.KEYWORD bridge
.FLYINGHEAD HARDWARE REVIEW
.TITLE A Bridge to the future
.OTHER
.SUMMARY Senior technical editor Claire Pieterek has discovered a neat little device that’s amazingly useful. The Bridge lets you connect your Palm V to PalmPilot and Palm III style cradles and add-on gadgets. Plus, The Bridge allows you to drop your older-style Palm devices into a cradle without taking off the case. Check out this article to learn more.
.AUTHOR Claire Pieterek
Have you ever run across a gadget that you didn’t know you really needed until you got it and found out how useful it was? For me, one such item is The Bridge by Midwest PCB Designs. The Bridge comes in two models: The Bridge for Palm Pilot and Palm III Connected Organizers, shown in Figure A, and The Bridge for Palm V connected organizers (which looks similar, but fits the Palm V).
.FIGPAIR A Here’s the Bridge for PalmPilot and Palm III Connected Organizers.
.H1 The Bridge for PalmPilot and Palm III units
The PalmPilot Bridge is shown, in Figure B, connecting a Palm device still in its case to a cradle. The Bridge comes in the same lovely gray as your cradle. Its key value is that it can be used to perform an in-cradle HotSync without removing your Palm device from one of the many cases that have cut-outs on the bottom. The cut-outs are great if you use a Hot Sync Cable, but many encased Palm devices won’t normally quite fit on a cradle unless taken out of their cases.
.FIGPAIR B Here’s the PalmPilot Professional in a Targus case with The Bridge installed on a Palm III HotSync cradle.
I’ve used quite a few cases that are easy to put on various Palm devices but are not quite as easy to remove, such as the PilotArmor and Rhinoskin ShockSuit. If you HotSync often (and you should, hint, hint) and don’t have a HotSync cable, it gets to be a drag when you have to take your Palm device out of its case each time so it will fit in the cradle. This process reminds me of having to unbundle children shortly after putting on all the gear necessary to survive a cold, snowy winter’s day of play. If you’ve ever had to do that, you’ll know what a help the PalmPilot Bridge can be (with your Palm device
