Mark/Space updates The Missing Sync: this is HUGE news!

Question

Mark/Space updates The Missing Sync: this is HUGE news!

Mark/Space has announced a completely rewritten, and substantially more powerful version of The Missing Sync for Palm OS - version 5:

Paraphrased from the feature list:

b Support for Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger Sync Services

The Missing Sync includes three conduits: Mark/Space Contacts, Mark/Space Events and Mark/Space Tasks. These synchronize
i directly with
Mac OS X 10.4 Address Book and iCal applications.
i Neither the iSync application nor the iSync Palm Conduit are necessary for syncing your Palm OS device with Tiger.

b Syncronizes Address Book
i groups
b and iCal
i calendars
b with Palm
i categories

The Missing Sync includes three conduits: Mark/Space Contacts, Mark/Space Events and Mark/Space Tasks. These synchronize directly with Tiger's central database for Address Book and iCal.
i iSync is no longer required or used.
Additionally, as more developers take advantage of Sync Services, you'll be able to sync more applications with your Palm OS device.

b Support for multiple addresses and other Palm database fields

Unlike Apple's conduit for iSync, which only syncs a single address (the home address) for each contact, The Missing Sync is capable of synchronizing multiple addresses to and from newer Palm devices. The Birthday, IM and URL fields are also synchronized.

In addition, there is support for:

* contact photo synchronization
* iPhoto albums
* iTunes playlists
* selected folder synchronization

The application includes many interface enhancements and feature updates. If you synchronize a Palm device and don't own it now, you soon will!

Details are available here:
] http://www.markspace.com/missingsync_palmos.php

This really is HUGE news!

Posted on Nov 1, 2005 11:47 PM

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Answer 1

Nov 1, 2005 11:51 PM in response to Michael Lafferty

Michael,

Have you put it to use yet?

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Answer 2

Nov 2, 2005 12:01 AM in response to briandallas

No, but I will very shortly.

The release version is available now for immediate download from the Mark/Space store: $ 24.95 for existing users, $ 39.95 for new users.

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Answer 3

Nov 2, 2005 12:22 AM in response to Michael Lafferty

Thanks for the quick response.

I'm just curious as to how easy or difficult it is going to be set it up (in other words, to remove iSync from the mix) It took me long enough to get iSync 2 and Missing Sync set up to work properly (and I did it with your help, Thanks BTW)
I hate to mess with things that work.

Keep us posted.

bd

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Answer 4

Nov 2, 2005 1:02 AM in response to briandallas

Well, in less than 15 minutes, I purchased and downloaded it, ran one last full iSync synchronization as recommended by Mark/Space, then installed it, restarted, repaired permissions, then configured it. Mark/Space walks you through every step of the process with simple, easy to follow wizards for each function.

It automatically disabled the iSync Palm Conduit, installed the new conduits, left any third-party conduits in place, and - using the wizards - I quickly configured it to synchronize eight of my ten iCal calendars, all of my contacts, and any tasks. I also set it up to install and synchronize AvantGo content, the Mark/Space MemoPad, install an unrelated Palm application, install SplashPhoto and run the Backup conduit.

I declined initially to configure or synchronize iTunes playlists, the folder synchronization feature or Photos.

In a word:
i phenomenal!

This is everything that iSync and the iSync Palm Conduit should have been for Palm users. When the process completed, which it did very quickly, it even automatically reverted the three conduits involved with iCal and the Address Book to Synchronize, from the Overwrite handheld settings that Mark/Space recommends for the initial synchronization.

A couple of minor adjustments to my conduit profiles which had previously contained the now-missing iSync, and I was done.

Flawless synchronization. No Unfiled calendar. All Birthdays [orginating in the Address Book and stored in a read-only iCal Birthdays calendar:] synchronized! No garbled data - no missing information. And no problem with .Mac Sync, either. Simply amazing.

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Answer 5

Nov 2, 2005 1:23 AM in response to Michael Lafferty

Sounds like a winner!

It's too late for me to bother with it tonight. I will give it a go tomorrow.

Thanks for the info.++

bd

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Answer 6

Nov 2, 2005 9:35 AM in response to Michael Lafferty

I know you probably haven't had a chance to put it completely through its paces yet, but there's one omission in the Mark/Space support pages that concerns me.

Does Missing Sync 5.0 sync the Custom fields for each contact? I have an app that relies on information stored in one of the Custom fields. It's not really an issue unless I should have to restore the Palm OS contacts database. I'd rather not have to rely on the backup of the database in case it becomes corrupted.

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Answer 7

Nov 2, 2005 9:48 AM in response to Alan Somers

Fair enough. It does not address the four custom fields available in the original Palm contacts application. It does, as I understand it, support some additional data descriptors and labels in the improved Palm contact application that began shipping with the Treo 650, late Tungsten models, late Zire models and the LifeDrive. I cannot test that claim, simply because of the limitations of the contact application installed on my Treo 600.

I don't think that it is out of the realm of reasonability to ask for such a feature, and I will add it to the short list of enhancements I'm already building for submission to Mark/Space.

One of those custom fields is used by Garmin as I recall, and Mark/Space does indicate support for both the iQue 3200 and 3600 models, so some accomodation may have been made for at least one of those custom fields. Again, I cannot test this though, as I don't have access to a Garmin unit.

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Answer 8

Nov 2, 2005 10:38 AM in response to Michael Lafferty

Thanks. I may hold off awhile then, although the ability to sync new contacts entered on my Mac over to my PDA without the omissions typical with iSync is compelling.

You reminded me that I actually have two apps using Custom fields. I have a birthday/anniversary/event management app that uses one field (possibly containing multiple event dates) and my mapping app (Mapopolis) uses a field to store a GeoMark, which is a way of referring to a specific lat/*** by name.

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Answer 9

Nov 2, 2005 12:20 PM in response to Michael Lafferty

Great news! If I'd only waited a week or two to switch over to iSync I could have saved myself some grief.

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Answer 10

Nov 2, 2005 3:30 PM in response to Michael Lafferty

Dear Michael,
I am not sure this is the right place for this question - for which I apologize.

I have resisted using iCal and AddressBook for managing my contacts and calendar (I use still use Palm Desktop) because I use Categories on the Palm extensively. I rely on Categories to give me a ton of information about my schedule and to organize my contacts.

How do you handle this situation?

Thanks,
Taj

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Answer 11

Nov 2, 2005 3:53 PM in response to Michael Lafferty

This really is HUGE! I downloaded and have had some time to play around with it and it works perfectly. The only thing I noticed so far is what was mentioned above about not syncing custom fields created in Address Book. It does pass them on to the Palm but the field just appears as "other". But at least they are there. I was amazed to see that I added an event in my Tungsten T3's calendar (with category and location) and have it pop un in iCal with the correct calendar, correct color, and even location. I have used the iPhoto sync to transfer an album and that also worked just fine.

One problem I have is that although syncing with my Palm is now "fire and forget", its not that way with my other devices. I still have to initiate a "sync now" to sync my phone and .mac with iCal and Address Book. But this is apart from Missing Sync. Mark/Space has really done a good job here with this product.

I do have a question for the Apple discussions community: Has anyone had the chance to use Missing Sync for Palm version 5 with Agendus for Palm? I thought Agendus was a good product before but never used it because it was even more of a hassle to try to get that to work with iCal/Address Book. With this release of Missing Sync I wonder if its any better?

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Answer 12

Nov 2, 2005 4:57 PM in response to Taj Johnson Chiu

Honestly, I had given up on synchronized groups and categories, because the integration of iCal, the Address Book and - to some degree - Mail, seemed more important. I just learned to live without them.

I haven't tested the group and category capabilities of the latest release of The Missing Sync for Palm OS, but it is clear from the documentation that the Mark/Space conduits support them. Even the MemoPad Conduit has a group assignment capability built in, which exactly mimics the setup on my Treo 600.

It is also clear that you still have to make choices: you either use the iSync Palm Conduit [without this release of The Missing Sync for Palm OS,] the standard Palm PIM conduits, or the new Mark/Space conduits. You can mix the Mark/Space and Palm conduits, as well as as the Entourage conduit supplied by Microsoft, but only where they do not conflict - only one conduit can be used to any particular data type, such as contacts.

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Answer 13

elenting

Level 1

59 points

Nov 4, 2005 10:16 PM in response to Michael Lafferty

I had been working on trying to get calendar categories to sync the very day I found the new Missing Sync 5. Initially it seemed to work, but now there seem to be random events (primarily birthdays and holidays) that are moved a day later and many of the alarms are reset. There is no evident pattern although most of these events seem to be in Oct, Nov, Dec. All of these were initially entered on a Palm Tungsten T. Fortunately I backed up my iCal calendar and am able to revert, but each time I try to resync the same thing happens. The dates do not change on the Tungsten though, they remain accurate in calendar. HOWEVER, I DIDN'T BACK UP ADDRESS BOOK (very careless mistake on my part) and I am finding a lot of missing email addresses. I never had this problem before. I can not figure out if it a problem with the 10.4.3 update or Missing Sync 5 because I upgraded both very recently.
The only place I have an intact Address Book now is my iPod. IS THERE A SAFE WAY TO GET THE ADDRESS BOOK DATA OFF THE IPOD AND INTO ADDRESS BOOK? I CAN'T RISK DELETING THE ONLY UNCORRUPTED COPY OF MY ADDRESS BOOK.
Thanks for any help you can give!
ps Sorry for the long post.

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Answer 14

Nov 4, 2005 11:34 PM in response to Michael Lafferty

I have Entourage X (not 2004) and a palm T5. I would like to sync my entourage data with the T5, but not a bunch of other third party software as I autoupdate that using my windows desktop. My subscriptions for these third party apps are windows specific. I would also then like to sync my T5 with Outlook on the windows desktop. Is Missing Sync what I'm looking for? I did look at e2Sync, but it requires Entourage 2004 (which would cost me $200++). Also it doesn't seem to offer all the other bells and whistles that Missing Sync does. Oh, the woes of a Mac lover in a Microsoft world... Any advice or recommendations? The price of the two products is the same $39.

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Answer 15

Nov 4, 2005 11:49 PM in response to elenting

IS THERE A SAFE WAY TO GET THE ADDRESS BOOK DATA OFF THE IPOD AND INTO ADDRESS BOOK?

I would ask that question in the iPod forums where the iPod gurus reside. They would know if and/or how.
I'm sure you could simply by activating disk mode on the iPod. The iPod will then mount in the Finder. Dig around and locate the calendar data file, shouldn't be too hard to find. Not sure what to do with it once you find it though.

Hey whad'ya know, I sound like an iPod guru.

Good luck

bd

BTW: I'm sorry to see your having problems with the MissingSync 5, but I'm glad I'm not the only one. I can't get it to sync my contacts. Misery loves company!

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