There are two types of maps available. Enhanced maps contain more data but use more memory. Basic maps contain less data and use less memory. Exactly how many maps you can hold depends upon how large the counties are.

I currently have Sacramento loaded on my Palm. It is using 1062K of my memory, one eighth of my total memory.

You can search for features, businesses, landmarks, intersections, and street addresses. Initially, I found the search parameter entries confusing, but I understand how much more code would be required to make it more free-form. The search works well. You can find a location faster with this map than you ever could on a paper map.

The map also features zoom and pan features to help you navigate through the map. It does not include a route-making function; you will have to choose the best route yourself.

I intend to download the map for the next city I travel to before taking the trip. This is a great way to carry a map.
Mapopolis [Free]
Palm OS
Mapopolis
Info@mapopolis.com

Data can be seen in either text format or in a graph form. You can look at current conditions or scroll backward or forward to some other time. This is great information to have before you start walking down the beach. This can save you from being stranded somewhere while waiting for the tide to roll back out.

The database is kept in separate database files for each region, so you are not losing space by keeping data on New Zealand unless you care about data on New Zealand. The program warns you that the data has been collected from various sources and has not been verified, so you may want to check a local paper once during the trip to see if the time should be offset to be more accurate.

In addition to the tide data, there is a smaller collection of current data. That could be useful if you want to try swimming or canoeing. Like the tide data, information can be seen as either text or graph.

Tide Tool is freeware. It only takes 86K of space when loaded with the West Coast database. I keep it loaded on my Palm so that I am ready for that next trip to the beach. (Have to be careful, my Palm is not waterproof.)
Tide Tool [Free]
Palm OS
Walt Bilofsky
bilofsky@toolworks.com

The example drawing I show was done on the Palm emulator using a mouse. The pen lets you make a much nicer picture but I have not figured out how to show it on my computer to do a screen capture. (No, I do not claim to be an artist).

This program could potentially be used to draw simple maps for directions, or even for taking notes, when you do not have the time to use graffiti. It only supports black and white images (supporting color would increase the record size).

Like many of the other Palm OS applications, this one lets you save the drawings by name and in categories. You can create additional categories if you need them.

I think this is a useful application to have on your Palm OS device for when you need it. It has a very small footprint (the application is only about 13k) and each drawing takes up a mere 3200 bytes plus the length of its title.
Scribbler [Free]
Palm OS
Mark J. Musante
olorin@world.std.com

I found it interesting that the Palm IIIc that I use is faster than the more expensive Palm Vx. Even more interesting is how much faster the Visor units are. The low 71% reading is what I got when I ran it on the Palm emulator on my 233 MHz laptop. It does not seem that much slower, so I guess you will not really notice any speed difference unless you go for the high-end Visor Platinum (or Prism). I ran a PacMan program on the emulator and it was too fast to actually play.

I am not sure that this program will stay on my Palm for very long since it does nothing to improve my productivity. But then it only takes up 7K of my memory, so I'd have to be pretty desperate to delete it just to free up memory.

I guess I can use it to beam to the next Palm OS device that I contemplate buying just to see how fast it runs.

This application was written in Quartus Forth by the Quartus folks. When you consider how small this application is, you may want to consider using their language to do development.
Benchmark [Free]
Palm OS
Quartus
info@quartus.net

To use the program, you select the categories of conversion: angle, area, clothing, computer, force, length, pressure, radioactivity, shoes, speed (angular), speed (linear), temperature, volume, and weight. There are 100 units available in 14 categories The program will fill the boxes will all of the possible conversions. You select the desired units from each of the boxes. Then you enter the value you want to convert and the application calculates the conversion. If you find the list of conversion too overwhelming, just tap the S box in the lower corner of the screen to get the simplified list.

This is a lightweight program, even though it has probably every conversion you'll ever need to do. It uses only 23K of memory.
Converter [Free]
Palm OS
Matt N. Marsh
matt.marsh@bigfoot.com

This program has a lot of conversions in it. The categories of conversion are acceleration, angle, angular acceleration, angular velocity, area, capacitance, charge, current, density, dynamic viscosity, energy (work) flow (mass), flow (volume), force, frequency, fuel economy, illuminance, inductance, kinematic viscosity, length, luminance, magnetic flux, magnetic flux density, mass, paper density, power, pressure, SI prefixes, solid angle, specific heat, temperature, thermal conductivity, time, torque, velocity (speed), voltage, volume, and yarn density. A total of 561 units. What more could you possibly want? Oddly enough, the Converter program has some conversions that YAUC does not (so you may need both).

You then select the actual units from the two drop-down lists. The value is calculated as you enter the value.

This program takes a lot more memory than the Converter program. I am amazed that Marius Milner could get all of the conversions in a mere 30K of memory, small enough to fit on an original Palm Pilot.
YAUC [Free]
Palm OS
Marius Milner
Mariusm@yahoo.com

I often have to do conversions from decimal to hexadecimal. Occasionally, I need to convert to or from binary, but that is infrequent. This calculator includes octal conversion as well, but I have not used octal in many years. (I used to be able to do octal conversions in my head but when I moved to hexadecimal, I had to rely on calculators or conversion charts.)

Beyond the conversions, Hex Calc includes the basic Boolean logic functions NOT, AND, OR, and XOR. It also has things like rotate bits and nybble swaps. If these do not mean anything to you, then you do not need this application. These are all of the features that I had in my old programmer's calculator (the author probably had one of the old calculators too).

Hex Calc is small, using a mere 15K of memory. If you are a programmer who needs to get down to the bits and bytes level, you need this free program.
Hex Calc [Free]
Palm OS
William Edward Woody
woody@alumni.caltech.edu

IrMonitor is a diagnostic tool that lets you read the level of an IR signal. This could be useful when you want to know why your remote stopped working, or why the remote works from 4 feet in front of the TV but not from across the room. (It will not necessarily give you a clue for fixing the problem). I would have found it useful when I was trying to align an electric eye in the past.