[tooki]

My old Palm IIIe finally died last night, after over 3 years of service. A Sony Clié has now taken its place (for a good price, too, since Circuit City gave me a 110% price match).

Anyway, I can hotsync it perfectly using infrared to my PowerBook, but it won't work with USB. (This is using OS X 10.2.3.) Now, I know they're not supported as-is, and I haven't yet purchased the Missing Sync, but I had heard from several people that Cliés will sync with Palm Desktop on OS X out of the box with USB (just without the Sony-specific features).

Has anyone here actually gotten it to work, and if so, were there any special steps you had to take?

thanks
tooki

[OldManMac]

I just bought a Clie PEG-SJ30 last week, and, even though the manual says it's not Mac compatible, I charged the battery, plugged it in, tapped the hot sync logo, and it transferred all my stuff from my crappy Palm M125 (my third one this year), without any problems whatsoever! I love this thing! I am using 10.2.3, and the Sony supplied USB cable.

[engaged]

I had exactly the same experiencewith SJ30 as KarlIG.

Furthermore, I had a very welcome experience with DataViz. The CD that Sony provided with the SJ30 has the standard 'Documents To Go' but for the PC only - I emailed DataViz and got a very prompt response. I told them that Sony only provided the PC version, and they allowed me to register as a Mac user of the software and upgrade (I paid the standard upgrade, can't remember exactly what) to the Premium version.

'Customer Service' is a wholly different concept in the USA!

[webb3201]

Tooki,
the Clie machines that can play MP3s all have a DSP (Digitial Signal Processor) which makes them unable to sync with the Mac out of box.

You will need to download the "Missing Sync" to allow the connection.

The good news is the Missing Sync is a quality piece of software and it will allow you to mount memory sticks on the desktop and it has an iTunes plug in to make you Clie show up (like an iPod in iTunes).

you will really like the machine.

check out www.cliesource.com

[tooki]

Ah! It definitely makes sense that the memory stick [MS] access (which quasi turns it into a Palm OS device and a flash card reader all at once) would mess with Palm Desktop.

Well, I went ahead and bought the Missing Sync and it does indeed seem to work, as far as letting me do USB HotSync. (I don't have any MS media, so I can't test out the MS desktop mounting, nor the iTunes plugin.)

You are right; so far, I do love this thing!

The only "bad" thing so far is that an old app I had (which "restore from backup" installed on the Clié) was too old for Palm OS 4, and so it hard-crashed the unit badly enough to cause data corruption in other apps (garbled graphics in the Clié demo? not good). So I cleaned out the "backup" folder of any old apps, hard-reset the unit, and restored from backup again, and now all is well.

tooki

[engaged]

Something I forgot to add earlier;

I've got a Sony digital camera, so if I need to mount the memorystick on the desktop I just stick it in the camera. Can just drag'n'drop onto it.

Must admit that I've had no problems whatsoever so far without needing to buy Missing Sync.

[tooki]

Well, uh,

It's not working too well; IR syncing works most of the time, but sometimes the Clié complainst that the port is in use.

As for USB, it's shot to hell. It worked a couple of times but now refuses. It will begin the connection process, far enough that the Mac will open the Conduit Manager, but will not proceed past "Preparing to synchronize". Eventually, the Clié will time out and say that the connection between the handheld and the desktop could not be established.

Any ideas?

Just now, just trying to sync via IR resulted in a Fatal Exception (the Palm OS equivalent of a Kernel Panic). Grrrr!

Any ideas?

tooki

[tooki]

Well, I narrowed down the problem, I think.

Something I used to use (some program or something) is causing the Palm's OS to corrupt to the point of needing a hard-reset. I did that, and then restored strictly my user data (addresses, date book and memo pad), and installed some apps from the Clié CD, and it seems to be fine.

I guess one of my old programs is incompatible with Palm OS 4.1 and/or HiRes.

tooki

[tooki]

Now I am starting to wonder about my Mac, because nothing is on that Clié now except for programs that came with it, and yet it still fails to sync over USB about half the time.

Either the Missing Sync is flaky (or not compatible with 10.2.x), or I need fresh system software. I guess I'll wait till my new hard drive comes to do a reinstall...

tooki

[OldManMac]

I don't use the Missing Sync: is that for IR syncing? Mine has never failed with a USB cable sync, running 10.2.3.

[tooki]

No, the Missing Sync is for USB. IR works out of the box, without TMS. (Except when the Clié has decided to be a whiny little witch-with-a-capital-B and claim that the "port is already in use by another application".)

Some Clié models don't need TMS to use USB, but many do.

TMS also provides extra features, like iTunes and iPhoto integration.

tooki

[tooki]

Well!

Now it's working reliably. I guess it would be too smart of Mark/Space to actually offer for download the latest version of the Missing Sync when you buy the download. The updater to 3.0.3 (which has been out since September, and is necessary for Jaguar) is listed on the product page in a sea of text.

But installing it does seem to have fixed the problem, so ok!

tooki

[tooki]

Just an update... 3 days and not one failed sync. It seems that version 3.0.3 of the Missing Sync really is required for Jaguar.

Now to convince Mark/Space to actually mention to people that their fresh download is actually of an old version, and that they need an update...

tooki

[Eug]

crappy Palm M125 (my third one this year)

What's wrong with it? I got one of these for my GF, and she loves it. Mind you she's only been using it since Xmas. I hope it doesn't break down...

Anyways, I installed Handspring's Palm Desktop 4 and it works fine with both my Visor Deluxe and her Palm m125 with no issues.

I went looking for a new Palm OS PDA but decided against getting a new one until the Visor Deluxe dies. It works fine for what I need it to do, esp. now that I have an extra 8 MB flash card for it.

[OldManMac]

Originally posted by Eug:
What's wrong with it? I got one of these for my GF, and she loves it. Mind you she's only been using it since Xmas. I hope it doesn't break down...

Anyways, I installed Handspring's Palm Desktop 4 and it works fine with both my Visor Deluxe and her Palm m125 with no issues.

I went looking for a new Palm OS PDA but decided against getting a new one until the Visor Deluxe dies. It works fine for what I need it to do, esp. now that I have an extra 8 MB flash card for it.

The first one; stopped responding to screen taps about two months old. Palm replaced it under warranty.

The second one: two weeks after I got the first replaced under warranty, the second one would only display anything on the screen if you squeezed the sides together, and only at the right place and pressure. Bizzare!

Third one; started having trouble with it responding when using the stylus; screen unresponsive, so it just collects dust. Love my new Sony!

[OldManMac]

Originally posted by tooki:
Just an update... 3 days and not one failed sync. It seems that version 3.0.3 of the Missing Sync really is required for Jaguar.

Now to convince Mark/Space to actually mention to people that their fresh download is actually of an old version, and that they need an update...

tooki

Apparently, my PEG-SJ30 is one of the models that doesn't need the Missing Sync, as it's worked fine with the USB cable since day one, running Jaguar 10.2.2, and now 10.2.3.

[tooki]

Yeah, um, we established that over a week ago.

I am glad it's working out for you. I most certainly am going to recommend the Clié S series (PEG-SL10, -SJ20, -SJ30) to clients looking to replace Palm units, especially knowing that they don't even need TMS.

tooki

[PeteWK]

I just purchased the T665C that tooki has and have found an updater numbered 3.0.4 as opposed to 3.0.3. I hope it doesn't mess things up. I've just purchased the missing sync software and have yet to install it...well, here goes.

PeteWK

[elpinchegringo]

I have a 665C and I was wondering if anyone knows how to put pictures in the addressbook? I tried to load some pictures into the PG pocket program, but the sync app won't let me load them. Any clues? the dip$hits at sony wont help. I refuse to ever purchase a sony product again for the rest of my life because of the way those a-holes treated me. Sony has no intention of ever supporting the MacOS and they won't hesitate to tell you that.