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Utilities (Apple) Businesses Software Apple

iSync Beta Released 47

Posted by pudge from the carve-my-name-in-a-video-game dept.
OrangeHairMan writes "iSync, 'the cutting-edge synchronization software from Apple,' has been released in beta, with support for Bluetooth phones, iPods, Palm OS-based handhelds, and .Mac (for synchronizing multiple Macs). Now only if I had any of these products... ;)"
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iSync Beta Released More

iSync Beta Released

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  • So far, everything works great. I wonder why this is a Beta and not an earlier release. I think that it runs much better than the iCal program.
    • I'm unfortunately still having some problems. I have two Macs, one Palm Vx and one Sony Ericsson T68i. For some strange reason it keeps duplicating appointments. I'm still experimenting, but I've had to remove all calendars except one just to get everything synchronized over the devices.

      Ciryon
      • I'm having the same issue with both of the iCal calendars that I created - one at work and one on my laptop. (The ones I've downloaded from Apple and other sites are fine.) I find that I am able to delete duplicate TODOs but I am unable to delete either the original or the duplicate appointment. I get a message saying that I don't have authority to delete items on a calendar that I've subscribed to, but I'm trying to clean up the work calendar on the work computer and the home calendar on the laptop. On the other hand, I've had no problem with syncing the Address Book.

        I've been using iCal since it came out in late August and I have to say that iCal should have been classified as a beta version. iSync, despite it's current limitations, has worked fine so far. I can't say the same for iCal.

        A word of warning - there's an option to backup data before you sync. Practice safe beta - use it.

  • finally can sync my Handspring on OSX (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Pengo ( 28814 ) on Saturday September 28, 2002 @07:23PM (#4351752) Journal

    Without any kludgy work-arounds and anoyances. There hasn't been a non-classic solution to that in a while.

  • Needs a little work. (Score:3, Informative)

    by Alex Thorpe ( 575736 ) <alphax@ma c . c om> on Saturday September 28, 2002 @07:26PM (#4351759) Homepage
    Out of the supported devices, I only have the iPod. But when I told it to sync, it failed to notice that I'd already copied over most of my contacts and two of my calendars already, so I've got a ton of duplicate entries. I hope it doesn't decide to replace the duplicates that I delete.

    • Re:Needs a little work. (Score:5, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 28, 2002 @09:25PM (#4352019)
      The release notes that came with the download said to delete old files (just on the iPod) before syncing. Apple tried to warn you.
    • Needs a little work? well yes for starters RTFM and you wont have duplicate entries (its ok i did it wrong the first time as well, a breeze to fix). Aside from not having a cell phone to try this out with I was utterly blown away. I have been doing the manual shuffle between OSX address book.app - my handspring visor - and an ipod for some time now knowing that it couldnt be THAT hard to create a real synch procedure. when the old iCEO steve first demo'd iSync it just didnt seem to be anything behind the hype besides vaporware and strange folders popping up on my ipod. well i was wrong, like they say "It just works." Of course your main fear is that in this magical sync that all important address would go back into the ether and be replaced with ancient incorrect versions thereby alienating you from your friends/family/jobs etc - I was amazed that apple managed to program something just the way i would ask for it "OK sync everything, use the newest version to fill in the blanks in the old ones, and if you run into anything sticky just ask me and show me my options." wish granted in beta form. apple just gave the world quite a big reason to switch and really solidified their version of the 'digital hub experience.' now if only they had waited and 'fixed' ical first and released this all at once as a real show stopper. 'set up us the bomb'

  • Not all Palm devices... (Score:4, Informative)

    by singularity ( 2031 ) <nowalmart@NOSPam.gmail.com> on Saturday September 28, 2002 @07:30PM (#4351769) Homepage Journal
    The ReadMe clearly says that it is for Palm devices from Palm or Handpsring. My Clie may be supported, but until I know I will continue to use Palm Desktop with the MissingSync. I have no desire to try to move over to iCal until I know that I can synch it with my Sony.

    It amazes me that people are able to write support for these devices without too much trouble and yet the companies are not able to support Macs.

    Getting my old Handspring to work with Palm Desktop 4.0 (so that I did not have to use Classic) was a very minor thing on my part, but Handspring took forever to get it working. They just released the Desktop 4.0 software for Visors last week!

    The fact that an indivdual can write support into Palm Desktop to support Clies is amazing as well, given that Sony will not support it.

    Now Apple will not support Clies, as well.

    I can only hope that support is added later.
  • They release this just when my iPod is away getting repaired. What I really would like to know is what other phones they plan on supporting. Is this going to stay a bluetooth only solution, or will they support phones connected in another way (infrared, usb)? And why do I need a .Mac membership to sync two computers?

    • Re:Great... (Score:2, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      You need a .Mac account because it saves the information on Apples servers and then you can sync that info with any other machine you have. Its doesn't mean computer to computer in a direct sense.

  • Getting warmer ... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by esemplastic ( 566951 ) on Saturday September 28, 2002 @07:41PM (#4351793)

    I've been holding out on .Mac for some time, but today I finally took the plunge (not because of iSync, but because my $50 discount was about to expire). Some cool stuff included, one of which is that iSync can sync up the Calendars and Address books of two macs. Very nice (if I had 2 macs).

    What I'm really looking for it to do, and what it doesn't yet do, is sync up my desktop stuff (cal, address, etc.) with web versions of the same (the way that MAPI lets email be synchronized between the web version and any number of desktop mail readers). Right now, when you sync to .Mac, your data gets sucked into some invisible location at Apple's NOC, never to be seen by anyone by the iSync application. Instead, I want it editable -- I want webtop versions of iCal and Address Book, at least very rudimentary ones. They've got webtop Address Book as part of .Mac email, but that doesn't sync. Yet.

    My guess is that Apple is working on it, but they just haven't gotten that far. But come on! I need it now ... :)

    • Re:Getting warmer ... (Score:5, Informative)

      by pudge ( 3605 ) <slashdot@pudge. n e t> on Saturday September 28, 2002 @09:39PM (#4352049) Homepage Journal
      It's not an invisible location, I believe; it's in your iDisk, in (IIRC) Library/Application Support/iSync/. Although, right now, it appears iDisk/.Mac is down, or somesuch, because I can't get to anything.
      • Ah, excellent ... I hadn't even seen it there. So theoretically, I could write myself an app to sync that with some program on another platform, like Outlook on PC. Maybe I'll just do that.

        Yeah, .Mac has been down for about 15 minutes. I just switched from Yahoo mail to go with this .Mac thing, and I don't think I remember a 15 minute period when Yahoo mail was down, ever. I sure hope I didn't make a big mistake.

        • Yahoo mail has had a couple of outages over the last 3 years. Usually just a couple of hours.

          It looks like .Mac is back up. It looks shorter than most of the (rare) Yahoo outages. And it's IMAP mail, always a big plus.
          • .Mac still appears to be down as I write this -- it's been about 40 minutes now I think. The error I get (when anything comes up at all) is:
            Server Error

            The following error occurred:
            Could not connect to the server

            You're right, though, about the plus of IMAP. I guess I'll be patient and wait for it. But ... need ... email ...

  • Newton support (Score:5, Funny)

    by RevAaron ( 125240 ) <`moc.liamtoh' `ta' `noraaver'> on Saturday September 28, 2002 @08:05PM (#4351846) Homepage
    Look forward to Newton support soon for iSync... Luckily, getting Newton support is in a lot of ways, a lot more straightforward than it is for Palm OS. It's easily done via a plain old TCP/IP connection with a little app on the Newton side. :)

    • Re:Newton support (Score:4, Informative)

      by RevAaron ( 125240 ) <`moc.liamtoh' `ta' `noraaver'> on Saturday September 28, 2002 @09:26PM (#4352021) Homepage
      I'm serious.

      On the Newton, to move data for use in iSync, I can simply connect via ethernet or PPP/SLIP. I don't need to rely on some proprietary syncing/comm protocol like on the PalmOS. Converting between NewtonScript objects and SyncML also will be a pretty straightforward operation.

      The easiest way to do this would be to create a web app, a module for NPDS [npds.free.fr] (Newton Personal Data Sharing) or use Steve Weyer's Sloup.

      There's a reason the Newton platform has kept on kicking, it is still a very easy platform to code for, user and developer friendly.

    • I for one wish Apple would start manufacturing the Newton again. Just make the last model they made the 2100 (or was it 2200) as it is... and maybe do some software updates to sync with the mac....

      I have an original Newton (with the "bad" handwriting recognition that works great) and its still better than everything out there in the PDA space all these years later.

      • Yeah, the 2100 was the last model made. It was actually produced by Newton Inc, which was spun-off from Apple at the time... Apple bought Newton Inc. back only to kill it, especially horrible considering that the independent Newton Inc. had turned a profit for the last couple quarters.

        I have an upgraded 2000 (equivalent to a 2100), and it's amazing. I tried to switch to an iPAQ and then a Jornada 720 and sold my nice Newton setup, and I'm really regretting it. I bought a bare-bones Newton off of eBay (for around $65, they're a steal now-a-days!) and I wish I would've saved myself the trouble of going WinCE for a while. :/

        The HWR on a OS 2.x Newt (2100, 2000, eMate, 130, 120 v2) is incredible. I could say I easily get 99%+ accuracy on my Newt while taking notes at a pen-and-paper speed. Eventually, I'll write a little app so that I can remote control my iBook from my Newton, using it's touchscreen as a Wacom-work-a-like, and the HWR for typing. :)

  • GNUsync? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Gerry Gleason ( 609985 ) <gerry&geraldgleason,com> on Saturday September 28, 2002 @08:25PM (#4351903)
    Ok, so when will we be able to do the same with Linux? I don't have any of these devices yet, but this functionality will be important when I do. I imagine someone is already working on it.

    It should be just a small part of the larger design problem of allowing for your personal info and identity to securely track between all the computing devices you use.

    • Re:GNUsync? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by DevilM ( 191311 ) <devilm@de v i lm.com> on Saturday September 28, 2002 @08:35PM (#4351919) Homepage
      It would be pretty straight forward to write such an application if the all the vendors would finish the XML based sync specification and then actually implement it.

      • Re:GNUsync? (Score:4, Informative)

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 29, 2002 @06:03AM (#4353112)
        Actually, I'm developing such a software. It's not called GNUsync but gsynchro. It implements SyncML standard (see www.syncml.org) which you were talking about. We're developing both a server and a client. Right now the client would be for the Zaurus and the iPAQ but port it to any UNIX platform ought to be trivial.

        For your information all the XML based sync you were talking about is really SyncML. You can see all the compatible servers and devices on that page : http://www.syncml.org/interoperability1.html#2. Of course there are all the Sony Ericsson supported phones but there are much more! I guess Apple don't want to provide support for all the SyncML devices. To synchronize Palm, Pocket PC and other non-SyncML platform we plan to do "proxies" to take advantage of what's already developed and present only one software to the user.

        We develop it in C++, using the SyncML specifications. We plan to release a first public beta by the next that just synchronize contacts between two PC and by the end of november all the PIM information between two Linux PCs or a Linux desktop and a Linux PDA (being the iPAQ or the Zaurus). But I don't think when that will happen you'll be informed on the slashdot site ;) Stay tuned!

        Christian Gillot
  • It seems like a great idea to be able to synchronize my contacts, calendars etc. over .Mac between all my Macs spread out at 3 different locations.

    Problem is that currently, you have to manually run the Synch, and there isn't an automate option or even an Applescript hook yet (there isn't even an Applescript dictionary in this release). I've tried the usual suspects: synch, synchronize, dosynch. No luck.

    I'll be playing the next day or two to see if I can create something cron-able to synch my stuff at 8am and 6pm.

    I'm also interested to see if there's a way to hack this to work with other services -- iCal works (sorta) with WebDAV servers.

    --dr00gy

    • iSync only wants to talk to Apple server (Score:5, Informative)

      by OttoM ( 467655 ) on Sunday September 29, 2002 @05:06AM (#4353016)
      I found out that
      • iSync does not use WebDAV, but a different protocol (at least for registering).
      • iSync contacts the server using https. The server is authenticated properly. I tried to fool iSync like I did with Backup [drijf.net] but that didn't work, because iSync does not accept the server certificate.
      So at first look, iSync security is better done than Backup, making it hard to use another server, like can be done with iCal or Backup.

  • GPLed Isync ORIGINAL Version (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    http://www.cs.hmc.edu/~me/isync/ [hmc.edu]
  • Two big holes. No support for Palm categories. No support for Palm custom fields.
  • The PalmOS Conduit setup help says that you should only sync your device with one computer using this, as "data corruption may result" or some other such jazz.

    Has anybody tried this? I'd like to try out iSync to get my iPod into the calendaring world, but not if it's gonna work just fine for my iBook but screw things up on my work (Palm Desktop) and home (Outlook XP) PCs. (Yes, I know. I need to can Outlook anyway.) Thanks.
  • If apple wants to make iSync a killer app, they should publish the API and allow 3rd parties to create modules sync anything to anything.

    I for example would like a Calendar/Address Book -> Entourage Sync, or my filemaker database to address book... I'd also love to sync everything to my my Motorola phone.... it's gotta be possible.

  • iSync is something that I had been waiting for a loong time. Now that the beta is out - I'm disappointed!

    But first I have to point out that I haven't had the time to fiddle around with it much yet. But I've come to expect from Apple products, that I don't have to fiddle around. They're supposed to "just work". I have three buts:

    1. NO IrDA support at all! So, I cannot sync my Nokia 6310. Yes, the Nokia has Bluetooth, but I don't have the dongle for my Mac yet. Hope the dongle will work when it arrives...
    2. iPod synced incorrectly! I cleared the iPod totally (calendar & contacts anyway) and synced. Synced contacts ok, but swapped the place of two of my iCal calendars. No idea why yet. Luckily I don't use the iPod for calendar anyway, this was just a test.
    3. Couldn't get my Palm 505 to sync! I followed the readme, but no sync. VERY disappointed!
    So, at the moment the iSync is totally useless to me. I hope to have a look at it over the weekend, but that's something I'm not supposed to do with Mac - to spend time getting things to work like they're supposed to...

    Ok, I know it's a beta. But their adds were toting the release of iSync in September. All I got was a non-working beta. That's why I'm disappointed. Guess I'll just have to wait for the "real thing"?

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