Mac/Palm and GTD - a major advance

cellmatrix

Registered
major advance here for GTD oriented Mac/Palm users,

missing sync 5.01 now has the ability with the push of a single sync button:

1) sync palm categories with individual ical calendars, both todos and events.
2) sync palm memo categories and address categories.
3) sync contents of folders (like project support material) back and forth between your mac and your palm SD card

Now the basic i-Applications of Mac are GTD-capable. hooray.

It does a lot of other interesting-non-GTD things too like automatically syncing music and photos.

I can report that these features work quite well on a G5 and Treo 650 OS 10.4.3. I had a problem initially setting missing sync 5.01 up, I recommend backing up your data in case you have a problem too. After set up, it is really easy to use.

The only down side is that the program is expensive $40 for new users, $25 for current user upgrades.

http://www.markspace.com/missingsync_palmos.php
 

dbourbon

Registered
A Major Advance

This is the way iCal and Palm should have synced from the beginning. It's virtually painless.

David Bourbon
G5; Palm TX
 
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dyofanto

Guest
Be careful!!

MissingSync syncing of categories sucks! Conduit is confused because names and you can lost some of your calendars!
I will ask MarkSpace for a refund, and probably throw again my Treo in favor of Yahoo Calendar!
 

lastgasp

Registered
Missing Sync example of Palm missing the point

cellmatrix said:
The only down side is that the program is expensive $40 for new users, $25 for current user upgrades.

The way I see it, there are several other downsides:

MissingSync doesn't reach back very far - it requires a relatively new Palm or smartphone. Anyone still using the sturdy, reliable Palm Vx, for instance, is out of luck.

The bigger issue is that Mac users have to shell out an additional $40 to use their Palms or smartphones in the first place. Palm's support for the Mac has never been very good, and now it's approaching zero. I decided not to give Palm any more business for just that reason.

I see there are a couple of threads here about switching from PDAs to iPods. I suggest that anyone thinking about adding yet another expense to a Palm set-up ($40 Missing Sync) check out these threads first.

http://www.davidco.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4476&highlight=ipod

http://www.davidco.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4583&highlight=ipod

Tim
 

cellmatrix

Registered
dyofanto said:
MissingSync syncing of categories sucks! Conduit is confused because names and you can lost some of your calendars!
I will ask MarkSpace for a refund, and probably throw again my Treo in favor of Yahoo Calendar!

I had this problem initially too. You need to define your categories on your Treo, and on your Mac to exactly the same name.
 
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dyofanto

Guest
Yes, but once the error is done, then you cannot rearrange categories. MissingSync mix and destroy calendars and saves a copy on its own files. If you try to delete from Ical, then they're reloaded so you cannot repair the damage.
 
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dyofanto

Guest
I forgot ... now MissingSync 5 hasn´t the option "Handheld overwrites computer", very useful when you have such errors.
 

cellmatrix

Registered
lastgasp said:
The way I see it, there are several other downsides:

MissingSync doesn't reach back very far - it requires a relatively new Palm or smartphone. Anyone still using the sturdy, reliable Palm Vx, for instance, is out of luck.

The bigger issue is that Mac users have to shell out an additional $40 to use their Palms or smartphones in the first place. Palm's support for the Mac has never been very good, and now it's approaching zero. I decided not to give Palm any more business for just that reason.

I see there are a couple of threads here about switching from PDAs to iPods. I suggest that anyone thinking about adding yet another expense to a Palm set-up ($40 Missing Sync) check out these threads first.

http://www.davidco.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4476&highlight=ipod

http://www.davidco.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4583&highlight=ipod

Tim

Your suggestions in the threads sound like great alternatives. Like you, I think Palm's neglect of Mac users, and their wish to evolve into a pocket-PC clone is a bad business decision and I do not think their future is too bright.

The hipster PDA as described by Merlin Mann at the 43folders.com website seems like an elegantly simple, wonderfully portable and refreshingly low-tech way to practice GTD and thumb your nose at Palm at the same time.
 

cellmatrix

Registered
dyofanto said:
Yes, but once the error is done, then you cannot rearrange categories. MissingSync mix and destroy calendars and saves a copy on its own files. If you try to delete from Ical, then they're reloaded so you cannot repair the damage.

If you backed up then you can unintall MS 5, restore your data, fix the cat/cal names then reinstall MS 5 and it should work.

If you did not back up your data I am sorry, I had recommended to do this, and I sympathize with you. I have lost data to not backing up before and it is frustrating to say the least.
 

mcogilvie

Registered
dyofanto said:
I forgot ... now MissingSync 5 hasn´t the option "Handheld overwrites computer", very useful when you have such errors.

The makers of MissingSync explain in their documentation that this is a limitation of SyncServices, which Apple introduced into OS X with Tiger.

MissingSync is working well for me so far. I have a minor problem with some address book entries, which I hope to resolve soon. Considering that I was previously using an applescript to sync iCal to Entourage and then to Palm, I was surprised at how well the change went. I threw caution to the winds, and just synced, and the iCal data synced to the Palm data with no duplicates. I would not have tried this except I had back-up of the data on two PC's, and was confident of my ability to recover.
 
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dyofanto

Guest
I think we must not allow a product to "perhaps works, perhaps not"
I´m sorry. This is the end with MissingSync for me and I cannot speak very well about it.
 
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