FIGURE G


For PC desktops and Macintoshes, TRG highly recommends Microtech's CameraMate, which has a high-speed USB interface and is compatible with the IBM Microdrive Roll over picture for a larger image.

In addition to the Microtech CameraMate and various different sizes of CF memory cards with PC Card adapters, D-Store also sells Simple Technology, Inc.'s USB CF reader, shown in Figure H, for $60. This is a great deal if you want to save a few bucks and only plan to read and write to CF memory from your PC or Macintosh.

FIGURE H

Simple Technology's USB CF reader is a great deal at $60 if you want to save a few bucks and only plan to read and write to CF memory from your PC or Macintosh.

While the Microtech CameraMate and the Simple Technolgy USB CF reader, as well as some of the other readers mentioned, may seem similar, they're actually quite different. The CameraMate has two drive slots on it, one for CompactFlash, the other for Smart Media. Both CF and Smart Media are used by digital cameras -- so if you own a TRGpro and a digital camera that uses Smart Media (like the Olympus D-340L that I own), you're in good shape. CameraMate is also rated for the IBM Microdrive while the Simple unit is not, and the CameraMate has a faster data transfer rate. The Simple Technology reader and the SanDisk readers only have CF slots.

Using the TRGpro utilities
Once you've gotten your applications and data files moved onto your CF card and you've popped the card back into your TRGpro, you'll want to be able to access those programs and data. Here's where things get tricky.

Because CompactFlash is a different kind of memory than PalmOS is designed to access (that being RAM and read-only Flash), TRG had to design extensions to PalmOS for reading and accessing data stored on CF cards using its special FAT file system. If you're a software developer, TRG has provided a set of APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) that you can download as a development kit from their Web site. You can then use these to build the proper hooks into your application to directly access programs and databases stored on CF memory.

Actual Software's upcoming Multimail Pro 3.1, for example, will have the ability to store file attachments in CF. But if you're an end user and your Palm application doesn't support CF, you'll have to transfer it into RAM. Essentially, without the TRG CF hooks programmed into a PalmOS application, CompactFlash is used as an archival device for storing lots of PalmOS files. You can't execute programs from CF.

Without coding an application to specifically take advantage of the "hooks" your TRGpro fastens into the CF slot (which supports the FAT file system), all you can do is archive data and programs to the CF storage. You can also move the data piecemeal back and forth to PalmOS's user RAM using TRG's CFpro utility whenever you want to directly access it.

However, you're only able to directly access up to 8MB of RAM at a time on the TRG using PalmOS's native memory model. So even if you have 340MB of storage on an IBM Microdrive installed in your unit, you have to move some of that data and programs into RAM if you want to be able to use it. The TRGpro gets around this with its API "hooks" but again, if your application isn't written to see the CF slot, it won't.