TimeCopy is a great little application for Palm devices that will synchronize the time and date on your handheld with the time and date on your desktop computer. And if you're anywhere near as anal retentive as me, you might also use a desktop application to make sure the desktop is synchronized with the National Atomic Clock. Yes, I really am that anal. Every one of the clocks in my house is set to the same time, within thirty seconds of all the others. With TimeCopy, my Palm device is one less clock I have to worry about.

TimeCopy will work on any Palm OS and will work with Windows or Mac. As you can see from the opening screen in Figure A, TimeCopy will show you how much your Palm device is drifting, what the time and date was set to on the last Hotsync, and when the last adjustment was.

FIGURE A

TimeCopy will keep track of adjustments and time drift. Click picture for a larger image.

From the Preferences screen, shown in Figure B, you can set how and what will be updated when you HotSync.

FIGURE B

You can customize how and what TimeCopy updates. Click picture for a larger image.

The time can be set to update Automatically or Manually. You can choose to have TimeCopy update just the local time, or to update the Time, Time Zone and Daylight Savings Time. You can also choose not to have TimeCopy update the time if it is off by more than an amount determined by you.

TimeCopy is another one of those golden applications that no handheld should be without. To top it off, it's free. The real shame is that after all of the revisions that Palm has made to their OS, this function has never been included. Fortunately, Gert-Jan Vons has filled the void.

TimeCopy is truly an install and forget application. Once it's installed on your Palm device and you have it configured the way you want, you never have to worry about it again. The only occasion you may have to mess with it is to upgrade when a new version comes out, which is as simple as installing the new version over the old. I have seen other applications on the market that synchronize your time, but they have to be purchased.

Any way you look at it, free is better all the way around, especially when it does what it promises. I rate TimeCopy at 4 out of 5. The one and only thing I think could make TimeCopy better is if it had a desktop counterpart that would automatically update to the National Atomic Clock. But then again, that may be asking too much for an excellent application that is free to begin with. TimeCopy from Gert-Jan Vons is a great app that fills a hole left by Palm.

OUR RATING: 4 of 5

James Booth is a self-taught PC and Palm device user that dabbles in graphics and photography. He can be reached at lizardworks@mchsi.com.