.KEYWORD palmbuddy
.FLYINGHEAD TWO REVIEWS FOR THE PRICE OF ONE
.TITLE Macintosh backup with Palm Buddy
.FEATURE
.SUMMARY It’s two…two…two reviews for the price of one. That’s right. This month, both Jim McCarthy and contributing editor Fredlet turned in reviews of Palm Buddy, the wonderful Macintosh backup tool. Rather than choosing, you get to read both, each with it’s own unique viewpoint. If you use both a Macintosh and a Palm device, you’re definitely going to want to read this article.
.AUTHOR Jim McCarthy and S. Fred Green a.k.a. Fredlet
.BEGIN_SIDEBAR
.H1 A decision befitting Solomon (or an editor with a good, biblical name like David)
Sometimes editors work in mysterious ways. Such is the case with this article. We had originally intended to do a series of articles on the "Buddy" backup twins: Backup Buddy and Palm Buddy. We had recruited two of our favorite authors, Jim McCarthy and Fredlet, to do one of each. Alas, wires got crossed. Somehow, they both wound up writing articles on the Macintosh variant, Palm Buddy. Honestly, we can’t tell if we short-circuited here or were misunderstood there. In any case, we wound up with two Palm Buddy articles and no Backup Buddy articles. What’s an editor to do?
In a decision befitting the great Solomon, who, it is told, arbitrated over two mothers who claimed parentage of a single infant and offered to cleave said infant in half as settlement, we had to arbitrate over the fate of these two Palm Buddy articles. (Ok, so it’s not quite as biblical in proportion, but it was still a sticky wicket and led to quite a nice run-on sentence.)
And, befitting our glorious stature as editors, we decided to, ah, well, cop-out. We’re running both. Since both have distinctly different styles, and since both actually cover the product from slightly different approaches, we decided to give you both perspectives. Our thanks to Jim and Fredlet for putting up with this. And, in a fit of even more glorious editorial effectiveness, we’ve managed to still get you a fine Backup Buddy review, running elsewhere in this issue. — DG
.END_SIDEBAR
.H1 Jim McCarthy’s Palm Buddy review
Palm Buddy is a dynamic, desktop synchronization program for the Macintosh. It offers both innovative, easy, and fast backup, as well as a software installation process for the Palm computer that will be quite familiar to the avid Macintosh user.
Using a Macintosh Finder-like interface, the power of drag and drop technology, and a robust plug-in architecture, Palm Buddy creates a versatile, easy-to-use desktop backup utility and installation package that should make a PC PalmPilot enthusiast jealous.
.CALLOUT Let me say that I am just plum tickled to death (as my crazy grandmother says) to be seeing more fully featured stuff out there for the Mac. — Fredlet
Palm Buddy not only backs up and installs only the files you want to backup or install when you want to backup or install them (you following all this?), Palm Buddy also translates TEXT files on the fly into Aportis or TealDoc formats. This is most cool.
.H2 Using Palm Buddy
With Palm Buddy’s Finder-like interface, the hierarchy of your PalmPilot contents are presented in a list format — just like a standard MacOS window that displays the contents of a folder — and are then organized into five folders: System, Preference Panels, Built-In Applications, Other Applications, and Other Databases.
Each folder can be expanded to list its contents, such as the individual application and database (or .PRC/.PDB files) files pertaining to that application.
To keep your Palm device organized, Palm Buddy lists third-party applications in their own folder within the "Other Applications" folder, as shown in Figure A. This allows a quick and simple backup of your Palm device in these ways: individual or by folder, full or incremental.
.FIGPAIR A The Palm Buddy interface shows an expanded Other Applications folder and its contents.
.H2 Getting started
Before you can backup or install a file with Palm Buddy for the first time, you need to install a small 10K file on your PalmPilot through a traditional HotSync install session. This file will direct the flow of information between your desktop computer and your PalmPilot.
.H2 Doing a backup
After installing this small, 10K file on your Palm device, Palm Buddy is ready to install a file, backup a file, get information on a file or database, or backup your entire PalmPilot — including the new Palm III Flash ROM — with a point, click, drag, and drop.
Backing up your entire Palm computer with Palm Buddy gives you two options. The first is a full backup, which includes both application program files and database files (like, for example, the Hi-Note application along with Hi-Note’s database files). The downside to a full backup is the extra time consumed by synchronizing the application’s program files in addition to the database files. The upside is in the event you need to restore your entire PalmPilot, you can ideally restore your PalmPilot with a single drag and drop to the Palm Buddy window.
The second option is an incremental backup. The incremental backup will only backup your third party, built-in, ROM database files, (plus the Flash ROM for Palm IIIs), and will not back up the various application’s program files. So, in the event you need to restore your entire Palm computer, you will need to locate your original files and install them separately. Nonetheless, the installation is as simple as drag and dropping to the Palm Buddy window.
With both options, full or incremental backup, you have the option to select what is backed up: non-Palm databases flashed in ROM, and the built-in appslication’s databases. You can see this clearly in Figure B. In addition, you can select an option to "Delete extra files from your backup destination folders" which keeps your backup folder on your desktop fairly organized, keeping only the most-recent files backed up.
.FIGPAIR B The "Backup Options" window is where you select the type of backup and which files are to be backed up.
A note for the advanced Macintosh user: Palm Buddy is also AppleScript compatible, allowing you to easily automate frequent tasks such as weekly backups or installing downloaded files found in a specific folder through out the day. The possibilities with integrating your AppleScripts with Palm Buddy are only limited by your needs and knowledge of AppleScript. [It’s about time we saw this kind of automation in handheld links and we applaud it here! — DG]
.H2 Installing a new application
If you’re like me, when you download a new PalmPilot application, you want to see what it does and how it works as soon as possible. Palm Buddy delivers this service in a snap; just point, click,drag and drop the .PRC or .PDB files from your desktop into Palm Buddy’s window. The installation process completes practically before it begins (or it seems so when in contrast to the standard InstallApp).
.H2 Translate on the sync
Here’s a slick feature. Palm Buddy provides on-demand translation and installation of TEXT files to DOC files through an innovative plug-in architecture. Simply create a TEXT file in any word processing program on your desktop and drag and drop it into Palm Buddy’s window. Palm Buddy will translate the file into a format popular DOC readers, like AportisDoc or TealDoc, can display.
.H2 In conclusion
Palm Buddy offers a flexible plug-in architecture. The product’s ability to perform fast and simple PalmPilot backups and installations is bundled in the familiar Macintosh environment. Palm Buddy proves the Macintosh is still the easiest and most robust platform for the Palm organizer.
That said, Palm Buddy doesn’t completely replace the standard PalmPilot Desktop software for the Macintosh. It also creates a little confusion with some desktop conduit-like applications that looks for database files located in the standard Palm Desktop Backup folder. Since the Palm Buddy Backup folder is saved where you designate, with the filename you choose, the appropriate database files may not be found by the conduit-like program. You will need to copy and replace those files into the Palm Desktop standard Backup folder in order to properly access them.
According to creator Florent Pillet, one other current limitation is it’s inability to completely restore your Palm Buddy backup files by dragging and dropping the entire Palm Buddy Backup folder into the Palm Buddy window. This will be addressed in a future release.
.H1 Fredlet’s Palm Buddy review
I’ve been employed in a few industries in my life and all of the job descriptions have had one thing in common: I’m paid to be paranoid. (But come to think of it, all job descriptions boil down to that.) So naturally it becomes a built-in feature of my mind. That’s me: Fredlet the paranoid.
So why should the process of backing up my Palm computer be any different? Yes, my addresses, memos, to-do items and calendar items are backed up when I HotSync. To some extent, my databases are also backed up the same way. However, I still expect to lose a bit of stuff if my PalmPilot ever goes crazy-ape-bonkers and decides to just have a complete purge. There’s really not much I can do about that — except use Palm Buddy for the Macintosh to prevent total loss.
Boasting an impressive array of features, Palm Buddy lets you back up all the files on you PalmPilot rather than just archiving certain files at HotSync. Even if it isn’t a replacement for the Desktop software, this is $20 well spent toward maintaining your information on your Palm device.
.H2 Macintosh installation specs
OK here’s the nitty-gritty information for all you tech-heads out there. The Macintosh side of PalmBuddy installs several items on the hard drive. I am running MacOS 8.1 but Palm Buddy will run on 7.5 systems and above with at least 2MB RAM available. Nothing was installed into the System folder, but if you don’t have the Thread Manager, the Drag and Drop Manager and the Code Fragment Managers, you may have to install them. These MacOS components aren’t always part of a system that is pre-8.0. Palm Buddy also installs several other items, the more interesting of the installed items include a very complete guide to Palm Buddy and some nifty little plug-ins for added functionality.
.H2 Installing Palm Buddy on the Mac
In addition to the desktop Palm Buddy software, you’ll need to install a file onto your PalmPilot that activates the connection between the desktop and the PalmPilot, and as it is only 12K its not much of a bother on your PalmPilot. [Now, aren’t you glad we gave you two reviews? Jim said the Palm application was 10K. Fredlet says it’s 12K. Life (and editing) is just funny that way. But, in either case, theprogram that installs on the Palm device is pretty darn tiny. — DG]
To get started with Palm Buddy, all I had to do was four simple things:
.BEGIN_STEPS
.STEP Install the .PRC file on the PalmPilot
.STEP Turn off HotSync, so that the serial port is available.
.STEP Click Connect on the PalmPilot while it is sitting on the cradle.
.STEP There is no number 4.
.END_STEPS
See? Wasn’t that easy?
As soon as I clicked Connect, Palm Buddy started cranking away and in a few minutes I found out exactly how much stuff I have on my Palm organizer. Yipes! But the process worked flawlessly, and now I have a total backup of all the fluff that comprises my life. Everything from the lyrics of my favorite song to the pictures I have of Joe Bob Briggs. [Fredlet, what IS it with this fixation on Joe Bob Briggs? –DG]
.H2 The Palm Buddy desktop
The Palm Buddy desktop itself is organized into specific categories of applications, including the built-in applications on the Palm device and its system, preferences, and other applications (intended for third-party applications). I was mainly interested in the Other category, since most of the PalmPilot stuff is backed up on the HotSync (most, but not all — so I am glad they do this). Since I now have a mirror of what’s on my PalmPilot, it is also a little easier to safely delete databases (especially since I regularly look on my PalmPilot and wonder what half of those databases are for). Palm Buddy keeps track of databases that are active and will alert you when you try to delete one that is in use by another application. For HackMaster users this could come in pretty handy.
.H2 Installing Palm software using Palm Buddy
Installation just got a little easier if you run Palm Buddy frequently. All you have to do to install that latest game (to keep you from impaling yourself on your pen during boring meetings) is drag the application from a folder on your Macintosh desktop into the Palm Buddy window. The next time you connect to the Palm computer, your Palm application is downloaded to the Palm device. That’s pretty spiffy considering the sheer number of clicks it takes to install an application with the standard Macintosh InstallApp.
.H2 Automatically converting text files
Another big time saver is the DOC-format plug-in. Dragging text or text files into the Palm Buddy window automatically converts them into .PRC files. Dragging a text file will create a file with the same title as the file, and if you drag directly from a text editor, the plug-in creates an untitled .PRC. Then the next time you backup your Palm device, your files are loaded. No sweat.
.H2 Restoring your stuff
And now we come to the real reason for Palm Buddy: restoration. When you need to recover your data, open up the folder on the Macintosh with the files you want to restore and drag them onto the Palm Buddy window. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve sat for a half-hour finding some obscure database to restore information for an application. Or even worse, when I spent all that time tracking it down it only to find out that I can reinstall that database. No more re-entering information for this little camper. All of my databases are in order and ready to be placed back on the PalmPilot with a minimum of fuss.
.H2 Some final hints and tips
One thing you need to pay attention to is that during a backup and while you are connected, your PalmPilot is still on. Let me repeat this just in case: your Palm device is still on. I know, you aren’t an idiot, but I caught myself messing around in the window, dragging and dropping — generally puttering around and realizing that I’d better stop since I’d eat up all my batteries if I didn’t turn off my PalmPilot.
.CALLOUT Let me repeat this just in case: your Palm device is still on.
Just one more nifty trick before I finish up. The authors of Palm Buddy included a couple of hints for easier usage. I think one in particular is noteworthy. Built into the application is a feature for the 2.0 PalmOS to make HotSyncing a little easier. If you set the HotSync button on your cradle to launch Palm Buddy, then when Palm Buddy is open, hit the HotSync button again and HotSync begins! Now you don’t have to go through all that monkey business about re-launching the HotSync application.
Finally, let me say that I am just plum tickled to death (as my crazy grandmother says) to be seeing more fully featured stuff out there for the Mac. A lot of what I see is geared toward Windows users (though I have nothing against Windows users) and when you use the Mac equivalent of it, you are shortchanged features and speed, and in many cases, quality. (3Com, are you listening?)
.PAGE
Even so, I remain a Mac geek. This practice of short-changing the Mac user is not the case with Palm Buddy. Its interface is very Mac-like. This is good. Combine this with the simplicity and complete usefulness of this application, you’ve got a winner on your hands.
Four and half aardvarks out of five on the Fredlet Aardvark-Meter ™. I’ll give them the last half an aardvark (bringing it up to a complete five!) if they can figure out how to save my information if I spill grape Kool-Aid all over my Palm connected (and sticky) organizer.
.BEGIN_SIDEBAR
.H1 Product availability and resources
You can find Florent Pillet’s Palm Buddy at http://perso.wanadoo.fr/fpillet/.
AportisDoc is available from Aportis at http://www.aportis.com.
TealDoc is available from TealPoint at http://www.tealpoint.com.
Hi-Note is available from Cyclos at http://www.cyclos.com.
According to his publicist, Job Bob Briggs is not available. Period. Sorry Fredlet. There’s apparently a limit to what we can do for our authors. However, should you be so inclined, you can learn more about Job Bob from the TNT MonsterVision site at http://www.tnt-tv.com/monstervision/.
.END_SIDEBAR
.BIO Jim McCarthy is the creator of the PalmMarks, a dynamically updated bookmark file containing hundreds of online PalmPilot resources that are importable into Netscape, Internet Explorer or MobileDB. The PalmMarks can be found at http://www.bigfoot.com/~palmguru, or Jim can be reached via email at palmguru@bigfoot.com. S. Fred Green, a.k.a. Fredlet, is a graphic designer with a serious gadget fixation. To support her habits she designs websites and tests Internet software at Macromedia. You can mail her at pilot@fredlet.com and visit the infamous Pilot site at http://www.fredlet.com/pilot.
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