What is known about mac support and N900?

[Mandibela]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RP5R-5NX1BE has an MacBook, I wonder if it has anything to do with the N900 in that meeting.

I understand that a PC Suite for mac is coming. Nokia already has apps for media syncing, isync plugins (also 3rd party), the map loader and usb driver for tethering. So a Mac Suite or Ovi Suite for mac shouldn't be too far away.

Has anyone heard anything? How compatible is the N900 with a mac?

[Mandibela]

Well, this is somewhat disappointing.

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[bbns]

Usually it acts like a mass storage drive without PC Suite. And you could retrieve / upload your data like a USB drive. That's how I used all my Nokia phones on Linux. Is that enough?

[PetriS]

It is a bit funny -- but makes sense -- that on some Nokia-related sites PC connectivity is taken in its original sense as "Personal Computer" as opposed to mobile phones, so for example http://pc-connectivity.garage.maemo.org/ says "The host PCs supported are Linux, Mac OS Leopard and Windows XP/Vista (Windows 7 under testing)"

So for that project, you can try some mac .dmgs here:
https://garage.maemo.org/frs/?group_id=801
http://pc-connectivity.garage.maemo.org/2nd_edition/index.html
http://maemo.org/development/documentation/pc_connectivity/

Perhaps some initiatives will sprung up on Mac OS too, similarly to linux here http://www.hallysonluiz.com/maemo/

[Mandibela]

Usually it acts like a mass storage drive without PC Suite. And you could retrieve / upload your data like a USB drive. That's how I used all my Nokia phones on Linux. Is that enough?

Those phones can act as a mass storage device even with PC suite installed, or use photo/media transfer modes also. Which isn't enough for syncing phonebooks, calendars and the like. On a mac the calendar and phone book/contacts are very integrated to the system unlike on Linux boxes (gnokii possibly does syncing, I've never got it to work properly).
Portable OS X machines are very usable on the road, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who actually uses a lot the iCal app. On windows machines I never got so far, as a suitable PIM software for windows was never available. Outlook is a good program, and the PC suite sync excellently with it, but I don't want to use it.
It's obvious the mac has a smaller user base, and that has been the traditional reason not to have full support for it. If Nokia hasn't released an iSync plugin (downloadable at no charge) for a certain phone model, there has been enough demand for 3rd parties to create commercial plugins for those few unsupported models. If Nokia doesn't publish a Ovi Mac suite when the N900 finally is available and as the current PC suite already supports syncing with the N900, a 3rd party will enable syncing with mac (for ex. nova media and several indie coders). Actually creating/editing those plugins is easy, I've done two. These plugins enable syncing of iCal and Phone Book.

http://betalabs.nokia.com/forum/topic/3219 has two Nokia staff persons promising support for mac, and explain 2009-09-07 Qt makes possible to run Nokia Ovi Suite UI in Mac, but unfortunately our connectivity platform doesn't exist for Mac yet. That's something, that we're currently working on.--Samuli

All in all, it does appear that Nokia will eventually have a complete syncing method for the native mac apps. Question is when? -The answer probably is: "When it's done."

[allnameswereout]

See http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=31345