Filed under: Software
Mark/Space ships Missing Sync for Symbian
Mac sync software developer Mark/Space has announced the release of The Missing Sync for Symbian. Designed to sync Mac apps to Symbian S60 and UIQ smartphones, the new $39.95 product (electronic download) has a unique feature -- Proximity Syncing. When your Mac and Symbian phone are within Bluetooth range (about 30 feet / 10 meters), they automatically sync to insure that both are up-to-date.The Missing Sync for Symbian syncs personal information such as contacts, calendar tasks, and events, and also uses proprietary Call Log and SMS applications to move the phone's call log and text messages to the Mac. Video, photo, music, and document files can also be synced.
If you think that the iPhone is the only smartphone on the market, it's important to realize that well over 100 million Symbian-based phones have been sold worldwide, with Nokia, Sony Ericsson, and Motorola being the biggest vendors. As a result, the Missing Sync for Symbian is available in English, French, Italian, German, and Spanish versions.
In the interest of full disclosure, I wrote the help system for this application under contract to Mark/Space.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
oZ said 12:16PM on 7-29-2008
$40 to be able to sync documents and access SMS messages and call log? I would almost rather have BluePhoneElite for the other management functions. iSync already takes care of the contacts and calendar. I don't get it.
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Steven Sande said 12:27PM on 7-29-2008
$25 for BluePhoneElite isn't exactly cheap, either. I haven't had much luck with these apps that claim to work with all of the platforms (BPE supposedly works with iPhone, Palm OS, Symbian, WinMo, etc...). IMHO, applications that are designed to work properly with one handheld platform tend to work better.
TUAWSteve
oZ said 12:48PM on 7-29-2008
It isn't cheap at all, but it allows interactive use of the features on your phone, and Symbian is a very well supported platform with that app.
I'm just curious why this is $40. I get it for Windows Mobile -- it's almost impossible to get documents off of the device via OS X, and there's no sync functionality. But S60 has full access via Bluetooth File Exchange, good music support via Nokia Multimedia Transfer, and iSync handles the standard contacts/calendars business.
d said 12:18PM on 7-29-2008
You're right. iPhone isn't the only smartphone on the market. It is simply the only important smartphone on the market.
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Steven Sande said 12:29PM on 7-29-2008
I agree with you 1000%! I frankly think that Symbian is going to go the way of Palm OS.
TUAWSteve
oZ said 12:49PM on 7-29-2008
Except for the fact that everyone else is still innovating, and the big features of the iPhone, minus multitouch, are things that Symbian and S60 have done for years and years. Don't expect the smartphone world to just give up, especially as Apple continues to control the entire pipeline of their product, from allowed software to allowed service provider.
Zeromaru said 12:47PM on 7-29-2008
Windows Mobile is actually a pretty good platform (I currently have a HTC Touch, though trying to sell it for an iPhone for reasons that should be apparent), but having a Mac with one is enough to make you rip out your insides, thanks in full to Mark/Space. The Missing Sync, though useful, takes the golden crown for bad programming mistakes and for the developers refusal to admit fault.
If you attempt to use the program with a case-sensitive file system, then you'll have problems. Specifically, it refuses to sync with any program that doesn't use Sync Services, namely iPhoto and iTunes. When it attempts to get information from iTunes, it looks for the file "~/music/itunes/itunes library.xml". What's wrong with that picture? Oh yeah, Apple uses proper case. If you have a case-sensitive file system (which I did), the file won't be found. This oversight has been reported by numerous users, but Mark/Space considers case-sensitive file systems an "insignificant user base", doesn't advertise this grave incompatibility in the system requirements, and refuses to fix it (even though it only happens with the Music and Photo plugins, meaning they'd have to fix all of two lines of code).
In other words, don't buy from Mark/Space. Find an alternative.
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Noah Ramon said 1:31PM on 7-29-2008
I'm glad I found out *before* I bought this - it turns out that my S60-running Nokia 3620 isn't supported.
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Gunesh Raj said 2:30PM on 7-29-2008
Hi, I just bought this software,
tried on leopard 10.4 with a E61i
Im not very impressed with this, took me a while to sync as the process is not straight forward.
So far, I managed to get the contacts sync by accident.
Cal sync and others seemed to throw an error which I will mail it to the developers.
I hope they test their software better next time, dont want to be a beta tester.
Regards
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oco said 6:37AM on 8-20-2008
too little to late
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Magnus Nordlander said 3:03PM on 7-29-2008
I'm sure this comes as a great relief for all UIQ3 users out there, seeing as how vendor support for OS X is craptastic at best.
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charlie said 3:46PM on 7-29-2008
Why would you want this program? Symbian already has isync enabled for contacts/cal sync. You can already send documents over via BT/WIFI/USB. Music also has a sync tool. OK, pics don't get auto sync but again it is trivial to send them over, Call LOG/SMS?
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Arnoz said 5:00AM on 7-30-2008
"Proximity syncing"? I'd definitely would like to see in Missing Sync for BlackBerry!
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k said 12:39AM on 7-30-2008
I had Missing Sync for the Sidekick, when I needed support it was some of the worst that I have ever gotten besides what I have experienced from Parallels.
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Reed said 12:56AM on 7-30-2008
I purchased Missing Sync for the TMobile Sidekick from Mark Space.
They sold it, and then quickly abandoned it. My purchase became useless and I was offered no alternative, upgrade path, or support.
I asked them about this state of affairs at MacWorld, and was told not-so-politely to go away.
I will never buy from Mark Space again.
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Andy Fuchs said 4:59AM on 7-30-2008
Well, Synching isn't the right term used. Missing Sync for iPhone just backups messages in one direction (from the phone to your computer), which isn't really synching.
On my machine it also creates duplicate messages, instead of detecting that the message is already there...
Hm...
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Stuart said 6:45AM on 7-30-2008
I don't like the price much, but, it appears it may fix the broken Bluetooth with the Nokia N73. Nokia have managed to break Bluetooth-iSync with Firmware 4.0735.3.0.2 with 10.5. Can't see a demo of the app though.
Once you upgrade to 4.0735.3.0.2, you can kiss the Bluetooth-iSync goodbye (with 10.5). So, if you see this and have an N73, stay with Firmware 3.0704.1.0.1. Nokia aren't fixing it.
For more info. see: http://www.mistermac.co.uk/files/644cd413d56697b354673f7d23d169fc-320.html
and
http://discussions.europe.nokia.com/discussions/board/message?board.id=connectivity&thread.id=13559&view=by_date_ascending&page=19
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Stuart said 4:17PM on 7-30-2008
There is a demo:
http://mirror.markspace.com/missing_sync_symbian1.0.0.dmg
"NOTE: You must be running Mac OS 10.5.4"
Sadly it didn't work, after it pairs with the N73, I get the following error:
OBEX error fileTransferServicesDisconnectionComplete
kOBEXSessionTransportDiedError|
kOBEXSessionNoTransportError|
kOBEXSessionNotConnectedError: -21880.
I notice the Bluetooth icon in the menu bar briefly gets the slash "-" through it, and on the phone the icon is becomes bracketed (B) to indicate they are trying to do something.
Hmph.
AG said 1:10PM on 7-30-2008
Don't upgrade to Missing Sync for Windows Mobile 4.0.3!
It broke and stopped working on our machines after the update on June 5, 2008. Today is July 30, 2008 and they still have no idea what's wrong and will not refund the purchases (purchased 12/2007).
Pete at Markspace states that they are still looking into it, but after 47 emails back and forth and having us send them various dumps and logs, no luck. It was a good app while it worked but now Markspace refuses to refund the license purchases and yet can't get it to work...
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rhp said 5:24PM on 7-30-2008
For proximity-based synching for free, try http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/system_disk_utilities/proximity.html
Combine that with a little applescript, that says:
-- Synchronize the Device
tell application "iSync"
if last sync is less than ((current date) - 3600) then
activate
synchronize
repeat while (syncing is true)
delay 1
end repeat
set syncStatus to sync status
end if
end tell
if syncStatus = 2 then
tell application "System Events" to set visible of process "iSync" to false
end if
... and you have isync updating your phone whenever you walk into range. Works perfectly with my E51, with the Nokia isync plugin. As far as I can tell, this makes my Nokia integrate more smoothly than an iphone :)
(The script has some extra bits that make it wait an hour between syncs, and hides the isync window if the sync succeeded - it may fail if you're at the edge of bluetooth range, for example.)
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