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PRODUCT
REVIEW
Cradle
Robber keeps thieves at bay
By Chris Phillips
As the use of Palm
devices continues to increase, I suppose it's only natural that thieves
will make their presence felt by attempting to steal them. Those of you
who use Palm devices with sealed, rechargeable batteries are even more at
risk of theft because you have to leave your Palm devices in their cradles
for certain periods of time so the batteries can charge. If you're like
me, you step away from your desk several times throughout the day, leaving
your Palm device unattended in its cradle, occasionally for long periods
of time. Obviously this presents a thief with the perfect opportunity to
simply pick up your beloved Palm device and walk away.
Your first line of
defense
It's for this very reason that Cradle Robber (at http://www.dentonsoftware.com/)
was developed. There are many applications available to keep the data on
your Palm device safe, but Cradle Robber is the only application I know of
designed to keep the physical device from getting stolen. At this time,
Cradle Robber only works with the Palm V, Palm Vx, and Palm IIIc, the Palm
products with sealed batteries. The manual is very clear that this product
should not be used with a Palm unit with removable batteries. The product
hasn't been tested on Sony or Handspring devices either, so use it with
those products at your own risk. I've recently learned, however, that
version 1.3 of Cradle Robber will support Handspring's Visor Prism as
well.
How does it
work?
Cradle Robber works by activating a process that runs
in the background at all times. When you set your Palm device in its
cradle to recharge, the alarm automatically activates. When the Palm unit
is removed from the cradle, the program will wait four seconds and then
sound an audible alarm and disable all the buttons. The alarm can only be
turned off by entering an unlock code via a numeric keypad on the screen
or by returning the Palm device to its cradle. If the Palm unit isn't
returned to its cradle or deactivated by entering the unlock code, the
alarm will continue to sound until the battery is so low that the Palm
device automatically turns off. Also, you can't perform a hard or soft
reset while the alarm is going off.
Installation and
configuration
Installation of Cradle Robber is performed in
the traditional manner by adding CradleRobber.prc to the Palm Install Tool
and then performing a HotSync.
Once installed, tap on the cute Cradle Robber icon, pictured in Figure
A.
FIGURE
A
Tap on the Cradle Robber icon to begin.
You'll be presented with the 1st Time Setup screen, pictured in Figure
B.
FIGURE
B
Take note of this caution.
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