Do not even think of buying PocketMac from IAA

W

willi58

In theory it is a perfect product and it is definitively the only one
that sycns correctly between Entourage 2004 and PocketPC but still do
not even think of buying it at the present moment!! Perhaps in a far
future they come up with a version that really works and does not
either screw up your Entourage calendar, your PPC calendar or your Mac
at all. I have never used any software that did cost me so much time
as PocketMac did and you can believe me I am speaking rather of days
and weeks than of hours. But the biggest problem with this company is
their "support". If they had no support at all it would be even
better, but what they do, they pretend to have a support. Sometimes
they will answer within hours, sometimes within days and sometimes you
would not even know whether they got your mail or your ticket at their
online support desk.

If you do not believe me and if you are still thinking of buying this
product I will summarize my experience since beginning of this July:

End of June I updated to Office 2004 (German localization) and also
updated PocketMac to version 3.3.5 as suggested on their homepage. It
immediately turned out that PocketMac crashed while syncing with
Entourage and that there were incorrect whole day entries. On July 6 I
sent them an email describing my problems. Since I did not get any
answer I repeated my mail on July 8, which was answered on July 10
with the simple question whether I have updated to version 3.3.5 (I
have stated that in the referring line of my original mail). On July
14 and July 28 I got 2 more useless answers and was finally referred
to "our engineers" on July 31. On Aug. 6 they posted me an updated
version of PocketMac at http://www.pocketmac.net/private/PM3-PRO.HQX
but unfortunately with this version my PocketPC was not even seen by
the Mac, which I told them immediately. On Aug. 9 I was told to try
another sync and to run the PMSystemReport Application - how could I
have done that without my Mac even recognizing the PocketPC? Finally
on Aug 10 they posted a new version of PocketPC. Amazingly this
version synced without any problems and rather fast with Entourage. So
far the "engineers" did do their jobs, but unfortunately since then
every time after connecting the PocketPC to the Mac and removing it
the Mac freezes when I try to put it to sleep. Only a reboot can bring
it back to work. It is quite annoying if have to do a restart every
time you have synced your PocketPC with your Mac. Since then I sent
them a total of 4 mails and did not hear a single word from them
besides an email announcing another new product. I think instead of
releasing new products every 3 months or so IAA should better invest
in a dramatic improvement of the quality of their existing software!

So, if after reading this and many similar stories posted here and
elsewhere you are still thinking of buying PocketMac you cannot be
helped, you were warned.

PS.: I case I receive an updated version of PocketMac that really
works (at least without destroying anything else) I will of course
post it here.
 
R

Rob Teichman

Wow, sorry to hear all your problems and I know your not going to like this,
but it works fine for me (Entourage 2004 and iPaq 1945). I had a problem at
first, but they responded immediately and it all works fine. Maybe I'm just
not pushing it hard enough, for example I know I don't use all day events
ever.
 
L

Lunix

I got exactly the same problem. Pocketmac is useless for me.
Do you have found a solution?
 
W

willi58

I got exactly the same problem. Pocketmac is useless for me.
Do you have found a solution?
No unfortunately not. It must have something to do with the USB or the
PPPdaemonPM but I am not an expert on this. Insterestingly the
sleeping bug did not appear before I got this last version. On the
otherhand since then PocketMac does not anymore use these large amount
of CPU as it did before.
 
S

Sammy

Oh, blast! I hadn't looked at the newsgroup in a week, and, of course,
am showing up here because I just bought - and am having problems with -
the iPod version of PocketMac!

Basically, when I go to sync, I get an error message saying
"EntourageContactsiPod has encountered a problem and needs to quit", and
then get locked into a Microsoft Error Reporting endless loop until I
force-quit Microsoft Error Reporting. Sometimes it looks like it's about
to sync, then dies, and I get an Apple submit bug report dialogue box.

What I don't get is sync'ing of Contacts. It never makes it as far as
sync'ing the Calendar, so god only knows what awaits there.

I wondered whether Paul B's iCal/Entourage script might be interfering
here; I used it once, and it worked well, but I need the portability of
my info onthe iPOd. Is there an easy way to delete the iCal-Entoruage
script?

Anyone else had experience with the product?

Thanks,

Sammy
 
P

Paul Berkowitz

I wondered whether Paul B's iCal/Entourage script might be interfering
here; I used it once, and it worked well, but I need the portability of
my info onthe iPOd. Is there an easy way to delete the iCal-Entoruage
script?

It won't interfere at all if you don't run it! It doesn't do anything on its
own. If you never set it up to run automatically from a schedule, it's not
running. (Check your schedules.)

On the other hand, if PocketMac doesn't work well, and Sync Entourage-iCal
does work well, why would you want to get rid of it?

--
Paul Berkowitz
MVP MacOffice
Entourage FAQ Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/faq/index.html>
AppleScripts for Entourage: <http://macscripter.net/scriptbuilders/>

Please "Reply To Newsgroup" to reply to this message. Emails will be
ignored.

PLEASE always state which version of Microsoft Office you are using -
**2004**, X or 2001. It's often impossible to answer your questions
otherwise.
 
S

Sammy

Paul Berkowitz said:
It won't interfere at all if you don't run it! It doesn't do anything on its
own. If you never set it up to run automatically from a schedule, it's not
running. (Check your schedules.)

On the other hand, if PocketMac doesn't work well, and Sync Entourage-iCal
does work well, why would you want to get rid of it?

I had thought that PocketMac might work. I was looking for an easy
solution - connect my iPod, press the Sync button, and have all of my
contacts, calendar information and certain documents transferred from
Entourage to my iPod, instead of having to recopy my contacts, reSync
Entourage-iCal, then sync to the iPod every time. But, alas...

I'll see if they can get it to work; after all, if they advertise that
their product does something, it, well, should do it!
 
W

willi58

Sammy said:
I'll see if they can get it to work; after all, if they advertise that
their product does something, it, well, should do it!

But unfortunately it looks like PocketMac products will never work!
Some of us are already waiting for about 2 years!!!
 
W

willi58

Sammy said:
I'll see if they can get it to work; after all, if they advertise that
their product does something, it, well, should do it!

But unfortunately it looks like PocketMac products will never work!
Some of us are already waiting for about 2 years!!!
 
M

Mickey Stevens

I had thought that PocketMac might work. I was looking for an easy
solution - connect my iPod, press the Sync button, and have all of my
contacts, calendar information and certain documents transferred from
Entourage to my iPod,

I have a link to a product called iPod It that you might want to try.
http://home.earthlink.net/~mickey.stevens/tutorials/entouragesync.html#ipod
instead of having to recopy my contacts, reSync
Entourage-iCal, then sync to the iPod every time.

You might want to consider purchasing Paul Berkowitz's "Sync
Entourage-Address Book" script to expedite the process.
But, alas...

I'll see if they can get it to work; after all, if they advertise that
their product does something, it, well, should do it!

Agreed.
 

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