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Apple Releases iSync 1.4

Re: Re: Re: Feature I'd like to see....

Originally posted by Armsreach
No, what I mean, is that I have a home computer. It's my main use computer. However, I take my laptop with me to school and out with me. I use a pop account run off my webserver, and if I'm at school and grab my mail, then I have the choice of deleting it from my server when it downloads, or leaving it there, and when I get home downloading the message again. Repeat for each account. Now, I could copy my mail folder over by hand, but I can do the same thing with my calendars and contact info, so I don't see that it would be that hard for them to just add that into isync. Syncronize junk mail filters, certain accounts only, etc. etc. In a multi computer household or network I could see that being at least somewhat helpful. instead of doing it by hand. Haven't downloaded the update yet (at school) so I haven't seen the functionality of syncing calendars and contacts from one computer to the other, so maybe I misunderstanding that part of this update. Ah well.

So, when are them G5 powerbooks coming out. :)
Click to expand...

Hey, why not run a IMAP server on your webserver? That way, your mail is stored on your server, with a cached copy in your mail app. Works great and is more secure than POP3 I believe (I'm no expert). That's what I do and I'm very happy with it.

M.
 
Re: Re: Re: Feature I'd like to see....

Originally posted by Armsreach
No, what I mean, is that I have a home computer. It's my main use computer. However, I take my laptop with me to school and out with me. I use a pop account run off my webserver, and if I'm at school and grab my mail, then I have the choice of deleting it from my server when it downloads, or leaving it there, and when I get home downloading the message again. Repeat for each account.
Click to expand...

Quit using a POP3 server and switch to IMAP. Then you're mail stays on the server for all your machines to access and updates the status of the messages. You can have a local cache copy if you're offline for some reason that will be updated next time you come online.
 
Re: Re: Re: Re: Feature I'd like to see....

Originally posted by iHack
Hey, why not run a IMAP server on your webserver? That way, your mail is stored on your server, with a cached copy in your mail app. Works great and is more secure than POP3 I believe (I'm no expert). That's what I do and I'm very happy with it.
M.
Click to expand...
It's not more secure than POP3 as it still passes the password and mail in plain text.

You can get it to run over SSL (as I have done for my users) however you can get POP3 to use SSL too.

I suppose POP3 is more common and I have seen more sniffing tools specifically targetting POP3, however this is an academic issue.
 
mail synchronization, etc.

I don't think iSync should be involved with the e-mail synchronization like you're suggesting, Armsreach. That's more what offline/disconnected IMAP is designed for tho' I'm not sure if and/or how well Apple Mail supports it. I use Mulberry, the powerful cross-platform IMAP client with an arguably complicated and fugly interface, which does support it -- search for nomadic on the Mulberry testimonials page.
 
Re: mail synchronization, etc.

Originally posted by sjk
I don't think iSync should be involved with the e-mail synchronization like you're suggesting, Armsreach. That's more what offline/disconnected IMAP is designed for tho' I'm not sure if and/or how well Apple Mail supports it. I use Mulberry, the powerful cross-platform IMAP client with an arguably complicated and fugly interface, which does support it -- search for nomadic on the Mulberry testimonials page.
Click to expand...

Mail supports the IMAP protocol perfectly, so just use IMAP (and secure it over SSL if necessary), and your Mail will stay in sync without the need for iSync. Seriously, I don't think Apple needs to reinvent the wheel, here.

Synching junk mail info would be nice, though, because I think that's a local machine thing. In that case, though, you can just copy the "LSMap" file that's in your ~/Library/Mail folder to your iDisk, and then copy it again on your other computers, and then you'll have your junk mail info on your second comp, too. Not automatic, but it works.
 
Phone number format now looks correct on the iPod. :D

But calendar items still have the annoying "12:00 AM" in front of all-day events. Oh well.

Seems to work a little faster now with iPod syncing.
 
anybody done this who syncs with PalmOS yet?

last time I updated iSync, I had to wait for a PalmConduit update, so for several weeks, I could not sync. Don't want to go through that again.
 
Originally posted by raynegus
Phone number format now looks correct on the iPod. :D

But calendar items still have the annoying "12:00 AM" in front of all-day events. Oh well.

Seems to work a little faster now with iPod syncing.
Click to expand...

As long as we're pointing out issues. . . birthdays don't sync to iPod. Kind of annoying for those of us who are unable to remember birthdays. :)

-rik
 
Re: anybody done this who syncs with PalmOS yet?

Originally posted by aquafina
last time I updated iSync, I had to wait for a PalmConduit update, so for several weeks, I could not sync. Don't want to go through that again.
Click to expand...

I installed the iSync update through Software Update just now and Palm synchronization worked fine afterward with no special tweaking.

It does not look like mapping between Palm categories and iCal calendars is supported yet, but nothing seems to be broken.

YMMV
 
Re: Re: Re: Feature I'd like to see....

Originally posted by Armsreach
No, what I mean, is that I have a home computer. It's my main use computer. However, I take my laptop with me to school and out with me. I use a pop account run off my webserver, and if I'm at school and grab my mail, then I have the choice of deleting it from my server when it downloads, or leaving it there, and when I get home downloading the message again. Repeat for each account. Now, I could copy my mail folder over by hand, but I can do the same thing with my calendars and contact info, so I don't see that it would be that hard for them to just add that into isync. Syncronize junk mail filters, certain accounts only, etc. etc. In a multi computer household or network I could see that being at least somewhat helpful. instead of doing it by hand. Haven't downloaded the update yet (at school) so I haven't seen the functionality of syncing calendars and contacts from one computer to the other, so maybe I misunderstanding that part of this update. Ah well.

So, when are them G5 powerbooks coming out. :)
Click to expand...

Isn't that a fundamental problem with pop accounts? Can't you set it to delete from server when you delete on your machine? At least that way you don't have to delete twice.
 
Re: Re: anybody done this who syncs with PalmOS yet?

Still no support for LG phones. :(

I use Verizon and they are strongly pushing the LG phones claiming they have better reception than even the Motorola's.
 
not really...

Originally posted by soosy
kinda strange you have to install iCal even if you don't use it.
Click to expand...

lots of software (not just on Mac) leverage other packages to 1) reduce size of executable, 2) reduce supported source code, etc. This is very common.
 
Re: Re: Re: Feature I'd like to see....

Originally posted by Armsreach
No, what I mean, is that I have a home computer. It's my main use computer. However, I take my laptop with me to school and out with me. I use a pop account run off my webserver, and if I'm at school and grab my mail, then I have the choice of deleting it from my server when it downloads, or leaving it there, and when I get home downloading the message again. Repeat for each account. Now, I could copy my mail folder over by hand, but I can do the same thing with my calendars and contact info, so I don't see that it would be that hard for them to just add that into isync. Syncronize junk mail filters, certain accounts only, etc. etc. In a multi computer household or network I could see that being at least somewhat helpful. instead of doing it by hand. Haven't downloaded the update yet (at school) so I haven't seen the functionality of syncing calendars and contacts from one computer to the other, so maybe I misunderstanding that part of this update. Ah well.
Click to expand...

Set each computer to download the mail and to automatically delete it from the server after it's a week old. So if you are out and download mail to your laptop, as long as you check with your main computer within a week, you'll have identical copies on both machines. You can adjust the time to be longer or shorter than a week as needed. You shouldn't have to manually delete the mail from the server.
Or if you don't care about having everything on the laptop, but just want to check mail with it while you are out, you can set the main home machine to delete the messages immediately. If the laptop grabs a message first, it will still wait a week for you to download to the main machine.

I don't think it makes a lot of sense to sync Mail with iSync. You are either going to be downloading the mail a second time from the mail server or else syncing/downloading the mail a second time from another machine (probably via .Mac since Apple doesn't seem to like us using any old webdav server). Either way, it's the same.

Syncing Junk rules and prefs makes some sense, but I think that would be more appropriate as a global thing to sync all application prefs. It would be most useful as a new computer transfer tool where you transfer all your settings.
 
Re: not really...

Originally posted by aquafina
lots of software (not just on Mac) leverage other packages to 1) reduce size of executable, 2) reduce supported source code, etc. This is very common.
Click to expand...

yes, but if it leverages shared code, it should be part of a system component, not part of a single application.

I don't really care as I always install it all.
 
any update is a good update! :D

the joy of watching it download and install. marvelling at the gifts apple give to us every week of so!

long live softwear updates!
 
Re: Feature I'd like to see....

Originally posted by Armsreach
For those of us that will use this update to sync information between two computers (like my desktop at home and my laptop) I'd love to see the ability to sync my mail directory, so that I don't have to download two copies of all my mail (one to each machine). granted, I could just drag and copy my Mail folder from the library, but to include it in the process would be great. Anyone have any insight as to why this hasn't been looked at? Harder than I am assuming?
Click to expand...

It would be hard to sync mail via iSync. In my case I've got close to 500MB of mail. I'm sure many others have much more.

I've done something similar to what you discussed. I had a G4 tower at home and used a PowerBook for occasional short trips. In this case I set the tower to delete mail a week after downloading. I set the powerbook to leave mail on the server. Then when I got home I simply opened mail and I had copies of everything.

If I sent something important on the road I needed to cc to myself to make sure I had a copy.

The main downside is that after a couple of weeks on the road a ton of junk mail was piling up ready to delete and all the mail was marked unread.
 
An Apple guy told me mail.app was scriptable. So, I've been hoping to write an applescript to store the mail in files, maybe foldering them by sender. Then I could sync the folders containing the archived messages. Any thoughts?
 
Hey, denm316...

Originally posted by denm316
I hope it syncs better with my Palm OS handheld I have not been very satisfied with ISync as a whole for Palm syncing.
Click to expand...

What do you find deficient/problematic?

I'm working on switching a client from Now Up-to-Date to iCal with calendars shared out via local WebDAV server, but decent Palm sync with iCal is an absolute must.

~Philly
 
Re: Hey, denm316...

Originally posted by phillymjs
What do you find deficient/problematic?

I'm working on switching a client from Now Up-to-Date to iCal with calendars shared out via local WebDAV server, but decent Palm sync with iCal is an absolute must.

~Philly
Click to expand...

He may be referring to the fact that iSync doesn't do pictures, video, memos, etc. (as iCal doesn't have this capability *yet*).

Or the fact that iSync doesn't send all the data in the Address Book to Palm devices (at least, in my experience, with Palm OS 4.1 on an m505, which won't display all the Adress Book stuff).

Whatever the case, I am sure glad I have iSync! It's much better to use iCal/Abook than Palm Desktop :)
 
iSync deficiencies

What do you find deficient/problematic?

Here are three problems I have with iSync:
<these are not new problems, if you peruse through previous discussions of iSync, these will quickly rise to the surface>
1. SPEED. If you have a number of contacts or events, then syncing can take over ten minutes in length (not to mention the length of time to sync to a PocketPC with Missing Sync). When compared to a Winbox, my iBook is unbearably slow (though I still use it :))
2. Flexibility to map various fields from program to program. Perhaps this is a problem of standards (by whose, though, should we abide? :p)
3. Speed. I'd be curious to do some comparative syncing with a dual-g5, but I can't imagine that its as fast as my pathetic PIII at work.

I'd rather be using iCal, Address Book, etc. But I would like to see more parity on the speed issue.
 
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