Migration from Palm TX (Palm Desktop) to iPod Touch (Mac OS 10.6 apps)

Question

Level 1

6 points

Migration from Palm TX (Palm Desktop) to iPod Touch (Mac OS 10.6 apps)

I'm migrating from a Palm TX to an iPod Touch. The Palm Desktop comes complete with apps (Calendar, Address Book, ToDo and Memos) that sync with equivalent apps on the hand-held device (in my case, a Palm TX).

Apple handles this a little differently. There are apps on the iPod and some equivalent apps in the Mac OS, e.g., iCal and Address Book.

I have several problems in converting from the Palm Desktop apps to the Mac ones. But firstly, the unmitigated success was the export of PD (Palm Desktop) Calendar data via the vCal standard format and importation into the Mac's iCal app. And it syncs nicely with my iPod Touch via iTunes.

Now for the problems/challenges:

1. I also need to transfer my PD Address Book data to my Mac's Address Book. I tried it by exporting via the standard vCard format and found that it all imports successfully into the old Mac Address Book (v4.0.6) on my old iBook running Tiger (OS 10.4), but when imported or transferred to my iMac running OS 10.6 and Address Book v5.0.1, the PD Custom fields are lost -- seems the new Mac Address Book isn't as fully featured as the old one and is non-upward-compatible -- not nice! Any ideas how to get the Custom fields data into the Notes section of the latest Mac Address Book?

2. PD doesn't permit exporting my ToDo lists in vCal format, which is the only format iCal can use to import them. Any ideas? I'd prefer to integrate them into this app, since that's where my Calendar data is; but I'm open to finding an app that can first import them and then export in vCal format, in order to transfer to iCal.

3. The iPod Touch comes with a freeware app called Notes, which would seem like a good app for housing my PD's Memos. However, it's not supported for the iPod Touch on 10.6. Meanwhile, I need some app that can run on both the iPod Touch and OS 10.6 to house this data and allow me to synchronize via iTunes -- is this impossible due to restrictions iTunes places on what can be sync'd?

Thanks for any ideas you can contribute. I'm in urgent need, since OS 10.6 is not supported by Palm, and I can no longer view my Palm's data on my main machine (my iMac) running 10.6.

John

2 x 24" iMac 3.06GHz Core Duo with 10.6; MacBook Pro 2.26GHz Core Duo with 10.6; iBook G3 with 10.4, Mac OS X (10.6.2)

Posted on Jan 18, 2010 3:53 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Best reply

William-Boyd-Jr

Level 6

10,578 points

Jan 19, 2010 9:01 AM in response to BigMacUser

BigMacUser wrote:
I'm migrating from a Palm TX to an iPod Touch.

At some point I expect to do that. A shorter-term challenge for me will be how to support Palm Desktop for my Palm Centro phone when I migrate to 10.6 (probably at the release of the 10.6.3 updater plus one month).

OS 10.6 is not supported by Palm

It sounds like you've verified this. There seemed to be a lot of confusion about this, but I finally concluded that what was not supported was the iSync conduit. Perhaps I was too optimistic.

I have Palm Desktop 4.2.2. I don't suppose that will work any better than 4.2.1.

You might find useful this electronic book "Take Control of Syncing Data in Snow Leopard":

http://db.tidbits.com/article/10775

this discussion thread on extracting data from Palm Desktop:

http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/2767

and this article about Missing Sync for Palm OS:

http://db.tidbits.com/article/10526

I realize that you're migrating away from Palm, but perhaps the Missing Sync software could help you move your data out of your Tx and into your iPhone.

Reply

Answer 2

Jan 19, 2010 9:35 AM in response to BigMacUser

BMU, I did the same migration, but I did it via The Missing Sync. All of my To-Dos, etc., came across seamlessly to my Mac apps and then to my Touch. I now use TMS on my Touch (though it won't sync in iTunes; it's a separate wifi sync), simply because I paid for it. However, I'm not sure it's always much better than the built-in apps. HTH.

Reply

Answer 3

Jan 20, 2010 7:06 AM in response to Sandra Foster

Sandra Foster wrote:
BMU, I did the same migration, but I did it via The Missing Sync. All of my To-Dos, etc., came across seamlessly to my Mac apps and then to my Touch. I now use TMS on my Touch (though it won't sync in iTunes; it's a separate wifi sync), simply because I paid for it. <G> However, I'm not sure it's always much better than the built-in apps. HTH.

It's my impression that The Missing Sync for Palm and for iPhone/touch are two separate products. Did you buy both or were you able to use one product for both environments?

Reply

Answer 4

Jan 20, 2010 7:25 AM in response to William-Boyd-Jr

William Boyd, Jr. wrote:
It's my impression that The Missing Sync for Palm and for iPhone/touch are two separate products. Did you buy both or were you able to use one product for both environments?

No, you're correct that they're two separate products. However, I the MarkSpace people gave me a discount on the desktop portion, since I was simply changing from one handheld to another. Unfortunately, they couldn't do anything about the part for the Touch, since that goes through the iTunes Store.

You could try writing them and seeing what they could do for you in terms of a discount, since you'd only need the TX version once.

Reply

Answer 5

Jan 20, 2010 7:39 AM in response to Sandra Foster

Sandra Foster wrote:

William Boyd, Jr. wrote:

You could try writing them and seeing what they could do for you in terms of a discount, since you'd only need the TX version once.

Thanks for the information.

In my case it's for Palm Centro and Treo phones. iPhone/touch is a somewhat future consideration, since I'm locked into the Palm equipment by termination penalties until this December.

Switching away from Palm Desktop while still using Palm equipment is going to be very painful for me. I synchronize the two devices to different users within Palm Desktop on one Mac. With The Missing Sync I believe I'd have to switch to synchronizing with different Mac OS X users or with different Macs. I could switch my own synchronizing to my other Mac (of which I'm the primary user), but I also depend heavily on Pocket Quicken to update Quicken data from my Palm to the computer that's now hosting the Palm Desktop data. ( I have no idea what's going to happen with the upcoming Quicken product!)

Reply

Answer 6

Jan 20, 2010 1:01 PM in response to William-Boyd-Jr

Oops! I don't know where I had the idea that you were using a TX — sorry about that. :S

I think you're right about the sync problem you'd have — I don't see a way to have different users within a single Mac account. 😟 Perhaps an email to the MS people would verify that.

As for Quicken, I'm very disappointed that the Quicken people haven't come up with an iPhone/Touch version of Pocket Quicken; I used to use PQ all the time. They do have an app, but it only works with their online Quicken, which I don't use.

Good luck with whatever you decide between now and December.

Reply

Answer 7

Jan 20, 2010 7:04 PM in response to Sandra Foster

Sandra Foster wrote:
I don't know where I had the idea that you were using a TX

That was the original poster.

I think you're right about the sync problem you'd have — I don't see a way to have different users within a single Mac account. 😟 Perhaps an email to the MS people would verify that.

"MS people"?? When the time comes I'll probably migrate to Apple's OS X applications such as Address Book and iCal.

As for Quicken, I'm very disappointed that the Quicken people haven't come up with an iPhone/Touch version of Pocket Quicken

Pocket Quicken isn't an Intuit product, but from Landware: http://www.landware.com/ . Perhaps they're waiting for the dust to settle on Intuit's Mac Quicken rework:

http://quicken.intuit.com/personal-finance-software/mac-personal-financial-softw are.jsp

Reply

Answer 8

Jan 20, 2010 7:14 PM in response to William-Boyd-Jr

William Boyd, Jr. wrote:
That was the original poster.

Aha! Careless of me to lose track that way. :S

"MS people"?? When the time comes I'll probably migrate to Apple's OS X applications such as Address Book and iCal.

"MS" in this case referred to MarkSpace — sorry about the confusion.

Pocket Quicken isn't an Intuit product, but from Landware: http://www.landware.com/ . Perhaps they're waiting for the dust to settle on Intuit's Mac Quicken rework:

http://quicken.intuit.com/personal-finance-software/mac-personal-financial-softw are.jsp

Okay, I'm making far too many mistakes today — I'd better give up and retire for the evening. 😉

Reply

Answer 9

Jan 20, 2010 7:52 PM in response to Sandra Foster

Sandra Foster wrote:

William Boyd, Jr. wrote:
"MS people"?? When the time comes I'll probably migrate to Apple's OS X applications such as Address Book and iCal.

"MS" in this case referred to MarkSpace — sorry about the confusion.

I should apologize. One of my rabid biases caused me to interpret "MS" as "Microsoft".

Reply

Answer 10

BigMacUser Author

Level 1

6 points

Jan 21, 2010 2:42 PM in response to William-Boyd-Jr

Hey, William, thanks for all the great ideas & links. I'm just catching up on my discussions, but this looks like a good first start.

As for the Palm on 10.6. I read it on the Palm site, and they may have only mentioned the conduit/syncing, but I can no longer bring up my Palm Desktop on my iMac running 10.6.2, so that tells me something else.

I've heard that there are various problems with 10.6, and waiting for 10.6.3 is probably a very good idea.

BMU aka John ")

Reply

Answer 11

BigMacUser Author

Level 1

6 points

Jan 21, 2010 3:17 PM in response to Sandra Foster

Hey, Sandra -- this is great news! Thanks so much for your contribution to this!

I need to get going with my Missing Sync research -- sounds like just the option I need.

Only question I have abut your posting is what you meant about it not syncing in iTunes ... mind you, maybe I won't need to ... except for the music side of things ... 🙂

John

Message was edited by: BigMacUser

Message was edited by: BigMacUser

Reply

Answer 12

BigMacUser Author

Level 1

6 points

Jan 21, 2010 3:15 PM in response to Sandra Foster

Ok, guys (Sandra & William) -- good point & discussion about the different versions of TMS -- things I need to consider in my research.

Message was edited by: BigMacUser

Message was edited by: BigMacUser

Reply

Answer 13

Jan 21, 2010 4:07 PM in response to BigMacUser

BigMacUser wrote:
As for the Palm on 10.6. I read it on the Palm site, and they may have only mentioned the conduit/syncing, but I can no longer bring up my Palm Desktop on my iMac running 10.6.2, so that tells me something else.

Thanks for the news, even though for me that's not good news at all. I'm nowhere ready to switch away from Palm Desktop, so I guess 10.6 will have to wait quite a while longer, at least on the Mac that I use for my Palm synchronizing.

Reply

Answer 14

Jan 21, 2010 4:44 PM in response to BigMacUser

I'm glad you found it useful, and thanks very much for the star. 🙂 As for not syncing in iTunes, I meant that your "normal" iTunes sync with the Touch won't include anything for The Missing Sync. So, you have to do a separate (not through iTunes) sync via wifi (no USB cable) to sync each of the apps associated with TMS. I hope that's clearer than mud. 😉

Reply

Answer 15

BigMacUser Author

Level 1

6 points

Jan 21, 2010 5:13 PM in response to Sandra Foster

Aha! I read, but hadn't picked-up on the significance of, that subtlety -- wifi .... But it now makes sense -- iTunes picks up on the cable connection to the USB port, eh? (that's Canadian for huh, I think) Good info before my plunge.

John

Reply