>> Since the final version of Palm Desktop was only released yesterday, how can
>> you be annoyed at Microsoft for a *delayed* release of a conduit?
>>
>> --
>> Sherman
Glad you asked. I could give you more, but the following 4 reaons explain
why I am annoyed at Microsoft about this. I love the Entourage product, but
they really dropped the ball supporting this.
1. Nothing, not a word, was in print or on the web to alert anyone
upgrading from Entourage 2001 to Entourage v.X that there would be no
conduit until some future undisclosed date, dependent on Palm for the OS-X
developer kit. The upgrade and conversion of your data from E-2001 to X is
irreversible, so once you go forward you are stuck unless you discover this
within a few minutes of upgrading and quickly abandon v.X to go back to
using E-2001.
2. After about a month they put one lame paragraph on the web which is
still online today.
Go to <http://www.microsoft.com/MAC/OFFICEX/prodinfo/palm.asp>
If you click the link to the newsletter you find, most likely, that you are
already subscribed.
> Handheld synchronization
>
> A Microsoft Entourage conduit is not included in Microsoft Office�v.�X.
> However, information about directly synchronizing Entourage�X with a handheld
> will be posted on this site as soon as it is available. To make sure you are
> notified when the information is posted, subscribe to the Mactopia newsletter.
3. In the support section of Microsoft's site you will find this item at
the following URL.
<http://www.microsoft.com/mac/support/mysupport.asp?lu=0>
Note the misspelling of their own web site. I have personally reported this
typo a dozen times.
> MORE INFORMATION
>
> Palm synchronization will be available at a later date. For updates about this
> issue, visit the following Mactopia Web site:
>
> http://www.microsoft.con/mac
4. If various independent people are capable of creating Conduits (e.g.
Queue Sync) while Palm is taking their time working on their final edition
of Palm Desktop, what stops Microsoft from doing the same thing?
Synchronization with a few quirks, as Paul Berkowitz pointed out, is
something we became accustomed to with E-2001, and at least in my opinion,
that is better than no synchronization at all. We're talking about a
software application (Office v.X) that is one of the most expensive items
sold to the Mac community and the absence of support for this feature for
more than 90 days is inexcusable, especially since it was kept secret from
anyone making the purchase.
5. Blame Claris Organizer and Palm for this if you want, but the fact that
Entourage doesn't allow anything to be exported except the Contact list is
very annoying. I can understand how the export of Calendar items might be
problematic, but you can't convince me that there is anything so difficult
about the Notes and Tasks. If you could have exported them, then at least
you could have been importing them into Palm Desktop 4.0b and doing the
synchronization from there. Yes, the export of the contacts is imperfect,
but again, it is better than nothing.
> You should be annoyed instead at Palm for taking well over a year to support
OS X.
Maybe so, but there are others who have taken their time to come aboard.
Adobe, for instance, is only now releasing Photoshop 7. Am I miffed that I
paid to upgrade to Photoshop 6 in December and now I have to pay again?
Yes. But there was no bait and switch about it. Am I restless waiting for
Quark to release their Xpress product in an OS-X edition? Yes. But that's
quite a different matter from Palm because as Entourage users, we don't need
to use Palm Desktop. We only needed the Conduit. And if you talk to the
people at Palm, they will tell you that the developer tools for building the
OS-X conduit have been available to Microsoft since last summer but they
just didn't want to use them until they felt like it. We'll find out when
that is, but in the meantime, Queue Sync is a blessing.
--
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