SyncML saves your data
I have been looking at the SyncML standard as a solution to keep the calendar on my palm pilot in sync with the calendar on a Nokia 9500 on the off chance that I don't want to carry two devices at once. SyncML was first developed for synchronizing cell phones, so the Nokia 9500 has a built in sync client. I explored two different clients for the Palm Pilot, the free Funambol open source client, and the Synthesis AG SyncML client (which costs $25 for the standard version).
Of course, you need to have a SyncML server for your electronic devices to sync with. You can either set up your own SyncML server (The Funambol project offers an open source one), or use a free one ran by somebody else. I evaluated two servers, ZyB.com and ScheduleWorld.com
Zyb.com has a slick and easy to use interface, but does not handle ToDo items and Notes from palm pilots. It also has a rendering issue with overlapping appointments. ScheduleWorld is more powerful, supporting Notes and ToDo items, but has a less friendly user interface. If you are just looking to backup your cell phone's contact list, I'd suggest Zyb, but if you have a PalmPilot, definately check out ScheduleWorld. As an added bonus, if you use Google Calendar, both Zyb and ScheduleWorld will sync to it.
The Funambol client will only sync contacts (Addressbook entries), which is useful if you are trying to share phone numbers with a cell phone, but it does not help you sync your calendar entries, or Memo/Todo items. If you use ScheduleWorld, they recommend that you stick with a very specific version of the Funambol client (3.0.3) which they host on their website. I ran into a problem with the Funambol client rebooting my palm pilot when it attempted to connect to the Internet. I was able to get it to work reliably by connecting to the network manually before starting the sync.
I evaluated the Synthesis SyncML standard client (it comes with a 30 day free trial, and costs $25 to buy) and it was able to successfully synchronize both my contacts and address book. It initially aborted half-way through the sync with a 418 error, but I was able to work around this by changing the sync type from "normal" to "reload server". This erases all data on the server and replaces it with only what is on the palm pilot, but since I didn't have anything on the server yet, it didn't hurt anything. After that, the "normal" sync option has worked. I'm not sure if this error was caused by my testing the Funambol client first or if it would always appear when syncing for the first time. One other thing to make sure you uncheck is the "Only sync from 30 days before to 90 days after" setting in the contacts settings screen.
The sync client on the Nokia 9500 worked flawlessly with both ScheduleWorld and Zyb. It is very nice to have my calendar available on both the Palm T2 and the Nokia 9500, and have the ability to sync changes from one device to the other. Although I regularly back up my palm pilot to my laptop, it's nice to be able to do an over-the-air backup to a website. The ability to access my calendar and contacts from any web browser without my laptop, PDA, or phone is also an added advantage to keeping things synced up with SyncML.
SyncML is just starting to be well supported, but if you have a data plan and your cell phone's SyncML client works, I recommend taking advantage of one of the free websites I mentioned above to make a backup of your contacts. If you have multiple devices, SyncML is even more useful to keep your calendars and contacts replicated on them all.
