[missing-sync-hiptop-talk] May 9th, What's The Status?

[Gregory Seidman]

On Wed, May 12, 2004 at 01:21:50PM -0700, Todd Dabney wrote:
} wait a second i'm still missing something here.  All this fuss is 
} pretty much because we're mac users.  Anyone on a windows machine can 
} simply upload, free of charge to the best of my knowledge, there 
} microsoft outlook contacts into the desktop interface and they'll be 
} put on the phone.  Am i wrong??  Why would T-Mobile be charging us for 
} this service?

You are, indeed, wrong. While you can upload a variety of information
to Danger's site (and, therefore, your phone), there is no roundtrip --
you can't get that information back. I actually pulled together all the
contact information I had into a CSV file suitable for upload and
uploaded it, but the only forms I have it in are on the phone itself and
several loose text files.

I am much more interested in syncing *to* my Mac, not from it. Even once
I've done the initial sync, I am much more likely to update information
on the phone when I see someone in person than I am to update anything
directly on my Mac.

} >Unfortunately, it's not possible.  The USB interface is not exposed to 
} >third-party developers and the only support for it built into the OS 
} >proper is to restore the flash ROM in case it gets corrupted somehow.
} 
} You can use the usb interface to upload software you develop if you 
} unlock the O.S. So i'm sure you can write data into the system.

It is technically feasible for Danger to provide an interface, but as I
mentioned...

} >While M/S can't do anything about that problem, it is pretty clear
} >that Danger can. I don't know what kind of contract M/S and Danger
} >have, if any, but I would hope that they have some sort of leverage
} >to push Danger into providing synchronization support on their end
} >one way or another.
} >
} >On the other hand, there are political realities. While T-Mobile
} >isn't the biggest provider out there, it's pretty big and it's the
} >only one on the East coast that supports the Hiptop. Danger has to be
} >careful not to piss them off. Doing an end-run around T-Mobile's
} >billing plan is entirely too likely to piss them off. I'm sure the
} >folks at Danger want to give us synchronization capabilities months
} >ago, and are happy to have a third-party developer taking care of it.

...it probably isn't politically feasible.

} >} Steven
} >--Greg
--Greg