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.

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.