Conduit news
The new Macintosh desktop software is so good, you might not even care about what is really more significant news from Palm: the company has finally written a universal conduit for the Macintosh.

A conduit is a small software widget that serves as a translator between the PalmPilot and the programs already on your desktop computer. Windows users have enjoyed a PalmPilot conduit for years -- it's the software doodad that explains why Windows users can choose from such a wide variety of Rolodex/calendar programs to synchronize with their PalmPilots. Windows users were never stuck using what 3Com provided in the package (the Palm Desktop software); they could continue using whichever calendar or contact-management software they had always used. For the first time, this option will be available to Mac fans as well.

Within days of 3Com's announcement, dozens of companies announced that they would be modifying their products to take advantage of the new Macintosh conduit. For example, if you're still pining away for Now Up-to-date and Now Contact, forget it. Now Synchronize, that crude simulation of a PalmPilot conduit, never worked properly. Qualcomm (who bought Now Up-to-date and Now Contact with a promise to integrate and update them) chose not to include PalmPilot connectivity in its revamped software, now known as Eudora Planner. Instead, consider the new, highly regarded Chronos Consultant. It's fast, its integrated, and it offers PalmPilot connectivity today -- the first significant Rolodex/calendar program for the Mac to take advantage of the new PalmPilot conduit.

But the beauty of a conduit, of course, is that it opens possibilities that go far beyond addresses and appointments. For example, programmer Rob Tsuk is developing a link between FileMaker, the Mac's leading database program, and JFile, a leading database program for the Palm Organizer. (In fact, he's looking for testers as he finishes up his conduit. If you're interested, visit http://www.tsuk.com/fmc/alpha.html.)

iMac potential
And then there's the iMac, Apple's one-piece, high-speed, low-cost, smash hit Macintosh model. The iMac is so popular that analysts expect Apple to sell 900,000 of them by the end of the year -- and the iMac was only introduced in August. The iMac doesn't have standard Macintosh serial ports (it uses something called Universal Serial Bus, or USB, instead) -- so how will it connect to 3Com's own one-piece, high-speed, low-cost smash hit?

Rumors abound. At the July Macworld Expo in New York, for example, Apple Chairman Steve Jobs showed a photograph of a new HotSync cradle with a USB connector at the end -- perfect for the iMac. Trouble is, 3Com says that that announcement was premature -- no such device exists. On the other hand, both the iMac and the PalmPilot have infrared ports. Surely it wouldn't be a major effort for 3Com or some enterprising software programmer to write code that would permit wireless HotSyncing with the iMac -- an arrangement that would not only be inexpensive and convenient, but pretty damn cool as well.