It is a bit tricky to sync my SE K510i with my Mac using iSync – since it isn’t officially supported – but it works.
Of course, it is still a hack, unsupported, and thus, if I could find a supported way, I’d love to try that one (iff I don’t have to buy it). That’s why my heart skipped a beat today after installing the Leopard Development tools. I noticed there was an utility added to my Powerbook called iSync plug-in maker.
I opened that tool and indeed! The entire interface screamed to easily create an iSync plug-in. It can detect the phone, interrogate it and enter the device characteristics automatically. The only thing I had to do is enter some defaults and enter which type of contacts I had (does the phone support company-name, does it support first and last name or is everything entered in one field, …)
After configuring the plug-in for my phone, I noticed a button “Test”. Sure, I want to test! Suppose I install this plug-in right away, try to use it and then notice it erases all my contacts from my phone and my Addressbook. Don’t want to see that happen! While thinking that, I hit the test button and saw the more than 1350 test scenario’s that could be executed! Amazing. Everything seems to be covered: add only a contact with a first name, modify a contact with first and last name, a contact with first and last name with only company address, or with only a home address… I select them all (no, not one by one) and hit “Run those tests!”
The tests start and tell me what they do: adding a contact, modifying it, … After a while I go take a look in my phonebook list. Indeed! A contact is created at the top of the list called “Firstname Lastname” and after a couple of seconds, the “Lastname” is renamed to “Lastname Modified” and even the phone number has changed. So that’s perfect! Not only this tool seems to be user friendly, it even seems to work!
And then… the shower. An enormous flood of ice cold water drained over my head as a tropical storm during mid-winter. This time my heart didn’t skip a beat. It skipped a couple of them. The contact that is being modified isn’t just the first contact. it is the only contact.
One hundered and thirty three contacts erased in just a fraction of a second (didn’t see the removal anyway), no one to talk to, no one to call, no one to recognize, all contacts, all phone numbers, all e-mail addresses just G-O-N-E. Except for “Firstname Lastname Modified” with office phone number “1111111″ who is laughing at me.
DAMN
I stop the tests (I am not waiting for the +1350 tests to be finished since the first two took 3 minutes to complete – bluetooth isn’t fast), take the risk for the plug-in to actually work and install it. That works. I open Address Book, back-up all contacts (it’s a reflex, I haven’t removed Time Machine by accident) and launch iSync hoping that I can restore my contacts that way. Wrong thought. iSync states that the plug-in doesn’t work in this version. Raging in agony, I click the special button that iSync supplies to show and remove the erroneous plugin – which I do remove – and relaunch iSync. Clicking “Sync”, I truly hope that this will work and luckily, the program is intelligent enough not to erase all contacts from Address Book, but add them to my phone instead. Now, it’s just a matter to restore the contact images (from which a backup cannot be created) and my voice commands (to call some of my contacts handsfree) but at least my phone numbers are back.
I wonder what “File System Modifier” does…
