PalmOne Tungsten T5 and isync

The choice to use the Palm Desktop is clearly an individual one. It's not Sync Services compliant—and never will be—so it represents a now outmoded technology and a dead-end for future improvements. Palm has publicly declared its intent not to upgrade the package, beyond providing basic compatibility upgrades similar to the Palm Desktop 4.2.1 and 4.2.2 packages. This choice also precludes the use of iCal and the Address Book, but some users are quite happy with the way the Palm Desktop operates. Its strengths, to be fair, include the built-in memo synchronization function, and its handling of task or to do data.

From my experience, these are the preferred synchronization environments under Mac OS X 10.4 or later, in order of most effective to least:

• the Missing Sync for Palm OS
• iSync and the iSync Palm Conduit
• the Palm Desktop

The greatest benefit to using either the Missing Sync for Palm OS or iSync is their compatibility with the Sync Services framework, a technology explained here:

http://developer.apple.com/macosx/syncservices.html

A Bluetooth link work well for most users and it is convenient, but USB provides a wider, faster and far more secure data path, and is probably a better choice for virtually everyone, though few seem to recognize it as such.

I cannot help you with the error without you providing the specific error message.

You can back the address up in several ways, including approaches using the Backup conduit and backing up a copy of the user files created by the Palm Desktop.

I have extensive experience with several generations of all three products, and vastly prefer—and use—the Missing Sync for Palm OS. This application supports many conduits, but is used by most with the provided Mark/Space Contacts, Events and Tasks calendars to synchronize contact with the Address Book and calendaring and task data with iCal.

One can easily revert to the Palm Desktop if you simply leave it intact: there is no reason to remove it. The Palm Desktop, however, is a virtual dead end. Palm has made it clear that they will not develop future releases beyond those required for maintenance. Compatibility with Mac OS X 10.5—coming early next year—is still an open issue.

Once you're synchronizing with iCal and the Address Book, it's very easy to back up both datasets using the built-in back up options in each application.

You should have him look at Mail, the Address Book and iCal, and determine if he can work with these applications or others that integrate with them like DayLite from Marketcircle. If the answer is yes, he can leave the Palm Desktop behind.

During and after the conversion, no Palm Desktop data will be lost as long as you simply leave the Palm Desktop alone. It is not possible, however, to update that data once you begin using iSync with iCal and the Address Book. There should be no need to restore the data - it will simply remain unmolested and unused, on his hard drive. He can still launch and use the Palm Desktop, but no updates will take place between it and the Tungsten once the changes are made.

Hi Michael
I've been reading your posting because I can't get my new Palm Tungstun E2 to sync with my ical on my computer. I've tried to add the device but it doesn't recognize it!! The hotsync seems to be working. I just want to update by computer calendar and be able to use it in my palm. What is the Missing Sync. Is it a download I need?

I believe that the Missing Sync for Palm OS is a program far better suited to synchronizing Palm devices than iSync is, but—that said—iSync and the iSync Palm Conduit will do the job, and you should first enable that process before downloading and installing the Missing Sync for Palm OS.

How are you trying to add your device? You cannot use the Add Device option under the Devices menu in iSync - to add a Palm device, you must instead choose the option at the bottom of that menu, labeled Enable Palm OS Syncing…

When you do that, iSync installs and activates the iSync Palm Conduit, disables the standard Palm PIM conduits, and when you next launch iSync, your device will appear as a Tungsten icon labeled with your HotSync name in the main window of iSync. Press it, and a configuration pane will drop down, in which you set the specific synchronization parameters for your device.

Let me add a little twist: On my work PC I use outlook and that is my primary organizer - contacts the way I want them, secretary can add dates to calendar, etc. Want to be able to bring Palm home and overwrite iCal and Address Book. Well, not exactly overwrite iCal, as I subscribe to my kids' teachers' PowerSchool calendars. As far as adding appointments and contacts, I am happy to use the Palm and/or work PC as primary and simply ADD that info from Palm to Address Book and iCal.

Possible?