how do you know this? do you own a n900 or is it just speculation on your part?

as i said, maemo support for the pc suite is new, as well as mail for exchange support for maemo, so it may well be that nokia implemented some of those things to underline it's categorization as a "mobile computer".

Well, I had not appreciated that this was a matter of life and death!

I have used Nokia Sync successfully for the last 5 years on various phones. It has served me well, and I have not burst any blood vessels over it.

I have a contact list which syncs nicely. I have a single calendar. I have no truck with to-dos and email sync, there are other methods working direct to the device for that.

The only radical thing I am considering is moving to Google Calendar for my master calendar.

The only issue I have with Nokia sync is that very occasionally entries seem to get duplicated. (once the whole directory which was annoying).

And on a personal note what kind of user name is ppppppppppp?

Jon

...caught in the act of being myself.

sorodoros, welcome to the forum!

SubCore,
From my brief encounter with N900 through RDA i know for a fact that N900's calendar does not support categories. I highly doubt that it will change in production firmware. Even if "the new" PC Suite would somehow support category sync - there'd be nothing to sync from N900's side.
Overall, after more than 5 years of active pushing from the community there is not a single reply from Nokia suggesting even remote possibility of category sync implementation.

JonFowler,
There's really not much i can add to your post. I'm sure you're a great man and i'm delighted to hear that your toyota camry works almost without a hitch. Now, i can only hope that somewhere in a distant corner of your mind you accept the existence of more exciting means of transportation.

Hi ppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppp,

I just think that tracking Google functionality is more important, I work for a software development company, and resources are limited so unless you can find a large posse of like minded people prepared to badger Nokia, you are doomed to long term apoplexy.

Anyway, it's an open platform, you can get the calendar source, not sure about Nokia sync, but outlook can generate export files however you like. If you care enough, write it yourself.

Jon

...caught in the act of being myself.

OK, then worst case scenario: no category sync, no color sync, limited field sync (compared to Outlook), then ends up on the desktop with what PIM client? If the answer is PC Suite, which is what I think I'm hearing here, then all I can say is PalmPilot 1st generation, 1996 - PIM apps (Datebk X.X) still one of the best around.

You'd think anyone coming out with something as tech-forward as the n900 might want a mature PIM suite. Phone side of the platform seems mature to me, even if it is only a juvenile. Why not PIM, too?

Also, Palm users could easily be lured away from Palm, even from WebOS to Maemo 5, if Nokia would give them good reason to jump ship. Same for WM. You'd think Nokia would want to attract those users and peel them off the Pre. Good for business, no?

Really, it depends on what your criteria are and who you want to target. I work in the business world, and I see a lot of people using Outlook on a daily basis. I also see that Colours and Categories are Outlook specific; or at least, the implementation is -- if Microsoft had ever thought about providing those features in a standard manner, that would be supportable through IMAP/POP, then I'm sure almost any mail library out there would support it. What I don't see, is *everyone* using those specific features. From everything I see in Outlook, Colours and Categories are probably the least used of all features. Why? Because most people work with folders and stuff.

Also, does ActiveSync provide Category and Colour synchronisation? I think not. Well, it does, but to a point. I remember that if you wanted advanced synchronisation features, you had to use stuff like IntelliSync and other additional software.

Nokia is already working on getting Exchange support to a usable state. At the moment, only Exchange 2007 is supported (I haven't had the opportunity to try with Exchange 2003, my company server is not available from wifi/3G, but that's what was said at the Summit), but it appears to work (haven't been able to sync my GMail email yet, however Calendar and Contacts works, even though the email problem seems to come from Google, not the n900). Why would Nokia focus on doing something as specific as Categories first, when there is still a lot of work on other "more important" things. Yes, there, I said, "more important". Why? Because as I explained earlier, the number of people who use Categories is less important than the people who would benefit from a working Exchange implementation.

PIM has always been lacking on the nxx0 side, which is why people took the time to write the software additionally to what the n8x0 provided. We should be grateful that Nokia is trying to reverse this tendency rather than slamming them for not working fast enough. Again, there are priorities; if those don't compare to yours 100%, then one word: tough.

You don't have the device, but yet you're already complaining. In my book, that's a big no-no. It just goes to show how easy it is to whine and find excuses for not buying a device. Go back to your PalmPilot, first generation if some features are so important to you. In the meantime, some people will actually try and make things better, by providing constructive criticism.

</rant>

Thank you for showing me the better way to be constructive.

SyncML supports all sorts of syncing. Nokia supported SyncML for a long time. PC Suite sees categories being passed on to it by SyncML(from 3rd party apps on mobile devices) but can't do anything about it as it doesn't have the code to deal with them...
At the end of the day we are not talking about a huge undertaking here. It's only a couple of fields.
There are a number of angry threads around on the subject dating back 2005 with no response - primary reason for people being upset. If you look around you'll find that most threads end in people going back to Windows Mobile.
I never owned a Nokia device. I would love to but PIM is a deal breaker as it makes me money.

I gather then that you don't intend to go with an n900.

I do understand the importance of PIM. And I agree, which is why I am concerned, though it is not a deal breaker for me. I am fairly confident that solutions will appear sooner or later, probably sooner. I was just hoping that something comprehensive already existed and that I had overlooked it.