Product Reviews

Missing Sync for Palm OS V4 is the latest in Mark/Space's products designed to extend the capabilities of Palm OS-based PDAs.

These PDAs have become more fully featured in recent years, and many are now capable of some fairly advanced multimedia functions. The trouble is that PalmSource's own syncing software isn't designed to exploit these functions; that's where Missing Sync comes in.

One important point is that the '4' in the software title refers to the version of Missing Sync, not to the Palm OS versions with which it will work. It should work with any Palm OS 4- or Palm OS 5-based device; check that your model's supported at www.markspace.com/ missingsync_palmos_devs.html

Missing Sync now bypasses PalmSources' HotSync Manager; instead, it uses its own sync engine. The developer claims that third-party conduits should still work smoothly. Mark/Space does, though, publish a list of supported conduits on its site.

Synchronisation can be via USB (cradle or cable), Bluetooth or 802.11 wireless networking - the latter two obviously only work if both your Palm and Mac each boast either technology.

Syncing via Bluetooth is noticeably more sluggish than with USB or WiFi. It's not unusably slow, but it does have an obvious detrimental effect on your Palm's battery life.

Although during testing the sync engine gave us no trouble over USB, we had problems synchronising over Bluetooth. Syncing with no third-party conduits installed was fine, but Documents to Go seemed to trip it up, despite officially being supported. We

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couldn't solve the problem.

The iSync conduit does work, so synchronising with .Mac and other iSync-aware devices such as iPods and mobile phones is possible. There was some duplication of events in iCal, necessitating a good bit of cleaning up, though this is as likely to be iSync's fault than Missing Sync's. A conduit also exists for Entourage.

Missing Sync does much more than simply provide a synchronisation framework. It also allows you to mount memory cards from your PDA on your desktop, although this is currently only supported via USB. It not only lets you copy files to and from the cards, but also mounts the PDA as a source in iTunes and iPhoto, allowing you to copy MP3s to it, and import photos from it to your iPhoto library. Both functions work as they should, though you should note that, as there are currently no applications available for Palm OS that play AAC files, any songs encoded using this method (including those bought from the iTunes Music Store) won't play.

You also have the option to export from iPhoto, though the implementation is a little rough. You have to export pictures to the hard disk and manually add them to the sync list. Happily, though, the excellent SplashPhoto image viewer application is included for the Palm.

The real star of the show, however, is the ability to piggyback your PDA onto your Mac's Internet connection. This can be done through the cradle/cable or even via Bluetooth, making it easy to surf the web and download email, so long as you have the appropriate software on your Palm. You can also access AvantGo content this way, which is otherwise impossible, owing to AvantGo's reluctance to develop an OS X client; see www.avantgo.com for more information.

There are assistants to help set up Internet sharing, AvantGo content and syncing via either wireless protocol, but initially they don't render properly, making them impossible to follow. The included PDF manual is adequate.

Missing Sync can do some excellent things and has some nice touches - the ability to define sync 'sets' to disable particular conduits at a click is very useful - but it's not polished enough to recommend strongly.