Sync A Handheld and a Mac with Apple's iSync

Now you can have contacts, calendar, a clock, and games out of the box for $300. Sounds like the m125 has a competitor. Oh yeah, it plays a 1000 mp3's too ;)

I agree 100%. Handera are basically dead in the water and will probably not be around much longer, at least on the hardware side of the business. Handspring is rapidly exiting the non-communcator side of things and Palm takes too long to develop new products. Apple has far greater resources than Palm, and their product refreshes every few months make perfect sense for the Handheld market. I'd not be surprised if Apple would first release an oversized, ruggedized PDA for the education market and then release a combo ipod/ipalm type gadget. This might be the reason why Palm has been reluctant to release an mp3 playing unit of their own. Well, if this ends up being true, at least we'll get (if nothing else) Firewire hotsync and a neat-o case design soon!

P.S. I thought several years ago that Palm should have sold a rebadged Palm IIIe SE (the clear one) to Apple...

I agree with the last two comments. By adding Palm as part of the digital hub, Apple is definitely indicating that it's "taking sides in the handheld wars." While that might not mean that Apple comes out with a PDA right away, I think that they are realizing that they've missed out on some great opportunities there, and that partnering with Palm would be of great advantage.

Despite pioneering the handheld PDA market, Apple has been shut out for too long, and that's gotta hurt. With the success of the iPod, Apple sees that branded products (if properly designed) can really help the bottom line and even increase user loyalty and conversion to a new platform. Apple doesn't need to build its own OS from scratch, it just needs to take the Palm OS and tweak the look a bit to make it seem like it's an Apple exclusive, plus add some nice PC-side support for it that makes it integrate well. With iSiync, they've done the latter, now they just need to take a nice little Oslo and put an Apple logo on it. It makes perfect sense for the "digital hub" idea: Jobs isn't saying that the PDA is a replacement for the iPod or the other way around. By including it in the "digital hub" he's admitting that it has a separate and important place in the users life, and he's going to make it integrate fully. I smell hardware.

I was at the convention today. At Apple's (enormous!) booth, there were huge banners with, among other things, palm m515's. This doesn't appear that Apple is planning to liscense the PalmOS for its own device, and it has no need to anyway. It can do very well, simply extending Palm's capabilities through the Mac, thereby making the Mac more attractive to Palm users. It has adopted a similar strategy for years with certain camera makers, for example. Incidentally, Apple actually has Palm devices in all its stores.

"It can do very well, simply extending Palm's capabilities through the Mac, thereby making the Mac more attractive to Palm users."

Exactly. It fits well with their recent "switch" campaign as well. Their goal seems to be: lets do all the main things people want to do better than Windows. Start with a better OS, add better video editing, a better Office, ... add better integration with Palm devices, etc.

If all CEOs were as paranoid as you are, then there would be NO standards at all: Palm! DO NOT cooperate with Apple, because they might decide to compete with you - jeez -

For my part, I am very happy with this improved Mac-Palm sync, and if I had to chose I would rather give up my Palm than my Mac. By the way: I have an ipod and a Palm - if Palm ever finally decides to support MP3, I might sometimes leave the ipod at home - but I would still use it for the 5+ GB. Anyway, it would be stupid of Apple to compete against Palm if it can license it. It would have to attract more software writers than Palm - and they know from their Mac how tough that is (What would they do better anyway - Palm software (5.0) right now is great, just the hardware sucks)

MWNY - Steve Jobs Hints Of Move To Intel As A Possibility
by Bryan Chaffin

Will wonders never cease? Reuters has published an article about MACWORLD New York that includes a very tiny mention of a very large subject: Mac OS X on Intel. In that mention, the way it is presented by Reuters, Steve Jobs hints that moving Mac OS X to Intel is a possibility.

www.macobserver.com/article/2002/07/18.5.shtml

Please don't post the entire text of copyrighted articles. It's illegal. This is also only marginally on topic. -Ed

I'd love that too. However, it seems to me that the biggest problem is on the Palm side. I've loaded my Address book into Excel, and I don't see how the Apple software can determine the difference between a phone number and a fax number. Additionally, I use a 'return' character in many of the input fields; this would probably screw the import up as well.

I noticed the lack of details on the Palm conduits myself. That's why this article is so sketchy.

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News Editor

"iSync is a new app, it's not a powerful one though. But it is a beginning to assist in syncing so many devices. One sync app is all we need and Apple is the only one that has thought of this to date. "

This isn't entirely true as TrueSync (www.truesync.com) has been available from Starfish for a while. I don't have a compatible phone so I don't use the feature, but it available. I currently sync my Palm, Palm Desktop, and Yahoo! account all at the same time. Another option is fusionOne (www.fusionone.com). It's downside is that it syncs each source independently which when I used it before (over a year ago) it had a tendency to foobar my data.
Apple may be the first to think of it for the Mac, but the services are available for PC users.

With iSync, a palm-device, bluetooth and apple's "inkwell" I think it is possible for OSX10.2 to possibly use the palm as a tablet-conduit/input device.......apple is into the clever-software mode lately, and I donT think it is tough for them to turn the pda into a "tablet" persay for data input that shoots directly into the mac running the various apps. (most people have their pda sitting on their desk anyways...why clutter your deskspace with another tablet device?!)
That way, there is no need for Apple to spend resources on their own palm-device, which makes Palm (mac) users very happy. Also not having to go out to buy a Wacom tablet to take advantage of the inkwell technology....iM drooling already.

According to the Jargon File (jargon.net):

foobar /n./ Another common metasyntactic variable; see foo. Hackers do *not* generally use this to mean FUBAR in either the slang or jargon sense.

Who is Jordan? Apple or Palm?

" "Who is Jordon?"

Who are you, dumb or dumber?"

I think that's the question you should be asking yourself. It's Jordan, not Jordon. :P

I think it's time to disallow anonymous postings like this one.

This would cut off any further attem

You also already posted it on this site and got numerous answers:
www.palminfocenter.com/view_Story.asp?ID=3845&MODE=FLAT#56399

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News Editor

LoL Steve said Cell phone is more popular than Palm device (which probably is true) which mean he has no intention to get into the PDA business at all, phone business? maybe.

>If the market was only Microsoft, Apple, and Zaurus,
>there would be no handhelds that cost less than $600. >Sorry pal, Palm isn't going anywhere and it will
>continue to to dominate the handheld market for years >because only Palm/Handspring/Sony understand what the >man on the street wants. Microsoft and Sharp think
>all handheld users are geeks with lots of cash to
>waste on expensive toys.

Amen to that!! Speaking personally, I've known one person with a Newton, two with a WinCE/PPC unit, none with a Zaurus, one still using an ancient Casio BOSS and a large handful with PALM based units, all of which are either m10x machines, old III/V series and one with a IIIc. Oh yes, about four with older Visors.

The "man on the street" as the previous poster said doesn't want anything too fancy. If the "man" is a college-age student, he wants an m100 with a funky face plate and a few games on it. If the "man" is a younger Exec, he wants something slim and stylish to match his cell phone and Vx still suits him just fine. If it's an older exec, then he wants a IIIc with a big, bright colorful screen. Apple has long understood this, as iSync nicely displays. The same reasons that cause the overclocking/case modding/Quak III playing/Linux box building PC crowd to deride Apple are why Apple is so beloved by still sizable group of users. If PCs had not become cheap and entrenched in business (and let me reiterate the cheap part) in the late 80s/early 90s, then no one would be singing their praises. Instead we still have folks howling at the $300 E-machines refurb STILL being too costly while at the same time howling at the unreliability of Windows ME, and the flimsiness of the E-machines' power supply. People will never be pleased by just reliability or performance---they want both without paying for either. Face it folks. PIC readers are hardcore and account for a small fraction of the people that make retail purchases/approve corporate purchasing.

That said, Apple at least wants to make things as simple as possible for the few that still WILL pay the extra $$ for an Apple system and regardless of their decision to jump into the Palm OS hardware market, they are making the right move with the software side of it. Let them tweak this app for a few months, refine it a bit and get some user feedback. Then when the ARM/OS5 devices get up to speed they can make a decision. I'd wager than the external casing/styling of an Apple handheld is already done and ready to go--they just need to figure out what to stuff in the case, what color it'll be, and whether or not the risk of launching such a beast is worth it.