iSync is a defunct application developed by

Apple Inc. Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, United States. Apple is the largest technology company by revenue (totaling in 2021) and, as of June 2022, is the world's biggest company ...

, which syncs

iCal Calendar is a personal calendar app made by Apple Inc. that runs on both the macOS desktop operating system and the iOS mobile operating system. It offers online cloud backup of calendars using Apple's iCloud service, or can synchronize wi ...

and

Address Book An address book or a name and address book is a book, or a database used for storing entries called contacts. Each contact entry usually consists of a few standard fields (for example: first name, last name, company name, address, telephone n ...

data to

SyncML SyncML (Synchronization Markup Language) is the former name for a platform-independent information synchronization standard. The project is currently referred to as ''Open Mobile Alliance Data Synchronization and Device Management''. The purpose o ...

-enabled mobile phones, via

Bluetooth Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology standard that is used for exchanging data between fixed and mobile devices over short distances and building personal area networks (PANs). In the most widely used mode, transmission power is limi ...

or by using a

USB Universal Serial Bus (USB) is an industry standard that establishes specifications for cables, connectors and protocols for connection, communication and power supply (interfacing) between computers, peripherals and other computers. A broad ...

connection. It was first released on Jan 2, 2003, with technology licensed from fusionOne. Support for many (pre-October 2007) devices was built-in, with newer devices being supported via manufacturer and third-party iSync Plugins.

History

iSync's first beta was released on September 28, 2002. In June 2003, ''The Register'' reported that an iSync 1.1 bug could lead to contacts without phone numbers being deleted from synced phones. iSync uses port 3004, which could also be blocked if the Mac OS X firewall was enabled. Before the release of

Mac OS X 10.4 Mac OS X Tiger (version 10.4) is the 5th major release of macOS, Apple's desktop and server operating system for Mac computers. Tiger was released to the public on April 29, 2005 for US$129.95 as the successor to Mac OS X 10.3 Panther. Som ...

, iSync also synchronized a user's Safari bookmarks with the now-defunct

.Mac MobileMe (branded iTools between 2000 and 2002; .Mac until 2008) is a discontinued subscription-based collection of online services and software offered by Apple Inc. All services were gradually transitioned to and eventually replaced by the ...

subscription service provided by Apple. Starting with Mac OS X 10.4, much of iSync's original syncing functionality was moved into the Sync Services framework, which developers can use to incorporate synchronization into their own applications. iSync, however, retained responsibility for the setup, configuration and synchronising of supported mobile handsets. Since the release of iTunes 4.8, the user interface for synchronizing iPods had been delegated to

iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...

, although conflict-resolution and substantial changes to contact information (>5%) show an iSync panel. Synchronization with MobileMe (previously .Mac) was then the domain of MobileMe Sync, accessible through a System Preferences pane. iSync was removed from Mac OS X in version 10.7 (Lion). However, since the underlying framework still existed in Lion and 10.8 (Mountain Lion), it was possible to restore the functionality of iSync using a 10.6 (Snow Leopard) installation or backup.

Device compatibility

Before the release of iSync, Palm had released its own sync software, Palm Desktop for Mac, which it soon abandoned. Apple created its own software tool, called Palm Conduit, to make iSync compatible with Palm's HotSync protocol. iSync 2.0 directly integrated Palm Conduit. After the 2009 Palm Pre abandoned HotSync, Apple dropped Palm support from iSync 3.1 in

Mac OS X Snow Leopard Mac OS X Snow Leopard (version 10.6) is the seventh major release of macOS, Apple's desktop and server operating system for Macintosh computers. Snow Leopard was publicly unveiled on June 8, 2009 at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference. ...

BlackBerry OS BlackBerry OS is a discontinued proprietary mobile operating system developed by Canadian company BlackBerry Limited for its BlackBerry line of smartphone handheld devices. The operating system provides multitasking and supports specialized i ...

Palm OS Palm OS (also known as Garnet OS) was a mobile operating system initially developed by Palm, Inc., for personal digital assistants (PDAs) in 1996. Palm OS was designed for ease of use with a touchscreen-based graphical user interface. It is pro ...

, and

Windows Mobile Windows Mobile is a discontinued family of mobile operating systems developed by Microsoft for smartphones and personal digital assistants. Its origin dated back to Windows CE in 1996, though Windows Mobile itself first appeared in 2000 as Pock ...

( Pocket PC) devices were not officially supported by iSync, but could still be synchronized through the use of third-party iSync plug-ins.

Version history

References

External links

Archived iSync product page (2002)Archived iSync product page (2009)iSync 1.5 supported mobile phone (Mac OS X Jaguar and Panther)iSync 2.4 and 3.0 supported mobile phones (Mac OS X Tiger, Leopard)iSync 2.4 and 3.0 third-party mobile phone plugins (Mac OS X Tiger, Leopard)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Isync MacOS-only software made by Apple Inc. Personal information managers ITunes IPod software

History

Device compatibility

Version history

See also

References

External links