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Monday, March 1, 2004 |
Getting Your New PDA Up And Running
The newest player in the pack is Microsoft. Yes, that peskly Microsoft Corporation from Redmond. They realized that while having your calendars and contacts close by was nice, users might want something more. They first developed WindowsCE as a modified version of Windows 95. Released in 1996, PDAs were developed by Compaq, Casio, HP, LG, NEC, and Philips. Windows CE 2 came a little over a year later and was established as Microsoft's first widely accepted PDA operating system. It was more stable, offered more features, and was designed for more than PDA use. Microsoft wanted ATMs to run off of Windows CE 2 — talk about scary.
Windows CE 3 is where the PocketPC name was finally created. The UI was changed so that it looked less like Windows CE, and more like a PDA's interface. No more task bar or ugly Start Menu.
Currently we are at Windows CE 4, (or as Micorosft likes to confuse us by calling the same things different names) PocketPC 2003. Released in June, supported devices can be bought from Compaq, HP, and ViewSonic. Now that we have had a brief history lesson, the question still remains...
Why would a Mac user want to use a PocketPC?
First, the PocketPC is much more than a PDA. It offers you the ability to retrieve your email, view your photos, listen to music, watch videos, surf the internet, view documents. While all of these features are available on the Palm, you are usually going to need third party software. For example, if you want to take your Microsoft Word documents with you on the road, you are going to need a program like Dataviz's Documents To Go. Almost every PocketPC you can buy today comes bundled with PocketWord.
Second, connectivity. The PocketPC offers much more currently than the PocketPC than PalmOne. A big thing for me was that I wanted a PDA that would allow me to get online using my Airport. The only Palm with that feature was the Tungsten C, and it had a keyboard. I want a writing surface on my PDA, not a tiny keyboard. The iPaq I used for this article had both bluetooth and 802.11b Wireless networking built in. The best thing about the wireless configuration was my ability to sync my Purdue Exchange account over the campus' wireless network. I didn't need to be synced up with my computer at all. I could do it while walking between classes.
Finally, PalmSource has offered Mac support since its inception, but recently announced that the next version of its OS (codenamed 'Cobalt') would not support the Macintosh platform. At this point in time, if you want to use an OS 6 device, you are going to be burdened with buying third party synchronization software from a company like Handmark.
To those brave enough to carry the PocketPC in the same bag as their Mac, there are two choices when it comes to synchronizing your data. Unfortunately, the Macintosh Business Unit at Microsoft does not offer ActiveSync for OS X. If you want to synchronize your PocketPC with your Mac you can use mark/space's The Missing Sync or PocketMac Pro. PocketMac Pro is developed by Information Appliance Associates. They were kind enough to give us a copy of their three applications for the PocketPC to use for this article: PocketMac Pro, PocketBackup, and PocketTheme.
PocketMac ProPocketMac offers the ability to synchronize your data with Microsoft Entourage of Apple's iApps. It supports Address Book, iCal, Mail, iTunes, and iPhoto. PocketMac also offers iSync integration. PocketMac uses a plugin to integrate with iSync. As of this writing, they are not aware of any issues with iSync 1.4 that should cause any problems. Bluetooth support is also offered for those that have PocketPCs with that technology. You can also use your Airport connection to synchronize your data. Support for Word, Excel, Now, and AvantGo are also included. Finally, users can easily install PocketPC files from CAB files and some EXEs and mount their PocketPC on their desktop.
I am going to walk you through setting up a PocketPC to synchronize with PocketMac over a USB connection using Mac OS X v10.3 Panther. The PocketPC I used was the HP/Compaq iPaq 4155 with a clean version of the PocketPC 2003 software (ie. not molested by Windows XP). :)
Email configuration was the most difficult task that I encountered. I had hoped it would work without any configuration. All of this configuration will take place on the PocketPC rather than the Mac. Load the Inbox application on your PocketPC and go to Accounts. A wizard will guide you through the setup. For the email address, enter your email address. For the rest of the options enter the following information (per the PocketMac manual):
Next, we need to determine what photos we want to send to the PocketMac. It's assumed that you don't want all 10,000 photos on your PocketMac, so they created a photo album called PocketMac Photo Albums. Simply drag the photos you want into that album and it will be transferred when we synchronize our data. Make sure that you selected in the Music & Photo preferences to resize the photos for PocketPC size. There is no sense in having a 1600x1200 pixel image on your PocketPC's much lower resolution screen.
I should also note that a few times clicking the Synchronize button would not perform any action. Quitting the application and restarting it solved the problem.
Now that the data is on our PocketMac, we can install some applications. There is full support for CAB file installations and some support for EXEs. Think of a CAB file as a MacOS X .pkg file. It just holds a bunch of files in a convenient little bin. To install new files, go to the PocketMac menu in your menu bar and select Install New Software via... and either CAB file or Installer (EXE) File.
The only EXE I tried to install from the Macintosh failed. Purdue provides the Movian VPN client for access to the campus Airport, but only as EXEs. PocketMac wasn't able to successfully send the files despite several attempts. What it tries to do is search through the EXE file for the CAB buried inside of it and then send that to the PocketPC.
The fine folks at PocketMac also included the two bonus applications for me to play with. PocketMac's PocketTheme Creator allows PocketPC owners to customize their PocketPC experience. Face it. As a Mac user, you don't want to see the Windows logo and the green pastures as your background. It reminds you too much of Windows XP. With the theme creator, you can download themes from PocketMac's website, download free background art from third party sites, or create your own customized theme. You can customize the background, the navigation bar, the today screen, colors, and messages. The ThemeCreator is simple and straight forward to use. You simply select what background you want using the File browser and then configure the other options using the color palette. Finally, you can edit an existing theme. It is the same as before, except you are modifying someone else's work. Overall, I wouldn't have much use for the Theme creator. PocketMac includes an excellent OS X theme that makes the iPaq look more like a Mac (besides the little i at the beginning of its name).
ConclusionIn conclusion, I think PocketMac is a good utility to let you synchronize your PocketPC with the Macintosh. I wish Microsoft would include ActiveSync for the Macintosh in the box, but since I doubt that is going to happen, this utility does a fine job.
I had very few problems other than the synchronization button not responding a few times and the iPhoto conduit freezing up on me a few times. The people at PocketMac were very helpful in answering my questions for this article, and providing the software to work with.
If you are in the market for a PDA that does more than just contacts and calendaring, don't knock the PocketPC just because it is from the Evil Empire.
Comments on this Entry:
(Tom on Feb 28, 2004 5:15 AM) (dave on Feb 28, 2004 7:05 AM) (Ryan J. Bonnell on Feb 28, 2004 3:33 PM)
"Microsoft never did nothing to nobody?" I guess the billions of dollars lost each year (and rising) due to vulnerabilites, viruses, and security exploits just must be harmless.
Each person (or author) has their own opinion, and like posting a comment on an article, it should be respected and treated wtih an open mind.
Thanks for the comments so far. Keep 'em coming; it's the open interactivity that makes this site so resourceful.
Informative article yes, bashing Microsoft no. [MacZealots.com - Reviews]8:58:13 PM 
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Ever since the Newton was unveiled in 1993, Apple users have been using PDAs to keep track of their calendars and contacts. After the Newton project was discontinued by Apple, many users migrated to the Palm platform. The PalmOS offered improved handwriting recognition, a smaller form factor, and many other improvements. It could be said, however, that the Newton has a far longer lifetime as Newton Messagepads from over ten years ago are still being actively used by their owners.
The software requires that you have MacOS X 10.2.6 or Panther. I downloaded the application from the website. The installer is straightforward, and I can assume you are able to do that. At first launch, you are prompted to enter your serial number information. With all of that out of the way, you are given access to the application's preferences. This is where you will configure what you want to synchronize with the PocketPC. You can select whether or not you want to use the iApps or Entourage for your data synchronization, what files you want to synchronize, whether to have offline websites saved to the device as well. I chose to only worry with AddressBook, iCal, Mail, iTunes, and iPhoto. One thing should be noted here. There is an option in the Web preferences for the Mazingo service. That service is no longer available.
With everything configured, we can now plug in the PocketPC into our Mac. PocketMac recommends that you plug the device directly into your Mac, rather than using a USB hub. The PocketPC will be recognized by PocketMac and you should get a message asking if you want to install the PocketMac software on your PocketPC. Accept this, or you won't be able to go on with the tutorial. That is it. Your PocketPC should be ready to synchronize with PocketMac.
For iTunes, PocketMac created a playlist called "PocketMac mobile tunes".
An extra that I did find very useful was the 
Justin Williams is a leading contributor to MacZealots.com and the most prolific |
[All OS X] 8:55:17 PM
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It's been a few months since I've posted - a very busy and exciting time here at Groove. Both in terms of what's been happening in the business and market, but also because we're closing in on the first beta of Groove V3. I can't wait to tell you about the improvements in V3 ... because after having used it day in and day out for a few months now, I've simply never felt nearly this excited about a product that I've worked on. And that says a lot. More on V3 in a few weeks! For those of you who have been following Groove for quite some time, you may recall that the product's original raison d'être was to enable people "at the edge" to dynamically assemble online into secure virtual workspaces, to work together and to get something done, even if those individuals were in different organizations with completely different IT infrastructure. Today, with the gracious permission of one of our most significant customers, Groove made an announcement that I'd like to talk about for a moment. It's very significant to me for two reasons: First, the nature of how Groove is being used in this solution demonstrates to the extreme the very reason why Groove was built the way it was, from a technology and architecture perspective. Decentralization at its finest. The customer's core challenge was to enable individuals from many, many different organizations - most of whom had little or no opportunity for training - to rapidly assemble into small virtual teams to selectively share information, make decisions, get the job done, and disassemble. The individuals are geographically dispersed. They use different kinds of networks, behind different organizations' firewalls and management policies. They are very, very highly mobile. And there are few applications where the requirement for deep and effective security is more self-evident. Groove's press release can be found here. The Department of Homeland Security's press releases related to HSIN can be found here and here, while Secretary Ridge's remarks are here. Why was a decentralized architecture for this network so fundamentally important, and thus why was Groove uniquely suited for the task? This brings me to the second reason that I'm tremendously pleased to have had the opportunity to contribute to solving this problem. Larry Lessig taught us that in software-based systems in cyberspace, the code can define outcomes - inadvertently or intentionally - that might have an impact on society. Or better stated in this case, the system's core architectural design principles have a real impact not only on the system's mission effectiveness, but also in how it might effectively preserve and protect rights. To understand these issues more deeply, one need look no further than the eloquent work released this past December by the Markle Foundation Task Force on National Security in the Information Age, called "Creating a Trusted Network for Homeland Security". If you're interested in the "why" of decentralization, read the report. Look at the members of the task force. And take particular note of their proposed SHARE network and its architecture. (Interestingly, Richard Eckel wrote about it in his blog before he became aware of the details of Groove's involvement with HSIN.) Lots of stuff here to read, but it's truly fascinating if you are interested in understanding how decentralization and peer-to-peer technology is having a real impact on government and society. Although so, so many people are involved in this project because of its scope, in particular I'd like to recognize Col. Tom Marenic, Pat Duecy, Ed Manavian, and especially our partner Mike Kushin of ManTech/IDS. My sincere thanks for your leadership, your passion about the mission, and your appreciation for organizational dynamics, social dynamics, technology and architecture in assembling a large and empirically effective system for purposeful social interaction. [Ray Ozzie's Weblog] 8:51:04 PM
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Ted Goranson (About This Particular Macintosh): “What’s amazing is how feature-rich these products are. They can do things that are not common and in some cases not available today.” [Ranchero] 8:48:38 PM
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RSS Web Feeds, The Next Big Thing?. http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/02/29/ mi writes "Yahoo! carries an Associated Press editorial about RSS-based news feeds, and how they are pushing the spam-ridden e-mail and advertising-ridden ... [Slashdot] 12:27:52 AM
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Comments on this Entry:
(Richard on Feb 16, 2004 3:36 PM)
Congrats, Jeroen. Very nice! (Jeroen on Feb 16, 2004 4:57 PM)
Tnx :-) (phil on Feb 16, 2004 5:22 PM)
Looks great. Very accessible. And I imagine the MT-based management is very easy. (Michael Herman on Feb 17, 2004 3:16 AM)
Forgive my ignorance, what's "MT"? (Jeroen on Feb 17, 2004 9:20 AM)
MT stands for Movable Type, the same software i use to update my weblog. Our new site is as easy to manage as a weblog. (Carlos Araujo on Feb 18, 2004 2:30 AM)
Congrats Jeroen,very nice and fast site....pero Groove Tools, and GROOVE argG! uRGH! :-)
Saudações do Brasil.Carlos [Jeroen Bekkers' Groove Weblog]12:23:39 AM
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Last update: 5/18/04; 7:24:12 AM .
