Nickname: jbjhill

Review: I use a set of AppleScripts called Export-Import X and Sync Entourage-AddressBook 2 to get everything going. Worth the $20 or so they cost.

Date reviewed: Oct 16, 2006 6:07 PM

Nickname: napaman

Review: Great piece, Arik. Thanks for sharing. I too am sync-obsessive and have yet to find anything that snycs faster or better in the Mac universe than Palm data on my Treo 650. My BlackBerry syncs very s-l-o-w-l-y with iCal and doubles and triples entries and fails completely to sync anything else with elegance or accuracy, despite PocketMac's claims. Can you suggest any Web forums where one might find sync help for Mac-BlackBerry?

Date reviewed: Oct 14, 2006 3:19 PM

Nickname: jbelkin

Review: Totally agree with you. How hard can it be? I got my new moto phone that claims to sync with Apple's Address Book but yet insists on creating a new phone book entry for every person. And while my entry is clearly marked home, mobile & work in the Address Book, Moto ignores all that. It basically saved me about 15% of the time but how hard can address books be to sync and transport? Man, it must be a magical world where one address book will work on five computers and 10 devices. Where is such a land? :-)

Date reviewed: Oct 14, 2006 3:51 AM

Nickname: bdtmac

Review: Arik, As someone who must use Windows at work and will use nothing other than Mac at home, I've tried to solve this problem many times. What you fail to mention is the Microsoft doesn't want such syncronization to work. There is not even an easy way for an individual user of Outlook to keep two or more computers in sync without paying someone more money and facing extra hassle. Contrast that to Apple's Sync Services, new to OS X 10.4. It seeks to keep the type of data you're talking about (contacts, calendars) in a central database that any application can access and sync to. It works the way you describe the Sharpcast solution. Apple is way ahead of other solutions, from my perspective, but has lots of room to grow, especially in the area of making calendars accessible. Don't hold your breath for Microsoft to make things easy for us. They don't want to make it easy for us to use anything other than their products.

Date reviewed: Oct 14, 2006 1:13 AM

Nickname: Eric Hildum

Review: Actually, the problem is the PC. If you were trying to sync multiple Macs, phones, PDAs, etc. you could do it with a .Mac account. I sync three Macs, two phones, and a PDA as well as have net access to my calendars--all without a PC. Despite my best efforts, there is no reasonable way to bring a PC or an ActiveSync device into the mix. Microsoft insists on being an island apart.

Date reviewed: Oct 14, 2006 12:45 AM

Nickname: Michael Rowley

Review: I love Plaxo. I add an address at work on a PC and it magically shows up at home on my Mac, and in Yahoo mail, too. Plus I can get my contacts online and even on my mobile. If the reporter were to use Plaxo they would have an easy way to have their contacts and calendars sync across platforms and devices. My advice: Don't knock it until you tried it.

Date reviewed: Oct 13, 2006 10:49 PM

Nickname: mrrm

Review: "Son, would you send (by e-mail) your ma that lovely movie we took on videotape over the weekend so she can watch our grandsons on her cellphone? Paps says on the POFT landline to a confused son. I sympathize with the author. Simplicity is a very complicated goal. For the time being, I use one Gmail account as a driver (I call it my G-driver) so I can acess contacts and schedules wherever I am from whichever device that runs a browser. But it's not something I can recommend. What I can recommend is Delicious, a program that lets you access your browser bookmarks (stored in both PCs and Macs) via the Mozilla suite. Now that works just fine, but it sure is not a proper agenda. MMartins-Portugal

Date reviewed: Oct 13, 2006 10:32 PM

Nickname: busyalready

Review: You must have too much time on your hands if you want to deal with two PCs, 1 cell phone, and 3 calendar options.

Date reviewed: Oct 13, 2006 9:57 PM

Nickname: FixMacs

Review: Much needs to be done to integrate PIMs (personal information managers) into a framework of shared data between Macs, PCs, and PDAs. One solution that works for now is XC Connect from XC Network (www.xcnetwork.com). You can forget Google Calendar because you won't need it. XC Connect provides a Web interface of its own. This solution shares PIM data between iCal and Outlook. Using "The Missing Sync" software offers syncing with a PDA. As for giving yourself universal access to text documents--enter Writely. Google's Writely (www.writely.com) features Web-based word processing using a Google account. The text files stay in your Google account making them accessible from any browser. Save the files out as MS-Word or RTF for printing. No more e-mailing yourself Word files.

Date reviewed: Oct 13, 2006 9:28 PM

Nickname: Jen

Review: Dude, welcome to my world! We have been upset about the syncing issue for some time now. Wish it weren't such a mysterious undertaking. Thanks for the article!

Date reviewed: Oct 13, 2006 6:59 PM