FIGURE A

The Veo Photo Traveler looks like a camera head mounted on an SD card.

The Photo Traveler plugs into the card slot of various Palm OS devices including the m125, m130, m500, m505, m515, i705, Tungsten T, Tungsten W, and Handspring Treo 90. Recently, Veo ported it to the new Kyocera 7135 SmartPhone (reviewed last month in PalmPower.com by Barton Gellman at http://www.computingunplugged.com/issues/issue200305/00001031001.html) so that will be our test vehicle.

Software installation was straightforward. I put the CD into my PC and followed the instructions, then performed a HotSync operation to install the Veo application. Next, I plugged the Photo Traveler into my Kyocera 7135 SmartPhone and heard the beep, and the Veo software automatically launched.

The opening screen is a photo album with numbered thumbnails of existing pictures (on the Kyocera 7135, photos are stored in RAM, since the Veo is using the memory card slot). Double-tapping a thumbnail makes it full-screen, and forward and back arrows display to scroll through your album. Tapping a full-size photo returns to the album view.

At the bottom of the album screen are four icons: a camera for taking photos, a check-box to change preferences, a beam icon to beam photos, and a trash can to delete them. Preferences include Sound Effects (on or off), Resolution (640 X 480 or 320 X 240), and Image Quality (high, medium, or low). At the higher resolution, the Kyocera 7135 can take 28 photos. The Preferences screen also shows shots remaining, and an Advanced button sets Exposure Time (auto or manual).

Tap the camera icon and after a few seconds the screen becomes your color viewfinder, conveniently switching to a horizontal format (the camera plugs into the side of the Kyocera 7135, not the top). Tapping the viewfinder window toggles it between a small and large preview frame (smaller is faster). Once your picture is framed and focused, press the Address Book or Messages button to take your photo. It appears full-screen with a check mark and "X" button to keep or erase the shot.

Focusing is done by rotating the lens barrel and is a bit of a challenge with the small viewing screen. Finding a horizontal or vertical line to focus on helps. The camera head has a flower icon for close-ups and a mountain icon for distance to indicate how to turn the lens barrel. The camera head swivels 180 degrees for self-portraits, as shown in Figure B.