Earthcomber

I've had this program on my Palm TX for a very long time. I downloaded it when I was looking for Free Wi-Fi access points but was quickly overwhelmed and confused by it. It seemed as though things were not put in categories that made sense to me so I stopped using it and deleted it last week because the maps were so big. I have now re-installed the program and have been looking at the website a bit more closely now. I found that you can make your own lists and categorize thing exactly the way you want to.

Earthcomber is a Palm and Windows Mobile program that lets you (and anyone else who uses it) mark places on basic but pretty accurate maps. The information is then uploaded to the central server next time you sync the Palm and run the Earthcomber updater. This allows you to mark anything (gas stations, restaurants, Wi-Fi access points, stores, trails etc..) in your area so others can find them. Next time someone who uses Earthcomber is in my area, they can see anywhere there are ATMs, Gas Stations, Shopping centers, hotels, motels, pet food stores...ANYTHING.

The maps are big, so you'll definitely need a device with lots of on board memory available or some sort of add-on memory card. The Seattle map is just under 6MB, the Los Angeles map is 17MB, Chicago is about 10MB, and the New York map is just under 2MB. Earthcomber also supports GPS units so you can get an exact pinpoint of where you are on the map.

One big drawback to this program is if you ask it to give you directions, it requires an Internet connection. It's a bit strange since it already has the map on your handheld. But I suppose you could just look at the map and figure it out yourself if you have no Internet connection.

By the way....did I mention Earthcomber is completely FREE?