Did you know you can use Palm Desktop with your Android phone?

There was a time, not so long ago, that I was a dedicated Palm user. Heck, I started PalmPower Magazine, way back in 1997. I livedoff my Palm device, from the very earliest PalmPilot to my once beloved Treo phone.

See also: Why old people still like their PDAs

Through it all was Palm Desktop. Palm Desktop was the desktop application that made using the Palm devices so smooth. All it had was an address book, calendar, to-do list, and note/memo fields, but it was so much easier entering data using a full-sized keyboard on the Palm Desktop, and knowing that once I pushed the Sync button, it would be with me, everywhere.

The last version of Palm Desktop was updated about four years ago. Palm stopped selling Palm OS devices around 2008-2009, with the introduction of the Tungsten TX, Treo 680, and small Centro phone marking the final generation.

As we all know from recent history, Palm decided to move to a completely new operating system, webOS, taking none of its ecosystem or thousands of enthusiastic developers with it. Shortly later, HP bought Palm for an all-cash $1.2 billion deal, and shortly after that, HP proceeded to take all things Palm out back of the barn, and shoot it dead.

See also: Palm, a Silicon Valley soap opera

It was a bizarre ending for what was once the most successful mobile product out there.

Interestingly enough, there are still lots of people out there nursing along their old Palm devices and Palm Desktop copies, trying to get a few more months out of them before having to face the inevitable migration to a new environment.

I know people who had Palm devices that died, and they've scoured eBay for replacements, or just run with all their data on a badly limping copy of Palm Desktop.

Don't scoff. Palm Desktop was brilliant and fit millions of people's working styles perfectly.

Now, up until recently, I've been telling people they'd have to move to a new environment, whether it's Outlook, Gmail, or even the Apple infrastructure, because there's just no Palm solution.

But now there is. Thanks to reader Kevin Smith (I know!), I've been made aware of a piece of software from CompanionLink called CompanionLink for Palm Desktop. This $49 piece of software provides a sync conduit (remember conduits?) from your copy of Palm Desktop to your Android phone.

UPDATE: Read the comments before you buy this software. Some readers have complained about challenges using it. I haven't used it, so do your research first.

Yep, you can -- essentially -- turn your Android phone into a Palm device, at least when it comes to the Big Four. They sync most of the Big Four data you'd like to sync.

So if you're converting from Palm to say, the Google ecosystem with Android, or you just want to eek out a few more years of Palm Desktop on that one remaining XP machine you've got (or you're running a virtual XP on your Windows 7 or Windows 8 box), now you've got the answer.

Good luck. And may the sync be with you.

Screenshot courtesy CompanionLink.