[markspace-announce] Mark/Space News #43 - Entourage Update,
Universal Apps Coming Soon, Protecting Your Data and More
Mark/Space Newsletter
newsletter at markspace.com
Mon Mar 20 17:11:00 PST 2006
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Included in this announcement from Mark/Space:
1. NEWS: Microsoft Adds Sync Services Support to Entourage
2. COMING SOON: Universal Missing Sync Apps for Intel-based Macs
3. SUPPORT: Protecting Your Data in the Sync Services Age
4. NEW STUFF: BackupBuddy for Mac OS X and Palm OS Devices
5. COOL STUFF: Bejeweled 2 for Palm OS and Windows Mobile
6. HELPFUL INFO: How to unsubscribe, get support, etc.
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1. NEWS: Microsoft Adds Sync Services Support to Entourage
<http://www.microsoft.com/mac/>
<http://blogs.msdn.com/entourage/>
Last week, Microsoft released a much-anticipated update to Office
2004 for Mac OS X, which includes some new features for Entourage.
Most notably, this update adds Spotlight searching and Sync Services
support to Entourage.
Sync Services is a synchronization component that Apple introduced in
Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger". Essentially, Sync Services provides a
centralized database for common types of information, including
contacts, calendar events and tasks. Tiger's Address Book and iCal
applications are constantly syncing their data in the background with
the Sync Services database.
All current Missing Sync products use Sync Services to synchronize
with supported handheld devices. Instead of syncing with Tiger's
Address Book application, your PDA's or smartphone's contacts are
synchronized directly with the Sync Services database. The same is
true with calendar information.
The huge advantage to interfacing with Sync Services is that we can
synchronize with information from other applications that use this
technology. Chronos Organizer gained support for Sync Services
earlier this year, and Microsoft has just done the same with
Entourage. Now, Entourage users can synchronize information through
Apple's .Mac service and other Sync Services clients, like The
Missing Sync.
However, depending on the way you work, you may view how Entourage
passes category data to Sync Services as limiting.
No category information is passed to Sync Services for Entourage's
address book contacts. All contacts sync back and forth through Sync
Services to Tiger's Address Book application and Entourage, but
Entourage category and information is not shared.
Similarly, Entourage does not synchronize any calendar event or task
categories with Sync Services. Instead, all events and tasks from
Entourage are given a category of "Entourage" when they are sent to
the Sync Services database. This means that events labeled as "Home"
or "Work" in Entourage won't appear in the "Home" or "Work" calendars
in iCal; they will show up in a single calendar called "Entourage".
Likewise, only events and tasks added to iCal's "Entourage" calendar
will sync back to Entourage.
Depending on which edition of The Missing Sync you work with, this
Entourage update may open up additional synchronization options.
THE MISSING SYNC FOR PALM OS - Users running Tiger now have two
options for syncing Entourage data to their Palm OS devices: (1)
Continue to use the Microsoft Entourage Palm conduit included with
Office 2004; or (2) use Entourage's Sync Services feature, and then
use the Mark/Space Contacts, Events and Tasks conduits to sync your
Palm OS device with Sync Services. Users who wish to sync Entourage's
contact's categories with their handheld address book should continue
to use method #1. For those who wish to use method #2, we recommend
using the 5.1 beta version of The Missing Sync for Palm OS available
here: <http://www.markspace.com/testing/>.
THE MISSING SYNC FOR WINDOWS MOBILE - Users running Tiger should
continue to use the Entourage plugin in The Missing Sync for Windows
Mobile to synchronize their handhelds with Entourage. Mark/Space will
soon release a free 2.0.3 update that will add support for Entourage
Sync Services data. To learn more, read our knowledgebase article:
<http://support.markspace.com?kb=2665>.
THE MISSING SYNC FOR HIPTOP - Sidekick and hiptop owners running
Tiger can now synchronize Entourage data with Tiger Sync Services,
and The Missing Sync for hiptop will synchronize this data to the
device.
To learn more about Sync Services in general, please see our
knowledgebase article: <http://support.markspace.com/?kb=2654>.
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2. COMING SOON: Universal Missing Sync apps for Intel-based Macs
< http://www.markspace.com/intel.html>
Mark/Space is hard at work on "universal" versions of The Missing
Sync for Palm OS and The Missing Sync for Windows Mobile. The term
"universal" refers to applications that are designed to run natively
on Macs with either PowerPC or Intel processors. Universal
applications do not suffer a performance penalty when running on
Intel-based Macs, and they may even run faster than on PowerPC-based
Macs.
The Palm OS edition of The Missing Sync is currently in beta and will
be released as version 5.1 later this month. The update to our
Windows Mobile edition will also include support for Windows Mobile 5
devices, and will follow the Palm OS update. Notifications will be
sent to this list as soon as the new universal versions are available.
The hiptop edition is currently supported running in Intel Macs'
Rosetta emulation layer, so Mark/Space has no plans to update The
Missing Sync for hiptop to a universal application at this time.
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3. SUPPORT: Protecting Your Data in the Sync Services Age
<http://www.markspace.com/wm5.html>
With Apple's new Sync Services technology in Tiger being used by more
and more applications and services, such as Address Book, iCal, .Mac
syncing, Chronos Organizer, Microsoft Entourage, MySync and all three
editions of The Missing Sync, it's becoming more important than ever
to have a handle on protecting your data.
Why, you ask? What makes Sync Services different? With Sync Services,
changes made in one application are mirrored in all other
applications that sync with the same type of data. That means that if
you accidentally delete a contact in Tiger's Address Book, that
contact will also be deleted from anything else you are syncing to
Sync Services, such as a smartphone, or Microsoft Entourage or an
iPod. And if you synchronize multiple Macs with Apple's .Mac service,
that accidental deletion will take place on each and every one.
The best way to protect yourself from unexpected data loss is to make
frequent backups. The best way to back up your data is to back up
your entire Mac to removable media or external hard disks using a
backup application like Apple's .Mac backup, EMC Retrospect for Mac
or SuperDuper. For protection against flood, fire, or other
disasters, store at least one backup offsite and refresh it
occasionally.
<http://www.mac.com/1/solutions/backup.html>
<http://www.emcinsignia.com/products/smb/retroformac/>
<http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/>
If you don't have the capacity to perform complete backups, then it's
important to know where your critical data resides, so that you can
protect it. Apple's .Mac backup application offers special settings
to back up things like your Address Book and iCal data, but it's a
good idea to know how to do it manually, should the need arise.
If you're syncing with Sync Services, Tiger's Address Book and iCal
applications have backup features that can be invoked from the File
menu. Choosing the "Back up Address Book" or "Back up Database"
commands will save a complete copy of your Address Book or iCal data
in a place of your choosing. Later, you can restore from these by
using the "Revert..." commands, also under Address Book and iCal's
File menus. Using the Revert command will replace everything
currently in Address Book or iCal with the data from the backup, and
that data will then be acquired by other applications and devices
that tie into Sync Services.
If you're still running Mac OS X 10.3 "Panther", then Sync Services
isn't something you need to be aware of yet, but you can still back
up your Address Book and iCal data by making copies of the following
folders.
~/Library/Calendars/
~/Library/Application Support/Address Book/
The "~" represents your home directory, the one named to match your
Mac OS X user name.
Protecting yourself from unexpected data loss is one of those
absolutely critical habits to acquire BEFORE you wish you had.
Someone once said, "It's not a question of IF you will lose data, but
WHEN." If you've been there, then you already understand. If you're
one of the lucky ones who hasn't lost any data yet, take it from the
rest of us and start backing up today.
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4. NEW STUFF: BackupBuddy for Mac OS X and Palm OS Devices
<http://store.markspace.com/product.php?id=6027>
In keeping with this newsletter's focus on protecting yourself from
data loss, we're pleased to announce the addition of Blue Nomad's
BackupBuddy for Mac OS X to the Mark/Space Online Store.
BackupBuddy for Mac OS X provides a conduit for Palm OS device users
that includes more advanced backup and restore capabilities than the
built-in Backup conduit in The Missing Sync for Palm OS. For example,
BackupBuddy allows you to create restore "checkpoints" that allow you
to restore your handheld to a previous backup, not just the last.
This is great for when a Palm OS update doesn't go quite as expected,
and you want to "roll back" to an older backup. You can even restore
all previous versions of a file, such as a Word to Go file that
you've been working on.
BackupBuddy for Mac OS X also includes BackupBuddyVFS Personal, a
Palm OS application that gives you the capability to create a backup
of your Palm OS device's internal memory on a memory expansion card,
for those times when you aren't at your desk and you need to make an
emergency backup.
If you're looking for more options when it comes to backing up your
handheld data, look no further than BackupBuddy for Mac OS X,
available for $29.95 from the Mark/Space Online Store, or from the
Shop tab in the latest version of The Missing Sync for Palm OS.
<http://store.markspace.com/product.php?id=6027>
If you're looking for a more powerful handheld backup application,
then Blue Nomad's BackupBuddyVFS Professional offers the features of
the desktop version, but in a Palm OS application that can back up to
memory expansion cards. It's only $19.95 in the Mark/Space Online
Store or from the Shop tab in the latest version of The Missing Sync
for Palm OS. <http://store.markspace.com/product.php?id=5000>
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5. COOL STUFF: Bejeweled 2 for Palm OS and Windows Mobile
Palm OS: <http://store.markspace.com/product.php?id=6008>
Windows Mobile: <http://store.markspace.com/product.php?id=6018>
Everyone needs a game or two on their handheld, and the best-selling
Bejeweled 2 from Astraware is a game that everyone should have.
Players must match colored, horizontally or vertically aligned jewels
in groups of three or more to clear them from the board. Matching
groups of more than three provide special gems with devices to help
clear more jewels.
Bejeweled 2 features all new graphics, stunning background images, in
game transitions and cutting-edge special effects. The game has four
standard play modes: classic, action, endless and the all-new puzzle
mode; five special bonus modes are unlocked as players progress
through the various standard modes, adding extra challenges and even
more gameplay.
If you haven't tried Bejeweled, Bejeweled 2 is even more addicting
and fun, and it's the perfect way to pass the time when you have some
to kill. Check out Bejeweled 2 for Palm OS or Windows Mobile today,
just $19.95 at the Mark/Space Online Store or from the Shop tab in
the latest version of The Missing Sync for Palm OS.
Palm OS: <http://store.markspace.com/product.php?id=6008>
Windows Mobile: <http://store.markspace.com/product.php?id=6018>
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