Treo Essentials
| Unlike some handheld devices, which are packed full of desktop features in the hopes that some users might forgo a notebook computer for a handheld, Treo devices aren't intended to replace a traditional computer. Treo devices are designed for phone and data services that work together with your desktop or notebook computer to provide features that are truly useful in mobile scenarios. It just isn't realistic to think that a device with a mobile phone footprint can possibly play the role of a full-blown computer. I mention this fact because it helps explain why the connection between your Treo and your desktop computer is so important. You have a few options when it comes to connecting your Treo to your desktop or notebook PC, but more than likely you'll start out using the multi-connector cable that came with your device. This cable connects your device to a USB port on your computer and includes a HotSync button directly on the connector. It's also possible to connect with a computer via Infrared, Bluetooth, or even Wi-Fi if you add a Wi-Fi expansion card (available from Palm). However, I'd like to focus on the trusty USB connection for now because it's the simplest way to connect your Treo to your computer. You must have the Palm Desktop software installed on your computer to connect your device and exchange information. You have the option of synchronizing data solely through the Palm Desktop software or through a combination of the Palm Desktop software and Microsoft Outlook. If you use Outlook as your personal information manager (PIM), you'll likely want to synchronize with it. The Palm Desktop software installation prompts you to specify how you plan to synchronize. You learn more about the difference between synchronizing with the Palm Desktop software and Microsoft Outlook in a moment. For now, focus on the software components that make it possible to synchronize Treo data with your desktop computer. What Is a Conduit?
One challenge in synchronizing data from one computer to another one is accounting for people wanting to add applications. It would be no good if you could synchronize data for only a handful of built-in applications and nothing else. To solve this problem, Palm established the concept of a conduit, which is a software component responsible for shuttling data back and forth between your Treo and your desktop computer. Each application that can be synchronized has its own conduit that governs how the application's data is synchronized. Note Some third-party application publishers offer conduits to support synchronization with desktop applications that aren't supported by default in the Palm Desktop software. For example, mNotes by CommonTime (http://www.commontime.com/) allows you to synchronize your Treo with Lotus Notes. A conduit is a piece of desktop software, so it doesn't directly affect your device until it comes time to synchronize. The HotSync Manager, which is the desktop application that actually carries out the synchronization process, manages and oversees conduits. Fortunately for you, conduits are largely invisible from the end user's perspective. When you download and install a new application, the conduit for the application is automatically installed so that you can synchronize the application. Even though conduits are more or less invisible to you under normal circumstances, it's important to understand what they are because you will inevitably encounter references to them. If nothing else, you might want to fine-tune synchronization settings for an application, in which case you might have to deal with the application's conduit. In most cases, however, conduits cruise along doing their job without you even knowing they are there. The Palm Desktop Software and Outlook
The Palm Desktop software actually consists of several desktop applications that make it possible to synchronize your Treo with your desktop computer. You will use some and possibly all of these applications to synchronize applications and data on a regular basis. Following are the management and synchronization applications included in the Palm Desktop software:
HotSync Manager is the application that is actually responsible for carrying out the synchronization of applications and data between your device and your desktop computer. HotSync Manager must be running in the background on your desktop computer to respond to synchronization requests from your device. For this reason, HotSync Manager is configured to carry out the synchronization process through a certain connection, such as a USB connection, a network connection, or an Infrared connection. HotSync Manager operates independently of the Palm Desktop application, although it does prevent you from using Palm Desktop during synchronization. Note Keep in mind that you aren't required to synchronize your device with a desktop computer if you don't want to, in which case you can forgo using both Palm Desktop and Outlook. Just know that you won't be able to install applications to your device via your desktop computer, which is a significant limitation.
The Palm Desktop application acts in many ways like a PIM, such as Microsoft Outlook, except that it's geared toward managing data for your Treo device. If you don't use Microsoft Outlook or another popular PIM that you can get a conduit for, you'll likely want to use Palm Desktop. If you regularly use Microsoft Outlook, configuring the Palm Desktop software so that PIM data is synchronized with Outlook rather than the Palm Desktop application is a good idea. Although you must declare Palm Desktop or Outlook as your PIM synchronization choice when initially setting up the Palm Desktop software, you can change between the two later without too much trouble; see "Fine-Tune HotSync Manager" a little later in this chapter. The palmOne Quick Install application is used to install applications and files to your Treo device from your desktop computer. The act of installing an application or file is technically part of the synchronization process that HotSync Manager carries out, but specifying which applications and files to install is delegated to palmOne Quick Install. In other words, if you want to install a new application from your desktop computer to your Treo, you must first specify that you want to install the application via palmOne Quick Install; double-clicking an application file on your desktop computer is all it takes to prep the application for installation with palmOne Quick Install. The application is then queued up and ready for installation, which doesn't actually occur until you synchronize your device with the desktop computer. |