- 2005.03.22
We recently had to upgrade our cell phones because Cingular bought AT&T
Wireless, so my wife selected one of the free picture phones, a
Motorola V220. She asked me which one I preferred, so I referred her to
the iSync phone
compatibility page.
If you inspect this page, you'll see that the V220 isn't listed. It
requires a USB cable, not Bluetooth, but at first glance I believed
this meant that I would have to settle for a phone that wouldn't
synchronize my phone book or calendar, and from which it would be
difficult to send and receive pictures from my Mac.
When the phone arrived, I noticed the USB port on the side and
thought, what the heck. I plugged it in, turned on the phone, and
waited. Nothing happened like when you connect a digital camera, so I
figured that was that.
Then it occurred to me to fire up iSync manually. To my great
surprise, iSync recognized the phone and added it to the window
automatically. The picture didn't match the actual appearance of the
phone, but otherwise it seemed to be responsive.
I then synchronized the phone and found that all my address book
contacts and calendar items appeared on my phone. Further, an event
added to my phone synchronized back to iCal. In short, my Motorola V220
phone isn't listed on the iSync page, but it should be as far as I can
tell.
I wonder what other digital cameras, phones, and PDAs are actually
Mac compatible but no one knows because the manufacturer hasn't even
tested them yet?
is a longtime Mac user. He was using digital sensors on Apple II computers in the 1980's and has networked computers in his classroom since before the internet existed. In 2006 he was selected at the California Computer Using Educator's teacher of the year. His students have used NASA space probes and regularly participate in piloting new materials for NASA. He is the author of two books and numerous articles and scientific papers. He currently teaches astronomy and physics in California, where he lives with his twin sons, Jony and Ben.< And there's still a Mac G3 in his classroom which finds occasional use.