PDA Integration with (PIM - Email, Calendar, Tasks, Memos,Etc.)

[CodeTRUCKER]

Hi,

Anyone know of a full-blown PIM that will allow dual-direction synching with my Palm T|X?  The PIM must have the following...

• Email client that can display inline-HTML images as well as displaying image attachments inline.
• Calendar
• Task Manager, preferably with the ability to have the tasks integrated with the Calendar so Due Dates are displayed.
• Memos, Letters and large Writings (small novels, etc.)

Some things that would be nice to have are...

• Create/play sound files for relaxing or verbal emails.
• One-click integration with a Text-to-Speech reader.

My laptop is useful, but I need to be ale to pop the PDA in my pocket and step away from my laptop quite often. 

I have been searching this forum's history and have read everything I can find on DC, but without success.  I have searched the internet as well. 

The best combo discovered so far is...

• Outlook 2002 (I have a license) - Outlook is the only one I have found with the One-Click TTS.
• Agendus Pro by iambic.
• Documents-To-Go.
• Text Aloud or NaturalReader
• <Off Topic> IE7 also has the "One-Click" buttons too. </Off Topic>

 


While this setup can fill my needs, I am interested to see if anyone knows of a comprehensive alternative.

Thank you. for your help.

[allen]

Have you tried PocoMail?

I'd also love to use GooSync for google apps/handheld, but have the one Palm device that it won't work with.

Another web-based solution (for non-vista users) is Airset - Airset looks incredibly promising, to me.

As for handheld memo/calendar integration etc, check out Datebk6 -- it's mindblowing.  It doesn't use a proprietary db, instead it uses your internal notes/calendar/contacts. etc., so the data is always synchronized properly and accessible via palm desktop, etc. With it, you can link any item to any item -- contacts to events, etc.  -- It does a great deal of stuff.  I didn't think I needed an enhancement of my todo list, calendar, etc. Then made the mistake of downloading datebk.  If you have/use versamail, datebk can accept it as a plugin for its Today view, as well.


edit by jgpaiva: fixed url tag

[CodeTRUCKER]

Hey Allen,

Thanks for the comeback.  I've been sparse on my visits here and just recently saw the reply. 

DateBk6 is great!  Small fast and dependable.  Pimlico apparently understands the wisdom in "not reinventing the wheel."  I'll stick with this one for a while.

I have used Poco in the recent past, but once I was using it and all ~25,000 emails just vanished!    Everything I tried wouldn't bring them back until one time when I reopened Poco all 25K were there again.   As you can imagine, I lost confidence and began looking elsewhere for a client, but for me, the whole reason for keeping emails is as a database and Poco's find-as-you-type feature takes the prize.  Since my emails are backed up I might give it another try.  Although Poco did the hocus-pocus-abracadabra thing, AFAICT not one email was corrupted or lost.  I just wish Slaven would pick up the development on some improvements I've read about.

FWIW - your new avatar is dashing and I am glad to see the Prawn is resurrected.  I take it, JARDAY is someone quite close to your person?

[allen]

DateBk6 is great!  Small fast and dependable.  Pimlico apparently understands the wisdom in "not reinventing the wheel."  I'll stick with this one for a while.

I haven't used poco for a long, long time--I've lately been flirting with the idea of trying it (Or Barca?) as I want a desktop solution to sync with my Palm that isn't Palm Desktop. I think Barca fills that role, but I'm not certain. Years ago I remember reading that Palm sync was planned for Barca but don't know what became of that.

I have used Poco in the recent past, but once I was using it and all ~25,000 emails just vanished! Man, that'd make a man's stomach churn . . . My favorite aspect of gmail is having a server side backup of everything that I mostly trust.  I am still in limbo for my local "backup". At present, I'm using Opera's M2, however using the betas I never really know for sure what day IMAP is supported and how well. Some times it works, some times it doesn't

http://FWIW - your new avatar is dashing and I am glad to see the Prawn is resurrected.  I take it, JARDAY is someone quite close to your person?

Thanks! A rare moment when my hat was off my head . . . there's a scalp and some hair under there! Theprawn.com's non-obscure content was always there, just tucked a few layers back for a bit.  Some days I'm more self-indulgent than others, I'm sure I'll be making it unreadable again before too long!  As for JARDAY, you might say someone close to my person

[Armando]

I use Outlook 2003 + Keysuite (by Chapura -- a bit expensive, but worth it IMO... There's also the less expensive pocket mirror ). Keysuite is my favorite palm software for syncing with Outlook. All the others I tried (2-3 years ago) even if they had impressive features had drawbacks and quirks when it came to perfect synchronization (like syncing events colors, recurrences etc.). I came to the conclusion that I don't want to much differences between the data in my palm and the data in my computer, and that's why I chose Keysuite.

I don't sync my email, so I can't say anything about that. But the most reputable are Versamail (which ships with the Treo?), ChatterEmail and SnapperMail, I think. ChatterEmail seems very good.

You could read that :

http://solutionsathand.wordpress.com/2007/03/08/e-mail-round-up-part-1-versamail-vs-chatteremail/

[tamasd]

The development of Palm sync for Barca was stopped long ago while in beta. It perhaps might work with some older models, but I doubt the development will be resurrected under current conditions (approach towards Palm developers, new models/new OS far in sight, and userbase declining). And that's while Slaven the lead developer is a Palm user himself, so the reasons to stop working on Palm sync must have been pretty strong.

[J-Mac]

Agendus and Outlook is probably about as good as you will get using a Palm, other than the default Datebook PIM and Palm Desktop.

BTW, Slaven quit on both Palm and Pocket PC/Windows Mobile syncs mostly because he doesn't currently know how, and Poco Systems Pres., Jim Papa, is not likely to add anymore resources to help him. That's the very short version, which is about as far as I'll go with that...

CodeTrucker - It's pretty difficult to lose your messages en masse like that in Pocomail or Barca. They are all in either the Program Files folder or your user Application Data Pocomail folder. Plus it automatically backs up all messages and attachments as often as you select - every time you close the program or every 5th time, which is the default unless you change it.

Of course if you deselect that setting, well...  I'm pretty sure that you value your messages too much to do that!!

When I used Pocomail - about five years of usage - I purchased Mailbag Assistant from Eric Fookes Software. It archives all your messages, keeping the mailbox/folder structure and also archives the attachments with them.  You can archive them as generic .mbox archives or as .eml files.  I always do both. Then you can also perform all kinds of exotic searches, filters, and extractions with the data.  I still use it with whatever my email happens to be.

Jim

[tamasd]

Nobody "knows how" when it comes to Palm. If you are doing anything for Palm platform, you have to hack your way through, you learn every moment, new incompatibilities, new bugs, it doesn't come on a golden plate as many are undocumented, it must be learned through the process, no one knows who didn't go through it. And once you know it all, new model comes and again you know nothing and have to hack your way through it.

That Slaven, or Jim, decided not to go through it to the end, is an easy calculation to me: it would bring a negligible if any increase in sales in Barca, while taking way too many developer hours.

At the time in the past when I was subscribed to a non-public Palm developers discussion group, some dedicated Palm programmers left the platform or threatened to, because of bugs in Palm implementations, incompatibilities introduced with every other model, and no clear future (one was almost tempted to say "no future") of Palm platform.

These were people who have drawn 100% of their income from Palm software.

Barca doesn't, Palm sync is just extra, and I wonder if having Palm sync would increase Barca sales even by 1%.  It's true every now and then someone asks for a Palm sync, but it's just a tiny drop in the sea of users.

My Palm is covered by dust, as developers of software I rely on nowadays on Windows, mostly decided to not even bother by Palm and if anything only consider Windows mobile platform in their plans. Sad.

[muntealb]

EssentialPIM Pro (PPC/Palm Edition) does synchronization with mobile devices. From the presentation : "Synchronization with Outlook, Windows Mobile devices, Palm, iPOD, Google Calendar."

More info at:
http://www.essentialpim.com/?r=products&pr=ppcpalmedition

[tamasd]

EssentialPIM doesn't come with an email module.