Ask PreCentral.net: How Will I Sync to a Mac?

This is how Synergy will most likely work:

For starters MobileMe would defeat the purpose of the Synergy platform. I think a lot of people either do not know about Synergy or they do not understand how it works.

Synergy enables dynamic syncing via the cloud, other words there is no need to log into anything, that includes AIM, Facebook, Google, etc. Example, when you launch your address book then the contact you want everything is automatically synced and merged into one. That includes your email, outlook, MSExchange (if you have it setup), Google, Calendar, Task, Address book, AIM, Facebook, etc.

Synergy looks for duplicates as well so you will never have more than one of the same contact. Also, if someone updates their photo, let's say on Facebook for e.g, the photo of that person in your address book will automatically update. Or if there was no photo at all one will be added to that contact in your address book.

Just like the article says, if you can update your address book or calendar on your Mac and sync it with Google, everything should automatically update on the Pre, this is for the Mac user of course. That is one way of doing it, there might be another we haven't figured out yet. Maybe Palm has a specific application for Mac, who knows?

If someone is logged into Google and they have AIM setup in Chat (or logged into AIM on it's own), you will know by a little green indicator on the Pre (red means they're not logged in), of course if your address book is launched. The same is true for Facebook. To my understanding the Facebook app will be more advanced than the mobile version. WebOS runs on the Pre as if you were at your desktop.

FYI, my Blackberry syncs with MobileMe. So, maybe, just maybe, webOS might be able to do so as well.

Here is a video which gives you a brief description of Synergy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohpICXX4gQs

The Pre's Universal Search is linked to Synergy as well, e.g, while you're typing the word/name for your search, suggestions will pop up that will include a contact should you type letters that match the first couple of letters of the contacts name you have in your address book, it will bring that contact to the front within your search. You will then have the option to open the contact or use other features, here is a video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Izebx0YHvQU&feature=related

Of note on the Mac address book syncing: Google contact sync is officially only enabled if you have an iPhone or iPod Touch to sync. You can, however, trick your Mac into letting it sync Address Book with Google, but you have to be willing to dive into terminal to get it done.

I had no problems syncing to Yahoo address but the calendar will not work at all, anyone else?

Gmail Contacts has a single name field. Importing to Pre from Gmail Contacts merges the name fields into one field.

Yahoo Contacts gives you three name fields but looses the categories.

For a one time import that keeps all the fields (including category), just export from Mac Address Book to a vCard file and import into Pre. Then you can keep your main address book in Pre. Since Pre will look like a USB drive, it should be easy to transfer the vCard file to the Pre. Pre address book should be able to import a industry standard vCard file.

Yes TomD, and this same USB drive functionality should allow programs like Missing sync for ... from MarkSpace to sync with mac programs. I do it at the moment for my Treo 750. It works, not fine, but it works, and it syncs both ways.

I wouldnt worry about this.

"You know what else will automatically sync with Google and Yahoo? Your Mac. So the thing to do, William, is set your Mac up now to sync with one of these services and you'll be Pre-pared for the Pre when it launches."

this sounds like as user unfriendly as it can get. there is no way, that I will sync my personal data with some internet service just to get it to my phone. me private data s private and should stay private.

If you really want to worry, you notice that Palm.com says about the Pre:

"8GB of user storage (~7.4GB user available)
USB mass storage support "

So if you cant write to the last 0.6GB, then syncing might be a little harder. But you could probably sync over WiFi, just like syncing with a cloud service.

But i really dont think it will be a problem.

I just hope Synergy allows MULTIPLE accounts with the same service (personal gmail, professional gmail, etc.) and does not ASSUME you will only have one.

I have multiple accounts on Twitter, Facebook, Gmail, etc. because I interact with different groups of people for different purposes: Professional, Friends, Family, etc.

I have to admit the limitations of Gmail contacts have me questioning the whole cloud thing. I keep birthdays, anniversaries, spouse and kid names in my address book. None of these can sync with Gmail contacts. Mobile me could do it, but not Google. I want these field to be recognized as dates and go directly to my calendar too. The multitasking of the Pre is very attractive and the Synergy sounds cool if you can get all your data there, but frankly if Apple could get background operations, Copy/Paste, and turn-by-turn directions on the next gen iPhone, then I'll finally ditch my 700p.

" Some of that stuff will probably sync via 'Push' technology -- aka it will happen near-instantaneously just like it does with MobileMe"

Technically, MobileMe Pushh hasn't been implemented yet.

I'm hoping Mark Space will come up with something to sync my address book and ical directly to the Pre. I was using something called spanning sync to sync my information to gmail, so it is possible to get the information out there. I'm also using icalx.com to publish my calendars to the web, again, getting my information out there, but I can't sync back to my mac this way.

The focus of Synergy lies primarily on the integration of several different accounts at different places. For many people that might be an important issue.

I'm one of those people who don't want to trust my data to third-party companies like Microsoft, Yahoo or Google. Therefore, I was wondering whether the Palm Pre can connect/sync with a WebDAV-server just as easily? For e-mail, calendar and tasks, I run Thunderbird with Lightning. This can be run on every major operating system, so you're very flexible.

My question: Will the Palm Pre be able to cope with .mab and .ics files, stored on a (personal) WebDAV-server? That would be a killer feature, because up till now there's hardly a phone capable of communicating with Thunderbird in that way, without having to use all kind of plugins. Either on the phone, or on the PC. Or both.

I'm also concerned that the Pre's focus on the cloud misses the fact that for many people, our data isn't in the cloud, and that the reason it's not in the cloud is by choice.

I could easily sync all my locally stored stuff (a mix of Palm desktop and Outlook on my PC, Address Book/iCal on my Mac), and my 'cloud stuff' (a WebCalendar database on my hosted account plus Yahoo and Gmail).

But there's a reason I have those things all strewn about -- sometimes I want my work life separated from my home life, I've got a mixture of PC and Mac data, and I don't particularly want my personal contacts up on someone else's server. (Maybe this just makes me old. :) ).

Synergy on the one hand looks fantastic as I can view all those different calendars at once to ensure I don't overschedule myself, pull work and personal contacts into the phone, and toggle the display of data from each source. On the other hand I like having a canonical true source for each of those data sources that's not on the phone and being able to keep them separate.

There's a lot that's yet unsaid about syncing with locally stored data without having to put it up in the cloud (whether that local data is Palm Desktop, Outlook, Address Book, or something else entirely). I sure hope there's an easy way to do it, even if that means giving up some of the magical syncing properties of Synergy. The only data stores that I need to sync magically are the ones that other people can change -- calendar and the global address book at work.

There's a lot that remains to be seen when the Pre comes out, but for now I'm cautiously optimistic.

It will be incredibly disappointing if I have to run my info through Google or Yahoo in order to get it onto the Pre. Like, sale stopping disappointing. I keep thinking that I must be missing something, as local sync is such an obvious and basic requirement.

Agree with the last comment. No one else has any access to the data stored on my Palm TX. Personal data is stored on the Palm, and backed up to my computer alone. I don't want this to change.

PalmOS applications can be downloaded from any source, wasily installed onto the TX and tried out. Will I be able to do this with the Pre, or will some "app store" be my only source of software, ebooks, etc.

And, being a Palm product, I fully expect it to stop working within a year, so I'll need a way to fully back it up and quickly restore to the replacement when I get it.

Also, I will definitely need the reminder functionality of Datebk4+, to beep me when I need to take a lunch break, wake up 45 minutes later :), remind me every weekday to log in at 10 AM,to take the trash out every Thursday night at 10 PM. and every month to pay the bills.

And, will all this work even if it can't make a connection to the network?

a little more complicated, but not bad. For Google, there is a handy set-up tool you can find by clicking on iCal on this page. It will mean that you need to be sure to only put your stuff in the Google calendars, but you can set up as many calendars as you like. Yahoo is a little more complicated to set up, but these instructions should get you started.

boediger

Not good to hear the words

Mac
Palm Pre
Google
Sync

in the same sentence....

Bummer..

I was hoping Mac Snow Leopard OS might reach out to help give 'exchange for all" (meaning Blackberry and Palm Pre users) but now I would wager it wont...

What sort of hoops would Mac users email have to jump though to get "synergy" of sent mails / drafts etc the same on Mac and the Palm Pre?

This is getting depressing...

Roll on iPhone III.... sheesh!

(Blackberry 8900 / Mac user)

So let me see if I have this right... ALL of the data I keep in my contacts on the Mac probably won't sync to the Palm Pre (based on Google and Yahoo both missing fields that the Mac address book contains)? Really? This is the phone that is supposed to revolutionize my life... by dropping contact details?

Wait a minute... is it definitly impossible to use Apples iSync to sync between Mac and Pre? Or is this just not known yet?

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I just upgraded my mac OS to the new release of Snow Leopard. Snow Leopard
allows for syncing with gmail contacts. My pre is set up to sync with gmail
contacts. I was hoping that no matter where I entered a contact, that it
would update on all three platforms. The problem I am having is when I enter
a contact on my Pre ( I have tried adding a contact to all accounts, including the Palm profile acct) it is not syncing to my gmail contacts, therefore not
syncing to my mac address book.

Any suggestions?

This is such a easy process to sync these two. I have never had an issue with this.
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