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Dear MacWindows.com

Note: After getting slapped for the lack of basic research on this story, MacWindows corrected it. A bit of "oh shit, cows will actually walk out an open door?", but better than nothing. What should have been done PRIOR to posting was to actually look at the issue so that correct information was posted the first time. Scoblellian reliance on the "lazyweb" is not in fact a substitute for doing your own work.

While I know you were probably all a-twitter as you posted "Microsoft dropped direct BlackBerry syncing in Entourage 2008; no 3rd-party support", you perhaps should have stopped twittering, and perhaps done some research. If you had, you'd have realized one simple, basic problem here:

Microsoft has never supported BlackBerry synchronization with Entourage. Ever. The MacBU has only ever written one Entourage conduit, for Palm OS devices. That's it. No BlackBerry, no Windows Mobile. Just Palm. That has been dropped for Office 2008, but it's not like that was worthy of notice in this article. However, that's not the only thing wrong with this article:

VBA macros weren't the only feature Microsoft removed from Office 2008. BlackBerry owners upgrading to Entourage 2008 were disappointed to learn the Microsoft is no longer supporting direct syncing of Entourage with BlackBerry devices. Microsoft also dropped plug-in technology that enabled third party software to sync with Entourage.

Well, again, that's actually completely wrong. Okay, the VBA bit is right. Again, Microsoft has never provided support for BlackBerry synchronization with Entourage. Furthermore, the only "plug-in technology that the Mac BU ever supported for Entourage was one plugin, the aformentioned Palm HotSync conduit. That wasn't "plug-in technology", that was a single plugin. The only technology that allows third party software to sync with Entourage isn't Microsoft's, it's Apple's: Sync Services. Entourage 2008 supports Sync Services, and that's how third party software can sync with Entourage.

The rest of the article is a mishmash of crap, and I'm guessing, bad quoting:

Mark/Space, Inc., told us that they do not have plans to enable The Missing Sync for BlackBerry to support direct connections to Entourage 2008, as it does for Entourage 2004. A Mark/Space spokesperson described the change Microsoft made and its effect on syncing.

"Compatibility with Entourage 2004 is handled via a plug-in that Microsoft created, and that we include with our products. Microsoft has chosen not to develop a plug-in for Entourage 2008."

If they did that, then they were using the Hotsync Conduit, because, again, that's the only sync conduit Microsoft ever developed for the Mac. More stupidity:

Jeffery McDonald did some investigation and found that no software vendor, including Microsoft and Apple, are planning to provide direct BlackBerry syncing with Entourage 2008:

I spent the day on the phone with Apple, Microsoft, PocketMac, BlackBerry and Mark/Space (Missing Sync). Bottom line is OfficeMac 2008 Entourage will not sync with a Blackberry. There are no plans from Blackberry-PocketMac to make a patch or program to sync to Entourage 2008. Mark/Space currently does not have a program to sync it either...What I learned was if you want to use your Blackberry and Entourage use 2004 and do not upgrade to Office Mac 2008.

Nonsense. No, wait, it's not just nonsense, it's bullshit, and lazy reporting. For one, from what I can tell, based on Mark|Space's own web site, their Blackberry product uses Sync Services to talk to Entourage 2004. No really, from the feature list for The Missing Sync for BlackBerry, v1.0.3:

Microsoft Entourage 2004 synchronization
Just activate Sync Services syncing in Microsoft Entourage 2004, and The Missing Sync for BlackBerry will be able to synchronize contacts, events, tasks and notes with your BlackBerry handset.

See that "Just activate Sync Services..." part? That's not a Microsoft plugin, that's Apple's fucking synchronization framework. How fucking hard is it to check this shit out? If they had, I'd not have to write this, and I'd not have the look on my face that Melissa so perfectly captured in my logo. Like this tripe:

Another Marc/Space spokesperson said Entourage 2008 users must sync to Blackberries through Apple's software:

Office 2008 requires that you first sync via Apple's Sync Services. In Entourage, you should be able to do this from the Preferences menu.

Microsoft does not offer a special conduit/plugin to sync with Entourage [2008] directly, so our software will only be able to transfer data between your handheld and Sync Services.

Since Sync Services does not recognize Entourage categories, all of your data will be consolidated into a single category called "Entourage".

We do not currently have any plans to engineer a special plug-in for this.

Again, this is how it works in 2004, according to Mark|Space's own information. No really, here's another blurb, right from Mark|Space's own site:

Sync Services-savvy
Sync Services is the sync architecture in Mac OS X. Because The Missing Sync for BlackBerry interfaces directly with Sync Services, information from other Sync Services-savvy applications, such as Microsoft Entourage 2004, will sync back and forth with your BlackBerry. As more applications ship with Sync Services support, more information will sync with your BlackBerry.

If you want to know why I don't read MacWindows, nor have for years, it's because of this attitude. No one bothered to actually fucking look at the product info, available on the web, for free. No one bothered to do a single bit of background checking. But then, had they done so, they'd have lost the OMGMSFUCKEDMACUSERSINTHEASSAGAIN vibe.

Oh, and one final bit, (thanks to people on Twitter). This line?

Microsoft also dropped support of VBA macros in Entourage 2008, while adding support for the new file formats of Office 2007 for Windows.

My mind actually boggles at the wrong-ness of how wrong that wrong sentence is. VBA??? In ENTOURAGE? This entire article is nothing but what you get when, instead of 10,000 monkeys on typewriters, you have one stoned gibbon with a charcoal stick.

But it doesn't matter, does it. After all, it's just the Mac BU, right? Why the fuck should you have to do research when you're about to hammer them again, it's just the Mac BU. It's like some fucking John Lennon song, except substitute "Mac BU" for "Woman" and insert "Mac" before "World"

Technorati Tags:
Mac OS X, Microsoft Entourage, Microsoft Office 2008, Sync Services, TEH STOOPUD, MacWindows: Just say No, Mark Space Software, The Mac Web: It's full of stupid stars

Posted by John C. Welch at 18:26 | Permalink

Comments

Amusing as always. I enjoy the new header picture, but you know your beard looks like it's coming out of your nose? :)

Posted by: Bratling | January 29, 2008 9:13 AM

Good points! When I read the same article I winched at how stupid it was and "over the top." Glad you exposed this. I enjoyed reading it.

Posted by: digiprod | January 29, 2008 10:56 AM

John, John, John, VBA has been in Entourage for teh evars! I've been working and developing Entourage syncing for various phones and platforms for over a decade. I've also been including mint flavored chocolate sprinkles with all of my syncing programs, that's why people love them! With minty, chocolately goodness how can I go wrong?

Oh and Apple's Sync Services are teh suxors. I mean how can you sync anything with that random library? Pulezzz give me teh brekorz.

The previous has been provided my my evil twin. Of course he is clean shaven since I have a goatee so don't get us confused. Shoot him, not me.

P.S. As I said to Melissa, your picture in the header appears far less pissed off than I had imagined.

Posted by: Phuul | January 30, 2008 12:07 AM

Hmm. A little too vitriolic, and not entirely fair.

The fact that we now need to go thru Sync Services to sync a Windows Mobile or Blackberry device to Entourage 2008 is a HUGE dealbreaker for many people, who have become very dependant on Entourage's Categories, myself included. Sync Services flattens all your event Categories into one, called Entourage. This is useless to me, and a huge step backward compared to Entourage 2004, which allowed an unlimited number of categories, and synched them perfectly to a PDA via Missing sync.

Brian Criscuolo (sp?) a senior Markspace developer, confirmed that there are no plans to change this. It's all over their forum - take a look.

He also confirmed that a) Missing Sync has always supported Sync Services, so no change there, but that b) Missing Sync DID use a custom-written Entourage plug-in for Entourage 2004, which is what most of us have been using, and which preserved Category info. Indeed, there's even a thread on the forum entitled "Entourage Plug-in vs Sync Services : which do you use?", or some such.

So even if MS only wrote one plug-in, doesn't mean only one existed. Indeed, the Markspace plugin has existed for at least 4 years, and as I said, has been the BY FAR best way of synching Entourage 2004 to a WM2003, WM5 and WM6 device. This has now been dropped because of MS's recommendations for 2008, leaving thousands of users stranded with unsynchronisable data. Sorry, but that looks like a biggie to me.

Strangely enough, you didn't mention that in your article...

Posted by: koyanisqaatsi | January 30, 2008 2:07 AM

Looks like John Rizzo has corrected the story: the new headline is "Microsoft dropped direct Palm syncing in Entourage 2008; BlackBerry, Win Mobile users may also have issues". He seems to blame incorrect information from a Mark/Space representative who confused BlackBerry and Palm syncing. Sure, John could have recognized that what he was being told didn't make sense and asked for a confirmation; but if you go to the source for information, you don't usually expect to be given completely bogus information, right? (Except maybe for the current Administration...)

There's also no reference to VBA in Entourage any more.

[Oh, and don't try to preview your comment; that gives you a new empty comment field, but that's OK because it won't let you post it because TypeKey isn't active there. Oy...]

Posted by: Russell Finn | January 30, 2008 12:01 PM

koyanisqaatsi:

The fact that we now need to go thru Sync Services to sync a Windows Mobile or Blackberry device to Entourage 2008 is a HUGE dealbreaker for many people, who have become very dependant on Entourage's Categories, myself included. Sync Services flattens all your event Categories into one, called Entourage. This is useless to me, and a huge step backward compared to Entourage 2004, which allowed an unlimited number of categories, and synched them perfectly to a PDA via Missing sync.

That's not endemic to Sync Services. For example, i don't see any such flattening on the iPhone. The categories simply don't exist. The only 'flattening" i see is in iCal, where all calendar data is put in a single calendar, but that's because iCal has no concept of categories, and there are practical limits to having categories map to calendars 1:1 (I've over 50 categories. that would be a complete mess).

Secondly, the fact that other plugins existed doesn't change the fact that Microsoft didn't drop BB support , because Microsoft never HAD BB support. That was *always* done by third parties. Period. The only handheld/pda the Mac BU EVER directly supported in E'rage was Palm via a Hotsync plugin.

As well, i always used Sync Services exclusively when I had a WM2003 and WM5 device, and it worked quite nicely for me. So the idea that Sync Services is only for poor kids is not accurate either.

Had the article been about the shortcomings of Sync Services, and been correct, then i'd have ignored it completely. But why am I going to comment about Sync Services issues when that's not what the article was about?

Focus dude, focus.

Posted by: John C. Welch | January 30, 2008 4:43 PM