What's in the Box?

[hwfa]

If I buy an HTC TyTN II here in the UK, do I get a full version of Outlook for my Windows XP PC? A trial version? No version? I don't currently have MS Office or Outlook installed and I don't really want to spend the money ...

How else do I sync a TyTN II's contacts, ToDo's, calendar etc. to my PC?

I suppose the alternative is Symbian via a Nokia N95 which comes with a perfectly passable set of synchronisable PIM applications for the phone and for the PC???

Harold Fuchs
London, England

 

[hwfa]

I contacted Dieter Bohn about this and we agreed he would discuss the issue in the podcast on May 8. I've now had a chance to listen to that podcast and have the following comments most of which I have sent to Dieter privately.

The basic question is how to synchronise a WM6 device when one does not have Outlook or access to an Exchange server.

Mal's suggestion: Sync Express. My comment (not sent privately): this is fine for contacts but doesn't handle tasks or agenda/calendar.

Dieter's suggestion: Use a free on-line email service and then sync to it directly from your phone and also from your computer.

My comments to Dieter:

I've looked at three of your suggestions: Windows Live, GooSync and OggSync and, frankly, I consider the whole idea would be an outrageous infringement of my contacts' civil liberties.

The notion that one would store someone else's details on an internet server is, in my opinion, totally unethical *unless* one obtained explicit permission from each and every contact for each and every piece of information to be stored. Of course this means that the entire scheme is impractical because one couldn't easily add new details or new contacts and also, because if just one person refused, one's contacts database would be incomplete and thus not really useful.

The same applies to one's calendar. It's fine to store details of one's own theatre/cinema/concert/... -going and other "private" appointments but storing on the internet details of meetings with others is not appropriate, unless one has explicit permission with all that this entails. For example, without permission, storing on the internet the fact that the [named] CEO of the XYZ Widget Company is going to be in such and such a place at such and such a time on such and such a date is, in my opinion, a total violation of that CEO's rights of privacy.

So I will not be going down that road.

Fortunately I have found what seems to be a viable solution: FinchSync (http://www.finchsync.com/). It's free software that runs on Windows, Linux and Mac. It syncs with Mozilla's free (Open Source) Calendar application and the Lightning extension to Thunderbird.

I haven't yet decided to get a WM6 device but, if I do, I'll be using Finchsync as I already use Thunderbird on one of my computers so it won't be hard to use it on the others.

*** Additional comment not sent privately to Dieter:

It occurs to me that keeping people's details on a web service might not be legal in many countries, especially without getting each person's explicit permission for each item of information held. I have submitted an enquiry about this to the UK's Information Commissioner. When I get a reply I'll post it here.