Thursday, July 17, 2008

The MobileMe iPhone - Microsoft, I miss you!

So I'm looking at the entrails of MobileMess, and I'm thinking ... this is hopeless. No tasks. No notes. Weak synchronization. Broken stuff everywhere. No import or export in OS X iCal ...

In my heart I know Apple hates people like me. Dull people with complicated lives who need to get lots of dull stuff done.

Google doesn't like dull stuff either. They're all young; they hate old, complicated lives.

I understand, when I was young I could write my To Do list on a single piece of notepaper too. I remember when 35 items was a lot to do. Sometimes I miss those days.

I need a vendor who likes dull people with complicated lives. A vendor who'd create something like Outlook ... or Entourage ...

A vendor like Microsoft ...
Help and How-To for Microsoft for Mac Office Products | Mactopia

....By using Sync Services, you can synchronize your Entourage contacts and calendar events with an iPod, iPod touch, or iPhone.

Sync Services is a central database on your Macintosh computer that keeps track of programs and devices that share information. After synchronizing an Entourage address book and calendar with Sync Services, the information is also synchronized with your Macintosh Address Book and iCal. Then you can use iTunes to synchronize the information with your iPod or iPhone...
Sure, that's the ticket! Microsoft could create a Task and Notes app for the iPhone, and sync with Entourage and Outlook ...

Oh, wait. Microsoft isn't developing for the iPhone.

Hell has frozen over.

I miss Microsoft.

9 comments:

Dave Walker said...

I know that Live Mesh or whatever they're calling it is going to support Macs (or so they claim). Have they actually come out and said they won't be developing it for the iPhone as well?

JGF said...

I did a quick search on Mesh Microsoft iPhone. The hits I looked at were all comments about how Mesh competed with the iPhone.

I've not hears any mention of Microsoft doing any iPhone development at all. Nor have I seen anyone point this out as noteworthy -- I guess everyone assumes it's obvious that Microsoft won't develop for the iPhone.

They didn't do anything for the Palm either, so there's a definite precedent!

Anonymous said...

I have been scouring the web for days seeing what 3rd party apps are out there for syncing. I can't seem to "break-up" with Entourage... and would love an iphone.

Has anyone tried any of these apps:
http://www.e2sync.com/
http://www.ipodnn.com/articles/08/03/11/gobetween.for.entourage/
http://www.pocketmac.net/products/gobetween/index.html

JGF said...

No experience yet Carolyn, but on my tech blog this thread track what I learn about sync. I'm on a parallel track with you, trying to escape from Outlook/Palm.

http://tech.kateva.org/search/label/synchronization

also try

http://tech.kateva.org/search/label/PIM

Does Entourage sync with iCal work and Address book work? If so, that's about as good as it gets for the moment!

Anonymous said...

Hi John...

Your posts are fantastic and comforting lol. I have some urgent project management and synching needs, and have spent the past 3 days straight trying every program management program out there and how everything does (or more importantly does NOT) sync together, including MobileMess among other web-based calendars and project apps that sync with ical. Let me just say it has been a total disaster. I finally was able to get MobileMe to play nice then realized there is no way to control which calendars get uploaded.

Found this app which might help those of you out there:

http://blog.busymac.com/blog/2008/07/ical-google-cal.html

Haven't tried it yet, but LOOKS promising.

I appreciate the time you are taking to document all of this as well. Very helpful.


Have a comment for you about Daylite (since it was new to you - will leave it on the appropriate post.)

Cheers,
Carolyn

JGF said...

Hi Carolyn, are you Palm veteran too?

I think we need a self-help group -- Palm refugees! (BTW -- www.palmrefugees.com may be available as a domain name :-).

Thanks for the link, I'll check it out. There's a LOT of work ahead, I fear Apple's head isn't into our particular needs.

Insert Real Name said...

I don't have an iPhone, sync multiple computers, etc., but I do want to sync MS Outlook with web access to contacts, email, schedule, etc.
The last couple of months I've been gradually adjusting to the collaboration platform "Zimbra" (www.zimbra.com), using a very well run Zimbra hosting service www.01.com (I just have a "shared Zimbra hosting account, $4 for 2GB storage, but they do all kinds of domain Zimbra hosting as well, for businesses).

The great thing about it is that it really is cross-platform: Mobile (iPhone and Blackberry), Mac, Windows, and Unix, and it supports access over a web browser, over OS-specific programs/technology (iSync feeding to Adressbook, IMail, and iCaledar on the Mac, Outlook on Windows, Evolution on Unix). There is even a cross-platform client (on the Mozilla application framework) that permits full offline access to all your Zimbra profile (email, contacts, calendars, documents) and automatic 2-way sync once back online. All these access routes can be used at once.

Zimbra.com has lots of information, and the blog of 01.com has postings showing use of the features on the iphone and other clients, as well as comparisons with Google Apps.

Anyway, worth looking into...

JGF said...

Thanks for the Zimbra comment, I'll put it on my list to research. I'll quote your comment if I end up writing about them!

Unknown said...

For your convenience:

01.com Zimbra blog

01.com Zimbra FAQs

01.com website