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Cradles
Palmtops connect to desktops via cradles. There are a variety of
cradles, and it is important to get one that matches your palmtop model and
your desktop's (or laptop's) capabilities.
Details:
- Cradles attach using a desktop's serial or USB
(Universal Serial Bus, a new standard replacing several old ports)
ports. USB is faster, but serial sync time is not bad (a couple
of minutes max). Palm Inc. products come with serial cradles which
connect to Windows or Macintosh serial ports. Handsprings come
with USB cradles; if your computer is more than about 2 years old, it
may not have USB ports. Note that USB is
not supported by Windows 95, Windows NT, or MacOS prior to
8.6.1. Both companies offer cradles of the other variety
or at least adapters. Handspring's Visor Solo is the only model
that is not packaged with a cradle.
- New Macs have USB ports (when Handspring says their products
are Mac-ready, they mean for a new Mac with USB ports).
Slightly-older Macs have PCI slots into which a 2 or 4 port USB card
(from Palm, Handspring or any computer distributor, about $40) can be
inserted. This is a good option if the Mac's two serial ports
are in use by a printer and external modem. Unfortunately there
is a bug that occasionally causes syncs to fail (re-inserting the USB
cable cures it for one sync). Old Macs must free up a serial
port.
- Cradles for Palm Vs and the color units, Palm IIIc and Handspring
Prism, also recharge their battery. Hint: common
wisdom is to first drain a rechargeable battery completely a couple
times; then partial charges are OK.. Palm m100s come with a
cradle-less cable, with just a button at the end of its cable (more
portable), but you can also buy a cradle for it.
- Palm Inc. now offers an Ethernet cradle, with which owners of III
and VII models could synchronize somewhere on campus without a
computer. They also have a central synchronizing product that IS could
provide to the whole campus. There are no plans to use these
products.
We have no experience with PocketPC cradles. |
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