Escaping Palm Hotsync Hell

One other long awaited new feature in Missing Sync for Palm OS 4.0 is the new Wi-Fi hotsync functionality. While it has been available for several years for Windows users, the Mac sync software has never gained this functionality. I've been nagging Palm since the first Xircom wireless sled came out.

I've set it up to work with my Sony Clie TJ-37 (my latest WiFi enabled Palm), and it worked, although it was unusable slow. One note, the laptop and palm were next to each other, and I have a feeling them were contending for the wireless airwaves. I have yet to try it from a distance away, like across campus. My guess is that it will work much better.

Steve Cochran

I am annoyed about the return to paying a "Mac tax" to use a handheld device on a Macintosh. There really is only one mainstream handheld platform that is Mac-friendly. And syncing is a basic necessary function of using a handheld. So US$40 just to enable this basic feature, is a lot of money. Thank goodness the current crop of OS 5 machines are still available with Palm Desktop 4. Yes I do know about the additional features. But I have browsed through them, and I have no desire to use any one of those.

I suppose this is the price to pay for having a "small marketshare" and a duopoly in the handheld market.
 
On Wednesday, August 25, 2004, at 01:52AM, Nik <GerberiNik.net> wrote:

>I read Jeff Carlson's report on ExtraBITS and felt that I just HAD to
>comment.
>
>The Palm Desktop installer is pretty irretrievably broken in current
>versions of OS X. Through some serious monkeying with permissions it
>can be made to work, but it's a royal pain. There's even an Applescript
>(provided by PalmOne) to fix permissions which, um, doesn't work.
>

I have mixed feelings about the Palm Desktop and the current OS X. The problems I have stem from pretending that Claris Organizer is still good enough. The integration (wait, what integration??) with the Tungsten T3's additional fields is non-existent. So too, with lack of support for categories, and newer T3 DateBook features.

However, I can't really complain about the installation bit. My current installation was smooth, and has survived a switch from a Clie to a Zire 71 to a Tungsten T3. And also quite a few of the Panther mini-updates. The last time I reinstalled was when I upgraded from Jaguar to Panther. I don't recall problems there. And initiating hotsyncs work too. Even Bluetooth syncing worked without any drama. I currently use iSync and the integration is ugly, but surprisingly robust (i.e. it predictably works). Memories of the initial Palm software in OS 9... now those were horrible days. :)

Reviews of Missing Sync on Versiontracker are quite discouraging too. The issues described there seem to be installation, or hotsyncing related; neither of which I have had with Palm Desktop.

I suppose it was unfair that all those Windows users of Palm handhelds had to subsidise the cost of maintaining the Palm-Mac software arm. I only hope that Palm Desktop continues to be compatible with Tiger. (or Apple release it's PDA!).

--
Chik chikmac.com

At 8:48 AM -0700 24/8/04, Nik wrote:
>I read Jeff Carlson's report on ExtraBITS and felt that I just HAD to comment.
>
>The Palm Desktop installer is pretty irretrievably broken in current
>versions of OS X. Through some serious monkeying with permissions it
>can be made to work, but it's a royal pain. There's even an
>Applescript (provided by PalmOne) to fix permissions which, um,
>doesn't work.

I think that statement is going a bit far.

I've not had any permissions problems in several recent installs I've
done of Palm Desktop 4.2.1. I'm not sure if that is because the
latest desktop installer (4.2.1) has fixed the problems or because
I've not also installed the iSync 1.2 Palm Conduit which PalmOne
claims is the source of the problem...

<http://www.palmone.com/us/support/macintosh/macdesk421.html>

<http://www.palmone.com/us/support/downloads/permissions_fixer.html>

Unfortunately the PalmOne support site is a bit out of date and the
FAQ still reference Palm Desktop 4.1 in many places whereas 4.2.1 is
actually the latest version. It is not clear what the changes from
4.1 to 4.2.1 actually are in any detail.

Also, I'm not so sure about the following statement...

At 8:48 AM -0700 24/8/04, Nik wrote:
>However, there's good news: Palm has dropped Mac support!
>
>Why is this good news? Because if you're going to do something, you
>may as well do it right. Palm has no interest in doing this, so
>they've passed the buck to Mark/Space, producers of The Missing Sync.

While I agree that Mark/Space may well do a better job than
PalmSource the major problem is that is potentially a major
disincentive for third-party developers to make Mac-conduits for
their Palm apps. Unless PalmOne commits to bundling The Missing Sync
with new handhelds the perception is that the market for Mac-conduits
will become even smaller. I know a least one developer who was
considering a Mac-conduit has put his plans on hold until the
situation becomes clearer.

Regards,

Adrian

>The Palm Desktop installer is pretty irretrievably broken in current
>versions of OS X. Through some serious monkeying with permissions it
>can be made to work, but it's a royal pain. There's even an
>Applescript (provided by PalmOne) to fix permissions which, um,
>doesn't work.

That AppleScript seems to be run in the new installer; I saw that it
exists within the installer package. Not that it helped in my case.

>[Which Jeff also just wrote about in this week's issue. :-) -Adam]

In fact, I was in the middle of writing the Mark/Space review this
week when I ran into all the trouble mentioned on the ExtraBITS
posting, so it was rather theraputic to get all that off my chest.
(We'll likely be running a modified version of the weblog post in
next week's issue.)

>On the down side, it costs money and is a bit buggy. They're pretty
>responsive to support requests, but again, it rankles me to have
>something less that perfect when it's a value-add to a product that
>was supposed to work out of the box. Still, it's worth a look,
>'specially if you have a newer device and want network syncing and
>all that jazz.

I'm very curious about what's going to happen when Cobalt handhelds
arrive. If I were running the world, I could imagine PalmOne shipping
a stripped-down version of Missing Sync for free with the handhelds
-- it would sync and have profiles, but no expansion card mounting or
iTunes/iPhoto integration, for example. Or, PalmOne just pays
Mark/Space a licensing fee and includes it free with all new
handhelds. Either way, PalmOne wins: for what I'd guess is less than
the cost of continued Palm Desktop development (which appears to be
almost nil right now anyway), they retain their Mac audience and
leave the heavy lifting to a third-party developer that actually
wants to be in this space.

Of course, I don't run the world. If I did, I think Palm sync would
be pretty low on my list of priorities. :-)

Jeff
--
____________________________________________________________
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I am not convinced that Missing Sync is quite ready for prime time yet.

On my OSX 10.3.5 Powerbook 17-inch Hotsyncs with my Palm T3 always
time-out when using Bluetooth , and only complete once after each
restart when using USB, all other attempts time-out.

Support is pretty non existent too, for me.

As a sidelight it is interesting that transferring a file from OSX to
Palm via Bluetooth (Using the Bluetooth file exchange application)
works VERY fast while doing the same with USB or Bluetooth hotsync is
painfully slow.

I used a previous version Missing Sync with my old Clié and that did
work quite well, so I expect that Mark/Space should be able to get this
version working eventually, but for now back to Palm Desktop for me.

Richard Totaro

With OSX 10.3.5, you can't mount a memory card on the desktop -- they're working on it at MarkSpace and have put up a warning at their web page.

Too bad, it was incredibly useful while it worked.

> However, there's good news: Palm has dropped Mac support!
>
> [...]
>
> As much as it rankles me to have shelled out money for a replacement
> for Palm Desktop, The Missing Sync just does a better job.

No, that definitely is not good news, even though The Missing Sync may
be a great product.

When I was in the market for my first PDA, I was really annoyed by the
fact that Palm would require Mac users to buy a "Macintosh Connection
Kit" (or whatever it was called), which included the Palm Desktop
software and a Mac-compatible cradle. IIRC, that kit was priced at
around $50 (in Germany)! So, when Handspring came along and packaged a
USB cradle plus a CD-ROM with both Mac and Windows versions of the
Desktop software, I bought a Visor.

That Visor was replaced by a Palm Tungsten T a few months ago and,
unfortunately, I experienced similar problems with the Palm Desktop
software like those described by Nik. And Palm won't fix 'em properly,
but, instead, expects Mac users to yet again pay a premium to get core
functionality of their products to work (sync'ing definitely is a core
functionality of a PDA, IMHO).

In the meantime, I have sold the Tungsten and am now looking for a
device that combines a mobile phone with a seriously usable PDA (think
"Smart Phone"). Even though the Treo may be a valid option, I have
decided not to buy another Palm product.

If a company freely chooses to blatantly ignore my requirements as a
Mac user, I will gladly ignore them as a potential supplier, too.

Jochen.

>With OSX 10.3.5, you can't mount a memory card on the desktop --
>they're working on it at MarkSpace and have put up a warning at
>their web page.

I believe this only applies to Sony Clie handhelds, not all Palms.
I've had no problem mounting my Tungsten T under 10.3.5.

____________________________________________________________
Jeff Carlson .................. http://jeffcarlson.com/blog/
Never Enough Coffee Creations...... http://www.necoffee.com/
Managing Editor, TidBITS........... http://www.tidbits.com/
NEW! iChat AV 2: VQS.......... http://necoffee.com/ichatvqs/
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How do you get the Bluetooth connection to work between your Mac and your Palm? My iBook can find the Palm, but when I try to do something, Bluetooth File Exchange tells me "Device does not have the necessary services".