Are there any phones/PDAs which can synchronise with Ubuntu nowadays?

[Chris G]

On Sun, Aug 15, 2010 at 06:01:56AM +0100, Luis Paulo wrote:
> On Sat, Aug 14, 2010 at 3:49 PM, Chris G <cl at isbd.net> wrote:
> > My wife currently uses a Palm Treo 6800 which she synchronises with
> > Evolution using gnome-pilot.
> >
> > However the Treo 6800 is beginning to feel its age and we'll need a
> > replacement soon, is there *anything* currently available which can
> > offer the same sort of (relative) simplicity and ease of use?
> >
> > All that's needed is a way to synchronise appointments and contacts
> > with a desktop application.  Alternatively I'm quite happy to install
> > a web application that a phone/PDA can synchronise with.  We
> > definitely *don't* want to synchronise with a 'cloud' server though.
> >
> > Any/all ideas would be welcome.
> >
> > --
> > Chris Green
> 
> Hi, Chris
> 
> Another tool is gammu. Wammu is the gui for it. Here's a link to a
> user maintained page about phone capabilities using that software:
> 
> http://wammu.eu/phones/
> 
> I had the chance to try it in Lucid with a Sony Ericsson K770i that
> shows as fully capable (when connected with the cable) and it worked
> very well. It's not the best of gui, but good/very good enough :)
> 
But Gammu/Wammu doesn't actually synchronise at all.  It only allows
you to 'do things' via your phone and also upload/dowload data, it has
no ability whatsoever to keep a view of appointments/contacts on your
desktop in synch with the phone's view of appointments/contacts.

> I was able to download and manage contacts, calendar, todo, use it as
> a modem, do calls, send sms, etc... Also images and music, of course,
> but for that usually just connect the phone will be enough (I think
> for most of phones if not all, right?)
> 
> If you have any luck with SyncML, please tell us. I'll appreciate any
> info, because I have the (not very informed) idea that SyncML is not a
> very adopted standard.
> 
SyncML is the underlying protocol used by Funambol, a couple of other
similar applications and several web office suites.  It's also used by
syncevolution (I think).  It does work, I have had it working
reasonably well with my E71 to synchronise it with a local
installation of eGroupware, but it's certainly not a simple 'out of
the box' installation.  The other issue for me is that if, for
example, you use Funambol it's a *huge* installation simply for a
server which can be used by your phone and a desktop application.


-- 
Chris Green