Product Reviews

The synchronisation of iPhone data to your Mac provided by iTunes will satisfy most users, however, there are a some desirable features that are missing. Most mystifying is the inability to transfer notes back and forth between the handset and Leopard's Mail application. Missing Sync for iPhone aims to fill this gap by providing synchronisation of notes, SMS and call logs.

For those switching from a BlackBerry, Windows Mobile or Palm OS device, the Migration Assistant will download a corresponding trial version of Missing Sync to retrieve data ready for transfer to an iPhone. After installing the BlackBerry version, we found the MarkSpace Notebook application was downgraded to an older version.

Synchronisation is a one-way process from an iPhone to a Mac, providing a permanent and searchable record of data on the desktop. Notes can be attached to calls as well. Extremely heavy texters may find this keeps them within the fairly substantial cap of one

ADVERTISEMENT

thousand text messages. Despite the iPhone's more natural presentation of texts as conversations, Missing Sync's search features go some way to making up for the handset's lack of comprehensive search facility.

The call log shows the date, time and duration of calls - in whole minutes - but O2's online billing system is more precise and possibly up-to-date enough for most users. Both log applications integrate with Address Book, reusing contact photos and providing links to email a contact, view their full details, or add a new contact. Logs can also be exported as CSV files (and notes as text) for use in other applications.

One-way syncing isn't a hindrance when it comes to logs, but it does become a problem with notes; changes made on the desktop can't be transferred back to the iPhone. This stems from the iPhone's closed platform, though MarkSpace assured us it will be keeping an eye on the iPhone SDK's capabilities to see if this can be addressed. Hopefully, Mail will join the bundled Notebook, Yojimbo and Entourage in being able to synchronise notes.

The biggest gripe is the price - this matches the Windows Mobile version, which justifies its price on its extensive feature set and out of sheer necessity. Apple has already done much of the work that MarkSpace would take upon itself for other mobile platforms, and all three of the application's features here are also part of the Windows Mobile version, although they are tailored to work with iPhone. The result is a useful but limited feature set at a questionable asking price.