.FLYINGHEAD TECH SUPPORT INSIDER
.TITLE Update your PalmOS for free
.DEPT
.SUMMARY When support guru Chris Brown writes, you gotta listen. Each article Chris writes is a "must-read" because the information he provides is so immediately valuable. In this month’s column, Chris clearly decyphers the latest versions of the Palm OS that are available for each PalmPilot model, tells you how to get upgrades for free, and explains in-depth why each upgrade could be important to you.
.AUTHOR Chris Brown
Ain’t nobody perfect
We admit it. Your Palm organizer isn’t perfect when you pull it out of the box. Hell of a sales pitch, huh? Actually, that’s one of the good things about it. As with anything, there is always room for improvement with your 3Com connected organizer.
I talked about this last month when I wrote about upgrading your organizer by replacing the memory board seated in the back of the device. Replacing the board makes for dramatic changes in the functionality of your device, but what if there are any incremental updates to the Palm OS software running on your organizer? What if there was a bug that needed to be fixed? Would we make you go out and buy a brand new board? Of course not! Similarly, we couldn’t get away with making it difficult for you to upgrade your version of the Palm Desktop software, right?
Plug the following URL into your web browser and bookmark it:
http://www.palm.com/custsupp/downloads. This is the spot that you’ll come to when you’re looking for the latest updates and upgrades of the Palm OS and Palm Desktop. It’s a no-charge, one-stop shop for you, whether you’re using a Pilot 5000 device with Pilot Desktop 1.0 or a Palm III device with Palm Desktop 3.0.
Of course, with the broadening range of products that Palm Computing introduces, it can be confusing to figure out what is appropriate for you to download from the Palm Computing website. I’ll give you the scoop on what you should download and why.
.H1 No Pilot is an island
Okay, before I get into the nitty-gritty of this, I’m going to launch a sermon to you all. If you are reading this right now on your monitor, I probably don’t have to worry about you. If someone went and printed this up for you because you don’t have a PC of your own, I’m talking to you. What are you doing with a Palm organizer if you don’t have a PC?!
I know that there is a lot of rhetoric out there about your Palm organizer as a handheld computing solution. Not that this isn’t true- the thousands of developers out there for the Palm Computing platform is a testament to this- but in no way is your Palm organizer meant to stand on its own, independent of your desktop system. There is a reason for the cradle and the CD-ROM in the box, and they really should not be treated as optional accessories! Without synchronizing with a PC, you are risking data loss should anything adverse happens to your organizer. You are not able to use any of your data in conjunction with any other applications on your PC, such as your e-mail client or your word processor. And forget about playing Klondike in those boring meetings–unless you are able trade applications with other users with the beaming feature of the Palm III organizer, you won’t be able to make use of any software besides what is already pre-installed on your device.
This ties into my article this month since without the proper synchronization between your Palm organizer and your desktop PC, you will not be able to load any updates to the Palm OS on your organizer. An update to the Palm OS on your device can solve any problems that were later discovered by Palm Computing after the time of release and/or add more functionality to your current version. Even you Palm III users who can otherwise receive other software beamed from other Palm III users need to install Palm OS updates through the traditional HotSync process.
Simply put, if you haven’t set yourself up to use your Palm organizer with a PC (or a Macintosh, of course), you won’t have any real way to improve upon your organizer and you are putting your data on thin ice.
.H1 Pilot 1000 and 5000 users
If you’ve got a Pilot 1000 or 5000, the your device is running the Palm OS version 1.x . The "x" means that there were several updates made to the 1.0 version of the software. Most Pilot 1000/5000 users should be using at least version 1.2. To check the version of the software you are running, launch the Memory application on your device and check the upper right hand corner. You should see the Palm OS version number that you are currently running there. If you are running anything lower than version 1.0.6, you should go to the Palm Computing website and download the update.
What would installing the Palm OS version 1.0.6 update do for you? Plenty, compared to Palm OS version 1.0. First of all, imagine having to perform a reset on your Pilot organizer any time the three minutes of your auto-off setting is up. Some Pilot organizers had this problem and Palm OS 1.0.6 alleviates this. It also affects the power usage of the device so that the two AAA batteries last for the several weeks that they should. Not only that, but when the batteries do actually get rather low, version 1.0.6 helps to prevent data loss until you are able to change the batteries. Now this is not meant to imply that if you ignore your low battery warnings and procrastinate to get a fresh pair of batteries in your device that your data will be intact, but you’ll be in a better position.
And it still does more. Palm OS version 1.0.6 also fixes a problem some Pilot users encounter when they use any of the silk-screened buttons next to the Graffiti writing area (that is, the Applications, Menu, Calculator and Find buttons). Hitting one of these buttons once could send you back to the application you were previously using, and will only function properly when tapping them twice.
Version 1.0.6 also helps to defragment the memory on your Pilot device, meaning that it takes any of the gaps in your total memory and makes it available for use. If you have ever gotten an error telling you that you did not have enough memory to install any applications on your Pilot organizer, even though you checked your Memory application and knew there should be plenty, you should load Palm OS version 1.0.6. You may also want to check out a valuable application called DeFragger from Technology Resource Group, the same folks who make the SuperPilot boards I mentioned last month.
Besides all this, Palm OS version 1.0.6 hides a little graphic surprise, an "Easter egg" as they’re known. I won’t say anything more except that no matter what it looks like, it’s not a bug. If I tell you more, the engineers will kill me!
If you are a Pilot 1000/5000 user, chances are that you are also using Pilot Desktop 1.0. Well, if you are using Windows 95 on your desktop PC, you can give up that habit. Go to the Palm Computing website and download the PalmPilot Desktop 2.0 Personal Edition software. Upgrading will let you use the version of the PalmPilot Desktop that PalmPilot Personal organizer users have enjoyed all along. It also upgrades your version of the HotSync Manager software, which is better at backing up databases from third-party applications than previous versions. You will probably also want to further upgrade the software by downloading the PalmPilot Desktop 2.1 upgrade, especially if you are running Microsoft Office 97.
.H1 PalmPilot Personal and Professional users
If you check your Palm OS software version as explained above, you should be running Palm OS version 2.0 or higher if you have a PalmPilot Personal or Professional organizer. You’ll also notice that it will make a distinction between the Personal and Professional versions. The difference between the two, of course, is that the Professional version includes the TCP/IP and Mail functionality that is not found on the Personal version.
If you are not already running the Palm OS version 2.0.4 software, download it from the Palm Computing website and install it. Compared to any one of the earlier versions, it gives you the most benefits, including longer battery life and improvement of screen sensitivity regarding cursor placement and highlighting text. Also, if you use any third-party applications on your PalmPilot organizer that create alarms, version 2.0.4 will make sure to kill any of them if you decide to delete any of those applications. If they are left behind after deleting the application that created them, they will cause a fatal error on your PalmPilot organizer, forcing you to reset.
As prescribed above, if you aren’t currently running PalmPilot Desktop version 2.1, you should go to the website and download the upgrade. Most currently available PalmPilot organizers come with version 2.1 on the included CD-ROM, but no matter if you are using it straight from the disk, you should download the upgrade from the website and install it. What the software from the CD-ROM does not include is a fix for a problem with the Expense application when generating expense reports in Microsoft Excel.
.H1 Palm III users
Palm III users won’t find much in terms of upgrades just yet since it is so new, but what you will find on the Palm Computing website is the key to activate your HotSync Network Connection functionality. I talked about this at length a couple of months ago, so I won’t waste my breath explaining its features. Just so you don’t waste your own time in downloading it and trying to get it to work, you will only want it if your desktop PC is connected to your company’s network and there are others using Palm III organizers or PalmPilot Professional organizer users who have Network HotSync software installed.
.H1 Macintosh users
If you are a Macintosh user, you’ll be able to find a major upgrade for your Palm MacPac connection kit soon. It will include a brand new version of the Desktop software, based on the award-winning Claris Organizer. And for those of you who have had spent countless minutes waiting for your organizer and your Macintosh to finish a synchronization, the upgraded HotSync software will greatly speed up the process.
In the meantime while you are still running Pilot Desktop 1.0 for the Macintosh, you can download and install the Conduit Manager Updater 1.01. This will help make sure that the databases used by your device’s applications are backed up correctly, especially with third-party applications.
Come back soon now, y’hear?
At the time of writing this article, this covers most of the things you’ll probably want to download format he Palm Computing website to upgrade your system. There will surely be more coming, including the long-awaited upgrade of the Palm MacPac software. Make sure to visit the section every so often to see what might be coming up!
.BEGIN_SIDEBAR
.H1 Product availability
The latest updates and upgrades of the Palm OS and Palm software are available at http://www.palm.com/custsupp/downloads.
TRG’s Degfragger is available at http://www.trgnet.com/Palm/Products/defragge.htm.
.END_SIDEBAR
.BIO Chris Brown is the webmaster for technical support on the PalmPilot web site at http://www.palmpilot.com.
.DISCUSS http://www.component-net.com/webx?13@@.ee6bed9
