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PRODUCT SHOOTOUT
Backup Battle Royale
By James Booth
Whether you're responsible for a multi-national corporate enterprise, or just a home handheld user, the security of your data depends on reliable backups. In this Battle Royale of the Backups, I'll examine three backup utilities for Palm OS handheld devices, comparing features, price, reliability, and ease of use. Which one will be the ultimate champion? Read on to find out.
I'll covering be BackupMan, BackupBuddy, and Fly Backup, all for the Palm platform. I also contacted Pitech, makers of PiBackup II, but they didn't respond. Whether as a result of junk mail filters, personnel changes, or just plain lack of interest I don't know. Fortunately, there are three other products that'll definitely watch your back. So instead of this being a four-way battle, our product shootout will be cutthroat three-way all-out challenge.
BackupMan v1.51
BackupMan, by Bits & Bolts software, is a handheld-only backup application for the Palm OS. I say handheld-only because one of the pieces I'm covering does have a desktop counterpart, but the original intended focus of this piece is "portable" backup solutions.
BackupMan, in Figure A, has been designed for OS 5 devices, but will support OS 3.5 and up that have a VFS enabled expansion slot.
FIGURE A
 
BackupMan from Bits & Bolts is our first contender in the Backup Battle Royale. Roll over picture for a larger image.
It provides the option to schedule fully automated backups, whether the device is on or not. The automation can be set for daily backups triggered to a specific time, hourly backups, or even to backup every time you Hotsync, as you see in Figure B.
FIGURE B
 
BackupMan's scheduling options will suit all your needs, whatever they may be. Roll over picture for a larger image.
You can put multiple backups on a single expansion card as well, provided the card has the space of course. In addition, as Figure C shows, when it comes to restores, you can select individual files, or the kit and caboodle.
FIGURE C
 
With BackupMan, you can restore all at once, or select single files. Roll over picture for a larger image.
BackupMan retails for an even $10 through either Handango or PalmGear. If you'd like to check out BackupMan before you buy, the demo is a fully functioning version, but is limited to 7 days of use.
Registration brings tech support, maintenance, and minor release updates, in addition to update notification. On the site, the policy states that a major version upgrade is only free within sixty days of purchase of a previous version.
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