Palm Desktop Replacement?

rueger asks: "Almost from Day One I've found the Palm desktop and handheld software to be sorely lacking. The Address Book only allows you to record one address, not one for home and one for work, and only lets you sort or search by name and company name, not by city for instance. The calendar won't let you link contact names to appointments which again seems an obvious missing feature. I've been looking for a software replacement that would add these features and more, and still sync with my Palm (well, Clie). Outlook is not a possibility for all of the usual reasons. What I've found is that there are some very nice PIMs out there, but most won't hot-sync. Those that do, like Time & Chaos, have no more functionality than the Palm software, and lack some features that I use. What are other handheld users turning to? Is there an Open Source replacement?"

Comments

Re:Apple's iCal and Address Book or....

[xanderwilson]

Okay. Forget Google. Try here.

Alex.

Ecco Pro with Shadow Palm and DateBk5

[Will Sargent]

There was a pretty huge list of PIMs, but the market was exterminated by Microsoft Outlook and never really recovered. In addition, only some of them integration with Palms.

http://john.redmood.com/organizers.html
http://www.ypsolog.com/docs/comp/other/pim.html
http://www.ms.lt/ms/projects/toolkinds/organize.ht ml

The odds are good that you'll find something that works.

I personally use Ecco Pro, Shadow Palm and DateBk5.

But then again, I'm a zealot.

Evolution

[npsimons]

I know a lot of people like to bag on Evolution, but I've found it works quite nicely when synchronizing to my Palm m500 over serial. I'm using Debian stable, and there are a couple of packages that you will need besides evolution. I believe they were evolution, gnome-pilot, and gnome-pilot-conduits (apt should get all the proper dependencies). Although, you still only get one address (business) on the Palm side, I believe this is a limitation with the Palm addressbook software. You can keep multiple addresses in Evolution, but only the business one will show up on the Palm addressbook.

Correction

[NanoGator]

"Outlook is not a possibility for all of the usual reasons."

The 'usual reasons', for the most part, apply to Outlook Express and not Outlook 2000/XP.

Agendus

[notyou2]

I can't speak for the desktop version of their software (I only use the Palm edition), but I've been very happy with Agendus by Iambic. It remedies many of the issues you raise.

They have full versions of their software for both Palm and Windows.

Open Source, pure Java HotSync replacement.

[Yaztromo]

To replace your HotSync software, take a look at the jSyncManager. It's an Open Source, pure Java, and will run on all your different operating systems. It features an Object-Oriented "jConduit" plug-in system to allow different applications to use it for their synchronization services.

The two downsides currently with running the jSyncManager on the desktop are:

• The jSyncManager relies upon external libraries to communicate with the hardware. For serial docks/cables it requires either the Java Communications API, or the Open Sourced jSerial API. For USB ports it requires jUSB. jUSB is currently only readily available on Linux, with a partial implementation available on Windows. TCP/IP sync support is available on all platforms.
• There aren't a whole lot of jConduit plug-ins available yet. The bundles ones provide generic functionality such as CSV and XML downloading of common PalmOS record types, the ability to upload PRC and PDB databases, the ability to export Zire 71 photos as JPG files, etc. However, if you're a Java-coder and want to write your own jConduit plug-in for your favorite PIM, documentation is available online, and support is readily available through the jSyncManager development community.

Brad BARCLAY
Lead Developer & Project Administrator,
The jSyncManager Project.

New Palm Desktop has what you're looking for

[stu72]

The newest version of the Palm desktop has a number of new features, including new contact fields - these will not migrate to an older palm (i.e. less than OS 5) but they stay on your desktop until you upgrade.

I've been using the new desktop w/an older palm for a while and I'm pretty happy.