Thanks for the interesting posting, Adrian. One thing I didn't quite
understand is, can you now use Thunderbird with your pocket pc? My
friend is using Outlook (not express) on his desktop because he uses it
on his palmtop. He'd be happy to switch to TB if it could also run on
his palmtop.
Cheers,
Jonathan
Hi Jonathan
Unfortunately, I still synchronise my Pocket PC with Outlook. Lock in
seems pretty important to Microsoft, and it's working! I'm strongly
consideringing switching to Palm next time I purchase a pda for that very
reason, especially now that I use Linux as my main operating system. (I'm
currently using an O2 XDA, which I love.)
However, there are some promising developments:
A year ago I came across a site expressing an interest in using Mozilla
software on the Pocket PC, and offering money to make it happen. I haven't
kept track of the progress of the project, but I just did a quick Google
search and discovered the following:
Minimo is Mozilla for Pocket PC. This looks quite promising, but I'm not
sure how mature it is yet. I read about it here:
http://www.tinyscreenfuls.com/2005/05/minimo-mozilla-for-pocket-pc-version.html
http://www.windowsfordevices.com/news/NS7013120747.html
There still seems to be talk about creating synchronisation between
Desktop Mozilla and Pocket PC, but with my quick look I haven't found
anything definite. It was mentioned here:
http://wiki.mozilla.org/Thunderbird:Collected_User_Requests#Thunderbird-Sunbird.2FLightning_for_Pocket_PC
http://www.mozillazine.org/talkback.html?article=6602&message=18&state=reply
There have always been third party synch products for synchronising the
Pocket PC with other applications. My wife very sucessfully uses one on
her Mac to synch with the Mac pim programs. There have been several
programs for use in Windows, including CompanionLink
(http://www.companionlink.com/). I've just come across an Open Source
program called Sync4j
(http://sync4j.funambol.com/main.jsp?main=theproject) which looks
promising, but doesn't yet seem to mention synch with Thunderbird. For
Linux, there is the SynCE project (http://synce.sourceforge.net/synce/)
which many people have successfully used to sync their Pocket PCs with the
KDE pim and to some extent Evolution. I'm not sure whether it works with
Thunderbird, and it this stage it is not easy to use.
For me so far, the most practical option (in Windows) has been Dawn
(http://www.joshie.com/projects/dawn/). This allows you to transfer your
address book between Outlook and Thunderbird (and a list of other
programs). Although it still requires the use of Outlook, it allows you to
use the addresses you have on your Pocket PC in other applications.
Thunderbird's popularity is still relatively young, and so are most of
these solutions. Palm's conduit model of synchronising is much more
flexible, and there are already working ways to sync Thunderbird with
palm, including the palmsync.xpi extension for Thunderbird. Read more
about it at http://www.thecapras.org/mcapra/ThunderbirdSync.html.
Unfortunately most of the above is more promise than reality. If your
friend wants to use Pocket PC addresses in other applications, then I
recomment Dawn. If he wants to read his Thunderbird email on his Pocket
PC, there may be ways of achieving that. If he's willing to switch to Palm
now or in the future he can avoid both Outlook and Pocket Outlook. Also,
this hasn't been an issue I've pursued in about a year, so your friend may
discover more than I have in my quick 10 minute look.
Hope this helps, and I share your friend's frustration.
Adrian
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