[missing-sync-pocketpc-talk] PocketMac working for Tiger

[David Ramsey]

On my system:

* About every third time I try to sync, it asks to re-install the  
PocketMac software on the handheld.
* When it complains that a contact or event has been deleted on the  
Pocket PC or Mac, it opens a window which should presumably show the  
deleted record, but which instead is blank, so that you don't know  
what, exactly, it's complaining about.
* Syncing doesn't seem to work at all most of the time. I change a  
record on one end, sync, and it's only got about a 20% chance of  
making it through to the other end. This is using the OS X Address  
Book and iCal plugins supplied with the product.
* The PocketMac status window will happily show my device connected  
and ready 10 minutes after I removed it from the cradle. (It has to  
be in the cradle; Bluetooth simply does not work.)
* During the install, when it asks if it should configure iTunes, if  
I say "Yes", the Installer quietly goes away forever ("forever" = "I  
lost patience after 10 minutes, timed.")

The documentation, however, is the kicker. Whoever heard of buying  
software and not getting any documentation with it? It's easy enough  
to get, but why make it a separate download?

And the documentation is so sublimely terrible. It took my a long  
time to figure out that PocketMac exists as an icon in the menu bar,  
because all the documentation shows is a microscopic, no-context  
picture of the icon, and refers to the menu bar as the "status bar."  
It happily announces that it now works with iSync...and that's it. No  
information on how to add your Pocket PC to iSync or to set up the  
conduits.

I could go on, but you get the picture. Dunno what's special about my  
machine-- dual-proc G5 running Tiger-- but the product would be  
closed to damned for its horrible documentation even if it worked  
perfectly.

As a final insult, when you UNINSTALL it, the uninstaller is too  
stupid to shut down the various PocketMac processes, and leaves  
PocketMac-related files splattered all over your machine  
(specifically: in your home directory, in ~/Libary/PocketMac, and ~/ 
Library/Application Support/PocketMac). Thank God for Spotlight,  
which has allowed me to remove every trace of this vomitous product  
from my machine forever.

On May 15, 2005, at 4:22 PM, Brett Collinson wrote:

> I too have downloaded and installed the new Tiger version of  
> PocketMac.  I'm using PocketMac Lite.  And it is working well.  No  
> problems at all connecting to my O2 XDA II, via USB and  
> Bluetooth.   No problem syncing multi-day and recurring events.   
> I'm just as happy with PocketMac as I was with MissingSync.  It  
> seems to sync more reliably and the Lite version is cheap.
>
> The only minor bug I've found so far with PocketMac is iCal events  
> with an ampersand character (&) get duplicated every time you sync  
> because PocketMac replaces the ampersand with a plus characters (+)  
> and so next time you sync, it doesn't recognise that the event  
> already exists.  I've worked around this by removing all ampersands  
> from my events.
>
> All the best if you try it.  Not having a MissingSync version ready  
> for Tiger is very poor.
>
> _______________________________________________
> missing-sync-pocketpc-talk mailing list
> missing-sync-pocketpc-talk at lists.markspace.com
> Unsubcribing information, subscription options and list archives  
> can be found at:
> http://lists.markspace.com/mailman/listinfo/missing-sync-pocketpc-talk
>
>