CFpro, shown in Figure I in the CF mode, is a utility that comes with the TRGpro which allows you to move data back and forth from CF to RAM very quickly.

FIGURE I

CFpro is a utility that comes with the TRGpro which allows you to move data from CF to RAM very quickly.

Got a few Peanut Press ebooks, ISILO databases, or .DOC files you'd like to read on a long plane flight? Just tap the CF button on the bottom of the screen, select the files you want to move or copy over, and hit the Copy button or Move to RAM from the Tools menu.

For those of you who might be curious, ISILO is a program like AportisDOC, but it allows you to have hypertext links in your documents. It's becoming a popular alternative to DOC on sites like MemoWare because it's easier to author to, it uses regular HTML as a source file.

Similarly, to move data from RAM to CompactFlash, as shown in Figure J, just tap the RAM button, select the files, and choose Move to CF from the Tools menu. CFpro also functions as a multimedia player for .WAV files stored on CF, so you can take advantage of the TRGpro's superior audio system. (The TRGpro has a better speaker and a waveform chip similar to that used in Windows CE devices like the Philips Nino. TRG has written sound APIs so that developers can write applications to take advantage of this system . The CFpro program itself is capable of doing this.)

FIGURE J

The CFpro also allows you to move data back from RAM to CF quickly.

CompactFlash is also used as a backup device on the TRGpro. With the built-in CFBackup utility, there's no need to purchase specialized Backup Modules like you need to with Handspring's Visor. And unlike the Visor's Backup Module, the CFBackup, as shown in Figure K, is capable of storing multiple backup sets of the TRGpro's internal 8MB of RAM on a subdirectory of a CF module, so you can save multiple configurations of internal memory with pre-loaded applications and data.

FIGURE K

CFBackup allows you to store multiple backup sets on a CF module.

As if CF storage and backup wasn't enough, the TRGpro is also equipped with 2MB of internal flash memory, which allows you to upgrade the TRGpro to newer versions of Palm OS (the TRGpro is equipped with Palm's latest OS 3.3) and store important, non-volatile information and programs. If you lose battery power, programs and data stored in flash memory are still there. This is a great place to store a backup copy of your AddressDB, for example. To manipulate the internal flash memory, TRG provides FlashPro, seen in Figure L, which works very similarly to CFpro.

FIGURE L

FlashPro is used to store non-volatile data on the TRGpro's internal 2MB of flash memory.

TRG developers unite!
The voluminous storage capacity of the TRGpro clearly makes it the most suitable Palm device for enterprise computing and the corporate power user. However, for TRGpro to become a truly successful handheld platform and the enterprise Palm device of choice, Palm software developers need to write the proper CF hooks into their applications. TRG assures us this isn't a difficult task, at least not for a large software company with multiple PalmOS programmers and a lot of resources.