Skip to Content

No more iSync in Lion

by Victor Agreda, Jr. May 26th 2011 at 5:00AM

Hey, you remember iSync, right? You there, with the RAZR, you remember iSync? I remember using iSync to somewhat handily sync my contacts and calendars way back in the dark ages when phones had monochrome screens and most iPods had spinning plates inside them. Then, one day, it quit working and joined the long list of "applications time and Victor forgot."

Well, goodbye, iSync, we barely used ye. Lion users are telling us that iSync is nowhere to be found in Apple's next OS, along with FrontRow, Java runtime and Rosetta (as AppleInsider reported earlier this year). One wonders if a better solution will take its place (MobileMe?), or if Apple felt it was legacy cruft needing to go.

What's next on the chopping block, Grapher?



View Tags

Related Stories

Categories

Mac

Hey, you remember iSync, right? You there, with the RAZR, you remember iSync? I remember using iSync to somewhat handily sync my...
 

Add a Comment

Sign in »
*0 / 3000 Character Maximum Comment Moderation Enabled. Your comment will appear after it is cleared by an editor.

59 Comments

Filter by:
magnusdredd

No iSync is a deal-breaker.

My wife and I have brand new Samsung Rugby II (non-smart) cell phones. We use iSync to keep our contacts in sync with the built in OSX address book program. We have done this with a number of phones over the years. If either of us puts in a new contact, iSync keeps them in sync wirelessly.

We have 200+ contacts.

We do not have or want a data plan.

I NO interest in MobileMe. I have a static IP and a server at home...

With Windows 7, Microsoft has finally done something right and copied this idea from the Apple playbook. Not many phones are supported, however this will probably improve in time.

While I support roughly 1000 Windows machines at work, I do find Windows FAR more annoying to use.

I would hate to have to use Windows for syncing my contacts because Apple has done something incredibly stupid... again *cough* Xserve *cough*. (Of course you didn't sell many, they're servers. The 1 or 2 Xserves are what allow enterprise to buy/support 1000+ iMacs/MacBooks).

May 29 2011 at 12:23 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Todd

Well, those of us with Quicken, without Rosetta, will from that point on, be wholly screwed.

May 28 2011 at 4:01 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Alexandre Strube

Just because Victor does not use grapher, does not mean it's not useful. In fact, I have seen people resisting to switch apple change just because of the level of attention to detail apple has putting an application like that.

May 28 2011 at 2:06 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Rick

Doesn't Crashplan use the Java runtime?

May 26 2011 at 8:50 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Yuri

Hey... for me it's OK to kill iSync, but also Front Row? Why??
I use my Mac Mini as a media center and Front Row is still an eye-catcher solution for this...

May 26 2011 at 7:51 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Yuusharo

Is anyone really surprised by this? Apple does this type of thing every few years, dropping technologies they feel is outdated or outlived its purpose. In their vision, "outdated" services like iSync have been replaced by online cloud syncing services like MobileMe, Google Sync, Exchange ActiveSync, and so forth. Those technologies are better for so many reasons, and removing iSync ties in with the idea that MobileMe will soon be free for all.

Something will come along that will take its place - it always does. I'm sure a clever dev is hard at work coming up with a dead simple $4.99 app for the Mac App Store that will do exactly what you need it to do. Hmm, that's not a bad idea, actually....

May 26 2011 at 1:32 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Brendan

Isn't iSync what powers the sync between the Mac Address Book and Google? I have the Mac Address Book as my central contacts "hub" that updates my iPhone and my Google contacts (I don't do it directly from iPhone to Google as the contact pictures get all screwed up that way).

It would be very disappointing to have this feature disappear in Lion.

May 26 2011 at 1:25 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to Brendan's comment
Yuusharo

Well, they've done some substantial under-the-hood changes to a lot of their existing code. Perhaps the new Address Book does a much better job at syncing with all of your services independently of a separate process, like iSync.

By the by, the reasons your photos go low-res is because Google resizes them. If you're syncing via address book on your mac and not Google Sync, then your iPhone will get the local, high res versions. If you sync directly with Google Sync, they'll be much smaller. MobileMe doesn't have this problem, which is why I hope it will be free soon.

May 26 2011 at 1:37 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
joe

There are two things:

1) Sync Services is the underlying OS-level framework that enables many various syncing services. Examples including syncing contacts and calendars to either a non-iOS iPod or to an iOS device that syncs via iTunes (ie, you don't have MobileMe with wireless syncing enabled), Entourage/Outlooking syncing to the central sync databases, and all non-event data such as contacts, keychain, bookmarks, etc, to the MobileMe cloud.

2) iSync the application, which provides a UI to allow you to set up a device, such as a non-iPhone phone, to sync with those same central sync databases.

I have not heard/seen anything saying that Sync Services is going away. Not that it's not a possibility. But there are far too many things that use it, including iTunes to sync you iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch if you don't have a MobileMe subscription. The thing that appears certain is that the iSync application is going away. This would primarily affect those of us who use it to sync our non-Apple phones to the contacts and events on our computer.

May 26 2011 at 8:14 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
mcdj

Possibly the best graphic ever on TUAW.

May 26 2011 at 1:22 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
milkmage

they probably squished it into iTunes 11

/more bloat

May 26 2011 at 1:16 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Derek Stavis

Grapher's just a forgotten app. It need a HUGE UI redesign and integration with the operating system. Something usable like the Character Viewer, Text and Color inspectors.

In Apple Page's the native solution for the lack of formula insertion (like Microsoft Word's Equation) is Grapher.

I BEG FOR A BETTER GRAPHER!! *o/*

May 26 2011 at 12:54 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Buy an ad here

Hot Apps on TUAW

Tweets

© 2012 AOL Inc. All Rights Reserved.