pocketnow.com Reviews The Missing Sync for Pocket PC

[marlof]

Currently, I'm testing <a href="http://www.markspace.com/pocketpc.html">the Missing Sync for Pocket PC</a>, a new program by Mark/Space to sync your Pocket PC with Mac OS X. I'll write a review as soon as I can see how this solution holds up in my daily routine. After all syncing once is great, but syncing continuously when items are added and changed on all Pocket PC, Outlook and iApps is even better. So far I can tell you I'm impressed, even if this 1.0 release was known from the start not to be the full blown sync program Mark/Space has in mind for the future.<br /><br />Since no demo is available you might want to be curious what it does or looks like. pocketnow to the rescue: Mike Kurdziel has published <a href="http://pocketnow.com/index.php?a=portal_detail&t=reviews&id=267">a review of the Missing Sync</a>, showing the traditional pocketnow amount of images. Those, and Mike's favorable words, give you a good idea of what the Missing Sync can do for you. So if you're interested in this subject, go read it.

[ExtremeSIMS]

First thing - I used PocketMac's solution for a year. The latest incarnations are faster, and more stable, and I managed to get it to work most times without the pain other users experienced. However, my employer stopped IMAP access without RSA auth, so I dropped Entourage in favor of iCal and AddressBook.app (I already used Mail.app for its spam filtering superiority for personal email; work email is proprietary).

Downloaded and installed Missing Sync as soon as it was released. I thought I had removed all traces of PocketMac, but alas, I had not, and despite one of my Unix gurus and I parsing logs, we both managed to miss the line in /etc/ttys that calls PocketMac in the login window. VERY important if you have PM already installed that you remove this line! I gave up and reinstalled my OS - it was due, anyhow, so not too much pain. At least, that's what I keep telling myself.

Fresh system, install of Missing Sync. Rebooted, slapped my Toshiba e740 (which I had also wiped, since multiple syncs of PocketMac and Entourage had messed up my address book) into the cradle, and Alleluja! it just worked!™ Syncing was a bit slow the first time, but not overly so. Since then, syncing is not overly speedy, but nor is it agonizing.

Since using the software, it makes me really pine for a more robust iCal and AddressBook.app. PocketMac is coming out with new iApp sync hooks, and Missing Sync is coming out with new Entourage hooks later. I like the all-in-one slickness of Entourage, but I am concerned about future development of the app. OTOH, iCal needs a lot more work for it to be fully what I need.

Back to point - Missing Sync works pretty well. I should note that the evening before the MS release, PocketMac called me to thank me for my continued support.
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Check out the Mac Pocket PC forums (http://www.extremesims.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=forum;f=23).

[Pixelnose]

There's been two minor updates to the 1.0 Missing Sync to fix a bug with recurring events and tasks going crazy if you lived outside of Markspace's timezone. ;)

These updates also greatly increased speed for me at least. But itunes won't copy files to Jornada. It just locks up after an 1hour of trying to transfer 3mb.... or maybe I just got impatient.

No matter, I have an ipod anyway, but other than some licensing strangeness that Markspace should officially clear up, it's been great. :)

[Jonathan1]

Thank god some real solutions are finally showing up for the Mac. I'm highly considering a 17" PowerBook next spring (G5 equipped I hope, knock on wood) and my first concern was Pocket PC support. I still haven't read any definitive info on if the Pocket PC works in Virtual PC or not. :-\
My second concern was MapPoint and GPS but that’s another thread.

[bmhome1]

I'm 100% Mac based and use VPC6.0.1 running both 98SE and XP Home with 10.2.6 to Activesync and MS Outlook data to my iPaq 3955 daily. For over eight months straight I've had no Activesyncing problems, better than average for PC users even. I've installed over 50 PPC applications using Activesync from .exe installers downloaded with the Mac's browsers and unzipped with the Mac. My WMA files, WMP videos and MP3's load directly to SD cards using the Mac. I have no use or need for Mac-based syncing. There can't already be any more seamless integration between platforms than that.

Both PocketMac and now, MissingSync only perpetuate the myth that PPC's and Mac's don't mix. MissingSync may add photo access using iPhoto or music access using iTunes, but both are really gimmicks to justify it's existence. Simple dragging and dropping the files to cards is vastly faster and more reliable. Installing applications with both require hunting down .CAB files (good luck finding them for many of the best PPC applications). ROM updates and updating to PPC2003 are out of the question: You need a PC in SOME form.

Additionally, PocketMac suffers from very poor stability and performance issues, and a visit to the MissingSync user forums will reveal that it too suffers from integration issues. For example, syncing to Mac's iSync application seems to then render PC-based Activesyncing less stable for cross-platform users. It still should be considered beta software at best.

http://lists.markspace.com/pipermail/missing-sync-pocketpc-talk/2003-July/thread.html

[marlof]

For example, syncing to Mac's iSync application seems to then render PC-based Activesyncing less stable for cross-platform users.

I don't have these experiences at all. I sync using iSync, iCal and Address Book on the iBook, and Activesync, Outlook 2000 and Exchange Server on the Win98 box at work. The only problem I have is with recurring appointments, and I know that is something Mark/Space is working hard on right now. Hopefully a new beta that will be released soon will fix a few of these cross platfrom difficulties.

In general I should say that Activesyncing with two different machines has lead to problems as well. Heck, Activesyncing with one machine causes problems at times.... Keep three containers of information in sync might be difficult enough as it is, let alone synching containers of information on three different platforms (Windows, Mac, Pocket PC).