10.4.9 Brings Additional Phone Support

I look after some smartphones that run Windows Mobile 5.

Anyone here had any luck with Missing Sync from Mark/Space? I'd really like to get some feedback on what does / doesnt work before buying this software.

Phones: o2 XDA mini s (x2) and T-mobile Vario II, both on UK networks.

yg17 said:

You can sync with a BlackBerry. Just download PocketMac, it's free, and it works. I do it all the time with my Pearl.

The only minor annoyance is that I can't sync over Bluetooth, I have to use USB, but it's not that big of a deal.

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syncing is only like 5% of functionality....SMS using address book. Speakerphone via the apple mic and speakers, answering the cell phone from the apple. When your cell phone rings it pops up on your mac from the address book and you can decide to answer it or not, from the mac keyboard....it turns your mac into an extension of your phone and you can set your phone to teh side and use your computer to control it. Very cool if you work in front of your computer...turn your ringer off and you can work and be notified of SMS, or actual calls right on your screen....I did this all with my old motorola phone, but cant with my blackberry....

http://www.apple.com/macbook/wireless.html

thats some things that "dumb" phones can do when they can sync with bluetooth....

Stella said:

The iPhone lacks too many features, such as Exchange integration, also no Blackberry support.

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The iPhone does work with Exchange, and Windows and Palm smartphones also lack "Blackberry support," whatever that is.

Also, the iPhone is locked to high heaven, especially to the cell networks. Not to mention its price.

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So are smartphones, which are the same price as the iPhone. Unlocking them both is perfectly legal. You show me an 8GB smartphone for $600 unsubsidized anywhere, and we'll talk price.

Additionally, there aren't any MS office viewers like found on other smartphones such as Nokia, SE, Backberry, etc.

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All of which, except for the upcoming version's promises, absolutely suck. You can't compose on them, and you can't make any edits without completely destroying the formatting--that's even after you go through all sorts of contortions just to be able to view a standard pleading template because of the nested tables and text areas. Business users don't use Pocket Word or Excel. A simple rich text editor like TextEdit is about all that's needed. Powerpoint would be handy if it could zoom in and out to review presentations, but because it's got a stripped down engine, it can't even properly display anything but the most basic slides. You don't have fonts, proofing tools, full formatting support, ability to manipulate charts or other embedded objects or even a way to print directly from the thing.

I suspect you think those features are more important than they are. In reality, they're nothing but a nuisance. Yes, I own a Windows Mobile smartphone, and yes, I love it. The iPhone absolutely could replace it, though. As long as it supports Salling Clicker and IM when it launches, I know a building with hundreds of professionals who will be clamoring for one.

When it comes to IM - I expect the iPhone will support AIM, but the vast majority of people use MSN ( or Blackberry messaging ).

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Not in the US, they don't, but I don't see why there wouldn't be multi-protocol support for the sake of global interoperability.

Its Apple's fault only as far as they have poor market share, so cell phone manufacturers will not port their software to OSX.

The iPhone was a consumer smartphone. Its not aimed at business users since it lacks the capabilities. This is made very clear in the SJ SF keynote.

madog said:

Is it really Apple's fault? Don't most of the phones that iSync support not have their own software that comes with the phone, such as with Palm phones and Blackberry and WinCE phones? Palm is just one of the companies that have their own software specifically for mac and with BB and CE you need some third party software for support.

Isn't that one of the reasons Apple is coming out with the iPhone in the first place? To fill that giant gap for business users. How effective it will be is a different story.

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madog said:

Is it really Apple's fault? Don't most of the phones that iSync support not have their own software that comes with the phone, such as with Palm phones and Blackberry and WinCE phones? Palm is just one of the companies that have their own software specifically for mac and with BB and CE you need some third party software for support.

Isn't that one of the reasons Apple is coming out with the iPhone in the first place? To fill that giant gap for business users. How effective it will be is a different story.

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Yeah, but every body wants to blame somebody even when it's not their fault (that is Apple isn't to blame for the lack of mobile manufacturers software). Isn't that the American way?

v3i no addresses

Still, I can't sync postal addresses and pictures with my v3i!

The iPhone was a consumer smartphone. Its not aimed at business users since it lacks the capabilities. This is made very clear in the SJ SF keynote.

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for example:

- no e-mail push service (well push from yahoo...that's a joke! anyone using yahoo at their corporate?)

- vpn? (even if i could push mails...there is no access to my corporate network)

the iphone is never beingt able to do all that stuff you can do with a real smartphone: syncing and pushing mail, calendar, todo-lists, adress book with ms exchange and lotus notes.
Maybe things will change when they allow 3rd-party software on the iphone...like a true vpn client. but i'm pretty sure that won't happen.

No LG's yet. I'm guessing that's because my LG is a Verizon phone. Most likely the Verizon compatible phones will not work with iSync. I think it's time to make a switch.

KRZR contacts improvement

I've been using iSync to sync the contacts on my KRZR from Cingular with a little description file I found easily on the web. It synced (sunk?) the names and phone #'s just fine, but that was it, no pictures or addresses.

Since this update, it still doesn't upload my address book contact photos to my phone, but if I have different contact pictures on my phone, it asks me which one I want to use. If I choose the one on my phone, it downloads it to my computer. If I choose the one on my computer, nothing happens.

I have no idea what this means, but it seems like something different is going on under the hood for contact syncing.

And speaking of phone syncing, I've given up on iCal, and now sync my phone to my google calendar with goosync and it's worked wonderfully so far.

Hm, no Samsung a640. Shame.

Pretty lazy of Apple not to include Samsung D600E support alongside the D600. It's basically the exact same phone, only with a different antenna for the European market.

It's a popular phone in the UK, so here's a quick hack:

(1) Find the file 'MetaClasses.plist' via the following path:

/Applications/iSync.app/Contents/PlugIns/ApplePhoneConduit.syncdevice/Contents/PlugIns/Samsung-D600.phoneplugin/Contents/Resources/MetaClasses.plist

(2) Using TextEdit or similar, change the line 'SAMSUNG+SAMSUNG SGH-D600' to 'SAMSUNG+SAMSUNG SGH-D600E'.

(3) There's no step 3.

qubex said:

I've employed a variety of hacks to iSync my Nokia N80 since I bought it in May 2006. Almost a year later, I finally get official support... though recently I upgraded to a Nokia E61, also supported!

Wouldn't it be sensible for Apple and/or cellphone manufacturers to release decent iSync plugins for their phones whenever new ones are released? I'm betting that if I run out and buy a Nokia N95 when it is finally released in a few weeks it won't be supported on iSync by neither Apple nor Nokia... but within hours the correct script will turn up on the Internet, heroically cludged together with virtually no tools and no quality control, released "as is" to glue the two halves of my technological crown together.

I truly respect these people, but their enormous efforts shouldn't be necessary. If it takes a motivated reverse-engineer less than a day to get iSync and a swanky new model of cellphone talking and syncing, it certainly wouldn't absorb any noticeable resources inside a major telecoms multinational.

Why don't companies just do it themselves, and avoid the angst and embarrassment?

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Simple, because Nokia doesn’t support any platform other than windows and Apple makes changes to iSync and can break the plug-ins. If Apple would have a set framework and allow plug-ins it would make the life of everyone easier. Then Nokia, SE and others may actually develop their own plug-ins. Until iSync is opened up, this won’t happen.

ajgray said:

Pretty lazy of Apple not to include Samsung D600E support alongside the D600. It's basically the exact same phone, only with a different antenna for the European market.

It's a popular phone in the UK, so here's a quick hack:

(1) Find the file 'MetaClasses.plist' via the following path:

/Applications/iSync.app/Contents/PlugIns/ApplePhoneConduit.syncdevice/Contents/PlugIns/Samsung-D600.phoneplugin/Contents/Resources/MetaClasses.plist

(2) Using TextEdit or similar, change the line 'SAMSUNG+SAMSUNG SGH-D600' to 'SAMSUNG+SAMSUNG SGH-D600E'.

(3) There's no step 3.

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The same for other phones announced from Nokia, the E61i. It will eb here in the next few months and is just a slight change to the existing phone, i.e. different keypad and the addition of a camera. The N80i has been available. I think it is great that Apple is adding phones, but it takes them too long. Some of these phones have been available for a year or longer and their replacements are almost available.

splifft said:

- no e-mail push service (well push from yahoo...that's a joke! anyone using yahoo at their corporate?)

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Who cares? Use IMAP and set it to poll every minute (or 30 seconds if you're really that desperate). You'll save in download times in the end anyway.

- vpn? (even if i could push mails...there is no access to my corporate network)

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VPN providers will have to provide their own VPN clients. It's not like VPN is a magical catch-all.

the iphone is never beingt able to do all that stuff you can do with a real smartphone: syncing and pushing mail, calendar, todo-lists, adress book with ms exchange and lotus notes.

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The iPhone can do all of those things just as well as Windows. Exchange address books require additional software on WM5, and Lotus Notes is a third-party application.

I'm not saying everyone should go out and get an iPhone, but discounting it on false notions of what it supposedly can't do is just plain asinine. Where do Symbian phones fall in with regard to Exchange global address lists? Yeah, I thought so.

I'm glad they are expanding support.

more phone support the better i guess

Anyone notice on their macbooks that their HDDs now register as Serial ATA 2 rather than Serial ATA? in disk util.

I guess all the negatives comes from all the people who don't see their phone in that list eh?

I think I'm going to give this a negative because the iPhone isn't in that list.

CJD2112 said:

It is important to note that some of the syncing issues may NOT be with Mac OS X but with the service provider. Note that Verizon has intentionally crippled many of the bluetooth capabilities of their phones in order to force subscribers to use their pay services such as "Get It Now" and uploading of contact lists. If Mac users are still having difficulties syncing their phones, chances are if you're a Verizon customer it may be for those reasons. As an ex-Verizon customer I had difficulties syncing my RAZR v3 and later discovered it was due to Verizons crippling of OBEX and later crippling of contact exchange. I switched to Cingular and have none of those problems with my RAZR v3.

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I can believe some of the providers do cripple their phones but when I try to access the extra features of bluetooth phones and Address Book it will not work, yet when using Blue Phone Elite it does work. This means that either the programmers at Blue Phone found a workaround or Apples programmers can't figure out how to provide these features.

Since the V3 RAZR's are so common I find it hard to believe that Apple has not added these features to Address Book yet. I guess I will put another feature request on the feedback page at Apple.com.

I'm planning to buy a new phone in the next couple of weeks and I'd like it to work with iSync, including sending SMS from my Mac, etc.

Does anyone have any really good experiences with a particular model of phone and how it works with their Mac?

(I'm not interested in a real smart-phone, just a fairly normal phone).

its kinda like windows. but now we cant even download drivers for our phones. To sync a phone on windows means you have to get the drivers and the software. at least with os x you dont have the hassle of having to find the software for every phone. and then finding the driver. then having to restart. then having to find the usb cable.

iSync makes things a lot easier, and the amount of phones it supports is huge when you compare it to say how many phones windows supports without installing additional software. I think there should be a thread for people to moan that windows doesnt support their phone out of the box!

Macrumors said:

* Nokia N73 Bluetooth + USB

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USB is not working for me on my N73.

The funny thing is, it worked fine before the update.
(I used the mactomster iSync plugin, but I don't know, if it had any effect on the USB.)

[EDIT:]
And I mean mounting the phone's file system via USB. Don't know about synching with USB.

Businesses do. That what Blackberry messaging is.

VPN - VPN providers can't provide their own VPN clients for iPhone because its a restricted environment.

But as you say, iPhone isn't for everyone ; like all products.

I would argue that iPhone can't do things as well as other smarpthones, i.e., Symbian, windows etc because the 3rd party software environment will be limited. It may have the potential - most definitely, but its been throttled.

matticus008 said:

Who cares? Use IMAP and set it to poll every minute (or 30 seconds if you're really that desperate). You'll save in download times in the end anyway.

VPN providers will have to provide their own VPN clients. It's not like VPN is a magical catch-all.

The iPhone can do all of those things just as well as Windows. Exchange address books require additional software on WM5, and Lotus Notes is a third-party application.

I'm not saying everyone should go out and get an iPhone, but discounting it on false notions of what it supposedly can't do is just plain asinine. Where do Symbian phones fall in with regard to Exchange global address lists? Yeah, I thought so.

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Stella said:

Businesses do. That what Blackberry messaging is.

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They only care because they've been told to by salespeople. There's no difference between using IMAP at 1 minute and using push email, except that you might get a few messages a few seconds later (if 30 second email delays will kill you, a) you need a vacation and b) how did you survive two years ago?). IMAP even offers the benefit of allowing you to see the subjects before you waste time and bandwidth downloading unimportant messages and maintaining a persistent connection.

VPN - VPN providers can't provide their own VPN clients for iPhone because its a restricted environment.

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Why? What corporate environment do you know that has a VPN client written by a 20something developer on the weekends? The VPN services will release an iPhone client if they choose to--just like they choose whether or not to release them now on other, existing platforms.

P990i owner

*cry*

Going off topic slightly

Great Apple and Samsung are getting a tiny bit closer together. Love my D900

Pity Apple would not support the excellant Samsung T9 MP3 player (but I guess thats off the menu )

Makes iPod Nano look like a kids plastic toy from the past