jules blog

If you have a BlackBerry and you’re not hooked into your company’s BlackBerry Exchange Server you’re faced with a few choices on how to keep the thing in sync with your Mac.

There is a free version of PocketMac’s SyncManager and it’s rather basic. It lacks features that the Windows version has such as being able to upgrade the BlackBerry’s OS and so forth. I find myself being really annoyed when I delete contacts on either the Mac or the BlackBerry and then have to battle through a host of clicking “yes, I really do want to delete this” buttons on the next sync. iSync is rather elegant in its handling of this situation and only asks for confirmation should you go over a 5% of mass contact whacking. Conflict resolution is equally groovy. No, there is no iSync plugin for the BlackBerry. Please don’t get me going on the lack of Bluetooth-based syncing.

Your other choice is Mark/Space’s Missing Sync. It does a bit more than SyncManager and for that privilege you’ll have to shell out $40. My favorite part of the whole thing is SyncMinder which reminds you that you need to sync. A friend just lost about three months of contacts and calendar dates after a hard drive crash (oh noes!).

Google quietly updated Google Sync this week and the sexiest new feature is automatically syncing with Gmail’s address book should you enable the feature. It happens over the air, no wires needed and works very well with Google hosted. So there is simply no need to remember to plug in and sync — huzzah! Calendar syncing has worked well for me for some time and I’ve been eagerly awaiting the addition of syncing contacts. Others appear to be less impressed.

Now there’s really no need to plug the beastie into your computer anymore. Over the air syncing is automatic and effortless.