Reminder: Apple keeps an official list of iSync-supported devices

#17: Uh, that's exactly what this list is about; all the phones on this iSync list will sync with Mac OS X right out of the box - no extra software necessary.

Or am I missing something in your comment?

I just wish I can buy a phone off the shelf and have it sync with my PB with no extra software that will only sync partially like PocketMac for Pearl by Blackberry, argh! It makes me wish for a PC everytime I have a new device, specially a new phone (I upgrade every six months or so).

Wish my Treo 750 was on there...

Apple's support in this area leaves a lot to be desired. As one whose livelihood depends on knowing about wireless I can tell you that I wrestled with syncing my new RAZR V3xx (Cingular) because it's not a standard SyncML phone and iSync doesn't support it at all. No plug-ins found anywhere will work.

There is, however, a solution that wil work with ANY phone to sync iCal with the phone, and it works beautifully. However, there's a cost involved - about $65/year. For me, $5/month (about the cost of a latte or two) is well worth having a fully synced calendar on my phone; I don't carry any other devices anymore... no more Blackberry (I was one of the original thumb-mailers), no more Treo (jeez, what a clunker - and the sync software from Missing Sync sucks, btw), just the phone.

If it's worth the cost to you - and I understand if it's not so I've put a "Cheaters Note" below - then try this:

The trick to getting the sync to work is using iCal, Google Calendar, SpanningSync (by the MissingSync folks, somehow this software is vastly better than their own native stuff) and GooSync (http://www.GooSync.com).

1. Get a Google account if you don't already have one.

2. Set up a series of calendars with the same names as your iCal calendars.

3. Purchase SpanningSync for $25 (annual fee) and set it up to sync your iCal calendars with Google Calendars. It's very simple, completely intuitive and worked right out of the box for me.

4. AFTER your data is all fully synced to Google Calendars, open an account at GooSync and upgrade it to sync multiple calendars (cost is $40/year, charged in British pounds).

CHEATERS NOTE: If you don't mind putting all of your iCal calendars into ONE Google calendar you can use the free version of GooSync's service. I don't find that a reasonable solution for myself, but you might, and this would reduce the cost for the whole process substantially.

5. Set up your phone according to the GooSync instructions to sync with your Google calendar account. Also, very intuitive and quick.

6. Do your first sync, run a few tests back and forth and you're good to go.

I've done syncs in both directions, with various calendars, repeat events, overlapping times, etc., and the process seems virtually fail-safe so far.

While I'd love to have a simple iSync plug-in, the delay in Leopard's release and the lack of any other plug-ins drove me to this other solution.

And please, spare me the moaning about the cost... if it's not worth the cost then just DON'T DO IT. But don't moan and groan about $5/month when this could be a valuable solution to someone else. Let others make their own decisions.

For the record, I don't like paying for stuff like this when it should be native within the OS. I further don't like paying what I consider a high price for these sync capabilities (GooSync and SpanningSync) but they took some development, they need to make money and I need the product. This is the way the software ecosystem works, folks... use it if you choose it.

Just my 2 cents.

Check out Nokia's iSync plug-ins for phones that are not (yet?) on Apple's official list.

http://www.nokia.com/A4299040

Hope that helps. Kai

I wouldn't get too caught up in this list anyways. As soon as the iPhone is out, Apple will ditch support for all other devices. I know it, you know it. We saw what happened to iTunes once the iPod was released...

For info on how to make iSync plugins for non-natively supported phones check out http://en.isync-hilfe.de/

If anyone needs a plugin for the Sony Erricson W300i then I've got one uploaded here: http://blog.joelambert.co.uk/?p=135#comment-3455

News flash. Apple keep a "web" site with information about all their products. You can see it by using the "internet".

Come on guys, a little editorial work please? Best apple news/rumors:

http://apple.originalsignal.com

What makes me so upset is that syncinc your address book to your phone REQUIRES .mac . Some people *may* say, so get .mac . HMMMM, i DID. I have had .mac for quite some time now and not once have my contacts copied over to the .mac address book online. And that is where iSync tries to retrieve your contacts to send to your phone. It worked just fine... but only with the few contacts I had online. I am using a K1m from verizon and the syncinc process works.... just not with my contacts on my computer. I hate this so much I almost crushed my phone today. Thank god the iPhone is coming out soon or I'd cry.

Actually it's fairly easy for some models to create new phoneplugins to get them working on isync, sometimes only a matter of modify a couple of rows into metaclasses.plist of another phoneplugin