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PPCs get even friendlier with Macs
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By Jørgen Sundgot, Thursday 9 May 2002  
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A pro version of IAA's PocketMac for connecting Pocket PCs to Macs is now in beta; new features include synchronization with Entourage, Exchange Server and the OS X address book.
While handhelds running on Microsoft's Pocket PC platform are among the most powerful on the market in terms of sheer computational power, the story quite another when it comes to showing muscle in terms of cross-platform support. Palm OS is best in class with native versions of Palm Desktop offering full connectivity on both Windows and Mac OS platforms, with several 3rd party alternatives also available for Linux based platforms - while the only Symbian product out yet is as bad as Microsoft.
 | A screenshot from the settings dialog in PocketMac Professional on OS X
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Information Appliance Associates is a company that has scrambled to the rescue, and while the company's initial version of an application called PocketMac drew a lot of attention, the professional version that's currently in beta might end up drawing even more. Like the basic version, the professional version allows users to connect a Pocket PC to a computer running Mac OS 9 or Mac OS X, but where the prior could only do light file management as well as synchronize the My Documents folder of a Pocket PC and convert between Pocket Word, Excel, Note and standard text files and Macintosh formats, the latter one can do what users have really been waiting for.
PocketMac Professional allows users to connect to a computer running the appropriate software via USB or TCP/IP (Ethernet, AirPort, 802.11b, etc.) - just like the basic version does - but also offers synchronization of Contacts, Calendar and Tasks information with Entourage, Exchange Server and the built-in OS X address book. Since both versions will also be able to install software via the standard Pocket PC file distribution format (CAB), the functionality is slowly moving towards a level similar to that of which Microsoft's own ActiveSync provides on the Windows platform.
Some drawbacks are however still present, since the Pocket PC that is to perform synchronization must already have the client software installed previous to connecting to the Mac OS computer running the server software. This must either be done from a computer already running ActiveSync, or by copying the necessary software to an expansion card and installing it to the Pocket PC from there. Also, Entourage calendar synchronization features are very limited on OS 9 due to limited AppleScript support by Entourage 2001.
Unfortunately, IAA does not offer any information on its website as to when the company expects the beta phase to be completed, however current owners of PocketMac can join the beta program for free.
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