Palm Shareware from Defunct Website...WHAT TO DO?

[RevZach]

Just tonight, I installed Mega Clock on my T3. I LOVE it. I can't believe I went eight years without it. The problem is that it is a 14 day demo. After that, it will want me to put in a registration code. Where do I get that code? From www.palmgear.com, which doesn't exist anymore.

There seems to be no way to buy this software, although there are TONS of places to download it, still. So, anyone have any thoughts on how to deal with this (not to mention many similar situations)?

What about the legality/morality of getting someone else to give me their registration code and using "Run As" hack? Is it stealing from anyone if the entity you'd be stealing from does not exist? My preference is to pay the $15 and get the code, if possible...

[lelisa13p]

Welcome to Brighthand, RevZach.

PalmGear/PocketGear was gobbled up by Handango. I was unable to find MegaClock when I searched there.

When I searched using Google, the only registration hits were for cracks and those are forbidden here.

[RevZach]

Welcome to Brighthand, RevZach.

PalmGear/PocketGear was gobbled up by Handango.

Hmmmm... Handango has all three free skins for MegaClock but doesn't seem to sell MegaClock itself. Nor can I find a website for the developer...

BTW, love your avatar. FoxTrot is/was such an underrated comic!

[RevZach]

BTW, I ran into a similar thing a couple months ago when I purchased from Amazon a Palm games collection, which included the awesome word game "Spellbound." Turns out, you had to unlock that game or it was only good for 10 plays. Upon installing the software on my computer, it brought me to a custom page on MDM's website, where it was supposed to generate a registration code for me, since I had purchased the game on an MMC card. Unfortunately, MDM no longer exists, so I just got a 404 and had to pay for a registration code for a game I had already bought a week earlier. Grrrrr!!

[lelisa13p]

Since Palm is considered to be a dead platform, disappearing apps/dead-end registration is a problem that is widespread. I have all of my original & updated app download files and registrations copied to an external HD for safekeeping since I've used a couple of different PCs since I began my Palm journey in 2003. I've found that you can't be too careful where those things are concerned.

Maybe someone will have a legitimate idea for you.

[jigwashere]

Welcome to Brighthand, RevZach.

I took a brief ride on the Wayback machine to see who was authorized to sell MegaClock back in the day. Of the sites that could sell it, pdassi still seems to offer it, as long as you don't mind paying in foreign currency. I really don't know if buying this way is a good idea or not.

Good luck!

[wozofoz]

Welcome to the forum :-)

If you are mainly interested in Alarms, Time Zones etc then you might want to have a look at BellTime which is now freeware.

06-Jan-11 Version 1.6
New: The full version is now freeware.

All the best, woz of oz

[Varjak]

On a more general note, I'm surprised that more developers didn't open up the registration and make their apps freeware.

What does Mega Clock do so well that Palm and or Belltime, etc. don't do?

BTW, I'm also surprised that developers that still sell Palm apps don't drop their prices, considering the thin market.

[questionfear]

Those are all good points Varjak, but I have to wonder if they don't drop prices because people will pay what they need to (since there's no alternatives). And I wonder how many apps have been abandoned and forgotten by the devs, causing headaches like the OP has.

[Varjak]

True QF, but few people NEED Palm apps these days. There are (for the most part) good counterparts on other platforms. I think most people keep their Palms up as backup or ancillary devices, not as primaries anymore. When most apps sell for $1-5, a $20 or $50 app on Palm seems odd.