Re: [SAGE] Handheld devices (phone, PDA, remote access)

[Brad Knowles <brad@shub-internet.org>]

At 11:12 PM -0700 3/27/07, Sandor W. Sklar wrote:

>                                                      I use ChatterEmail
>  for IMAP mail; it works great.

I tried ChatterEmail.  It was useless to me.  I could never get it to 
authenticate properly to send e-mail out, and I didn't need the 
complex features like IMAP for downloading e-mail.

The built-in mail client is more than adequate for my emergency access needs.

>                                  I've got an ssh client which is great
>  for super emergencies when I don't have my laptop or WiFi access.

It's a 320x320 screen.  No ssh client is going to work very well, 
because it simply doesn't have the screen real estate it needs.

>                                                                     It
>  syncs with our enterprise scheduling program (which is "steaming poo
>  in itself), Oracle Calendar, and the contacts in my Mac's Address Book.

Whether I use bare iSync, the Palm Desktop sync, or Missing Sync, I 
always get duplicate events between my Mac and my Treo.  Every time I 
sync, I get another set of duplicate events.  As a result, I stopped 
bothering to sync.  I got tired of having to manually go in and 
delete all the damn duplicate crap on my Treo.

I'm hoping that I'll be able to simply turn off Calendar sync, and 
instead use an over-the-air sync to a central calendar service (e.g., 
GooSync), and then subscribe to an iCal format feed using the iCal 
program on my Mac.  It's a hell of a roundabout way to get a decent 
calendar sync, but if it works and it lets me share my calendar data 
with my wife, then so be it.

>  It isn't perfect, but I'm pretty happy with all the "stuff" packed in
>  that little box on my belt.

I can't tell you how many devices I've gotten so fed up with that 
I've thrown them at brick walls (or whatever), and broken them beyond 
any possibility of repair.

That's why I now have an automatic backup program that runs daily 
(and after every sync, although I don't sync anymore), because my SD 
card is likely to survive most forms of destruction that I might 
impart upon the device itself.  Oh, and I combine that with a regular 
over-the-air network backup, too.  You can't have too many backups 
when you've got a Treo, because the OS is not protected 
multi-tasking, and you never know when the thing is going to crash 
again.


I completely deleted "Phone Technician" by Hobbyist Software, because 
it was making my Treo much less stable.  I'm going to be deleting 
Butler, too.  In fact, I'm going to delete everything from Hobbyist 
Software and install alternative programs from other companies, 
because now I don't trust them at all.  And I'm a fully paid and 
registered owner of most of their stuff.

Besides, they've started doing such esoteric crap and adding so many 
features and making the software so complex, and splitting off what 
few useful features they have into separate programs, that it's just 
not worth it anymore.


Apple definitely has the right idea by going ultra-conservative on 
what software they'll allow on the iPhone.

Trust me, you really, really don't want your phone crashing on you as 
a regular course of events.  And you really, really don't want to 
have to keep apologizing to everyone who calls you that you didn't 
even know about the call or you couldn't pick up in time, because 
your phone was screwed up.

And cost-wise?  The iPhone will cost about the same as a Treo, and 
less than many other Microsoft-OS devices -- or Nokia phones.  You 
thought that they made a mint on the iPod?  You ain't seen nothin' 
yet....


I do like the fact that I can use a real AOL client to access my 
wife's e-mail, because the AOL webmail experience would be a *real* 
pain with Blazer -- or any other browser on a Treo.

That's one of the very few things I think I'll miss.

-- 
Brad Knowles <brad@shub-internet.org>, Consultant & Author
LinkedIn Profile: <http://tinyurl.com/y8kpxu>
Slides from Invited Talks: <http://tinyurl.com/tj6q4>