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Just updated, still cool
As the only team member at Iris Professional Services that uses a Blackberry instead of an iPhone, I get the pleasure of testing out anything new for Blackberry and Macs. Sometimes that’s not such a good thing, but there are products like Missing Sync that are definitely in the “Good Thing” category. PocketMac is free, but I never was able to get it to work correctly. Of course, that might be attributable to User Error and your experience may differ, but the bottom line is that I finally gave up on it.

Instead, our Chief Engineer Chris Williams turned me on to Missing Sync from Mark/Space a while back, and I’ve been a happy, somewhat satisfied user since I forked over the $39 or so and loaded it on my MacBook Pro. It’s been reliably synching up my Red Pearl with my Address Book, Calendars, Task Lists, and notes via the USB cable without any major problems. Also, thanks to the syncing features built into Daylite (our “CRM” or Contact Management System) I’ve got all of my Daylite contacts synched up to my Blackberry Pearl since Daylight keeps it’s contacts synched with Address Book. We use iCal in conjunction with Kerio Mail Server, so my phone synches up with the calendars I have in iCal. All in all, very cool.

Bluetooth Synching, finally
There’s nothing wrong with the USB cable sync connection, but I have to remember to do the sync and to dig out the cable to do it. Also, the left side of my unibody MacBook Pro is already chock full of connectors, and my sausage fingers aren’t as nimble as they used to be. The one feature I did wish that Missing Sync would have is the ability to connect and sync via Bluetooth since it’s on both the phone and the laptop. This feature is in version 2.0, and after some initial futzing around with the programs on the phone and the MacBook Pro it’s working like a champ.
Proximity Sync
One of the things that Bluetooth does well is to sense when there is a local disturbance in the blue side of the force. Why not take advantage of it? Missing Sync built into 2.0 the ability to have the synch happen on a regular basis whenever the two paired devices are within range of each other. By “regular basis”, I mean a definable time interval between 1 minute and 8 hours, which gives you some flexibility in determining how you want this to work for you. If you’re updating your Daylite contacts or Calendars constantly, you might want to do it more frequently. Once activated, the computer will launch Missing Sync and you’ll get a notice on the phone that it’s being asked to sync. Once you approve, it starts the sync. After the initial setup, I haven’t had it fail to complete, even while chugging through 800 or so contacts. Here’s a picture of the preferences screen to show some of the options:

Preferences Screen

Setup isn’t 100% there, but OK
Ordering the upgrade from Missing Sync’s website is easy and straightforward, so no problems there. Same goes for the instructions on downloading the software to the computer, and also downloading a program on the Blackberry. When you register, you’ll get links e-mailed to both your computer and to your phone, which is important because it requires an application to be loaded on the Blackberry. Following the on-screen instructions on both the computer and phone is easy enough, and the connection is soon established. The first synch has to be done via USB cable, then after that the Bluetooth sync can be done, and it appears that it works fine the first time.
However, after that, I couldn’t get the laptop to recognize the phone that it had just connected with. The computer could see the phone, and the blue light was flashing on the phone, but no linkage was occuring. I checked the phone and found the application that had been downloaded now needed to be run, and once I did that it works flawlessly. The cool thing is that I can run that sync from the phone with the application and it picks up all the add/edit/delete changes I’ve made on either the computer or the phone. That was the only hitch I’ve run into regarding installation. I have noticed a couple recurring appointments in my iCal calendar that are synching in a wierd, not so good way, but I’ve also seen a few examples of that just within iCal itself.
Media synching, too
I’ve already got an iPod, so I don’t take advantage of the synching of iTunes on the phone. Also, since the camera on the Blackberry is not all that amazing, I don’t sync up pictures or videos with Missing Sync, so I’m not help to you there. I can’t tell you how well that works or not, but I’m guessing that if it’s a sizable enough image or video file you’ll want to sync it up via the USB cable. But for keeping on top of contacts and calendars, it’s worth the $39 and I highly recommend it if you want to use your Blackberry with a Mac.