Another Few Hours On Blackberry - Intellisync and PocketMac
I wrote how it took me six hours to get the blackberry software installed on my PC, required in preparation for upgrading the firmware on my blackberry and synchronizing my contacts from Outlook.
Well, no matter how hard I tried, the Blackberry Desktop manager and Intellsync would not synchronize Outlook contacts to the blackberry. The error message produced gave me no idea as to how I should proceed; I decided to change the location of the data folder, since that is about the only setting that can be modifed. Restarting the desktop manager resulted in a crash (referencing memory address 0!).
I gave up and looked for a Mac solution with very low expectations. Blackberry has licensed PocketMac, which I promptly downloaded and tried to install.
Installers for the Mac are usually well done - compared to the PC where they are hit and miss. PocketMac is an exception, and I was dissapointed. I tried to install it as a user (not administrator) - it is the only installer I have used where I was not challenged for an administrator user name and password.
I logged into my admin account, installed the software, rebooted, logged back into my user account, and tried to use the software. Nothing but a confusing error message and the device wasn’t recognized. Finally, I promoted myself to an admin, reinstalled the software, and found I was able to synchronize just fine. Then I demoted myself, and I am still able to synchronize. Go figure.
I was also able to install an application on the Blackberry (a tool to synchronize safari bookmarks to the blackberry.
The funny thing is that I have been avoiding copying my contacts from my PC to my mac for about 13 months because I thought that would involve a lot of Yak shaving. It took about two minutes to figure out. In Outlook, simply select all contacts and use the action menu to forward them as Vcard to yourself (I wish I could do that in Lotus Notes! Outlook implemented this feature nicely.). In Mail on the mac, drag and drop the vcard attachments you receive by email to the address book.
Technorati Tags: blackberry, PocketMac, Intellisync, osx, mac, OutLook, yak shaving, vcard