Echo by Chapura

[laurent75005]

Hello everybody,

In France, Palm Pré just arrived 10 days ago. And I've mine since 3 days.
I've had Palm computers since 12 years now and all my calendar/contacts/memos/todo things are on Palm desktop.
I don't want to use gmail, yahoo or anything else to sync my datas.
So I downloaded Echo by Chapura both on my computer and pré and I launched a sync. Here come the problems...

1st : it takes hours to sync...
2nd : No way to sync calendar and memos

Do someone uses this software ?
Is everything happening to me normal ?

Thx for your answers.

[Cantaffordit]

Originally Posted by laurent75005

Hello everybody,

In France, Palm Pré just arrived 10 days ago. And I've mine since 3 days.
I've had Palm computers since 12 years now and all my calendar/contacts/memos/todo things are on Palm desktop.
I don't want to use gmail, yahoo or anything else to sync my datas.
So I downloaded Echo by Chapura both on my computer and pré and I launched a sync. Here come the problems...

1st : it takes hours to sync...
2nd : No way to sync calendar and memos

Do someone uses this software ?
Is everything happening to me normal ?

Thx for your answers.

I also refuse to use gmail, and I use Chapura.

Are you syncing to outlook? Or Palm Desktop?

I am syncing to Outlook, and I get memos, contacts, and calendar...

Also, it only takes a long time for the first sync because it has to do a complete sync and verification. There is a setting that chances from bi-directional sync and just copies the desktop to the phone - which might be faster. Once the first sync is done, it is much faster.

The fastest method is companionlink because it uses USB to sync, if you are looking for an alternative.

Let me know what you are syncing to. You should be getting calendar along with contacts like I am...

[Clcto]

CompanionLink will handle Contacts, Calendar, Tasks and Memos to any version of Palm Desktop. USB is indeed very fast. For more information:

USB sync with Palm Pre. Sync Palm Pre with Palm Desktop, Outlook, Lotus Notes, ACT!, and other PC software

It has a 14 day free trial so you can download it today, and try it without any cost. It's also in French.

Wayland Bruns, CTO
CompanionLink Software, Inc.

[Cantaffordit]

Originally Posted by Clcto

CompanionLink will handle Contacts, Calendar, Tasks and Memos to any version of Palm Desktop. USB is indeed very fast. For more information:

USB sync with Palm Pre. Sync Palm Pre with Palm Desktop, Outlook, Lotus Notes, ACT!, and other PC software

It has a 14 day free trial so you can download it today, and try it without any cost. It's also in French.

Wayland Bruns, CTO
CompanionLink Software, Inc.

I agree, and no other vendor has their CTO hanging out in forums and providing tech support on saturdays!

[TheVisibleShadow]

Since CompanionLink has the 14 day trial, you should at least try it.
As for Chapura, I use PocketMirror to sync with Outlook. Echo is ONLY for Palm Desktop.
I've been hit and miss with PocketMirror. Right now it's working and I love syncing wirelessly.

[Cantaffordit]

I started out with CompanionLink and actually liked it better. I had a problem with calendar sync that we couldn't figure out after several valiant attempts, so I just went with Pocket Mirror because I ran out of time to mess with it.

To me, it really depends on whether you see wireless sync as good or bad. PocketMirror syncs via wifi and bluetooth. WiFi is only useful on a private network where the devices can find each other. That won't work at starbucks, hotel, or a public hotspot. Fortunately bluetooth solves that.

CompanionLink is always available if you have a cable, and the initial sync (3000+ contacts) was much faster than pocket mirror. However, once that was over, the daily sync is about the same speed because I don't have that many updates.

Both are fine products. CompanionLink can sync with more data sources, but requires a cable.

If you try them both, be sure you remove the contacts from one before trying the other. Synergy in WebOS will see each conduit as a different data source so it will duplicate all your contacts. Synergy will present each as a single person, but each number will be listed twice. Synergy has an indicator as to where each contact comes from. I learned this the hard way, fyi...

I am just so pleased that I don't have to sync with Google, which I am very opposed to.

[laurent75005]

Originally Posted by Cantaffordit

I also refuse to use gmail, and I use Chapura.

Are you syncing to outlook? Or Palm Desktop?

I am syncing to Outlook, and I get memos, contacts, and calendar...

Also, it only takes a long time for the first sync because it has to do a complete sync and verification. There is a setting that chances from bi-directional sync and just copies the desktop to the phone - which might be faster. Once the first sync is done, it is much faster.

The fastest method is companionlink because it uses USB to sync, if you are looking for an alternative.

Let me know what you are syncing to. You should be getting calendar along with contacts like I am...

Hello,

And thx for you answer.
I'm syncing with palm Desktop. I had 4.1.4 untill I moved to 6.2.2 when I got the Palm Pré.
Echo gets an error : "Impossible de trouver le fichier 'D:\Documents\Palm OS Desktop\istria\MemoPad\MemoPad.mdb'" (means "can't find ... file")

[laurent75005]

Originally Posted by Clcto

CompanionLink will handle Contacts, Calendar, Tasks and Memos to any version of Palm Desktop. USB is indeed very fast. For more information:

USB sync with Palm Pre. Sync Palm Pre with Palm Desktop, Outlook, Lotus Notes, ACT!, and other PC software

It has a 14 day free trial so you can download it today, and try it without any cost. It's also in French.

Wayland Bruns, CTO
CompanionLink Software, Inc.

Hi Wayland,

And thank you for your answer on a Saturday.
Ok, I got companionlink and install it on both my PC and my Palm.
The same problem as with Echo remains. I got that error :
"Missing Palm Desktop file: D:\Documents\Palm OS Desktop\istria\memopad\MemoPad.mdb"
this is right. I've all the others .mdb file but not MemoPad.mdb...
I used "Data_Transfer_Assistant_1e.exe" from Palm to upload my datas from my PC to my Palm.
Can you help me ?

[laurent75005]

Originally Posted by Cantaffordit

Have you contacted Echo support? Definitely worth doing.

Are you planning to continue using Palm Desktop? Another option is to sync your old phone to outlook, and then sync outlook to your phone. I would only suggest that if you would continue using Outlook, of course.

You would have to pay me to use Outlook...

[Cantaffordit]

Originally Posted by Clcto

CompanionLink will handle Contacts, Calendar, Tasks and Memos to any version of Palm Desktop. USB is indeed very fast. For more information:

USB sync with Palm Pre. Sync Palm Pre with Palm Desktop, Outlook, Lotus Notes, ACT!, and other PC software

It has a 14 day free trial so you can download it today, and try it without any cost. It's also in French.

Wayland Bruns, CTO
CompanionLink Software, Inc.

Wayland, did you realize that he had used the data transfer agent already? Do you agree that really changes things? I believe that would really change what companionlink would find when attempting to sync. I'm not sure if the transfer agent does anything with the memos and tasks data....

[Clcto]

Laurent, for memopad.mdb: Go into Palm Desktop, and add a memo, then exit. See if that clears the error. If not, in CompanionLink simply uncheck the option to synchronize Memos. This will mean that file will not be opened in the sync. The rest should work well enough to get to Monday when you can contact our technical support.

Canaffordit; DTA is never fatal. It's particularly easy for anyone just started to simply hard-Reset the Pre, and register an entirely different profile. This will be a clean profile with no data. All 3rd party products will be better than free products simply because 3rd parties would not exist the other way around.

Overall I dislike the idea that people move from Palm 4.1.4 to Palm 6.22. The 4.1.4 represents the 10th year of a robust and simple desktop program. Palm 6.22 was a one-shot flailing release issued by a Japanese company released months after Windows Vista and Palm Garnet. The automatic conversion of robust 4.1.4 files to 6.2 files works for most people. Since CompanionLink works with both versions, I much prefer people stick with the faster and more robust version 4.1.

Palm Data Transfer Assistant (DTA) must have been a herculean effort by the current Palm, to help support the transition to webOS. Simple data works fine with it. It works great for what it is; a one-time transfer of data from Palm 6.2 files to Palm Profile within webOS.

I hope this helps. It's all quite an adventure to re-create the robust efficiency of Treo Hotsync in this modern world of Smartphones.

[Cantaffordit]

thanks for the info. Because the centro ( and 755p?) required 6, I didn't realize you supported 4x. I agree with you about the stability of 4x.

WRT the DTA, doesn't that put the contacts into the Palmprofile? Does your conduit see contacts that are kept in any of the cloud accounts? I was thinking if he ran the dta and then syncs with a palm desktop that has a copy of contacts, they would sync to the phone and be duplicates of what the dta already put there. Am I correct in thinking that?

on another note, instead of dta, I wish they just offered your 14 day trial version. Much better way to migrate to Pre, IMHO.

[laurent75005]

Originally Posted by Clcto

Laurent, for memopad.mdb: Go into Palm Desktop, and add a memo, then exit. See if that clears the error. If not, in CompanionLink simply uncheck the option to synchronize Memos. This will mean that file will not be opened in the sync. The rest should work well enough to get to Monday when you can contact our technical support.

Ok, I did it. And you are right, as I added a memo, it creates the .mdb

Originally Posted by Clcto

Overall I dislike the idea that people move from Palm 4.1.4 to Palm 6.22. The 4.1.4 represents the 10th year of a robust and simple desktop program. Palm 6.22 was a one-shot flailing release issued by a Japanese company released months after Windows Vista and Palm Garnet. The automatic conversion of robust 4.1.4 files to 6.2 files works for most people. Since CompanionLink works with both versions, I much prefer people stick with the faster and more robust version 4.1.

Well, if I had known... So I downgraded to V4.1.4...
Unfortunately, now, Companion doesn't work...
When I launch it, an error occurs (in fact, I even had the error when starting Windows):

Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime library
Program : C:\program File\CompanionLink USB\CompanionLink.exe


I tried to uninstall CL (in order to have a clean installation), but I can't even do that. When uninstalling I've the same error...
Can you help me ?

[Clcto]

Laurent, I guess that's what I get for ranting about Palm DT 6.

At this point, your registry is probably marked for Palm DT 6. So it's going to mix CompanionLink up quite a bit to be running PDT 4. I'll have to check with my tech team on the exact keys it is looking at.

I apologize for the delay.

[nlmeter]

Originally Posted by Cantaffordit

thanks for the info. Because the centro ( and 755p?) required 6, I didn't realize you supported 4x. I agree with you about the stability of 4x.

WRT the DTA, doesn't that put the contacts into the Palmprofile? Does your conduit see contacts that are kept in any of the cloud accounts? I was thinking if he ran the dta and then syncs with a palm desktop that has a copy of contacts, they would sync to the phone and be duplicates of what the dta already put there. Am I correct in thinking that?

on another note, instead of dta, I wish they just offered your 14 day trial version. Much better way to migrate to Pre, IMHO.

So what you are saying or at least what I am interpreting is that one should not use the DTA if one is going to us CL??? idk??
I've been waiting to see what the outcome would be. I myself have a Pixi Plus. And I've had it for about 2 weeks. I have not made the transition yet because I wanted to make sure I did it correctly. But everyday when I read these posts I become more and more confused as to how to get my "stuff" over from my centro to my Pixi.....
I am not willing to use Google or Yahoo to keep my stuff. I would like to use both Outlook and Palm Desktop to sync my information. And I also want to add...that I think the price for CL is a little pricey...especially since I am not working at the moment. Any suggestions on a similar product but at a cheaper price?

Thank you!

[laurent75005]

Originally Posted by Clcto

Laurent, I guess that's what I get for ranting about Palm DT 6.

At this point, your registry is probably marked for Palm DT 6. So it's going to mix CompanionLink up quite a bit to be running PDT 4. I'll have to check with my tech team on the exact keys it is looking at.

I apologize for the delay.

Hello Clcto...

Nope... In fact, when I ran my computer yesterday evening coming back from my we (and still under 6.2.2), I had the error. Perhaps would be some help to you knowing that I've another one with Google desktop... I'm trying to unistall it.

[laurent75005]

Hello everybody,

I just used Windows restauration tool.
So, I'm on desktop 4.1.4, with neither Echo nor companion installed.
Clcto, waiting for your advise

Good day

[Clcto]

Originally Posted by laurent75005

Clcto, waiting for your advise

Laurent, our tech support is open today. So feel free to call or write directly support@companionlink.com. They think CompanionLink is still configured for Palm Desktop 6, and that needs to be cleared.

Here's what they suggest:

> 1. Uninstall CompanionLink via the Windows Control Panel in Add/Remove
Programs
> 2. Click on the Start button and press "Run..."
> 3. Type in "%appdata%" (without the "")
> 4. Open the CompanionLink subfolders and delete the files in this folder

This will completely clean CompanionLink from your system. Then just reinstall.

I hope this info helps.

[edfehrman]

I purchased and used both Chapura Echo and CompanionLink USB.

I liked the Task and Memo apps best in Echo, but Echo required that I "upgrade" to Palm Desktop version 6. I used that version for a little over a month and hated it so I switched back the PD ver 4... aaaahhhh ver. 4 is awesome.

Anyway, CompanionLink didnt care what version of PD I was using so I switched to that. I don;t think the Memo and Task app are as good as Echo's (especially the Task app) but I am hoping that they will make some upgrades soon.

Eric

[laurent75005]

Originally Posted by Clcto

Laurent, our tech support is open today. So feel free to call or write directly support@companionlink.com. They think CompanionLink is still configured for Palm Desktop 6, and that needs to be cleared.

Here's what they suggest:

> 1. Uninstall CompanionLink via the Windows Control Panel in Add/Remove
Programs
> 2. Click on the Start button and press "Run..."
> 3. Type in "%appdata%" (without the "")
> 4. Open the CompanionLink subfolders and delete the files in this folder

This will completely clean CompanionLink from your system. Then just reinstall.

I hope this info helps.

Hi Clcto,

And sorry for the delay, I was off for some days.
So, as I told you, I used Microsoft restoration tool so as to be a few days ago.
I re-install CL and just used it.
It worked well (I saw it synchronising calendar, task, memo and people) but it ended bad with an error. I checked in my Palm and nothing was synced
Furthermore, I can't launch CL on myt computer anymore, still the same "Microsoft Visual C++ library" error........
Getting mad


Edit 1'PM (french time )
Ok, While installing, I choosed french as the language and while clicking it, I had an error. So I thought it would be better not to have it. I returned back with, again, the restoration tool, and installed it properly in english (I speak english... did you noticed... )
Ok, so, everything works now BUT calendar. It sync's nothing... (the "Event" in the CL USB sync says "0/0)

Do you have any idea ?