As a former Palm OS user, I was accustom to syncing my Palm device with both my Mac and PC. My primary interest with this cross sync is to get the same contact and calendar information on all three devices. This is a path that can be wrought with disaster since none of these devices have exactly the same fields. For my Palm devices, I used third party apps to deal with these differences. Pocket Mirror on the PC and Missing Sync on the Mac. They did a very good job and I almost never had to worry about data getting messed up or deleted.

Cross syncing with the iPhone is a different experience, it reminds me of the early days of the Palm. Syncing the iPhone on both Windows and MacOS is done via iTunes. iTunes does not expect a iPhone to sync calendars and contacts with different computers so it puts a extra dialog telling you this and asking if you want to replace or merge the data. This is an annoying extra step. The Windows iTunes interface is exactly the same as the Mac, including the sync dialogs.

The iPhone's calendar application is lacking in many ways. It does not duplicate iCal exactly, it's missing categories, it doesn't display attendees and the alarms are not persistent like they are the palm (they alarm once and that's it). Syncing with Outlook in a exchange environment has been safe so far the several times I have synced. iTunes has not wiped out categories or attendees or any meetings. I have noticed if I delete a individual appointment in a repeating event, it does not get removed from the iPhone. I'm suspecting that the iPhone stores categories and attendee information but it's not shown in the calendar interface.

Syncing the phone with the Mac, after syncing with outlook, results in a single category in iCal called "Outlook Calendar". if the iPhone does remember the categories and attendees, it doesn't transfer them back into iCal. For that reason I'm not syncing the iPhone with my Mac, Outlook wins in this case.

Syncing contacts works a lot better. The iphone contacts application (if you can call it that, it's actually located in the Phone application) does know groups, which is the equivalent of categories in Outlook. I first synced my contacts with my Mac, the with Outlook and there were no contacts missing or screwed up. When I synced back to the Mac and used the Check For Duplicates function in found lots of duplicates, I told it to merge them and I couldn't find any missing information. I think that category information might be lost with the sync but the contact entry is kept. The Mac's address book is kind of weird in the way it displays groups, so it might have the same contact under a group and not assigned to a group. I need to experiment with this a little more to understand what's going on. Since it's not loosing information I will continue to sync contacts and use the merge duplicates feature in Address Book.app.

This is my first look at cross syncing. I haven't researched it beyond my early attempts here. I can live without the calendar information on my Mac for now. I need contacts on all three systems. This cross syncing is working for me at the moment even if it's imperfect. It's no where near as good as it was on the Palm. I hope that either Apple improves the syncing experience or, more likely, a third party will step and take over the syncing.

Check out this video of StyleTap, a PalmOS Emulator on the iPhone and iPod Touch. This is a proof of concept via PalmInfocenter.

My Palm TX and my iPod Photo are dead to me. literally. I think the batteries in both of them no longer hold a charge.

It started with my Palm TX about a month ago. One minute it would work and the next it wouldn't despite the battery showing a full charge before. Charging via USB wasn't helping it, I hooked it up to the wall wart charger which allowed it to operate for a few minutes.

My iPod Photo only lasts about 30 minutes on a charge. The battery indicator will indicate that it's mostly fully before it dies. Last year it would go a whole 8 hours.

I'm a person who lives off his PDA. Being without it for the last month has left me lost and naked. I'm not adjusting to life without it very well. I never listened to the radio with thanks to my iPod. Now I'm having to adjust to life without either. 16GB iPhone: where are you?

I said the Palm Foleo was the death nail for Palm. Apparently Palm management thought so too. They are canceling it. Strait from the CEO himself.

To that end, and after careful deliberation, I have decided to cancel the Foleo mobile companion product in its current configuration and focus all of our energies on delivering our next generation platform and the first smartphones that will bring this platform to market.

Wow. What the helll is going on at Palm?

When I heard the rumors that Palm was going to release some magical, wonderful, world-changing device I was excited. I've owned several models of Palms and I carry my Palm TX with me everywhere. In fact, I'm not sure I'm ready to give up my Palm TX to switch to a iPhone. I was really hoping Palm was going to have a new kind of PDA.

Then I see this Foleo thing and wonder: WTF? From what I can tell, it's a sub-laptop that's designed to sync with your Treo. This has been in development for a few years?

It is not meant as a Laptop replacement, but more of a large screen, full keyboard companion to your smartphone's capabilities and email functionality. While initially the product is not meant as a Laptop replacement, as time goes on and more developers create unique solutions Hawkins sees its utility as a laptop like device expanding.

I obviously don't get it. I don't know who is going to buy it. Everyone has a laptop. People, my mom has a laptop. Your suppose to carry your laptop around and this thing just to read your email? Oh, and carry your phone.

I thought the writing was on the wall for Palm, but if they have been putting their R&D into this instead of improving the Treo, then I would say this is the beginning of the end.

PalmInfoCenter is celebrating 10 years since the original Plam 1000 by giving away a Palm LifeDrive and a Palm 1000 (new in it's box). To enter to win the LifeDrive simply make a comment in this article about your first Palm. Here's my entry:

I bought my first Palm (a 1000) on ebay, which was the first thing I ever bought on ebay. In the excitement of things I ended up paying way too much for it. To add insult to injury I ended up dropping within a few weeks, forcing a upgrade to the next version of Pilot (the 2000? don't recall). Since then I owned several versions of PalmOS computers including the IIIx, Prism and Sony CLIE. I "upgraded" to most of them after I broke the Palm that I had at the time, keeping each model for a year or two. Currently I have a T3 which I have managed to own longer than any other Palm (and did have to replace a broken screen). I'm looking to upgrade to a TX sometime in the future mainly for the WiFi capabilities, but a LifeDrive would do quite nice too!

Wow, if this really comes out I think it will be a excellent replacement for my T3.

The Tungsten T X (which could likely be a code name) will run Palm OS Garnet v5.4.9. It will have a 312MHz XScale processor, a 320x480 pixel display, 128MB of non-volitile memory, 802.11b WiFi, Bluetooth 1.2 and an SDIO expansion slot. It is also supposed to have voice recording and a digital camera, though the source could not confirm it. It will have a $299 USD MSRP.

First, Apple announces it's switching to Intel processors. Now there is a Palm Treo floating around that runs Windows Mobile. Yes, a Palm that runs Windows.

I'm starting to build a bomb shelter and horde food now, but I doubt that will save me.

So long Tapwave. You just couldn't complete with the likes of Nintendo and Sony. Your hardware and software was innovative and pushed the Palm OS to new limits. God knows Palm certainly wasn't trying that hard.

We are sorry to inform you that the Zodiac business was discontinued and service and support are no longer available as of July 25th 2005.

Resources that may still be helpful to you can be found at http://www.tapwave.com/resources and http://www.tapwave.com/support. This includes links to websites where you can find a variety of useful tips and information as well as purchase e-books, Audible books and magazines, Palm OS applications, Zodiac skins, and third party Tapwave Certified games.

Additional products, acessories, and game cards may still be available from COMPUSA, Fry's, and J&R while supplies last.

We thank you for your past interest and support and apologize for any inconvenience that this may have caused. If you have an outstanding claim with the company, Ueker and Associates will be contacting you shortly.

Sincerely,
The Tapwave Team

PalmInfoCenter has some details on a Palm OS 6 (yes, OS 6 aka "Cobalt") that could soon be released. Initially I was excited. Doesn't have a keyboard, unlikelike the Treo, just a regular keypad. Good with me, I don't need it. Screen is 240 X 320. Eh, OK. I could live with it, it's tiny anyways. No bluetooth. Sorry, no sale here.

I rely on bluetooth for too much to not have it. Perhaps the actually released version will remedy this.

Several LifeDrive reviews are out including PalmInfoceneter and Brighthand.

I'm still holding out. I held the fake demo unit at CompUSA on Sunday, It's big but not too bad. I'm disappointed to hear that it doesn't come with a cradle and the USB cable does not charge and sync. If I bought it those are two things I would have to buy. I also would need to get a hard case and replace seidio car mount (or at least the connector part).

Eventually I will purchase it, but for now the money could be better spent elsewhere.

The Palm LifeDrive has been officially announced. I went to both Ballios and CompUSA today and neither had it. Almost ordered it from Palm, but it will be a 7-14 day wait. I guess I'm not meant to have it.

You can buy it from Amazon for $499.

It was rumored that Sony would announce a new Clie on Friday and it looks like this is it.

The specs look impressive. Although it doesn't use a Intel XScale processor it does have PS2-ish multi processor with an ARM926 based processor, a Digital Signal Processor (DSP) and a CXD2230GA graphics accelerator made by Sony. Will this be my next Clie?

It's hard to say. I have a NR70V now and don't use the Keyboard. Mainly because the keyboard sucks. It's hard to type with it. I have a Motorola 2-way pager with a keyboard and have no issues using that. Maybe the keyboard on this would be better. It does have WiFi and Bluetooth. Two important items. But the camera isn't very good. And I would really rather have a 2MP camera.

A GPS is something I could actually use. I have a 4x4 truck and do like to just go out and explore with no destination in mind.I could also use it for WarDriving. But the Mac compatibility of these thing is the issue. I have been looking at and comparing GPS system for some time now and still cannot decide.

I really have two choices. A stand alone GPS with a screen and controls and the ability to look at maps that are stored on it. Or a GPS dongle that hangs off my USB port and all the mapping is done on the computer.

The dongles are just receivers and so far the one I'm looking at is the TripNav. It's been reported that it works with MacOS X and has a USB connector which means no other cables are needed. I did look at bluetooth receivers, but I don't like the idea of having to put batteries in them. Though it would work with a bluetooth equipped PDA, where the TripNav wont. If I have a bluetooth equipped PDA when I get around to buying something I will give this more consideration.

I have gone the dongle road before with a Earthmate and Street Atlas software from Delorme (of which isn't being made anymore). The nice thing was that the software and maps all came together on a CD and you didn't need anything else. Today you cannot get such a package. There are several mapping software products out there like TrueNav and MacGPS Pro, but they don't come with Maps. Which means you have to go out and find them. Although I did find a large collection of Geo Tiffs of New Mexico they are not what Street Atlas has. They are basically scanned maps that have had coordinates embedded into them. Street Atlas had a certain flexibility on what to display on the map. GeoTiffs don't offer that. If I used GeoTiffs I better be sure I have all of them I need before I go out or I am SOL, where as Street Atlas had the whole US on it. There is a European product called Route 66 that may come out for the Mac that seems like its similar to Street Atlas. I say May because They've pulled their 2001 US product from their site and it is no longer for sale and the status of their 2003 products are now up in the air.

Next up is to look at stand alone GPS receivers. They can work in a "dongle mode" where you can use them with GPS software on your computer. But the good thing about them is they work on their own, you don't need a computer to use them. Although the software on a computer is likely to be more powerful and easier to read, you can stick this in your pocket and go! But how do you get new maps and make use of some of the features that these things have. Although I believe that most of them have basic support on the Mac for uploading maps most of the advanced features, the reasons you would buy one model over another, are not usable on the mac. Most people are using PC emulators to do this. And that just sucks! Garmin probably makes the stand alone GPS receivers that I would buy, yet they not only refuse to make the needed software for the mac to use their GPS receivers they wont allow a 3rd party to do so. (I know this because myself and other have repeatedly emailed them for this support).

At this point I'm still waiting. I just may wait for a bluetooth PDA and bluetooth GPS receiver that I can use with PowerBook as well. I need to start checking out the capabilities of some of the Palm OS based mapping software packages that exist and see if they can replace a stand alone GPS receiver.

This guy strapped his PDA (a Sony Clie) to his RC plane and took it for a flight. Cool thing about his Clie is it can record movies. So check out his site and the moves within.

Or click on this movie with sound.

A new version (3.35) of iSiloX for Mac OS is up on MacUpdate.If you have a Palm OS based handheld and want to sync websites then I hightly recommend this. If you have used AvantGo and found it limiting or doest support your high res screen then you really need this.

You can download it directly here.