Mac and Palm

[gnugrep]

I've been using a Palm for 6+ years now and a Mac for about 2. I currently have a Tungsten T3 Palm. I love this Palm and I use it all the time. GTD works well for me on the Palm.

My biggest problem though is synchronizing the Palm with my Mac. Things have seem to only have gotten worse when I upgraded to Tiger, not that it was so great before. I have to reboot the computer ever time I sync now. Sometimes things disappear that I know I entered on the Palm or Mac. I've bought Missing Sync and that doesn't really help much either. It is so bad that I often don't sync for days or weeks at a time. I'm afraid I'm going to lose some important information because I sync so infrequently now, but I'm equally worried that a sync will erase something important too. Part of the beauty of GTD is that once I enter something into my system I can forget about it. Unfortunately my Palm/Mac monster can forget it too.

As has been mentioned before the iCal really stinks, especially for Tasks. I find the Palm Desktop for Mac to be the worst designed software I've ever used on the Mac. It seems like Palm has just given up on the Mac.

I've heard Entourage is better, but I don't know if I'm ready to pay for yet another piece of software in my increasingly desperate attempt to get my Palm and Mac to coexist peacefully.

I'm wondering if it is time to give up on the Palm? They seem to really be going downhill as a company, the T3 was the last good model and they keep changing their name and they are now giving up on the Palm OS in favor of windows. That doesn't bode well for mac users.

Anyone else having these problems? What else could I use in place of a Palm with a Mac?

 

[fossicker]

If you're worried about losing data, you should get backupbuddy from bluenomad.com. It supports mac os, and also lets you backup information to the palm itself.

I have an ibook running tiger and an old clie and have had no problems syncing between the two. I don't use entourage, nor do I use the palm desktop, I just use the plain isync with ical and addressbook (I also sync documents to go). The only time I have to reboot my computer is when apple sends out an update that requires it.

I'm very suspicious that palm desktop might be the culprit. Palm has given up on supporting mac, but apple has not given up on palm so try syncing with just that apple apps and see what happens.

 

[andersons]

I've been using a Palm for 6+ years now and a Mac for about 2. I currently have a Tungsten T3 Palm. I love this Palm and I use it all the time. GTD works well for me on the Palm.

Well, this doesn't answer your question, but what kind of data are you keeping on the Palm? I thought you kept next action lists on paper.

 

[fokke.kooistra]

Hi gnugrep,

I have pretty much the same combo, Tiger, T3. No problems syncing with Entourage allthough I don't use Entourage for my Calender. We use meetingmaker.

I think you are in for a complete wipe out of any Palm stuff and do a fresh install of the new Palm installer. I know of about 5 people in my circle who use Mac with a Palm and I sync daily.

The only thing I have is that I have to log in before syncing after my PB comes from sleep. So not a reboot just a log out and log in. Good luck!

 

[gnugrep]

List on palm now

Well, this doesn't answer your question, but what kind of data are you keeping on the Palm? I thought you kept next action lists on paper.

No, I now keep all my home lists on the palm now. I use the palm Tasks for NA lists.

At work, I keep all of my lists in Word documents. This works well, but it isn't too portable, which is what I need for my non-work projects.

 

[gnugrep]

Logout seems to work

The only thing I have is that I have to log in before syncing after my PB comes from sleep. So not a reboot just a log out and log in. Good luck!

Logging out and logging back in seems to resolve the sync problems I've been having. I usually just put my computer to sleep, so that was probably it.

I'm also going to try and use the built in Mac apps again. I'll just use the Tasks on the palm and consider the tasks in iCal as backup if something bad happens to the Palm.

 

[lastgasp]

I ditched my Palm and moved to an iPod

I've been using a Palm for 6+ years now and a Mac for about 2...My biggest problem though is synchronizing the Palm with my Mac. Things have seem to only have gotten worse when I upgraded to Tiger, not that it was so great before.

As has been mentioned before the iCal really stinks, especially for Tasks. I find the Palm Desktop for Mac to be the worst designed software I've ever used on the Mac. ...It seems like Palm has just given up on the Mac. Anyone else having these problems? What else could I use in place of a Palm with a Mac?

Palm's support for the Mac was halfhearted even at its height, and that was years ago. I used a Palm Vx and the free, Claris-based Palm Desktop for a long time. (You're right about the underlying problems with iCal, and the Palm Desktop was sketchy to begin with. It hasn't had a significant update for eons.)

So, the double-whammy of a Tiger upgrade and Palm's announcement it was moving in with Microsoft pushed me to make a decision I'd been toying with for a while. I bought an iPod Mini (four gig hard drive) that will accept all my existing, exported Palm contacts and calendar entries - and a small pocket notebook and pen for capturing data. (The iPod doesn't have any data-entry capabilities of its own.)

So far, I'm delighted. The iPod is much smaller than the Vx I'd been carrying around, but I can get to my address book and calendar entries just as quickly. I can synch the iPod and update the address and calendar entries in less than a minute. Of course, I have the added benefit of carrying around a ton of music and audio books in the same clean, light, easy-to-use package.

I've been using a black, wirebound notebook that's smaller and more pocket-sized than the hipster Moleskine notebooks. (A thick, black rubberband on the back cover serves the same utilitarian purpose as the Moleskine's back pocket.) I also slip a few business cards and a black, no-clip Fisher space pen into the rubber band. The pocket-friendly bullet version of the pen is about $20; here's a link

http://www.pen-planet-bmsh.com/product.asp?itemid=3319

I've been using this easy-to-migrate system for about three weeks now, and I'm very happy with it. Next step is to move my tasks and memos to it, but the iPod happily accepts .txt files, so that should be easy. So long, Palm.

Tim