[turbored]

disclaimer: I used to be a full-fledged windows guy, until my work required me to use mac. Macs have their issues too, but I like them better than PC solutions.

MissingSync and SyncMate are your only real options if you want syncing of iCal, Address Book, iTunes and iPhoto.

I came from using MissingSync for Palm and tried using MissingSync for Windows Mobile as well as Syncmate. My observations:

I don't like the way MissingSync for WM works compared to Palm. It's probably an OS thing, but WM takes A LOT longer to sync, also, it keeps defaulting to overwrite phone data with computer data, unless you reset it. On MS P, it would ask if you want to do it 1x or always. The mapping of the contacts is screwy too. Why does Home go to email2 and Work go to email? I'd like it the other way, or at least the option to map out the buttons. Why does MS P do a system backup included, but not on WM? I had to pay extra for buggy sprite backup, which is another frustrating story in itself.

MS WM is buggy for me. I had very minor issues with MS P, but I've spent over 2 weeks trying to get MS WM to work properly. It *seems* to be working okay now, but I'm not totally comfortable that things have synced properly

Syncmate on the other hand, has given me better results. I've only tried the free version, and it does pretty much the same thing MS does. However, iCal is important to me, and on SyncMate, it syncs ALL your calendars as one calendar. There are calendars I don't want on my phone but want on my computer, and so that was the dealbreaker for me. MS allows for syncing of only specific calendars. In fact, there is a limit (about 10 iirc) to how many calendars will sync with MS.

Support is mediocre at best with MS, I don't know about SM because I haven't contacted their support. They should allow for a free test drive of SM pro, but unfortunately, the free version is the test drive.

Finally, Apple's syncservices aren't super happy with syncing in general right now. A major fix on 10.5.6 is supposed to be better syncing, however, and that should come out soon.

Macs aren't *locked* down, and there are tons of great freeware on them. OTOH, with WM, you get great freeware apps, but you also have to pay a lot for some apps usually $15+ for paid apps. The iPhone App Store, most are free or 99 cents. I've also been surprised how many apps have a palm and iphone app, but lack a WM app (mint.com, 1password, to name just 2). Hopefully when WM has an app store, people will make more for them.

I'm happy with my TP, and I think it's a better solution for me than the iPhone but it has its issues too.