iSync. A proposal.
I am not a developer/programmer so I don't even know if this is remotely possible.
While a lot of us are waiting for Palm to give us a non-beta desktop version for X, I have been thinking how this will still not be a total solution for me when it does come out.
I use Entourage v.X and love it. Microsoft has been waiting on Palm and there is still no word when syncing will be possible with Entourage. I also use ACT 2000 through Virtual PC. (No choice. It's what my company uses. ACT is awesome but is not being developed any more for the Mac.)
You probably see my problem already. Contacts in ACT. Contacts in Entourage. Contacts in Palm Desktop and my handspring visor. Plus, I am betting that when Microsoft comes out with this plug in for Entourage that they will disable the other conduits like they did in OS 9.
I have managed to sync my visor through ACT and then transfer these to Address book and Palm desktop. Got them into Entourage as a text file. (I'm not sure that is right. Did it once and haven't tried it again.)
What really stinks about all four of these contact managers is that they all have their own way of storing information and they don't allow easy transfer from one to the other. Work numbers become fax numbers, email addresses are left out. Arghh.... Try dragging a vcard from palm desktop beta onto your desktop. Now drag this vcard into Address Book and to Entourage. Even this industry standard gets fouled up in the transaction.
What would be nice would be for someone to develop a software manager that would work like internet connect or Location manager. Call it iSync for now.
Let's say you sync your visor with palm desktop. Open up iSync and tell the program to transfer the palm contact info with the other contact programs you have like Entourage, Address Book, etc. From that point on, whenever you add to any contact program, go to iSync and tell it to sync all of your contact programs.
It would be awesome if Address Book could somehow work seamlessly and inside of the other contact programs like Entourage, etc to avoid all of this global syncing but I don't think that would ever happen. Plus, Address book is extremely lacking for any type of business. Maybe all of this info could be stored in your user library so that it doesn't need to be copied directly into each program.
Does anyone see any chance of this being possible? Isn't it mainly matching up the work numbers with the work numbers, email with email, work address with work address, etc? Ok, I'm sure it's way more complicated than that but really now...
While a lot of us are waiting for Palm to give us a non-beta desktop version for X, I have been thinking how this will still not be a total solution for me when it does come out.
I use Entourage v.X and love it. Microsoft has been waiting on Palm and there is still no word when syncing will be possible with Entourage. I also use ACT 2000 through Virtual PC. (No choice. It's what my company uses. ACT is awesome but is not being developed any more for the Mac.)
You probably see my problem already. Contacts in ACT. Contacts in Entourage. Contacts in Palm Desktop and my handspring visor. Plus, I am betting that when Microsoft comes out with this plug in for Entourage that they will disable the other conduits like they did in OS 9.
I have managed to sync my visor through ACT and then transfer these to Address book and Palm desktop. Got them into Entourage as a text file. (I'm not sure that is right. Did it once and haven't tried it again.)
What really stinks about all four of these contact managers is that they all have their own way of storing information and they don't allow easy transfer from one to the other. Work numbers become fax numbers, email addresses are left out. Arghh.... Try dragging a vcard from palm desktop beta onto your desktop. Now drag this vcard into Address Book and to Entourage. Even this industry standard gets fouled up in the transaction.
What would be nice would be for someone to develop a software manager that would work like internet connect or Location manager. Call it iSync for now.
Let's say you sync your visor with palm desktop. Open up iSync and tell the program to transfer the palm contact info with the other contact programs you have like Entourage, Address Book, etc. From that point on, whenever you add to any contact program, go to iSync and tell it to sync all of your contact programs.
It would be awesome if Address Book could somehow work seamlessly and inside of the other contact programs like Entourage, etc to avoid all of this global syncing but I don't think that would ever happen. Plus, Address book is extremely lacking for any type of business. Maybe all of this info could be stored in your user library so that it doesn't need to be copied directly into each program.
Does anyone see any chance of this being possible? Isn't it mainly matching up the work numbers with the work numbers, email with email, work address with work address, etc? Ok, I'm sure it's way more complicated than that but really now...
Comments
<strong>It would be awesome if Address Book could somehow work seamlessly and inside of the other contact programs like Entourage, etc to avoid all of this global syncing but I don't think that would ever happen. Plus, Address book is extremely lacking for any type of business. Maybe all of this info could be stored in your user library so that it doesn't need to be copied directly into each program.
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I agree entirely. It would be particularly clever if Address Book were a central repository for all people information, both as a storage for other PIMs and as a competent LDAP client. Today it works as neither of those, but this is how it really should be used. I just might fire off a feedback mail to Apple on this. Coming to think of it, Address Book is really annoying in its shortcomings. Even the preferences are still not available. And the LDAP search capabilities have disappeared since the days of Public Beta. Wonder if Apple has any plans for this .app?