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It may not be the most up-to-date PDA/Smartphone available, but my second-hand Treo 600 still gets the job done. However, I am facing reality -- sooner or later my little Treo will inevitably die or get lost or be totally orphaned, and I'll be up a creek without a paddle.
Palm, in their infinite wisdom (of planned obsolescence), has abandoned PalmOS in favor of their new WebOS on the latest Palm models. In addition, the Palm honchos so far have not released an app that can transfer PalmOS databases to the new WebOS units. And as Palm Desktop users know, sharing databases between the Desktop and other productivity software (other than Outlook) is a pain in the rear.
Then, Palm took a while to release a new version of Palm Desktop for Windows Vista. I also remember having trouble getting everything set up just right with Windows 2000 and XP just to Hot Sync.
Maybe this is why Palm's market share is steadily slipping away, despite the spiffy new Pre. As for me, since I live in China now, the Pre is not an option. And, no matter which new smartphone I buy, I will still have the problem of getting my data off the Treo (or Palm Desktop) onto a new device.
Yes, I know I can sync to Outlook. But I don't use Outlook, although it came installed on my laptop. Yes, I can export to text-based formats, but it's kludgy and not all applications convert the data correctly.
Google offers a lot of web-based productivity apps, but as yet more evidence that PalmOS is heading for the orphanage, Google offers no support to sync PalmOS devices to Google Calendar. Enter Goosync, a service that allows owners of all sorts of smartphones and PDAs to sync to Google Calendar for free. You can also sync to Google Tasks and Google Contacts, but you have to pay £19.95 (about $32.50 now) annually for the service.
I figured that, once I had calendar items on Google Calendar, I was halfway to syncing to another handheld device.
Goosync is a go-between for your handheld and Google Calendar. You create an account at www.goosync.com. Then you log into your Google account and let the two services talk to each other. (You don't need to give Goosync your Google account info.) There is a free PalmOS app available at goosync that you will need to install on your Palm device.
There is one more gotcha. You can't sync to Google Calendar over the air using your Palm. It has to be connected to your PC with the sync cord or cradle. If you use the USB connection, though, you can't establish an IP connection between the Palm and Internet. So, Goosync recommends a shareware desktop app, Softick PPP. It's shareware, and free for the first 21 days. After that, you have to pay $24.95.
I figure it's good insurance to preserve my data ar a convenient resource, so I will probably pony up both fees sometime in the next few days.
So, here's what you need.
(1) Google account, and Calendar enabled.
(2) A Goosync account (free for Calendar syncs)
(3) The goosync PalmOS app installed on your Palm (free)
(4) The Softick PPP desktop app (free for 21 days; $24.95 after)
For the record, my notebook runs Vista Home Edition and I use Comodo Firewall. Neither presented any problems.
Goosync's website has pretty clear instructions on how to set up the app on your Palm. It does not make clear, however, that you have to check the "Secure transport (HTTPS/SSL)" radio button to establish a connection to the Goosync server. It took me several tries before I figured using a secure connection was worth a try.
Next, you will have to change the network connection on the Palm so it will use the cradle/cable connection. Under Prefs/Network, tap Modily and change connection to Cradle/Cable -- nothing else is needed there. If you use PDA to access web wirelessly, make sure you change this setting back to whatever it was before (GPRS in my case) when you're done using Goosync.
As for Softick PPP, once it's installed, there is not much to do. Right-click the icon, and go to Settings. Under the Network tab, check "Detect DNS addresses automatically." I also enabled both choices under the Audit tab (pppdump and ppplog), because I was having trouble connecting to the Goosync server. It turned out my only error was caused the nut behind the keyboard: I wasn't using a secure connection.
If you have everything set up correctly, connect the Palm to the PC, initiate a connection using Goosync and wait while your Palm Events get synced to Google Calendar. I was using an Ethernet connection, so uploading 1.200 entries only took a few minutes.
Hope this helps other PalmOS users.
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