Mark/Space Releases Missing Sync 2.5, Including WM5 Support

[Janak Parekh]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.markspace.com/missingsync_windowsmobile.php' target='_blank'>http://www.markspace.com/missingsyn...ndowsmobile.php</a><br /><br /></div>Mac WM5 Pocket PC owners, rejoice! Mark/Space <i>finally</i> released an update to their popular Missing Sync product, version 2.5, yesterday. In addition to WM5 support, Missing Sync 2.5 is Universal Binary and contains many bugfixes. It's a free upgrade for 2.0 users, there's upgrade pricing for 1.x users, and costs $39.95 for new users.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/parekh-20060720-MissingSync2.5.gif" /><br /><br />A mini-review: I successfully installed it on my Mac; if you had 2.0 on the machine, it accepts the registration code without further question. MS 2.5 does support both Bluetooth and USB connections to WM5 devices. The first thing it does is to install a little helper application (around 100K) on your device; after that, the process is largely similar to 2.0, although the user interface has a few nice tweaks. I successfully synced iCal and Address Book, although I would <b>strongly</b> recommend backing up any desktop data first before syncing for the first time (iCal and AB, in particular, have easy backup options in the File menu). Entourage is also supported, but I don't use it regularly, and haven't tried syncing it. The only major quirk I experienced is that Missing Sync seems to get confused if you have a data connection while trying to sync (I was syncing over BT, not sure about USB); after disconnecting from the wireless data connection, I had no trouble syncing all my data to my Treo 700w.

[Russ]

I've been using the previous version of Missing Sync and this one since the early Alpha / Betas and can only say it works very well indeed. Here are just a few of my commnets about WM 5 / Missing Sync / Mac

Yep, backup your data!

You can of course mount your Pocket PC as a folder on your desktop and use that to copy stuff to and fro. You could automate this with Automator or AppleScript or perhaps use a third party product like ChronoSync http://www.econtechnologies.com/site/Pages/ChronoSync/chrono_overview.html to do proper synchronisation - although I havn't tried this myself.?

I also download all my daily news, tv guide and other stuff straight from my web server using a little bit of iSiloX http://www.isilox.com/ to collect the data, a little bit of Automator, Transit (ftp) and iCal to get it and automatically copy it to my device if I'm connected. (I should probably re-do this as straight ftp and cp in a chrono job.) I also put links to the downloads on a web page on my server to use when I'm out and about. Oh and of course the iSilo reader http://www.isilo.com/ to read it. (You can just use the iSilo Mac client to do this - but I wanted it when I'm out and about as well.)

I also use pSyncX http://psyncx.sourceforge.net/ for backup of the device to my Mac and SyncTunes http://www.nesfield.co.uk/synctunes/ for getting music onto it. (Probably best to use a USB 2.0 card reader for this - depending on the volume of music you are copying.)

I hope this helps other folk in the same boat and it is, of course, mostly made possible by Missing Sync - so pretty funky for all Mac users with Pocket PC's ... pity that WM5 is such a dog...

Russ

P.S. Seems best to me to only sync when required and not on every connection - up to you I guess though.

[bvkeen]

Janak, thanks much for posting. For the past two weeks I have been strongly mulling over getting an iMac, and this brings me one step closer to doing it. And, Russ, thank you for the good tips. I am also an iSilo user and I was afraid that it might not work on a Mac (hadn't researched it but suspected it) ... good to know it's one of many things that's easy to swap over.

[Jonathan1]

No demo of the software. . . .I am not pleased. :( :roll:

No manufacturer should ever be allowed to sell software without a demo\trial version. I'll have to wait now until I can pirate this to try it out before I buy it. Most likely it will run perfectly fine on my MBP. But this being my first Mac I want to see how it runs before I drop $40.

[marsonist]

It is a shame that they don't offer a demo. Buying something sight unseen is a bit unnerving. That being said I purchased this program back in the 2.0 days and can't imagine owning a Mac and Pocket PC without it. The company is very responsive and I would be surprised if they wouldn't in some way be able to refund money if you weren't satisfied.

[Janak Parekh]

No demo of the software. . . .I am not pleased. :( :roll:
Please consider sending them feedback about it. I decided to take the risk and was happy with the result, but I can understand your situation as well.

--janak

[igreen]

Anyone using this program on a Apple portable? I bought 2.5 and installed it on my Powerbook G4. It syncs fine, but it hoses up the sleep mode of the unit. When I close the lid of the Powerbook it starts to go to sleep. The breathing LED pulses for a few seconds then goes out. I open up the Powerbook and the unit is dead, it won't wake up. I have to restart the notebook. Sleep mode works great until Missing Sync is installed.

[Mark Kenepp]

Anyone using this program on a Apple portable? I bought 2.5 and installed it on my Powerbook G4. It syncs fine, but it hoses up the sleep mode of the unit. When I close the lid of the Powerbook it starts to go to sleep. The breathing LED pulses for a few seconds then goes out. I open up the Powerbook and the unit is dead, it won't wake up. I have to restart the notebook. Sleep mode works great until Missing Sync is installed.

I don't have it installed on a portable and I have not seen how it effects my sleep mode but I do have a suggestion of something to try.

Do you have multiple user accounts set up on your Powerbook?

If you do, log on using a different user than the one where Missing Sync was installed and see if the problem persists with that user.

You could even try to set up a new user and see if your sleep problem manifests itself with the new user.

When I first installed Missing Sync on my iMac last week, it completely hosed my Airport connection (among other things). I found that the Airport worked fine when logged on as another user. I also found that if I installed Missing Sync while logged on with these other user accounts, the problem did not arise.

This is not the first time I had problems with programs on my iMac which were ultimately resolved by switching user accounts.

Mark/Space support suggested that I just repair permissions on my drive but that did not help any but it did lead me to look into the possibility that the problem was only with the one user account.

[igreen]

I think that would probably work fine. I don't have Missing Sync set to load at login. So the program is installed on the system but not running. The problem does not occur until I run Missing Sync. And unfortunately there is no option to have Missing Sync stop running once it is loaded. Only a reboot will stop the thing.[/i]

[Mark Kenepp]

I think that would probably work fine. I don't have Missing Sync set to load at login. So the program is installed on the system but not running. The problem does not occur until I run Missing Sync. And unfortunately there is no option to have Missing Sync stop running once it is loaded. Only a reboot will stop the thing.[/i]

I tried removing the startup program as well at first, and just like you, the problem would resurface once I started Missing Sync and would then only be resolved by a reboot.

I don't understand why but since I installed it through another user account (and use it in my normal account), the problem has not repeated. Granted, that was only last night so I have not used it any yet today.

You are making me nervous. I hope it is still working okay when I return home.

[Janak Parekh]

Anyone using this program on a Apple portable? I bought 2.5 and installed it on my Powerbook G4. It syncs fine, but it hoses up the sleep mode of the unit. When I close the lid of the Powerbook it starts to go to sleep. The breathing LED pulses for a few seconds then goes out. I open up the Powerbook and the unit is dead, it won't wake up. I have to restart the notebook. Sleep mode works great until Missing Sync is installed.
Nope, I had no power issues whatsoever with 2.0, 2.5 beta, nor 2.5, and I'm using Missing Sync on a 1.67GHz G4 Powerbook. I also am using only one user account. Contact Mark/Space and see if they can lend you a hand. Maybe it's an interaction problem with some other app you have installed?

Random thought: when you put the notebook to sleep, do you have USB devices connected? Maybe the Pocket PC is waking the G4 (which indeed can be woken up via USB)?

--janak