Handheld devices supported
If you're going to take advantage of this cross-platform technology, it would help to know what computers are supported by SyncTalk. Here are the specs on the fully functional SyncTalk Professional version.

SyncTalk works with the following operating systems:

• Palm OS version 3.0 or higher;
• Windows CE 2.0 or higher, including support for the Pocket PC generation;
• Psion EPOC on Series 5 or higher.

Depending on the device you're using it on, SyncTalk requires substantially different memory requirements. On your Palm device, SyncTalk will use up about 120K. On Windows CE devices, SyncTalk uses 100K. Note that SyncTalk can't be run from Compact Flash cards and is also available for the AutoPC (here it requires 40K). On EPOC-based machines, SyncTalk takes a bit more memory, requiring 200K to get going.

Installation
Installation from the CD-ROM that SoDeog provided was a bit confusing. If you're used to jumping right in, installing and playing with a new application without reading any documentation, you may find yourself scratching your head like I did. I must have selected the "Palm OS Installation" option from the PC desktop installation splash screen six times in a row before I realized that the folks at SoDeog really did expect me to peruse that ReadMe file which insisted on popping up each time. It advised me to simply browse the CD folders for the Palm version and double-click on the file in order to install it on my device. Things went much smoother after I did my reading.

Of course, the fun of having a useful application like this is trying it out. It didn't take too much prodding to get my office neighbor, Greg, to install the application on his Casio E-105 running Windows CE 2.11. He was up and running in no time. Greg and I played around with SyncTalk Professional putting it through its paces. It's a lean, no-frills application and is relatively straightforward to use after an initial trial or two. Most importantly, it worked. We were both pleased to finally have a workable, if a bit clumsy, means of getting our information back and forth. Hey, we couldn't do this before!

If you work with colleagues or clients who use differently branded personal digital assistants and you've ever wanted to share contact, appointment, or memo information with them, SyncTalk should find a cozy home on your handheld.

Putting it into practice
I'll give you a run down on the step-by-step use of the product. In order to beam information to another device, you must make sure that both devices have SyncTalk installed and that it is a running application. This means on the Palm OS, the application must be started and visible on the screen. Windows CE, with its multitasking abilities, can allow the application to be running in the background.

On your Palm device, first launch SyncTalk. Once the program is running, the first thing to do is set-up the program for the time zone in which you live by selecting Set Time Zone from the Options menu, as seen in Figure A.