Looking for PC Calendar program that syncs with Android phone Calendar app

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Hi, All,

I hope that this is not off-topic, but this seemed like the best section of the Lounge to post this in, as it absolutely relates to my productivity. For years I’ve used a Palm T|X which has a desktop program that allows me to quickly enter new appointments or to-do items, change them easily, and search them quickly when I’m at my desk, as I often am. Then I sync it to my Palm, and presto, I’m up-to-date, as any changes I’ve made on either the Palm Desktop program or the Palm itself are then registered on both devices, which is what I need.

However the Palm is at (or more correctly, far beyond) the end of its useful life, so I’ve just acquired a Samsung Galaxy S2, for which I’m trying to find a desktop calendar program that will sync easily and well with some sort of Android calendar app. I use this calendar primarily for business, so I need to be able to not only enter the event name/description, but also in many cases lots of notes attached to the event, and I need the ability to set very precise event times and duration, as well as to be able to repeat an event at certain regular intervals. Ideally, the calendar program/app should allow me to see day, week, month, and year views. I use Firefox and Thunderbird, so I was wondering about the Mozilla Lightning Calendar for TB, but I don’t know enough about it or how/if it would sync with some sort of Android calendar app. As an additional consideration, it would be SUPERB if I could somehow get my current Palm Desktop calendar events to be synced or loaded into the new desktop program, thus saving me hours of work.

Knowing that WindowsSecrets members are the savviest tech group around, I thought I’d see if anyone knows of any combination of PC calendar program and Android calendar app that would meet those specs. Any and all suggestions appreciated.

Thanks,
Al

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Gmail has a calander function that syncs very well with my Android phone. When I wish to add an event in my phone, especially if I have to add numerous events, it is much easier to do it in the Gmail calander. It automatically syncs if you have the sync function enabled in the Android phone (Of course you need a Gmail account to do this)

First screen shot is Gmail main screen.

Second screen shot is the calander (I have chosen a month without much on it so my personal business is not broadcast all over)

31238-GmailCalander1

31239-GmailCalander2

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Hi, Ted,

Many thanks for the prompt reply. I do have a Gmail account, but have never used it, as I’ve become highly suspicious of using anything Google after learning of their intense tracking of everyone and everything that uses any of the Google services. As a result, I now use DuckDuckGo or StartPage as my search engines, use Abine’s DoNotTrack+ to block Google Analytics (and all other trackers), and generally try to avoid using anything Google-related if I have a workable alternative. Maybe Google doesn’t track or monitor their Calendar application, but it would be really hard to trust them, given their much-publicized record for tracking the activities of their customers.

Any thoughts on this would be appreciated.

Thanks again,
Al

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H.H.,

My wife and I both have GS2s and we use MS Outlook and the Kies software that comes with the S2 works great syncs calendar, contacts, notes, todos. :cheers:

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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Hi, RG,

I appreciate the info. I’m afraid I’m a bit of a newbie on Android phones, however, as I only got it four days ago, so I hope my questions aren’t too hopelessly naive.

I don’t use MS Outlook or any of the MS Office suite, having for years used the old Lotus suite, though I’m now slowly transitioning over to the Libre Office suite. As a result, I don’t have a current PC calendar program to work with, other than Palm Desktop, which is so old that I have to run it in XP Mode under Windows 7. As a result, I think (someone please correct me if I’m wrong here) I need to find a new desktop calendar program, then choose an Android calendar app that can be synced with it by some means (or vice versa).

When I first open the native “Calendar” app that comes on the Samsung GS2, it tells me that “Google Calendar cannot sync with Samsung Kies. Use My calendar to sync with Kies.” I’ve downloaded and installed Kies, but I’m not clear on how this would work, as A) I don’t have “My Calendar” and B) when I click on the Sync tab in Kies, it only gives options to sync with MS Outlook functions. Since I don’t have Outlook on my computer, trying to sync through Kies doesn’t appear to be my answer. As a result, it appears that I need to find an “Outlook equivalent” PC calendar program, then find a way to have it sync with some sort of Android App.

In the absence of credible evidence that can allay my concerns about using Google Calendar (or any Google products), I’m not sure how to come up with an alternative arrangement that will sync easily and give me the ability to manage the bulk of my calendar event entry on my PC. Simply put, I’m a bit at a loss how to proceed at the moment.

I apologize if my newness to Android has me missing something obvious, but if so, I’ll be most grateful if someone can point it out to me.

Cheers,
Al

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I know what you mean, Al. I used Palm Desktop for 10 years and loved it, finally giving up on it just two years ago. It didn’t work on the newer OS’s, wouldn’t sync with the current phones, most current PCs no longer have the serial ports or infrared ports Hotsync was designed for, and it can’t even import/export data in reasonable formats. Even if you figure out how to use Kies, nothing’s going to sync with Palm Desktop’s oddball database formats.

I use a first-gen Galaxy S, on my PC I use Thunderbird with the Lightning extension, and calendar data is in a collection of google calendars. I can add or edit calendar events on either the phone, in Lightning, or in g-cal and they’re automatically synced to all three places. I don’t like Samsung’s native android calendar so I use one called “Business Calendar Free”, which comes closer to replicating the Palm display on the phone.

Android phones seamlessly sync gmail, google calendars, and google contacts (if you put them in google), but be forewarned it doesn’t really sync tasks (your to-do list).

I’ve really become sold on how g-cal merges multiple calendars, and now don’t think I could go back to living without that feature. (Outlook has long had that feature, but it’s something Palm Desktop could never do.) This allows me, my wife, and my kids to have separate calendars as well as a common family calendar, and pick-and-choose which to merge for each person. My daughter, traveling in South America, could update her calendar for where she would be and when, and it would automatically merge into my calendar and my wife’s calendar. My son, away at college, could add an item in the family calendar showing when he was planning to be home for the weekend, and it showed up on our calendars–without the need to exchange emails, texts, or phone calls and require everyone to replicate items on their own calendars.

As for your privacy concerns, I think it’s a sure bet Google is reading any gmail and calendar events. They as much as say so in their new, unified Privacy Policy. Like you, that concerns me–and my response is to avoid using gmail and google+ as much as possible. But the benefits to our family of mutual google calendars is too great, so we’ve accepted a little “privacy leakage” as a tradeoff.

Some privacy leakage is inevitable. The government knows how much you earn, Amazon knows what you read, MasterCard knows where you shop, and if you use a club card Safeway knows what foods you eat. So far, each only has a piece of the puzzle, but it will be magnitudes worse when they all get together and combine the pieces. (That day is coming, I fear.)

I see google the same way. It would be far worse if you use a lot of google products, but if you can limit your use of their products there should be less of a profile they can build on you.

IMHO it’s still not as bad as Facebook (which I also refuse to use). Google wants to invade your privacy so they can better target ads at you, while Facebook wants to invade your privacy so they can blab about you to everyone else.

Dan

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Basically the only reason I have a Google account is for the calander. Gmail is a third email for me, and is almost never used. Since Android is a Google thing, to get the most out of your Android phone, you have to have a Gmail account. This naturally gives a calander if you choose to use it. I do use the Android calander app. Since I did not have a palm, I have no idea how it looks. The Android calander works well for me and syncs seamlessly with the Gmail calander.

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Hi, Dan,

Glad to know that someone else has faced this situation and distrusts Google as much as I do. Also, like you, my wife and I absolutely refuse to use Facebook, not just because of privacy concerns (though they exist), but because it appears to be a huge timewaster, and besides, if I want “social networking,” I’ll call a friend or, better yet, go visit him. Facebook is “anti-social networking.” But I digress.

Though I posted this question here and on an android forum I found, I kept on digging and – dare I say it? – I think I may have found THE HOLY GRAIL! I came across a program called MyPhoneExplorer, the instructions for which can be found here. You download a desktop version, which is in many ways very much like the old Palm Desktop, then download the client app to your Android phone, after which it allows you to sync by WiFi, Bluetooth, or USB cable. It also syncs your phone calls and messages, along with all kinds of useful stuff as shown in the screenshot below:
31242-MyPhoneExplorer

It almost made me think I was back in my Palm Desktop program, only this program does MUCH more. You may want to give it a look.

Also, while I realize that you’ve long since converted any of your old Palm Calendar .dba files over to formats that would work with your new phones or other devices, for anyone who is struggling, as I was, to find a way to convert the Palm .dba format to an iCal format, I finally found another holy grail, at Palm2CSV.com, which converts Palm .dba files not only to .csv files, but now also directly into iCal format! You just select any options, upload your .csv file, and in short order, Presto! There’s your iCal file, ready to download, either in iCal format (larger) or Zipped. Sweet!

In the process, I tried following someone else’s posted instructions involving a site called AirSet.com, but I wasn’t keen on storing such private information in the cloud, so once I found MyPhoneExplorer, I bailed on AirSet, though some folks may prefer it.

Hope that helps. Thanks again for your enjoyable post.

Cheers,
Al

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Though I posted this question here and on an android forum I found, I kept on digging and – dare I say it? – I think I may have found THE HOLY GRAIL! I came across a program called MyPhoneExplorer, the instructions for which can be found here. You download a desktop version, which is in many ways very much like the old Palm Desktop, then download the client app to your Android phone, after which it allows you to sync by WiFi, Bluetooth, or USB cable.

Cheers,
Al

CAUTION – As of today (7/5/12) downloading and installing the MPE application on my computer per the above activated Symantec (Norton) Security which promptly deleted the files indicating that they are a Trojan known as Cloud2 which is rated as very dangerous. It appears that the installer portion of the package is the problem.

I know nothing further at this time, but wanted to post this warning as soon as the incident happened.

– JimF

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I hadn’t seen that app before, but it looks interesting. I’ll be sure to take a look at it. Thanks for the tip! (I hope it can merge/display multiple calendars. Some others I considered and discarded would only sync your primary calendar.)

I did look at Palm2CSV.com when I wanted to convert my Palm calendar two years ago, but found it didn’t handle recurring events properly (or at least it didn’t back then). Instead of as a single recurring entry, Palm2CSV would convert a recurring event to multiple non-recurring events. That means that if I wanted to edit/update a recurring event I now had to go and edit each occurrence individually.

In the end, I ended up just manually reentering events. To save work I only entered current/future events, so I gave up the history of all my old calendar events.

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Be careful, though, if you decide to install MyPhoneExplorer. It’s a great little program, but it tries to get you to load other items onto your computer as you install MPE. The first EULA screen didn’t have any crapware obviously associated with it, but the second EULA screen is different. Do NOT click on anything until you have UN-checked the two choices at the top, which would load crapware onto your computer, then click DECLINE, NOT Accept at the bottom, lest you still end up with the crapware. You then get to yet another crapware screen for some sort of registry cleaner, and again you need to DECLINE (unless of course you want that stuff on your machine for some reason). After that, at least when I did my installation, there were no further bits of crapware sneakiness to worry about.

It’s a shame that such a good program is tangled up with these crapware merchants, but writing apps costs time and money, and also it is a free program, so I suppose app writers need to earn a living too.

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Thanks for the heads up. I’ve had a chance to look it over now… much closer to Palm Desktop than anything else I’ve seen, yet does indeed manage multiple calendars. Nice find, Al!

Another plus: since it *replicates* calendar data on both devices (phone and PC), you still have access to your calendar even when not connected to a network. They won’t be in sync until you’re back online and press the sync button, but at least you have something to work with in the interim. In contrast, the Thunderbird/Lightning/g-cal alternative leaves you with a blank calendar if your internet connection isn’t working.

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much closer to Palm Desktop than anything else I’ve seen, yet does indeed manage multiple calendars.

Hi, Dan,

Yes, it’s the closest I’ve seen to Palm DT, but I did run into a snag due to a misunderstanding on my part involving the use of the “Delete passed events” option in the right-click context menu. I posted about it in the English section of their otherwise German forum here. Since that forum (or at least the English section of it) doesn’t appear super-active, I kept working and eventually solved the problem my own way by deleting everything from both the desktop and phone calendars and then reloading the iCal file I’d created of all my Palm Calendar entries to get a fresh start. Since I’d only just loaded up my first attempt into the MPE calendar, I didn’t really lose anything but time and some of my stomach lining.

If you decide that you want to “Delete [only some, not all] passed events” safely, you can try what I did, which is to click on the far right View icon above the calendar, which puts all your entries into a List view. You can then click on the headers of those columns to sort the entries by name, date, or whatever, then mark and delete only the entries you want to lose forever. That function could be better handled, but the rest of the program is still great. I have, however, posted two feature requests (here and here) for functions that would help this program to come closer to some of the great features from Palm DT. It would also be nice if MPE had an Undelete mechanism, as once I marked those passed events for deletion, they were doomed; I couldn’t find a way to undelete them.

Hope that helps. If you decide to keep and use the program, please post back as to how you get on with it.

Cheers,
Al

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You seem to have found a solution but if you want to continue using Palm Desktop this program may work http://www.companionlink.com/google/palmdesktop/. It works by syncing the Palm Desktop to Google Calendar and then to the Android phone. I think the company also supplies a Android app that let you sync direct from the PC to the phone. Not sure but it may be worth a look.

PS. I use Google calendar and it works well for me. I not overly concerned about Google privacy issues but then I don’t have anything really important in the calendar.

Cheers
Ultan

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Combination of Thunderbird/Lightning/Address Book and BirdieSync works well.

I use Thunderbird (v 13.01) with the Lightning (v 1.5.2) for email and calendar. Together with BirdiSync (v 2.4.1 at http://www.birdiesync.com) synchronisation between Thunderbird and Android phones for the Lightning calendar and Contacts is excellent using the BirdieSync app on the Android Play. The synchronisation is handled smoothly over a WiFi connection or by attaching the Android phone to your PC by USB cable but the former is faster and simpler. The calendar is synchronised independently of Google and if you have the Android OS 2.3, so are the Contacts/Address book but with OS 4 the address book is linked to a Gmail account. I really like the Thunderbird set up and Birdy at BirdieSync is superb, responding to questions rapidly and set to update BirdieSync in step with upgrades of Thunderbird. Hope this helps.

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I too recently gave up using my Palm Lifedrive as PDA and looked at various options that would let me use an Android phone instead with a decent PC desktop client. Getting out of Palm’s proprietary calendar format with as much information preserved as possible was clearly important and I eventually used palm2ical to get my Palm calendar into iCal format. I then imported this into Google Calendar. If I were doing it again, I’d import each Palm category separately into a corresponding Google calendar (this allows you to have different colours for each calendar). There’s a command-line parameter to palm2ical that allows you to process a category at a time.

I then installed the Lightning extension for Thunderbird on my desktop and synced the calendars with Google using CalDev, which is the method Google document. The first sync took quite a while and I was plagued with hundreds of reminders for meetings that were long past. Should have turned off the option for reminding about missed meetings first. Once I got that out of the way, all was fine and I’ve been syncing to two PCs and an Android phone without problems for a couple of weeks now.

I’m also syncing my contacts over the same platforms. I exported my Palm contacts by category (Friends/Neighbours/Tradespeople/etc.) in vCard format (rather than CSV) and then imported each category into Google Contacts. I also imported my email addressbook and phone no. database from my old mobile into Google Contacts. This resulted in quite a lot of overlap/duplication but there’s quite a good Google tool for finding and merging duplicates, which I used extensively. I chose the gContactSync Thunderbird extension to sync my addressbook with Google (there are a few choices but I liked the look of this one).

So far, all’s going very well. Pity the Android phone has such a pathetic battery life :(.

Leila

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Hi. I don’t yet even have a SmartPhone, so I have no experience with the various apps. However, after I decided to put off getting a SmartPhone for a while, I wanted to continue to use my PalmTX for my calendar, my contacts, my Scrabble game (better than anything available on Android), my dictionaries, and so much more. Thanks to lots of helpful advice from the Brighthand PalmTX forum at http://forum.brighthand.com/palm-tx/ (it sometimes opens with an ad you can skip), I found that there was a version of the Palm Desktop (6.2.2) that works on my Windows 7 64-bit desktop and will sync with the TX via either Bluetooth or wi-fi. So that’s what I’ve continued to use for my calendar.

I confess that I smiled when I read that you’re wary of Gmail because it’s a Google product, but you’ve chosen an Android phone–Android is also Google. Indeed, since I share your distrust of Google, I’ve been a little reluctant to get an Android phone for that reason, though I probably will eventually succumb, since iPhones have their own set of problems and limitations. Anyway, I’m sending this message not to talk about Google or Android but simply to pass along the information that it is possible to get the Palm Desktop to work on Windows 7, even Win 7 64-bit.

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I also use CompanionLink. Once it is set up it works fine. If you use Google’s Two-Step Authentication make sure you set a password for CompanionLink.

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HealingHands33,

A few months ago, I migrated from a Palm Treo to an Android system, and was severely disappointed in the PDA capabilities of my new smart phone! I have over 10 years of Calendar data, many with unusual repeating events and my Contacts included several thousand entries that use the 9 Custom fields, as well as multiple phone numbers, addresses, etc. I really needed all this data to smoothly move over to the Android, and I did NOT want Google to see all this data.

After several weeks of frantic searching, I found an ideal solution:

* Get the free Deja Office for the Android.
* Buy Companion Link for the PC (I gladly paid the $40 to solve this problem!)
* If you have Windows 7, update the Palm Desktop to Version 6.2.

Now, I can hot-sync my Palm Treo to the PC Palm Desktop in the normal manner. Then, Companion Link reads the Palm Desktop data and syncs with Deja Office on the Android via USB. You can make data changes on any device (PC, Palm, or Android), and then re-sync. All 3 devices then maintain syncronized data. I now keep my Palm in my office for quick and convenient access, and carry only the Android phone around with me.

Deja Office is the closest thing to the Palm PDA I have seen. It maintains ALL Palm data, including the 9 Custom fields in Contacts! It is easy to use, although not quite as wonderful as the Palm. But everything is there in Deja Office.

I set up Deja Office on the Android system to only keep the Android contact list synced, and turned off all syncing with Google. The Android contact list is, of course, limited to a few major fields from the Palm system, but it works well enough to dial the phone. I don’t use the Android calendar at all. Deja Office nicely displays all of the PDA contact info on the Android screen, along with active buttons to either send SMS text or dial a phone number. It even has a button beside each address that activates Google Maps, so it does the Palm PDA one better!

I highly recommend this solution!

Jack Bamberg

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I just fired up My Phone Explorer and really like it But, if I don’t use Outlook where do the Notes and Tasks go that I create my the desktop??

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Al

Are you aware of the Pimlical Calendar Application for PC, replacing or syncing with Palm Desktop, and separate Android app. See Pimlico Software. Present transfer is thru Google but in late beta stage is direct USB transfer. CESD has been hard at work creating first the PC and then the Android app so that DB can continue with or without a Palm. I presently still am able to use my Pam TX.

Merwyn

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Hi, Jim,

Thanks for the warning. I just posted your comment in the English section of the otherwise German MPE forum and asked them to comment on it. I then loaded my previously downloaded copy of MPE into VirusTotal, which gave it a detection ratio of 1/41, as shown in the following screenshot:

31374-VirusTotal_MPE

The one detection out of the 42 was NOD32 which said it detected “Win32/OpenCandy” in the program. The other 41 detection engines found nothing, so I don’t know if NOD32 is better than the other 41 programs or just putting up a false positive. Either way, the program has worked fine for me so far, but PLEASE NOTE that the copy I downloaded was dated 20Jun12, so I can’t vouch for any downloads since then.

For reference, the thread where I posted this in the English section of the MPE forum is at:
http://www.fjsoft.at/forum/viewtopic.php?p=80432#80432

I’m not sure if your Symantec was picking up a genuine Trojan that had been added since I downloaded or if it was a false positive, but if you or anyone learns anything more, please post to this thread until this issue is clearly resolved.

Thanks.

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I’ve read this thread with interest, since I’ve been looking for a useful, syncable calendar program for my desktop, company laptop, company Crackberry phone, and personal Razr Maxx with ICS.

Regarding the alleged “virus” tagging from Symantec: Personally, I wouldn’t worry too awful much about it, unless another security program solidly confirms a threat. I’ve used several security programs for years and years – MalwareBytes Anti-Malware,, AVG, Avast!, Spybot, and Threatfire specifically – after doing much reading to determine the best ones available. My company, in their infinite wisdom, inexplicably requires the presence of Symantec on the laptop, and every time I boot the computer, Symantec actually flags Threatfire as a virus. Kinda strange, ’cause I’ll trust Threatfire any day over Symantec . . .

If I could get away with it, I’d remove anything Symantec from the laptop, but the Company looks at everybody’s laptops weekly to make sure everything is being maintained to Company standards.

The whole point here is just to re-assure you that, just because Symantec says something’s a virus, does not necessarily make it so.

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CompanionLink is the way to go…but a word of caution. I have two computers in my office that I had sync up to Google at bootup time. Boy did that screw things up, lol….they were both syncing at the same time. Yes, dumb on my part. So now I have each syncing at different times of the day. Works well

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I think anyone who has used Palm like I have….for 15 years, lol…understands the desire to continue to use Palm. I have over 600 contacts from 20 years of using PIMs. I was really frustrated with the Google products and the Android products. I wanted my palm back!! CompanionLink does good…yes, when you set it up right, lol

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Hi, Deebeard,

I couldn’t agree more about Symantec. I ripped Norton off my computer years ago when I had some problem or issue, went to their website, and couldn’t find a #$#%! phone number on which to reach a human being. I replaced the old, bloated, painful Norton AntiVirus with the lighter, faster, and more customizable TrendMicro PCcillin (later TrendMicro Internet Security), then when TMIS too ultimately became bloated, slow, and user-snarly, I replaced TMIS with Microsoft Security Essentials, which so far has remained very light on resources, fast, effective, and unobtrusive. So, like you, my motto is, “Anything but Symantec.”

With regard to the MPE program, the more I use it, the more I like it. Sure, I’d like this or that tweaked to give MPE some missing bits of the Palm Desktop functionality, and indeed I’ve put in my own feature requests on the MPE forum (see links in Post #12, above), but even as it is, MPE still seems like a great little program, even including some minor features that Palm Desktop didn’t have.

In short, having played with MPE for a couple of weeks or so now, I’d certainly recommend it, but would of course caution any prospective user to do the usual due diligence with regard to viruses, trojans, or other malware before installing MPE, as with any program, just to be safe. Running the latest download through VirusTotal would probably be a good place to start.

Cheers,
Al

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Hi, Douglas,

Your enthusiasm for Google as a certified reseller of their products is certainly understandable, but please forgive some of us if we don’t quite share that enthusiasm. I have lots of Google-related apps on my Android phone that I’ll happily give away to anyone who will take them.

Google does indeed have “extremely talented programmers,” but their talents are used strictly to achieve Google’s corporate ends, and while I’m perfectly fine with corporations making money, which is of course their function, I and many others value our privacy and don’t like or want Google tracking our online activities, even if only for the simple reason that it’s none of Google’s #$#%! business what we choose to do online, period. That may be Google’s business model, but that doesn’t mean we all have to like it or want to participate. Many of us don’t want their ads, targeted or otherwise, nor do we want any of their other services if they come at the cost of Google tracking our every online move. That’s why I use Firefox add-ons that keep me as ad-free and Google-free as possible: Adblock Plus, DoNotTrackPlus, and GoogleSharing.

In short, if the Google products work for you and for others, by all means use them, but for those who want a tracking-free alternative, MPE has so far proven to be a nice piece of software that does a good job of replicating most, if not yet quite all, of the Palm Desktop experience. As in all such matters, your mileage may vary.

Hope that helps.

Cheers,
Al

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I have investigated the Trojan warning I reported previously and tried to duplicate the situation to identify more details. Although I do not totally disagree with the condemnations of Symantec that have been presented, my experience indicates that it finds many issues that other scanners miss. To close the issue in this thread, I provide the following information for what it is worth.

Symantec is identifying two suspicious sets of code imbedded in the “MyPhoneExplorer_Setup_1.8.2.exe” file I downloaded from the FJ Software site. One is labeled “myphoneexplorer_V2_5185[1].exe” and the second is labeled “installmanager.exe”. Both are shown to be part of a Trojan known as (Suspicious.Cloud.2). It blocks the first from running and Quarantines the second. The code that installs MPE 1.8.2 is allowed to run and successfully installs the program. See attached Security History Report.

I know nothing more and provide this for everyone’s use as they deem fit.

I have yet to try and use it with my old Palm files.

– JimF

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I recently got an Android phone and am interested in synching, too. I do distrust Google, but am not sure if I should act on that distrust or not. Google, like most large companies, is amoral. They don’t know what evil is, so they cannot avoid doing it. Ironically, I think the people who distrust them the most are probably the ones who are least likely to fall prey to their advertizing.

So I may or may not decide to use Google, but I was wondering about another alternative. I am not just a “consumer”. (No insult to consumers, but most modern electronics seems to be directed more and more to either the consumer entertainment industry or giant “enterprise” businesses, leaving out the middle ground.) I own a small business, have employees, etc. And I own a number of domains which are currently hosted by an ISP on a shared-hosting basis. So I am wondering if there is any product which will use my web servers for synching and sharing my data.

For example, someone mentioned that his whole family could update their Google calendar and everyone else would see the entries appear on their phones when they synched. We have considered using that kind of function in our business, but have not taken the step. Is there a way to keep a group calendar on our own web server and sync all of our computers and phones to it?

I think it might be possible to do with Outlook, but using Microsoft’s cloud is no closer to my goal than using Google’s. Also, after using Outlook for 15+ years, we have switched to Thunderbird as we found it a superior product for our needs. Something a bit more independent would be nice.

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I have an Orange San Francisco phone (ZTE Blade in disguise). I have used MS Outlook as well as MyPhoneExplorer to sync everything (contacts, notes, calendar). I somehow got hooked into syncing with a google calendar as well. So I am well covered. In fact MPE worked so well I sent them money! The advantage of using MS Outlook is having the weight of all that expertise and transferability. However I miss my Palm TX. Used to sync everyhting at the touch of a button!

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Hi, Backspacer,

Like you, I’m in that much-ignored middle ground, a small business owner with multiple domains and web sites. I don’t want this to get into an off-topic discussion, but I’ll simply mention that I have all my sites hosted at GoDaddy.com and they seem to have a lot of specialty hosting-related products that they offer. I’m not sure if any of them will give you the functionality you’re looking for, but a brief phone call to their customer service line might give you a quick yea or nay answer, and if they can’t help you, perhaps a lead or two as to who can. For me, however, MPE seems to be covering my needs pretty well at the moment, so you may want to consider downloading it and giving it a try. If it doesn’t work for you, no harm done, and if you ultimately discover something infinitely better, by all means, do tell!

Cheers,
Al

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I am with Aplus.net. I hadn’t even thought that they might have this capability already, but I will be checking on it. Thanks for the idea.

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I’ve noticed several posts here from people who distrust Google.
If you’re interested in learning more about how secure your data would be on Google’s servers, here’s a 7 minute video which will interest you:

It’s certainly an interesting video and it shows that Google is doing a lot to protect customers’ data from almost every conceivable threat except one: Google itself. All the protection in the world from external threats means nothing if Google still gets to monitor and accumulate data on internet users, then use it in Google’s self-interest. Those of us who distrust Google and other companies who track our Internet activities without specifically obtaining our written permission are most concerned with what information those companies are accumulating about us and the uses to which they are putting, or may in the future put, that collected information about us. In an age where personal privacy is coming under attack on every side, many corporations and even some government agencies are instituting strict opt-in privacy policies that have to be adhered to by the organization and agreed to by the end user before any private information can be collected, shared, or used in any way. In contrast, Google’s idea of a privacy policy seems to be more along the lines of, “If we can find any way to track your activities, any information we collect about your activities therefore becomes ours by right, to do with as we see fit, even if it’s something you don’t like or agree with.”

If other users don’t mind having their online activities monitored and tracked by Google and still choose to use Google programs, they’re free to do so, and more power to them. However – and you can call us old fashioned if you wish – there are some of us who feel that (as noted in Post #27) “it’s none of Google’s #$#%! business what we choose to do online, period. That may be Google’s business model, but that doesn’t mean we all have to like it or want to participate.” That’s why we search out Google-free means of synching calendars and other data, which is why MPE so far seems like an excellent solution. To each his/her own.

Cheers,
Al

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Democracy is a quaint concept, too, in a world where mega corporations buy and sell politicians like any other commodity. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t continue to strive for it. Same goes for privacy. So far, Google seems mostly to just target ads at me and sometimes their targeting is very convenient. But all those servers are constantly filling up with data and they have an army of programmers trying to learn new ways to extract profitable information from that data. Remember what I said: big companies are amoral. Whatever they say about doing no evil, the only thing that matters is profits. Things are going well for Google right now, but that will change. It always does. I’ve been using, fixing, and designing computers (some huge, one went up on the shuttle, etc.) since 1978 and you have no idea how many skyrocketing companies and promising technologies have come and gone. Maybe Google will be like IBM and last forever; maybe they will be like DEC and die. But in any case they will have to deal with severe pressures on their profitability along the way and “do no evil” will be forgotten.

By the way, using the size of Google’s server farm as a reason why I can’t cross sync using my own web server instead of theirs is a red herring. My ailing old desktop PC would be overkill for such a task.

Back to the original issue, I looked through my aplus.net control panel and don’t see what I need. I asked them about it and have received no answer. (They slipped from being A+ to being C- long ago.) Next I suppose I’ll look at sourceforge. Email isn’t the problem – I have IMAP and that’s good enough for “synching” email. I would like to sync calendars, certain data files, etc. It would be fine if I had to put a copy into a specific sync directory, I’m not that lazy.

Oh, and I still need to look at MPE. Thanks for that tip, guys!

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Douglas, you do not serve your purpose by telling me that I don’t know how to run a business which you know nothing about and which I have been running very profitably for 19 years through good times and bad. I am looking for options as was the original poster. Yours is most certainly one to consider. I have not completely ruled it out, but so far not it does not appear to be the best for me. And pressure makes me more resistant, not more compliant.

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Amen, Backspacer, well said; I’ll second that. Like you, I’ve been running my business successfully, through good times and bad, for the last 20 years, and the simple truth is that in my business (of which no other poster in this thread knows a blessed thing) I need “Google’s incredible infrastructure” about as much as a fish needs a bicycle. If Google has a function or program I want to use and won’t monitor and track all my actions on that program, or if I can successfully block Google’s snooping, then sure, I’ll use it, but Google is not the universal answer to everyone’s computing needs, despite the starry-eyed enthusiasm of its acolytes. I also agree wholeheartedly that “pressure makes me more resistant, not more compliant,” and I know from many years in technical sales that pressure selling is NOT the best way to sell.

Douglas, with all due respect, though I admire the tenacity with which you advocate for the product you sell as a Google reseller, your offhand dismissal of privacy on the Internet as a “quaint concept” is both incorrect and troubling. It is incorrect because there are encryption programs for email and anonymous web surfing programs that can restore to Internet users the privacy which should be theirs by default and by right. It is troubling because it betrays a disregard for one of the cornerstones of personal freedom that is so important that it is even enshrined in the Bill of Rights as part of the Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated.” Just because our “papers and effects” are in this day and age partially electronic in nature does not suspend our right to privacy, and if even the US government has to act in accordance with the Fourth Amendment, surely Google (I use “Google” here to mean both that company and all such companies) should do no less.

Is privacy in using the Internet and email still important? If anyone doubts this, why not ask the suffering people of Syria, the Tibetans, the North Koreans, or the millions under the iron rule of Communist China who yearn to be able to speak, write, and read on the Internet with the same precious freedom that too many of us take for granted. I have not ceded my right to privacy to Google, so Google has no right to track or monitor my online “papers or effects” any more than the FBI has a right to monitor your phone conversations or search your personal effects without either your express permission or a warrant showing due cause and signed by an impartial judge who is there to make sure that the Fourth Amendment is followed.

Google and its ilk seem to think that because they CAN monitor and track, they therefore have the RIGHT to monitor and track, but that does not follow, either logically or legally, and as the legal system, in its almost glacial slowness, gradually catches up to the racing advance of technology, those of us who value liberty and personal freedom can only hope and pray that this arrogant usurpation of our online personal privacy will be reversed and properly constrained. If you or others choose to use Google products, by all means do so, as I have no wish to restrict your freedom, but for those of us with lots of gray hair who know that personal freedom is a rare and precious flower in the history of the world, a flower that can so easily be crushed underfoot by either the deliberate act of the malicious or the accidental step of the unaware, there are other choices we can make that will better preserve our Internet privacy. For now, with respect to the type of software I was looking for when I started this thread, MPE seems to do an excellent and Google-free job of meeting my needs and, I gather, the needs of some others.

As I said above, if you or others prefer to use Google, by all means do so, but please don’t dismiss our concerns with privacy as “quaint.” Those concerns are very real and they are amply justified, as the restriction of Internet privacy and freedom in totalitarian countries around the world makes abundantly clear. If you or others would like to know more about the serious threats to our online privacy, you can check out the site of the Electronic Privacy Information Center.

Cheers,
Al

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Good for them. I get really tired of feature creep. A desktop email client doesn’t need to be innovative, it needs to be reliable. They will continue reliability updates and the “community” will continue adding plug ins. That’s fine. Maybe they’ll come up with an Android email client next so we can start drifting away from Google-everything on that OS. Remember when Microsoft tried to dominate everything in the PC world? And remember when the courts started forcing them to open up? It’ll happen to Google, too. Entropy is the nature of the universe.

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Hi, Jack,

Thanks for posting that interesting solution to the problem. I’ll certainly look into it, for although MPE seems to be doing a pretty good job so far, I’m always open to learning about something better.

One of the reasons I migrated to an Android phone was that the battery on my Palm T|X was on its last legs, clutching at its chest and gasping, with a battery charge life between full charge and dead flat that seemed to be measured in seconds. As a result, I really saw no point in trying to revive my T|X by buying and installing a battery, as the technology is old and it would be a bit like putting lipstick on a corpse. Besides, I have Palm Desktop 4.2, which is hopelessly old, so the only way I can run it under Windows 7 is to load it into W7’s XP Mode, making it a bit of a pain to use.

However, Palm Desktop worked really well for the most part, so I’d be interested in trying out a Palm Desktop to Android sync and see what happens. Am I to understand from your post that Palm Desktop is still available and that Version 6.2 will run directly under Windows 7 (I’m using W7 Pro, 64-Bit, SP1)? If you’ve tried running it directly under W7 and it works, I’d appreciate knowing where you got your Ver. 6.2 download, so I make sure that I get the same version you’ve tested. Also, is Version 6.2 still supported in any way by Palm, or is it now a software orphan?

I’ll give Deja Office a look whenever I can find enough free time to do it justice. Thanks again for your informative post.

Cheers,
Al

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I downloaded MyPhoneExplorer in mid-June, and other than having to be careful to decline some crapware during the installation process, as noted in one of my earlier posts in this thread, all has seemed to be well with my installation and use of MPE. Well, just now I got a warning from Microsoft Security Essentials that it had found “OpenCandy” crapware lurking in a file, so I told it to remove the offending file. As you’ll see from the screenshot below, the offending file that included OpenCandy was the MPE installer file.

31423-OpenCandy-in-MPE-Installer

I posted some days ago to the English section of the (otherwise German) MPE forum regarding the warning from another poster earlier in this thread that Symantec reported that there was some sort of Trojan in the MPE installer file on his computer. None of the 42 virus scanners on VirusTotal (including Symantec) found that Trojan on my copy of the installer file, although one program (NOD32) did report OpenCandy; the other 41 programs found the MPE installer clean. One of the administrators of the MPE forum replied to my post and said that Symantec has now been informed of the false report of the Trojan. Whether this report from MSE on my computer and the NOD32 report in VirusTotal of OpenCandy associated with the MPE installer file is correct or a false positive, I don’t know, and MPE has so far worked very well for me, but I just want to make other users aware that there MAY – or may NOT – be some crapware piggybacking on the MPE installer file.

As always, please be sure to do your own due diligence in this regard. If anyone finds our more about this issue, please post it here.

Cheers,
Al

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Al,

You can quickly and easily download the free app, Deja Office from Google Play and see how you like it. Then, later on, tackle the palm to Android data transfer to get all your old data moved.

Palm Desktop is now supported by HP. I last contacted tech support in February. You can get Version 6.2 here:
http://kb.hpwebos.com/wps/portal/kb/common/article/32859_en.html
This version runs native on Windows 7 and is almost identical to the old version. (I am using Win7 Home Premium, 64 bit, SP1.) This web page doesn’t list your Palm device, so I perhaps it will/won’t hot-sync to your handheld? As you can see from this link, USB HotSync is not supported with 64 bit Win 7. Bluetooth sync is used instead, which is not as hassle free as USB. However, last February they released a new driver for 64 bit Win 7 that reinstates USB hot-sync. Get the driver and instructions at:
http://aceeca.com/index.php?option=com_maqmahelpdesk&Itemid=5&id_workgroup=1&task=downloads_category&id=8
If you use the new Palm Desktop only, I guess you could just skip the driver install, since that just gives you USB hot-sync to your palm device.
Once you have the new Palm Desktop, then Companion Link will allow you to hot-sync between the Palm Desktop and your new Android device. You can control how the hot-sync works for each data type (contacts, calendar, tasks, and memos) exactly as it was with the Palm and PC hot-sync.

I have been a happy camper with my old Palm, the Palm Desktop on the PC, and the Android smartphone working as a team.

Jack

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Hi, Jack,

Thanks for all the excellent info. My Palm TX is too old and decrepit to be of much use, so I wouldn’t bother to try to resurrect the TX and sync it with everything else, but the possibility of being able to sync Palm Desktop 6.2 to Deja Office on my Android phone is really intriguing, so I’ll definitely look into it. I appreciate the link to the HP site, for even though I had done some searching and had found that site, I wasn’t sure if that was the best site from which to download the program. Since you mentioned that HP had released a new driver in February, I assume that Palm Desktop is not yet a software orphan, or at least not quite yet, so it’s probably a software choice that will be usable for as long as Windows 7 survives.

As long as Companion Link will do the trick to keep my Android phone and Palm Desktop in sync, that should be a good solution to my situation. My biggest need is to keep my Calendar and Tasks updated on both, and while MPE certainly does that, I have to confess that I don’t feel as comfortable with their user forum, as it’s all in German except for a little English section which doesn’t seem to be too active. I’m not sure how good the HP Palm OS forum is, but at least if I’m not in the right section of their forum, I can understand which other sections might fit my needs better.

Thanks again for your very helpful post. I really appreciate it, and if you or any other users have more feedback or ideas on this subject, it would be great if you would post them here.

Cheers,
Al

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The only reason you have access to Google’s free search service is because Google is able to earn income from advertising. Without the income from advertising, Google would have to find another way of earning income, and you might have to pay for each Google search.

I’ve heard that same, tiresome argument, ad nauseum. Please reread Al’s posts, Douglas–it’s not the advertising that is an invasion of privacy, it’s the TRACKING. Advertising and tracking are not the same thing.

We’ve had free over-the-air radio and TV broadcasts for 80 years, and for all of that time they have existed on advertising, yet they’ve never tracked me. Please don’t try to argue that Google can’t advertise without tracking or that we have to submit to being tracked if we want free search.

Some people may not mind the tracking, but there are those of us who do care about our privacy, quaint as that may seem to you. The problem is Google seeks out ways to surreptitiously track us when we clearly, through our attempts to block it, don’t want to be tracked. That meets my definition of evil.

Dan

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Hi, Douglas,

Dan put it perfectly (Thanks, Dan), but I’ll just add this:

A) Google HAS NO RIGHT to track or monitor ANY person’s activities without that person’s deliberate and conscious agreement. We don’t even let the FBI or police do that unless they have a search warrant based on probable cause and signed by a judge.

B) If Google wants to put ads on their pages, of course that’s fine. What’s NOT fine is for them to track and monitor my online activities, whether they use it to target ads or for ANY other purpose.

C) No, I don’t use Google’s search engine any more because of their tracking and monitoring. I use both DuckDuckGo, which does NOT track, and StartPage, which offers the use of the Ixquick proxy servers and even gives you results from Google, but without the tracking. If you don’t think privacy is an issue, perhaps you should read this page on privacy from StartPage.

By all means, please use Google if you wish, but please understand that there are those of us who still value – and will fight like hell to maintain – our “quaint” privacy.

Cheers,
Al

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I don’t think your comparison between Google and free radio and TV is accurate.

Why not? They’re both advertising-supported business models.

Your examples of “tracking” by other businesses are a much flimsier stretch of logic. That’s record-keeping, not tracking solely for the purpose of advertising.

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Hi, Douglas,

Quickly, some key points:

Without the income from advertising, Google would have to find another way of earning income,

So? Let them. How or whether Google earns income is not my concern. My right to privacy under the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution (see post #42) is my concern.

and you might have to pay for each Google search.

No problem. Give me a first-class search engine, totally free of any tracking or monitoring, and I’ll gladly pay a reasonable annual fee for an excellent and PRIVATE search service.

I don’t think your comparison between Google and free radio and TV is accurate. Google’s infrastructure of over one million servers and thousands of employees far exceeds the cost of free radio and TV.

Dan’s comparison was right on. Sure, “Google’s infrastructure of over one million servers and thousands of employees far exceeds the cost of free radio and TV,” but that’s because of the relative size of its market. Your local radio or TV station serves a market of perhaps 1-8 million people, depending on the demographics of the area you live in. Google markets through the Internet to the 7 billion people in the whole #$#%! world. Nevertheless, just because Google is big and powerful, that doesn’t give them the legal right to track or monitor my activities or anyone else’s without our express permission. Might does not make right.

There’s no way Google could deliver such incredible, amazing services were it not for their advertising income.

Of course they could. They could charge a reasonable fee for each of their various services and the people who want those services could pay for them. It’s called the free market. They could also offer an advertising-based service, but without the tracking and monitoring. The reason Google keeps working like fury to find better ways to track and monitor its users is that it allows them to learn more about those users and target ads to them, thus enabling Google to charge its advertisers more so Google can make more money. I and others who have posted here have no problem with Google or any company making money, but we have a huge problem with Google tracking and monitoring our activities without our permission. Google is driven by its desire for money; I am driven by my desire to preserve and defend my right to privacy under the U.S. Constitution. Whether or not Google makes a profit, or even exists, is of no concern to me; whether or not Google or any other entity tracks and monitors my activities without my permission is of huge concern. Simply put, it’s profit vs. principle: Therein lies the difference, Douglas, and with all due respect, nothing you can say or do will change the commitment that I and others have to that principle.

some people feel they should have to opt in [rather than opt out] to have their browser collect cookies from websites. It just doesn’t work that way.

Actually, it DOES work that way. It’s called the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and that is the definitive “opt-in” statement.

In short, as noted in a previous post, Google HAS NO RIGHT to track or monitor ANY person’s activities without that person’s deliberate and conscious agreement. In the absence of any Constitutional authority for Google to track or monitor my activities without my express permission, it is an invasion of my right to privacy, so whenever possible I avoid like the plague using any Google products that track or monitor me. The only reason Google’s tracking and monitoring have been allowed to continue till now is that the law only gradually catches up with the lightning-like advance of technology. As various cases eventually plod their way through the courts, these issues will be resolved and the Constitutional right to privacy once again given the protection it deserves.

Douglas, in the hope of putting an end to what you neatly described as the “hijacking” of this thread, let’s just agree to disagree on this issue. Even though I and others disagree totally with your arguments, I nevertheless admire your ardent defense of Google and wish you and others well in your use of Google’s services if you choose to use them. Please understand in return, however, that there are still many of us who cherish the principles of human freedom and personal privacy, who find Google’s policies and actions to be in violation of those principles, and who therefore sometimes choose to use non-Google solutions to our computing needs to avoid being tracked or monitored. We are not really anti-Google, but rather pro-privacy.

If any WindowsSecrets members have further thoughts or ideas to contribute on the original subject of this post, I for one would appreciate reading them.

Best wishes to all,
Al

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Al,

Do you use Google Search? If you’re like most people, you use it more than once daily. The only reason you have access to Google’s free search service is because Google is able to earn income from advertising. Without the income from advertising, Google would have to find another way of earning income, and you might have to pay for each Google search. There is nothing evil about Google, it’s employees, or it’s business model. To learn more about Google Search, please watch this short video: http://youtu.be/5_rIR0cT468

Douglas Baumwall

While it is great that Google is able to provide all of these amazing services for free, it is a little invasive in the way it stores all of the information that you may want to keep private. Sure, they are not planning on doing anything evil with your information right now, but what if that information got in the hands of evil people, or hackers, it could potentially be very damaging for some people. Are there any wholesale voip providers that use ip pbx, and also protects your privacy through Google? It is important to remember that what you do on your computer is not actually as private as you think it is.

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Hi, GVJeeper,

Look in your phone for the icons labeled “MPE Tasks” and “MPE Notes.” As I recall, MPE loaded them into my Home page automatically when I installed MPE, but if not, look in your Application list. If you don’t find them, you can go to the MPE Forum to ask for assistance, but you have to be sure to post your question in the English part of the forum, unless you speak German, as most of the forum is in German.

Hope that helps.

Cheers,
Al

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Thank you so much. I found it.

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Al,

Do you use Google Search? If you’re like most people, you use it more than once daily. The only reason you have access to Google’s free search service is because Google is able to earn income from advertising. Without the income from advertising, Google would have to find another way of earning income, and you might have to pay for each Google search. There is nothing evil about Google, it’s employees, or it’s business model. To learn more about Google Search, please watch this short video: http://youtu.be/5_rIR0cT468

Douglas Baumwall

I use startpage.com for my searches. Totally anonymous. Doesn’t track anything I do. The people at startpage recognize the dangers of all of the prying eyes out there, so they came up with startpage.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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I believe the value offered by Google far exceeds that discomfort.

Really, Douglas? I’m glad you pointed that out, because I would never have guessed it from your numerous posts.

If you don’t mind my making a comparison here, Douglas, you remind me of a Ron Paul fanatic. All they think and talk about are the wonders of Ron Paul.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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