Judie’s Gear Diary – 2004-07-30

In my opinion, you can't do much better than the
Tapwave Zodiac2 when looking for a
Palm OS device with every bell and whistle – other than built in WiFi. There is
one area where Tapwave really dropped the ball however, and that was by not
including software for Outlook synchronization.
For some time I just used Palm Desktop and pacified myself with statements like,
“Look how nicely it integrates the icons for Documents to Go and HanDBase.” 
But the truth of the matter is that I really missed using Outlook as my
Personal Information Manager (PIM). I knew I had to figure out a better solution
when I tried to access a contact on my Palm one day and found that only her work
address had synced – but what I needed was her home! Of course, I had all this
info in Outlook – but it did not show in Palm Desktop or in Address.
In the past, I had used Key Contacts, a
Chapura product that solved
this exact dilemma by replacing the Address application on my Palm. However,
without being able to synchronize my Zod to Outlook, the program was of no help.

Well, once again, Chapura has come to my rescue. They have an
excellent Outlook to Palm synchronization program called
Pocket Mirror Standard
that allows me to transfer all of my PIM information between the Zod and
Outlook. Of course, there is still the problem of what information will or will
not show on my Palm when using the built in PIM applications. To remedy this
problem, they make a program called
Key Suite which integrates
my old favorite Key Contacts with vastly improved replacements for
Date Book,
Contacts,
Tasks and
Notes. It also adds a
Today screen, which
displays relevant daily information in one location.

Key Suite is the next best thing to putting Outlook's PIMs on your Palm. If
you don't use Outlook, you won't need it – but if you do, this is a must have!