04-05-2004, 06:00 PM
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Contributing Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Jun 2003
Posts: 1,350
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Sync Different: PocketMac Pro 3.0 Reviewed
Product Category: Software; Apple Mac OS X synchronization
Manufacturer: PocketMac
Where to Buy: PocketMac
Price: $ 41.77 USD
System Requirements: Pocket PC: USB cradle or cable, 200 K of available storage space; Mac: OS X 10.2.6/10.3 Panther, 1 available USB slot (or Bluetooth capabilities), 4 MB of available disk space, Entourage/iCal/Address Book/etc. for sync features (PocketMac Pro 3.x can be installed on up to 2 Macs)
Pros:- Mac OS X synchronization;
- Microsoft Entourage synchronization;
- A lot of functionality.
Cons:- Initial synchronization is slow;
- File synchronization is slow;
- Mobile picture resizing needs some fine tuning;
- Couldn't get PocketMac Mobile Bookmarks to sync.
Summary:
PocketMac Pro 3.0 has a wide range of options, works without any major flaws, and gives you the opportunity to sync your Pocket PC to your Mac OS X machine, even if you use Microsoft Entourage.
Read on for the full review!
Setting Up Synchronization
PocketMac Pro 3.0 comes as an installer which places shortcuts on your desktop, and adds information to some of your programs, including iSync, iPhoto and iTunes. The program requires you to reboot your Mac, and then opens up the preferences screen where you can set the way you want the different items on your Mac to sync with your Pocket PC.
Figure 1: Walk through each of the tabs, and set up all the sync options you want. As you can see there's even a Storage Card sync option included. Click on the image to see it in its original size.
Set your preferences (don't forget to set the conflict preferences in the Advanced tab - in case of a conflict the Pocket PC or the Mac overrules the other), hook up your Pocket PC, and sync!
Figure 2: PocketMac synchronization is enabled through the famous iSync interface. With this program, you get to sync all your syncable items (in my case a SonyEricsson T610 mobile phone, an iPod and my Pocket PC in one run). Click on the image to view it in its original size.
In the following section, we'll take a closer look at:- PIM Synchronization;
- iPhoto and iTunes Synchronization;
- File Synchronization;
- Web Synchronization;
- Other Features.
Personal Information Management
The most important feature of a Pocket PC for many people is Personal Information Management, the mix of your calendar, contacts, tasks and notes. For me, integration of my Pocket PC with my PIM-program of choice on the desktop is very important. This was the main reason why I replaced my dayplanner with a Pocket PC.
Mac OS X comes with some pretty cool PIM apps (iCal, Address, Mail), but still I use Microsoft Entourage for all my PIM activities. It has some strange notions (like the inability to create PIM database containers as a backup, such as Outlook .pst files), but I keep returning to Entourage because I'm used to having all my PIM info integrated in one program. So you can imagine that I was very happy to learn that PocketMac Pro 3.0 supports Entourage synchronization.
Figure 3: In the preference pane you get to select the program you want to sync with, and select the range of "old" information you want to sync. Click on the image to view it in its original size.
All my information synchronized without any hiccups. My only complaint is that the first synchronization was a little slow compared to the speed of an initial Activesync on my Windows desktop. Subsequent syncs of my PIM info were a lot faster though, so this shouldn't be too much of a nuisance.
Music and Photos, your iMedia
PocketMac Pro 3.0 enables you to synchronize music and photos to your Pocket PC as well. And this is one point where you can do more with your Mac sync tool than with Activesync: you get to select a storage card to synchronize to! Especially for those big media files, this is a huge plus!
Figure 4: You get to choose what to sync, where to sync it to, and for photos if you want to resize your mobile photos. Click on the image to view it in its original size.
In iPhoto and iTunes PocketMac Pro 3.0 creates an Album and a Playlist. You setup the items you want to sync by dragging them to these collections. For your music you'll be asked if you want to copy over "large files", and if you agree they'll be copied over.
Figure 5: Copying your music to your Pocket PC. Click on the image to view it in its original size.
As far as I can see, this isn't done overly well. Considering that each time I synchronized, the same files would be copied over, even if they already existed in the target folder on the Pocket PC. Since file synchronization is pretty slow (more on that later), this can be quite a nuisance. Especially since the question of whether I really wanted to sync those large files over kept popping up, waiting for me to click a button. In the end I just copied over my music manually.
For your photos, if you have selected to resize the mobile version of your images, they'll be automatically resized. On my Pocket PC (a Compaq iPAQ 3870) they ended up a little smaller than full screen. I would have preferred a 320x240 size, or the option of specifying the size of the mobile version of the images.
File Synchronization
In order to transfer files to and from your Pocket PC, you can select a folder for synchronization (see Figure 1 above), and on the next synchronization all files from that folder will be synchronized to your Pocket PC. File synchronization is a bit slow though. In my experiences with PocketMac Pro 3.0, the PIM information was synchronized pretty fast after the initial sync. If I had selected File Synchronization I would have had to wait quite some time before synchronization would be finished. But in itself, synchronization of files did work without a glitch.
In copying over a single file, I didn't bother using File Synchronization. PocketMac Pro 3.0 will mount your Pocket PC to your Mac, so you might just as well drag and drop using Finder.
Figure 6: View the files on your Pocket PC using the Mac Finder. Click on the image to view it in its original size.
Web Synchronization Options
PocketMac Pro 3.0 gives you a choice of offline Web browsing. There are built in PocketMac Mobile Bookmarks, there's Mazingo (although that should be past tense), and there's Avantgo.
Figure 7: Set up your favorite offline Web browsing method. Click on the image to view it in its original size.
I couldn't manage to get the PocketMac Mobile Bookmarks to sync the Pocket PC Thoughts front page to my Pocket PC. It did sync over quite a few other sites, but in the end the sync plug-in would mysteriously shut down. And if it can't do Pocket PC Thoughts, well... Happily my old Avantgo setup worked fine, so I still could have my share of offline Web browsing.
Other Features
As if all this synchronization wasn't enough, PocketMac Pro 3.0 comes with additional bonus software as well. Pocket Word and Pocket Excel file readers, and a pretty cool Pocket Mac theme which makes your Pocket PC look like it's running OS X.
Figure 8: The Pocket Mac Bonus Software folder. Click on the image to view it in its original size.
One of the main things Mac users will enjoy is the .cab extractor. As many developers for the Pocket PC offer their software in Windows .exe installers, Mac users without Virtual PC might have a problem getting to their installation files. Note to developers: please offer .cab installation files, not just for Mac users, but also for those with just a Pocket PC to get to your software! But as long as there's still software out there without a .cab installation file, you might have some luck with the Pocket Mac Cab Extractor.
Figure 9: It's a bit of a trial and error thing, but if there's a .cab file to be found within an .exe file, this might be all you need. Click on the image to view it in its original size.
Additional Programs You Can Get at PocketMac
You still want more? PocketMac didn't just stop at your sync application. Even if you want to do a full backup, PocketMac has something for you. You can get PocketMac Backup for $17.33.
Figure 10: Select the items you want, and back them up in case you ever need to restore your Pocket PC. Click on the image to view it in its original size.
Still not enough? Feeling envious of the Windows users with their theme creation tools? Again PocketMac comes to the rescue. You can get your PocketMac Theme Creator for $19.33.
Figure 11: Give your Pocket PC a makeover. Straight from your Mac. Click on the image to view it in its original size.
This program is pretty basic. Having played with other commercial theme creators, I do miss having control over the transparency of my images in this program. I also miss having the ability to select different Today Screen and Start Menu images and having the ability to control every item (like start menu text color) Windows Mobile 2003 lets me control. Although the PocketMac Theme Creator doesn't allow you to control as many items as Kamware's ThemeMaker 2003 for Windows does, it sure beats having nothing.
Conclusions
PocketMac Pro 3.0 gives you the chance to sync your Pocket PC with your Apple running Mac OS X. It does everything it should, and although some features might need some fine tuning, with a program like this, synchronization issues are no longer a reason why Mac OS X users shouldn't use Pocket PCs, even if they use Microsoft Entourage.
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04-05-2004, 06:04 PM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Mar 2004
Posts: 1,055
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I agree Marlof... PocketMac has a lot of potentially useful features, but a lot of them feel incomplete. However, it does well fulfilling its primary purpose, which is syncing the PocketPC with the Mac PIM apps.
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04-05-2004, 06:53 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 67
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The problem with Pocket mac and Missing Sync is that they don't work with existing conduits like Pocket Quicken. Not their fault but it sure would be nice to have. Sine Palm foolishly said they will no longer support Palm/Mac Syncing this means alot more Mac users may start using Pocket PC's instead. If you have to buy Sync software for Palm you might as well buy it for Pocket PC.
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04-05-2004, 07:13 PM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Aug 2003
Posts: 1,185
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I'll chime in with my 2 cents. I love this program and am far (FAR) happier with it than I've ever been with ActiveSync--and my complaints about AS were pretty minor.
It's a great program and leaves me wanting for nothing. I will admit half of my appreciation for the program comes from knowing I was able to "switch" without ditching my PPC.
Given this is only a couple of generations deep into their product, I'm certain this program will only get stronger over time.
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04-05-2004, 08:34 PM
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Philosopher
Join Date: Apr 2004
Posts: 545
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Missing Sync
I love missing sync. It's what I went with for now. My only issue now is when I sync with my XP machine, I get 6 unresolved errors. All I really sync with my PC for is so my other apps like Worldmate get updated (verison of worldmate I have does not sync over WiFi unless going through activestink). Two things I wish would change about Pocket PC apps.....first, separate the music syncing and internet syncing on DME. Why can the PPC download Digital Media Edition channels directly??? The other is files don't seemed to sync on the Mac with Missing Sync (unless I am missing hte folder that holds them). This really isn't a big deal with me because I can always backup the PPC on a SD card, then copy that file to the Mac using finder. That pretty much accoplishes what I want....a way to have a backup copy of these files and to also prevent the PPC from loosing it's marbles. I REALLY REALLY hope Microsoft and Apple start working together to make PPC's work better with iCal/iSync as it seems Palm doesn't want a Mac User's money either. As for Entourage....it's a nice enough app, but iCal is so much cooler with the fact I can download things like sports schedules and other schedules right into it .
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04-05-2004, 09:38 PM
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Neophyte
Join Date: Apr 2004
Posts: 8
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I've been thinking about switching over to Mac for my next computer purchase, and am really glad to hear that this software is available. There are also educational discounts available for poor college students such as myself on their webpage.
Hey guys, do any of you have any thoughts about switching back to Windows? Any regrets for switching? I've been drooling over the new Powerbooks, but I'm thinking I'm going to hold out until the G5's are ported over to the Powerbooks. OSX looks like the kind of operating system I need, a cool UNIX crossbreed. I do a lot of technical/engineering programming that requires a UNIX workstation, and OSX seems like a natural switch. My 4 year Dell warranty runs out in January...
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04-05-2004, 10:10 PM
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5000+ Posts? I Should OWN This Site!
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 5,616
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Re: Sync Different: PocketMac Pro 3.0 Reviewed
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Originally Posted by Marlof Bregonje
As if all this synchronization wasn't enough, PocketMac Pro 3.0 comes with... a pretty cool Pocket Mac theme which makes your Pocket PC look like it's running OS X.
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Where's the screenshot of that? 
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04-05-2004, 11:42 PM
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Contributing Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Jun 2003
Posts: 1,350
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Re: Missing Sync
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Originally Posted by gorkon280
I love missing sync.
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Yeah, that one is cool too. But that's'not what this review was about.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by gorkon280
As for Entourage....it's a nice enough app, but iCal is so much cooler with the fact I can download things like sports schedules and other schedules right into it .
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I never got used to the way iCal worked. Next to that, I think it's a little bit overdesigned. Too many blinky colors to my taste. It's the only Apple app of which I don't like the looks. I guess to each his own. Having the ability to choose is great, isn't it?
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04-05-2004, 11:47 PM
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Contributing Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Jun 2003
Posts: 1,350
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by hoyboy9
I've been thinking about switching over to Mac for my next computer purchase, and am really glad to hear that this software is available. There are also educational discounts available for poor college students such as myself on their webpage.
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And you might as well get a Mac with a college discount as well.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by hoyboy9
Hey guys, do any of you have any thoughts about switching back to Windows? Any regrets for switching? I've been drooling over the new Powerbooks, but I'm thinking I'm going to hold out until the G5's are ported over to the Powerbooks.
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No. I never had any regrets. But then again I didn't make a full time switch, I only use an iBook next to my WinXP desktop. I kinda like both OSes, and wouldn't like to loose one. But everything I do on my WinXP desktop I could do on my iBook. And vice versa. In my opinion, if you're open minded, and are willing to deal with the quirks that will come with any OS, you'd be happy with either OS. And that PowerBook is the best designed notebook I've ever seen! Something to really drool over. I'd say: go for it!
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04-05-2004, 11:49 PM
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Contributing Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Jun 2003
Posts: 1,350
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Re: Sync Different: PocketMac Pro 3.0 Reviewed
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Originally Posted by ctmagnus
Where's the screenshot of that? |
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Linear Mode
