Palm OS HotSync coming to Classic 14

Thu, 16 Jul 2009 9:21 am EDT

If there’s an old Palm OS app that you absolutely must have, and thusly need Classic for it to work on your Pre, then there’s probably one very distinct feature you’re tired of Classic not having: HotSync. Have no fear, for MotionApps has heard your desperate cries for a solution and is hard at work getting HotSync to work, as seen to the right.

HotSync comes with a variety of built-in benefits, including getting your calendars and contacts into Classic, data migration from your old Palm apps, easy installation of new-old Palm OS apps, and - of course - local back-up of your Palm OS files.

MotionApps doesn’t have an ETA for the HotSync capability, but it will be added to a future update of Classic at no cost to current owners. Now, this will require WiFi or Bluetooth on your computer, as the sync will be a network HotSync, but that’s better than nothing. MotionApps is confident that HotSync will work without fail whatever your applications and is currently testing third-party conduits (e.g. Documents To Go) to ensure full compatibility.

Category:

Tags:

14 Comments

Posted by ABBlockhead on Thu, 16 Jul 2009 9:39 am EDT

Fantastic news. I guess the race is on. Will Classic Hotsync work sooner than my favorite sync-dependent apps (Pocket Quicken, for example) get developed for WebOS? I guess time will tell.

Posted by Q on Thu, 16 Jul 2009 10:10 am EDT

Can you copy and paste from Classic into a WebOS app or vice versa? I haven't seen anything one way or the other on this.

Posted by greenawayj on Thu, 16 Jul 2009 10:52 am EDT

Yeah. Beleive it or not, PocketQuicken is such an ingrained part of my work / personal life that the lack of PQ is 80% of the reason I hadn't yet moved from my trusy 700p.... I don't beleive landware has made any statements about their intentions to develop a Pocket Quicken for the Pre...Have they?

Looking forward to seeing this feature so that I can truly feel that I can move to the Pre without losing some functionality (still wish it had a D-Pad for improved one-handedness and expandable memory, but those I can get over).

Posted by nitido357 on Thu, 16 Jul 2009 11:10 am EDT

co-sign.

I now have one more reason to convince the CO (wife) that the Pre is the device for me...PocketQuicken has made my life easier by a LOT

Posted by Joad on Sun, 19 Jul 2009 9:24 pm EDT

Same here. I bought my original Palm Pilot so I could use Qmate to manage spending, Pocket Quicken came along and has been upgraded to full 2-way syncing. If these guys get syncing 100% reliable, that takes one huge negative of the WebOS off the list.

Posted by Katharine on Thu, 16 Jul 2009 10:40 pm EDT

Hooray, MotionApps! *cheers!*

Posted by Joad on Sun, 19 Jul 2009 9:31 pm EDT

This sorta bugs me - "Classic" should have been part of the OS and maintained by Palm. It's like that company washed its hands of 13 years of customers and applications and said "tough, suckers!" Even if MotionApps handles development and maintenance, Palm should take ownership over assuring it's fully supported.

$30 bucks or whatever is a very fair price for all the trouble MotionApps is going through, but at the end of the day it's still a "third party application," with all the prejudice Palm tends to show those over the years. If WebOS has a pending patch that breaks Classic - I'd feel much more secure if the problem were all on Palm to fix it, rather than being played for ping-pong between Palm and MotionApps.