TealMagnify
Review By Dave Ruske | April 14, 2002
Category: not categorized
One solution to getting more text on a tiny display is to make the text smaller. The human eye can handle it, right? Well most human eyes, most of the time... but not every eye, not all the time. If your Palm's display is too tiny to read on occasion, or if you need to zoom in on details while designing icons, you might be interested in a product from Tealpoint Software called TealMagnify.
TealMagnify Screen Shot
Product: TealMagnify
Manufacturer: TealPoint Software
Price: $11.95 U.S.
I wish I'd have had this product the last time I had my eyes checked. After the appointment, pupils dilated to owl-like proportions, I needed to make a call. The number was in my Palm, but I couldn't make out the digits. With a little trial and error, I maxed out the font size --- and I still couldn't see the darn thing. I actually put the Palm on the floor and stood on a chair. Now I could focus on the PDA, but the letters were too small to make out through my watery eyes. Fortunately, someone else was working late, caught me looking like an idiot, and read the number to me. Unfortunately, well, I'd been caught looking like an idiot.
If I'd have had TealMagnify installed, I could've tapped the silkscreened Find icon and viewed the phone number at arm's length. TealMagnify gives you a software magnifying glass, available at a single tap's notice.
TealMagnify installs as a hack. This means that you need another program called a hack manager to use it. Several exist, such as the freeware X-Master. TealMagnify comes with a trial version of TealPoint's excellent management program, TealMaster (click here to read TealMaster's review).
Once installed, TealMagnify takes over the Palm's Find button (which, coincidentally, looks like a magnifying glass). Tapping the button brings up TealMagnify's window on one half of the screen, with a draggable dotted rectangle on the other half. The contents of the rectangle get echoed TealMagnify's window, doubled in size. Tap in the half of the screen occupied by TealMagnify, and it hops out of the way to let you view what was beneath.
Hey, says the experienced Palm user, how do I search if TealMagnify hocks my button? One of two ways. First, you can double-tap the Find button; second, you can tap the new Find button provided in TealMagnify's window.
Two other buttons are also present in the window. One is the Ok button that dismisses TealMagnify. The other is a Mode button that toggles between the window mode and full screen. In full screen mode, most of the display is magnified and the dotted rectangle overlays the enlarged image.
The Flipside
TealMagnify worked with most of the applications I tested, but not all. WordSmith brought up its own search dialog instead of TealMagnify, and it won't pop up when using the Palm calculator. I tried it while viewing some 16-bit images with MGI PhotoSuite Mobile, and it popped up with lines of garbage on the screen instead of a zoomed-in picture.
The biggest problem with TealMagnify is that once you've doubled the size of what you want to look at, you're not looking at much. It's still and always an itty-bitty screen, and there's just so much you can fit on it. That's not TealMagnify's fault, though.
Final Thought
Is TealMagnify useful? Well, everyone's needs are different, so that's up to you. There was that one time when I sure could've used it, but I usually don't have to climb furniture to read a phone number. People with visual impairments or developers who want to zoom in on a graphic may find TealMagnify a welcome addition to their software library.
Pros
- Provides visual assistance to those who need it.
- Global find still works.
- Windowed or full-screen operation.
Cons
- Doesn't work with all applications.
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