Two people beaming between their Palm OS devicesThere are days where I SO wish that I was a programmer and today is one of those days. However, I’m not a programmer, so all I can do is make a wish and hope that some smart programmer will come to my rescue, or some other user will know of a program that will solve my problem. So this entry to a desperate cry for help for a solution. Can you help me?

I need two programs that basically do the same thing – beam text to a Palm OS device. One program would be for the PC and the other would be for a Palm OS device. All this program would do is push text to a Palm OS device via InfraRed. It would really just simulate an IR keyboard and retype the text via IR. Sound simple enough right? 🙂 Well, to make things clearer, here’s a user story.

I was writing up an entry for posting today and I ran out of time, so I had to save it for later. Pretty usual stuff for me. I have tons of entries saved on my Dana Wireless because I tend to run out of time, so they’re there for finishing at a later date. What’s great is that I can instantly turn on the device and pick up where I left off. Unfortunately, I didn’t compose the entry on my Dana, I composed it on my laptop.


The Problem
Here’s the problem, the laptop is older and the battery is shot. In order to get access to the entry again and begin typing, I have to find an outlet, boot the laptop, wait for it to load and then open the entry. May not sound like a big deal, but it’s going to take at least 5 minutes to get setup and all and that’s after finding somewhere I can plug in.

Today I was in the downtown area, so that meant having to find a parking place, pay for parking, find a cafe, buy an espresso, and then have to find a table with an outlet. Again, it may not sound like a big deal, but I easily lost a half hour in this scenario. Now what if this happens more than once in a day? I think you see my point. 🙂

The Solution
What would have been great is if I could have simply tapped a “Send” button to have the text sent via IR to my Treo, Dana, Zodiac, or whatever Palm OS device I happened to be using that day. This way my copy is now mobile and I can work with it in a mobile environment. Keep in mind, I’m talking plain text. No formatting, no fonts, nothing special, just p l a i n text.

If you’ve ever used a Dana and the “Send” feature, then you know what I’m talking about. I want the same experience, the only difference being I want to send TO the device, instead of FROM it.

Now you may be thinking, “Why didn’t you save it as a Memo or Doc file and perform a HotSync?” Well, Memos are limited to 4k and I don’t think I have to tell you how easily I can go beyond 4k. 🙂 As for Doc, I don’t have an easy way to save what I’m typing as a Doc file and regardless of how easy it was, I don’t really want to have to preform a HotSync. I just want to push the text and move on. A HotSync could take 5 minutes or more if I haven’t preformed one in some time. I want something fast and easy.

The Second Problem
As I said from the start, what I’m really looking for are two applications. One for Windows and one for Palm OS. Why do I need one for Palm OS? Well, allow me to explain. Let’s say that I’ve typed up an entry in my Dana Wireless, but I find myself in an area with no access to Wi-Fi. How great would it be to be able to “push” that text to my Treo, which has SprintPCS built-in? The Palm OS application would function much the same way as the PC application. The text would be retyped like an InfaRed keyboard directly into the receiving device.

This most often comes up with e-mail. I check my e-mail on my Treo and decide that I need to respond ASAP to a client’s e-mail. Typing with the thumboard is a bit of a pain and since I have the Dana right there, I pick it up and type out my response in MemoPad. Now I can beam the memo to the Treo, but the copy/paste has a limit, so I have to do it piece-by-piece – bouncing from MemoPad back to SnapperMail until I have the text copied and in place. Wouldn’t it just be easier to beam the text in raw format directly into SnapperMail?

A Final Plea
Not being a programmer, the solution to my problem doesn’t seem all that hard, so hopefully someone will read this and say, “Oh that’s a piece of cake” and 5 minutes later, I’ll have a solution. 😛 If we need to trade services, or money, contact me and we can discuss it.

If no programmer decides to be my programming sugar daddy, then my only other hope is that a fellow Palm OS user has come across a solution that I have yet to come across. So if you have any hints or tips, please feel free to post a comment. I could really use your help. 🙂