Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Ogre55

macrumors member
Original poster
Apr 24, 2005
36
0
Does anyone have any experience using a pocket PC with their Mac? I know the easiest answer to a PDA for a Mac user is the palm but I need a pocket PC for school (they are requiring it). I have heard that both pocket Mac and the missing sync work to sync it up to macs. Anybody have experience with these? And I was wondering what other difficulties you have ran into.
 

FoxyKaye

macrumors 68000
I personally use Missing Sync for an older iPaq. It works OK - I haven't really tried anything fancy like synching up email. I have installed programs through the interface, and they all worked. I suppose my biggest complaint with Missing Sync is that it seems really underdeveloped - It's not a lot more than a GUI and a couple sync utilities. Then again, this is all I really need it to do (sync with iCal and Address Book).

From my own investigations, folks seem to either like one or the other (Missing Sync or Pocket Mac), however, they both seem to do the same things with the same quantity of grief (if not about different issues).

Hope this helps!
 

Loge

macrumors 68030
Jun 24, 2004
2,836
1,312
England
I've been using Pocket Mac, and generally been pleased with it. Overall, it's not any more work than using a Mac with a Palm, just that the sync software is not free. The main problem you might run into is that some software for Pocket PC is distributed as an exe file rather than a cab file; sometimes Pocket Mac can install it, sometimes not. It's useful to have access to a pc for those odd occasions.
 

angelneo

macrumors 68000
Jun 13, 2004
1,541
0
afk
I'm not very sure if it is just me and my mac, but I have tried installing Pocketmac Pocket PC version together with Pocketmac smartphone version and it destroyed my OS X, resulting in me doing an archive and re-install.....
 

tamara6

macrumors regular
Apr 28, 2004
229
137
I don't know how the full version of PocketMac is, but the "lite" version is worthless. I bought it ($15) because all I needed was a way to sync my iCal to something portable - like the calendar on the pocketpc.

I decided not to buy the full version because I have a PC to install software, and I have a way to transfer files via an SD card. I really only needed a calendar sync solution.

PocketMac Lite is not able to sync the calendars at all, and the first version I tried ran my cpu at 100%, even after I supposedly quit the application. Finally my mac would freeze and need to be restarted.

Naturally, I e-mailed them. For about a week they seemed to care. And they did finally create a version that doesn't freeze the computer. But, they have been unable to solve the sync problem, and they seem to have stopped trying (this has been going on since October). No one has offered to give me my money back. No one has offered me a product that works. My solution is to sync my calendar with my iPod, so at least I can *look* at it, even if I can't edit it on the road.

I would definitely not purchase anything from them again, and I can't advise people to buy from them either. I have no experience with Missing Sync, but they really couldn't be any worse than the PocketMac people, and maybe their product actually works.
 

Ogre55

macrumors member
Original poster
Apr 24, 2005
36
0
Anybody have any suggestions for loading programs if I don't have a pc to use?
 

j26

macrumors 68000
Mar 30, 2005
1,753
723
Paddyland
I got the Missing Synch and it works very efficientl for file transfer etc.

The only gripe I have with it is that it throws all appointments in iCal into one category, so there's no point in setting up a variety of categories in your Pocket PC as they'll all come across as the default category in iCal.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.