Finally all reminders can be managed from a single dialog, shown above.

Contact

If your got any questions about this program or want to get your hands on it to do some beta testing then give me an email at [email protected].

Palm TSAR was intended to be released publicly in early 2002 but hit problems with using listing content. The project is on hold (possibly indefinitely). This page is for information purposes only.