PocketMac
iSync For Your PocketPC
27 February 2004 Justin Williams Skip to comments
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Sometimes Microsoft makes something that doesn't totally suck. The PocketPC is one example. Justin Williams shows you how to connect your PocketPC to your Macintosh using PocketMac.
Ever since the Newton was unveiled in 1993, Apple users have been using PDAs to keep track of their calendars and contacts. After the Newton project was discontinued by Apple, many users migrated to the Palm platform. The PalmOS offered improved handwriting recognition, a smaller form factor, and many other improvements. It can be said, however, that the Newton has a far longer lifetime as Newton Messagepads from over ten years ago are still being actively used by their owners.
The newest player in the pack is Microsoft. Yes, that peskly Microsoft Corporation from Redmond. They realized that while having your calendars and contacts close by was nice, users might want something more. They first developed WindowsCE as a modified version of Windows 95. Released in 1996, PDAs were developed by Compaq, Casio, HP, LG, NEC and Philips. Windows CE 2 came a little over a year later and was established as Microsoft's first widely accepted PDA operating system. It was more stable, offered more features and was designed for more than PDA use. Microsoft wanted ATMs to run off of Windows CE 2 — talk about scary.
Windows CE 3 is where the PocketPC name was finally created. The UI was changed so that it looked less like Windows CE, and more like a PDA's interface. No more task bar or ugly Start Menu.
Currently we are at Windows CE 4, or as Micorosft likes to confuse us by calling the same things different names, PocketPC 2003. Released in June, supported devices can be bought from Compaq, HP and ViewSonic. Now that we have had a brief history lesson, the question still remains...
Why would a Mac user want to use a PocketPC?
First, the PocketPC is much more than a PDA. It offers you the ability to retrieve your email, view your photos, listen to music, watch videos, surf the Internet view documents. While all of these features are available on the Palm, you are usually going to need third party software. For example, if you want to take your Microsoft Word documents with you on the road, you are going to need a program like Dataviz's Documents To Go. Almost every PocketPC you can buy today comes bundled with PocketWord.
Second, connectivity. The PocketPC offers much more currently than PalmOne. A big thing for me was that I wanted a PDA that would allow me to get online using my Airport. The only Palm with that feature was the Tungsten C, and it had a keyboard. I want a writing surface on my PDA, not a tiny keyboard. The iPaq I used for this article had both bluetooth and 802.11b Wireless networking built in. The best thing about the wireless configuration was my ability to sync my Purdue Exchange account over the campus' wireless network. I didn't need to be synced up with my computer at all. I could do it while walking between classes.
Finally, PalmSource has offered Mac support since its inception, but recently announced that the next version of its OS (codenamed 'Cobalt') would not support the Macintosh platform. At this point in time, if you want to use an OS 6 device, you are going to be burdened with buying third party synchronization software from a company like Handmark.
To those brave enough to carry the PocketPC in the same bag as their Mac, there are two choices when it comes to synchronizing your data. Unfortunately, the Macintosh Business Unit at Microsoft does not offer ActiveSync for OS X. If you want to synchronize your PocketPC with your Mac you can use mark/space's The Missing Sync or PocketMac Pro. PocketMac Pro is developed by Information Appliance Associates. They were kind enough to give us a copy of their three applications for the PocketPC to use for this article: PocketMac Pro, PocketBackup and PocketTheme.
PocketMac Pro
PocketMac offers the ability to synchronize your data with Microsoft Entourage of Apple's iApps. It supports Address Book, iCal, Mail, iTunes and iPhoto. PocketMac also offers iSync integration. PocketMac uses a plugin to integrate with iSync. As of this writing, they are not aware of any issues with iSync 1.4 that should cause any problems. Bluetooth support is also offered for those that have PocketPCs with that technology. You can also use your Airport connection to synchronize your data. Support for Word, Excel, Now, and AvantGo are also included. Finally, users can easily install PocketPC files from CAB files and some EXEs and mount their PocketPC on their desktop.
I am going to walk you through setting up a PocketPC to synchronize with PocketMac over a USB connection using Mac OS X v10.3 Panther. The PocketPC I used was the HP/Compaq iPaq 4155 with a clean version of the PocketPC 2003 software (ie. not molested by Windows XP). :)
The software requires that you have MacOS X 10.2.6 or Panther. I downloaded the application from the Web site. The installer is straightforward, and I assume you are able to do that. At first launch, you are prompted to enter your serial number information. With all of that out of the way, you are given access to the application's preferences. This is where you will configure what you want to synchronize with the PocketPC. You can select whether or not you want to use the iApps or Entourage for your data synchronization, what files you want to synchronize, whether to have offline Web sites saved to the device as well. I chose to only worry with AddressBook, iCal, Mail, iTunes, and iPhoto. One thing should be noted here: there is an option in the Web preferences for the Mazingo service. That service is no longer available.
With everything configured, we can now plug in the PocketPC into our Mac. PocketMac recommends that you plug the device directly into your Mac, rather than using a USB hub. The PocketPC will be recognized by PocketMac and you should get a message asking if you want to install the PocketMac software on your PocketPC. Accept this, or you won't be able to go on with the tutorial. That is it. Your PocketPC should be ready to synchronize with PocketMac.
E-mail configuration was the most difficult task that I encountered. I had hoped it would work without any configuration. All of this configuration will take place on the PocketPC rather than the Mac. Load the Inbox application on your PocketPC and go to Accounts. A wizard will guide you through the setup. For the email address, enter your e-mail address. For the rest of the options enter the following information (per the PocketMac manual):
- Your name: [Your name]
- User name: [Your Macintosh user name, ex: tomk]
- Password: [Your Macintosh password]
- Account Type: POP3
- Name: PocketMac
- Incoming Mail: PocketMac
- Outgoing Mail: PocketMac
- Domain: [leave blank]
Next, we need to determine what photos we want to send to the PocketMac. It's assumed that you don't want all 10,000 photos on your PocketMac, so they created a photo album called PocketMac Photo Albums. Simply drag the photos you want into that album and it will be transferred when we synchronize our data. Make sure that you selected in the Music & Photo preferences to resize the photos for PocketPC size. There is no sense in having a 1600x1200 pixel image on your PocketPC's much lower resolution screen.
For iTunes, PocketMac created a playlist called "PocketMac mobile tunes."
Just like Apple's iPhoto, you can easiliy just drag your songs of choice to the playlist. Voila!
To synchronize, we will use the actual PocketMac application. As with many applications, they place an icon in your menu bar that gives you quick access to the software. Click the icon, select Synchronize and decide what you want to synchronize. All will synchronize everything you enabled in the options, while selectin specific options will only sync that option. PocketMac is designed using a plugin architecture. Each item synced is controlled by a different plugin. Click the Synchronize button and the application will access each plugin to send your data to the PocketPC.
I should also note that a few times, clicking the Synchronize button would not perform any action. Quitting the application and restarting it solved the problem.
Now that the data is on our PocketMac, we can install some applications. There is full support for CAB file installations and some support for EXEs. Think of a CAB file as a MacOS X .pkg file. It just holds a bunch of files in a convenient little bin. To install new files, go to the PocketMac menu in your menu bar and select Install New Software via... and either CAB file or Installer (EXE) File.
The only EXE I tried to install from the Macintosh failed. Purdue provides the Movian VPN client for access to the campus Airport, but only as EXEs. PocketMac wasn't able to successfully send the files despite several attempts. What it tries to do is search through the EXE file for the CAB buried inside of it and then send that to the PocketPC.
The fine folks at PocketMac also included the two bonus applications for me to play with. PocketMac's PocketTheme Creator allows PocketPC owners to customize their PocketPC experience. Face it, as a Mac user you don't want to see the Windows logo and the green pastures as your background. It reminds you too much of Windows XP. With the theme creator, you can download themes from PocketMac's Web site, download free background art from third party sites or create your own customized theme. You can customize the background, the navigation bar, the today screen, colors and messages. The ThemeCreator is simple and straight forward. You simply select what background you want using the File browser and then configure the other options using the color palette. Finally, you can edit an existing theme. It is the same as before, except you are modifying someone else's work. Overall, I wouldn't have much use for the Theme creator. PocketMac includes an excellent OS X theme that makes the iPaq look more like a Mac (besides the little i at the beginning of its name).
An extra that I did find very useful was the PocketMac Backup application. Once installed, you can select to do a full or selective backup. Backup copies all of your documents, contacts, calendars, storage cards and OS information to a folder on your Mac for safe storage. Anyone that has lost data before probably wishes they had a backup. After selecting what files you want to backup, click the Backup button on the application main window and it will copy all of the data to your Mac. The application took a long time to copy the data. I wasn't expecting it to take more than a few minutes. A glance at the folder it saved to and everything was copied to my G4. Restoring from a backup was just as simple. You select what you want to restore, and click Restore. This is an excellent utility that anyone using PocketMac should invest in.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I think PocketMac is a good utility to let you synchronize your PocketPC with the Macintosh. I wish Microsoft would include ActiveSync for the Macintosh in the box, but since I doubt that is going to happen, this utility does a fine job.
I had very few problems other than the synchronization button not responding a few times and the iPhoto conduit freezing up on me a few times. The people at PocketMac were very helpful in answering my questions for this article and providing the software to work with.
If you are in the market for a PDA that does more than just contacts and calendaring, don't knock the PocketPC just because it is from the Evil Empire.
Justin Williams is founder and chief author for MacZealots. He switched to the Mac almost five years ago hasn't looked back since. When not blogging or coding, you can find him watching copious amounts of TV. Justin can be reached at
Reader Comments (22)
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#1) On February 28, 2004 5:15 AM
Informative article, except for the constant Microsoft bashing. I guess that’s one of the free “features” of this website.
#2) On February 28, 2004 7:05 AM
I concur with the post above. Let’s not “bash” that pristine, lily-white, font of corporate puritanism: Microsoft. They never did nothing to nobody…
#3) On February 28, 2004 3:33 PM
I don’t know anybody who at various times in their life hasn’t spoken out loud of the Big Bully in grade school (read: Microsoft) that stole everyody’s milk money. The large influence of one (Microsoft, or the Bully in my example) brings the discussion of many (us). Niether may be right, or wrong, but it’s only natural to discuss one’s thoughts.
“Microsoft never did nothing to nobody?” I guess the billions of dollars lost each year (and rising) due to vulnerabilites, viruses, and security exploits just must be harmless.
Each person (or author) has their own opinion, and like posting a comment on an article, it should be respected and treated wtih an open mind.
Thanks for the comments so far. Keep ‘em coming; it’s the open interactivity that makes this site so resourceful.
Informative article yes, bashing Microsoft no.
#4) On March 12, 2004 3:53 PM
LOL
If you have a problem with someone “bashing” a company that has yet to realize what the true definition of “innovate” means, then there might be some issues you could discuss with a psychologist (or psychiatrist).
Justin, thanks for the info; knowing that this is actually possible is pretty cool…
#5) On March 23, 2004 12:42 PM
I have been using PocketMac Pro for 6 months on an XDA. I have the same problems as Justin restarting the app to get it to sync. Other than that it is an excellent product and would heartily recommend it.
The review was a good reflection of the product too.
And PocketMac aren’t paying me to write this either.
#6) On March 24, 2004 7:16 AM
Strange that the section titled, “packetmac pro,” doesn’t mention the difference between “pro” and the less expensive, “pocketmac.”
My understanding is that “pro,” lets you connect your computer to the internet, via the SmartPhone. Am I correct? An if so, why isn’t this important (in my mind!) fact reviewed?
I haven’t bought the software yet, as I’m still trying to figure that nagging question out.
#7) On September 21, 2004 11:42 AM
For the full price tag they ask, you would imagine that the products would work. I purchased Pocket Mac and GoBetween over three days ago. It appears that the licensed download of Pocket Mac Pro 3 is not compatible with Entourage2004, thought the site stated otherwise, so it took me hours of troubleshooting, as I naturally assumed it was a Microsoft problem. After rebuilding databases and rebooting, nothing. So then, Pocket Mac says download a file which brings it up to 3.4.1. BEAR IN MIND, the latest version is NOT what you get when you BUY the software from thier own site. While, ultimately, the software did sync to the PocketPC, THE PRODUCT DOES NOT SYNC YOUR ENTOURAGE NOTES! The website lies to us on this point. The Notes are a very basica core feature of Entourage. If core functionality support is not present, then the product is inherently broken.
Now then, GoBetween purports to sync tasks calendars, and contacts between Mac’s apps and the Entourage database. This way you can use iSync to sync up all the other gadgets. GOBETWEEN DOES NOT WORK. PERIOD. Even after support gave me a newer file, which, again SHOULD HAVE been distributed on the initial download, the app/plug-in DOES NOTHING NADA ZIP ZILCH.
Save your time and money.
#8) On January 14, 2005 5:14 AM
Can anyone advise as to why my MacG5 with OSX v2.8 won’t pick up my PDA via the PocketMac programme at all. I’m using a XDA IIs and simply can’t get any connection via USB. I have the PocketMac icon’s on my desktop byt no device showing or abvility to connect. Big thanks to anyone who can provide any helpful ideas as struggling with this. Thanks Jonny
#9) On January 19, 2005 6:42 PM
do NOT buy this Software. It is the biggest p…ce of …. you will ever put on your MAC. Save your money. They will NOT refund your money even if you ask them so. Worst SW and absolutely worst Service I ever had in regards of Service. These guys do not know what they are doing and they will just mess up your data and it doesn’t remove easily either.
#10) On May 4, 2005 6:50 PM
I am absolutely disgusted. PocketMac is a great application as long as you only have one PocketPC device. I have an XDA 2 which requires PocketMac Pro 3 and my son has a Motorola MPX200 which requires PocketMac Phone. Unfortunately you cannot install both applications on the same machine! Hence I had to return the latter and my son is unable to sync his mobile with our Mac.
#11) On May 18, 2005 1:26 AM
My first mistake is trying to fight Microsoft by owning a Mac. If you are a person who needs PDA, has hundreds/thousands of categorized contacts, and you need to use a PC as well running Outlook, then STAY AWAY FROM BUYING A MAC. STAY FAR FAR AWAY. YOU CAN NOT Sync with Outlook without an Exchange Server. None of the OpenSource Exchange servers will work with Mac. Palm only supports 15 categories. The vcard export import functionality is broken in several different ways. You can not sync with Plaxo, eVite, or any other online resource besides a .Mac (whooppeee) account.
As for PocketMac, this product is terrible. The support department, (yeah one guy who has an attitude and is not helpful). They do not even support the sync of the Notes applet in the PocketPC.
And Why not directly sync to Entourage? Palm does it. Your
GoBetween app stinks also. It cant even accruately map between groups and categories without trashing all the contacts with UID: 1324325235 references. I have over 380 contacts that now need to be MANUALLY cleaned up. It is better than the Script sync tool for AB to Entourage, but this is not saying much.
Tasks and Calendar items of course get mangled beyond description as told in other reviews. These people are lucky hey have not been sued.
#12) On June 22, 2005 9:10 AM
Well…I am a new Mac user…new convert that is…was using x386 laptops since whenever…searching for something to help me sync my O2 XDA II mini, which I was doing with my old IBM T41 on both XP (Activesync) and GNU/Linux (Raki).
So, it seems PocketMac is definitely a no-no….what about mark/space’s The Missing Sync? Has anyone tried that?
#13) On July 19, 2005 10:59 PM
i have one main problem with POCKETMAC. each time i quit after sync, my POWERBOOK crashes! have to restart. but other than that, it does simple sync well.
anyone has a solution for me ?
#14) On August 14, 2005 7:51 AM
thanks for the helpful comments - the program does sound terrible, despite the review. I have to use a PDA, and a pocketpc PDA at that to run uptodate. What I’d like to know is does that mean I HAVE to use a pc too? As a long time mac fan, but recently having to use a PC for work, I’m looking to buy my own computer, and don’t want to have to turn to the dark side…
#15) On October 13, 2005 10:44 PM
I have an iPaq Pocket PC and just synced my Entourage 2004 last night with no problem. It synced my tasks, calendar items, music, and photoes. The tasks and calendar items even retained their categories. Of course, I did do a little preventative work before hand, by making sure that I’d already created categories on the iPaq to match the categories in Entourage.
I’ve only had it for 24 hours, but at this point, it’s synced fine.
The only thing that I haven’t figured out is installing/choosing the Mac theme.
#16) On December 13, 2005 2:52 AM
I am just about to buy the Xda Atom - I have an all Mac setup - Powerbook and iMac G5 both running OS X 10.4.3 and use Microsoft Office 2004:Mac. IT IS ESSENTIAL for me to be able to sync Entourage 2004 Contacts and Calendar items on my computers with the Xda Atom. I was advised by my retailer that with PocketMac this would not be a problem. However, having read through all the above posts - it seems that syncing with Entourage is problematic. I am not interested in the Notes feature of Entourage but I must be able to sync Contacts and Calendar. Also, the Xda Atom has MS Windows Mobile 5.0 as its operating system - perhaps this might cause problems, too?
Does anyone have any experience of the Windows Mobile 5.0 OS?
#17) On December 15, 2005 6:55 AM
POCKET MAC IS HORRIBLE. THE SUPPORT IS SLOW AND NOT HELPFUL, THE PRODUCT ITSELF IS NOT EVEN IN THE SAME UNIVERSE AS ACTIVSYNC. POCKET MAC DELETED ALL OF MY CALENDAR ENTRIES FROM ENTOURAGE AND THE POCKET PC. GREAT! IT’S A PIECE OF CRAP PRODUCT FROM A PIECE OF CRAP COMPANY.
#18) On December 20, 2005 1:42 PM
I am an avid Blackberry fan and when I bought my Apple Powerbook, was in desperation trying to find a solution that would allow me to sync the two devices. I found Pocketmac, downloaded it, tried repeatedly to get it to sync and had no luck. After a month of back and forth between their ‘online’ tech support (at leaste 72 hour turn around time), I finally decided to pay the $20 telephone support fee. After our intial call, it took another month to get a response from the telephone tech… and his answer was ‘we can’t fix this, there is something wrong with our software’. So at this point, I’m $50 into this product and I would like a refund. Fat chance! Their billings department has yet to get back to me after another month. I’ve never had such poor service on a product in my life. I highly recommend you avoid this product if at all possible!
#19) On December 23, 2005 9:29 PM
At this point of my PocketMac experience I fear I must agree. I purchased PocketMac to sync my BlackBerry to my Mac OS 10.3.9 two weeks ago, and have spent many hours trying to get it to work - with no help from the PocketMac support team. I have asked them to refund my money.
What really puzzles me is that I got myself into this position via a very simple wish which I feel sure many others have: I wish for a mobile phone which has an address book and notesbook and calender (so I can carry around everything I need in one little ever-present package) and I want this device to sync to my Mac.
I don’t need email, texting, camera or internet facilities or any of the other bells and whistles the geeks consider essential. I just want my phone and address book in one package that I can download my Mac address book updates into!
#20) On January 3, 2006 7:44 AM
Put me on the completely disillusioned list for PocketMac. After attempting to sync only the Contacts from Entourage for the first time, the Address Book on my Blackberry 7105t still says “Organizing Contacts” after THREE DAYS. I refuse to pay 19.95 for PocketMac’s problem, so I opened a trouble ticket, to which I received a cheery, chatty reply with a host of inappropriate, time-consuming, non-solutions, such as, “We recommend Entourage 10.4,” even though I specified a higher level of Entourage in the trouble ticket itself, which it seems they took little time to read. One of their solutions was to review my 1000 contacts for odd characters. They then suggested I download two more programs to clean up the Blackberry, but offered no reason why the problem wouldn’t repeat itself if I tried the sync again.
If anyone finds a reliable program to sync Entourage with a Blackberry (even just the Contacts), please let me know! In the meantime, I’m asking for a refund from Pocketmac.
#21) On January 5, 2006 5:50 AM
sync via airport? I cannot see how to any advice walkthrouhs?
#22) On February 1, 2006 12:45 PM
Hi All
Two solutions only PocketMac and Mark/Space (the missing Sync) . Both DO NOT WORK on WM2005 - some was talking in the posts above about O2 Atom - I love the O2 Mini S - but only because there is no SYNC solution that runs with WM2005 from either Mark / Space or Pocket Mac, we are in no mans land here.
Firstly it ticks me off that Apple itself cannot make ISYNC work with Pocket Pc’s - I mean, WHY not ? also, the amount of phones supported by ISYNC is rather minimalistic and far behind the market.
For out of the box syncs with Apple, look at nokia (some models) and Sony E and Motorolla. But, I too love the idea of owning a Pocket PC device - I know that the 2003 version of Pocket PC OS works with Mark Space and with Pocket Mac but for 2005 devices one has to still wait.
It is also advicable to buy the 2005 devices because the OS has built in protection of memory should power die suddenly.
I am waiting and waiting and waiting and getting more and more infuriated each day that there is no solution …… perhpas if I “suggested” to them that I might “go postal” they would hurry up.
I mean, when I asked them they reply that “Microsoft’s security features are causing problems …” WHAT ? Microsoft ? SECURITY ? thats a contradiction in terms like “Central Intelligence Agency” . I mean if any 2 bit teeny bopper wannabe hacker with access to the net and some degree of computer savy can find hundreds of tools to destroy MS security features, why cant companies like MArk Space and Pocket Mac WORK WITH MS to smoothly negotiate the security (ahahahah) features in Microsoft ?
Frustrated and exhausted with ISYNC - feel like a streetkid staring into a candy shop when I see all those lovely Pocket PCs out there