Syncing it all

February 4, 2004 · Comments

The players: New Motorola phone that can only connect to a computer via a wired cable and PC software, along with a new Palm Tungsten T3 and Bluetooth adapter. Mac as the “hub” with all the original data and PC along for support. It took a few hours, but at this moment they all have the same contacts.

The easy part: Syncing the Palm. There’s been talk on the lists about how Palm is no longer supporting the Mac with its latest devices, but I had absolutely no problem syncing the Tungsten to my G5. I created a new user on the G5 so I could be selective about what was installed (I traded low res applications for hi res ones where ever possible to take advantage of the Palm’s 320×480 screen).

The Belkin Bluetooth adapter I purchased came with a CD and 5 pages of instructions for getting it to work on a PC. The steps to get it to work on a Mac running OS X 10.3 (after turning Bluetooth “on” on the Palm):

# Plug it in
# Open the System Prefs
# Let it find the device
# Sync

Took me longer to type than to do.

I had absolutely no problem getting the T3 to sync with iSync, now on to the PC.

Syncing the Tungsten to the PC worked just as well via cradle (and was incredibly fast thanks to the wired connection). Now to get the contacts to the phone.

I purchased a Motorola/PC data cable, came home and downloaded Motorola’s “Mobile Tools” software. Works nicely…except only with Outlook Express.

No sweat, I thought. I’ll just sync the Tungsten to Outlook Express instead of Palm Desktop. Easier said than done. Much easier. It seems that there is *nothing* out there that will sync a Tungsten T3 to Outlook Express on a PC! I found three 3rd party conduits:

* Jibe. Looks perfect except for the big “Jibe is not compatible with the Palm Tungsten T3 and the Palm Tungsten E devices.”
* ExpressSync. Looks just like Jibe, and like Jibe won’t work with the T3 or TE.
* CompanionLink. Actually has a version especially for the T3 and TE but it comes with a $50 price tag!

I downloaded and used the CompanionLink software free trial just to get my contacts into the phone, but there’s no way I’m spending $50 for it. I can copy records individually, but it’s a nightmare to tell what has been updated and when. I do need syncing as opposed to just moving files from one place to the other.

So syncing my new phone and PDA is easy… Mac to Palm, Palm to PC Palm Desktop, Palm Desktop to Outlook Express via CompanionLink, Outlook Express to the phone via Motorola data cable & software. ::sigh::

If anyone knows of an easier way to get from Point A (Palm with Bluetooth & Infrared) to Point B (phone with a USB data cable but no Bluetooth or Infrared) I’d love to hear it!

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