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View Full Version : PocketMac-Holy Smokes!

bdegroodt
03-13-2004, 11:21 PM
Long story short. I paid my entry fee to Mr. Jobs last night and got me a beautiful 15" PowerBook. Thought for sure it would be the death of my 4355, but I was so very wrong.

By adding PocketMac to the PB, I not only have a perfect (and so far flawless) synchronization going, but I have the ability to sync photos, music, and store all of my files, appointments, contacts and more online, far extending the functionality I had in the PC world. Plus, my T610 is finally and effortlessly in sync with my PPC and PowerBook. The folks over at Information Appliance have done a great job and my first days as a born again Mac user have been made even better by them. Impressive stuff. :D
Zack Mahdavi
03-13-2004, 11:49 PM
Have fun with your new Powerbook! I switched to a Mac about a year and a half ago and never turned back! In fact, I recently bought my second Mac (a 12" Powerbook).

PocketMac is great as well. In my opinion, it works 10 times better than Palm's mac support. I originally thought that I'd be committing suicide by switching from a Palm to a PocketPC for the sake of Mac support. I was wrong.

If you have any questions about your Mac, feel free to PM me. :D
Janak Parekh
03-14-2004, 12:10 AM
It almost sounds like a Mac is a better counterpart to a Pocket PC than, well, a PC. Maybe that'll be enough incentive for MS to fix some of AS's problems...?

--janak
Zack Mahdavi
03-14-2004, 12:21 AM
Haha, maybe... I've never had any ActiveSync problems with my Mac. My Windows XP box is another story...
WyattEarp
03-14-2004, 12:34 AM
Haha, maybe... I've never had any ActiveSync problems with my Mac. My Windows XP box is another story...

Now that's really pathetic. AS works with the Mac OS :? but doesn't get along with the Windows OS it is made for. Microsoft really needs to clean up their act.
Zack Mahdavi
03-14-2004, 12:39 AM
Well, Mac OS X is based on the MachBSD UNIX, which uses a "microkernel." This means that the kernel (operating system) holds only the most essential stuff for communicating with the hardware. Everything else (file system, etc) are treated as processes. Anyone can add something to a kernel by adding a .kext file to a certain folder in Mac OS X. This more modular approach to communicating with hardware makes it easier, in my opinion, for programs like PocketMac to communicate with hardware.
Janak Parekh
03-14-2004, 12:41 AM
This more modular approach to communicating with hardware makes it easier, in my opinion, for programs like PocketMac to communicate with hardware.
Maybe, but I doubt the OS is the source of AS's problems. It's just the fact that AS is an antiquated platform that's evolved for over 6 years now (anyone remember Windows CE Services that used a RAS connection?)

--janak
bdegroodt
03-14-2004, 05:05 AM
I have a complaint or 2 about AS on XP, but in general I thought it was OK (if a little long in the tooth). But seeing what PocketMac has done to expand the capabilities of syncing a PPC, I just can't help to think what MSFT could do with AS if they really dedicated a month to it.

I was trying to explain to a friend about how cool it was and I felt like one of those goofy "switch" commercials. All I could tell him was "it just works!" But it's true. It just works. I'd been watching PocketMac for a bit over a year and I thought for sure it wasn't going to do half of what I needed. In the end I was pleasantly wrong.
Dave Potter
03-14-2004, 05:20 PM
I'm a little unclear - what exactly does PocketMac do that AS does not?
bdegroodt
03-14-2004, 06:12 PM
Not really sure if any of these things are things AS WON'T do, but I think it's more about the fact that I didn't have to waste half a day messing with a program to make it happen like it does.

One thing that really wowed me was the fact that my schedule is now published online, my phone contacts and calendar is perfectly in sync with home, work and PPC, (something I've never been able to do in the past) and I have multiple copies of addresses and calendars all in sync (Entourage & Apple's own PIM tools). I can sync my photo album and music folders, too.

No claim that AS or additional conduits coupled with AS can't do any of these things, but it just went down so easily and like you logically expect things to happen.
Mark Kenepp
03-15-2004, 01:19 AM
One thing that really wowed me was the fact that my schedule is now published online, my phone contacts and calendar is perfectly in sync with home, work and PPC, (something I've never been able to do in the past) and I have multiple copies of addresses and calendars all in sync (Entourage & Apple's own PIM tools). I can sync my photo album and music folders, too.


At first thought, it sounded like you were syncing with the built in address book and calendar (iCal) which you sync with a .Mac account. Am I correct?

Then you mention that Entourage is in sync with Apple's PIM tools. Are you using Pocket Mac to keep these in sync with your Pocket PC as a go between?

It just sounds like a lot of syncing and one or two unresolved items could multiply into quite a mess.

That said, even after reading all the reviews of Pocket Mac, it is nice to hear from a PPCT member about it. I have been considering Pocket Mac for some time but have been cautious worrying that it could mess up my data with syncing to a Windows 2000 machine at work and an iBook at home.

I am very curious as to how the Apple address book and iCal are handling your Pocket Outlook catagories. Even how Entourage handles categories from the Pocket PC.

Glad it is working for you. I like hearing about Mac successes :)
AndrewLubinus89
03-16-2004, 06:07 PM
Haha, maybe... I've never had any ActiveSync problems with my Mac. My Windows XP box is another story... Your a mac user? From your avatar I guessed linux. Hmm...I guess that avatar could be either.
Zack Mahdavi
03-16-2004, 06:45 PM
Haha, maybe... I've never had any ActiveSync problems with my Mac. My Windows XP box is another story... Your a mac user? From your avatar I guessed linux. Hmm...I guess that avatar could be either.

Well, I've been a Windows user for the longest time... a few years ago, I started playing with Linux and started to prefer the customizability of the operating system. And about a year ago, I switched to Mac OS X (with its Unix backbone). I'm still fond of Linux, though... hence my buddy icon. :)
Aerestis
03-17-2004, 10:56 PM
I would like to see a macintosh pocket device! weeee

I like apple. I'm glad ppc works better than palm with syncing, because palm is worse on mac than on pc. It's great on pc, but on mac, it's bad enough that I stick to my pc with syncing. Palm has been dishing out the dissapointments there lately, yawwwnnnnn I should get a powerbook and iPAQ. I don't get why I haven't yet, or why I'm not right now.
Zack Mahdavi
03-18-2004, 12:35 AM
Palm has been dishing out the dissapointments there lately

I completely agree.. Plus, it's such a mistake that they're ditching Mac OS X support for the new Cobalt OS. After all, a higher percentage of Mac users buy peripherals for their computers than do Windows users. Oh well, PalmSource must have some reason for doing that.
Rod3
03-30-2004, 09:56 PM
Is PocketMac better than Missing Sync? I have a 12" powerbook, and have been afraid to try to sync my PocketPCs, not knowing what horrendous damage I could do. :roll:
Zack Mahdavi
03-30-2004, 10:14 PM
Is PocketMac better than Missing Sync? I have a 12" powerbook, and have been afraid to try to sync my PocketPCs, not knowing what horrendous damage I could do. :roll:

I haven't tried MissingSync. There is a review, however, that compares the two. I don't have the link to it, but I posted the link about a month ago. Search the forums for PocketMac and you should find it.

I chose PocketMac over MissingSync because of its integration with Entourage plus the ease of use it offers in installing CAB files.