I Talk to the Palms

(Editor's note: Most of these programs enable two-way infrared communication between Palm OS devices and any Windows CE device: Pocket, Palm-size or Handheld PC.)

It's a ritual! You meet someone at a business meeting or trade show and the first thing you do is exchange business cards. If you both have Pocket PCs, you can use infrared communications to beam electronic business cards back and forth. But what if the person has a Palm OS PDA? Yes, they're out there. In fact, they outnumber us and many of them don't want to switch to Pocket PCs. How do you exchange "e-cards" with them? Read on.

While all the newer Palm OS devices have infrared ports, neither Palm Computing nor Microsoft designed their systems to communicate with each other. Fortunately, third-party software developers saw this gap and created utilities to fill it. By aligning the infrared ports up between the Pocket PC and the Palm you can use one of these utilities to send and receive information.

Address Beam

(www.palmix.itil.com/newpalmix/products/addrbeam_home.htm)

Address Beam allows you to send and receive address cards between Palm, Psion and Windows CE. You must install Address Beam on both devices in order to communicate between them. Address Beam retails for $25.

BSquare EZBeam

(www.bsquare.com/products/p_ezbeam.htm)

EZBeam allows you to send contacts, appointments, tasks and text files between Palm and Windows CE devices. Palm users do not need to install any software to communicate with Windows CE using EZBeam. EZBeam retails for $19.95.

Jetsend

(http://jetsend.hp.com)

Jetsend from Hewlett-Packard allows you to transfer contacts, pictures and text files between Palm and Windows CE devices via infrared ports. You will need to install a version of Jetsend on both the Windows CE device and the Palm in order to use it. Jetsend also allows you to beam information to Jetsend enabled printers, HP Photosmart C500 Digital Cameras and to the HP Capshare 920 Digital Copier. You can communicate with other Jetsend enabled devices via TCP/IP as well as Infrared. Jetsend is free and available for the SH3 and Mips processors, however HP has discontinued it.

Palm@Hand

(www.techathand.com)

Palm@Hand lets you send and receive information between Palm and Windows CE. It even allows you to select what information is sent, so you can decide to only send work information or home info. Palm@Hand is designed for the Palm-size PCs but it works on the Pocket PCs as well. Palm@Hand is free.

Peacemaker

(www.conduits.com/ce/peacemaker)

Peacemaker from Conduits allows you to send and receive contacts via infrared between Palm, Psion and Windows CE. Once you install the application on your Windows CE Pocket PC or Palm-size PC, you can send and receive contacts without installing any other software on the Palm. Peacemaker Professional adds the ability to beam calendar, notes and files to the Palm as well. The standard version is free. Peacemaker Professional is $14.95.

Synctalk

(www.sodeog.com/download.cfm)

Synctalk from Sodeog allows you to send and receive contacts, appointments and memos via infrared between Palm, Psion, and Windows CE devices (CE 2.0 or higher, all devices including the Auto PC). You must install the Synctalk application on both devices in order to send or receive information. Synctalk retails for $29.95.

Moving all info over