And yet, between them Outlook and Notes have 80+ percent of the market in date planning/contact apps. Sure, Outlook can't do VCards very well but most WinCE PDA's don't use VCards for Sync. And unless the N800 can replace a WinCE PDA, it will remain a rather small market segment and risks loosing customers to the new large screen WinCE PDA like the Sharp unit.

A lot of people don't care about "It's a Unix" or "It follows official standards" stuff. That includes software engineers like me. The metering stick is "It works in my Windows-Based company net/infrastructure". The thing is a tool, not the center of my life. If it can't do the job, I won't buy it/use it.

OTHO I am willing to back a resonable sum for a working USB-Sync between an On-Unit, Offline-capabel PIM and my desktop system that does not involv any external service centers/computers or Web-Servers. Actually I think that commercial software is the ONLY chance to get such a solution, not putting much faith in OSS interacting with commercial standards.

The WinCE PDAs don't use VCards for sync because they use Outlook, which is severely handicapped in this area. However, lots of mobile phones support vcard files out of the box, with two exceptions that I've seen: Windows smartphones, and Nokia phones (at least all Nokia phones I've tried, NB: non-smartphones. Symbian seems to work, although I've not tested Nokia versions).
At work I can download the company contacts list (with email, name, address, two or three phone numbers for each employee) to a Palm PDA, and then just bluetooth it to anyone as and when I get near them. This way it's easy to maintain the contacts on everybodys phones (we only use mobile phones here). Well, except for those unlucky individuals with the abovementioned phones. They tend to be without any contacts on their phones as it's just too much work to send the contacts one by one (which works but takes forever).
If you google (sorry, if you use the FWSE*-- G. don't like their name to be used that way) for outlook+vcard you'll see that this has been a complaint on Outlook for a very long time.

Should a software tool support VCard? Well, should it support a standardized method of interchanging contacts? In my opinion "yes", although I would be interested to know if there are other equally standardized methods around (I'm not aware of any but willing to be educated).

(Actually, Outlook does support VCards -- it's just that it supports only a single VCard entry at the time, which is why I call it useless in the corporate environment. MS implemented it for users with not very many contacts to deal with.)

--
* FWSE: Famous Web Search Engine

Send me a PM. I am on the way to Verrkokauppa now. Need a printer that can connect to my new AirPort Extreme base station.

I have a hair to split: how do you define phone? For instance, there's more than one way to skin a cat--

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2089611,00.asp (VERY interesting!)

http://www.wirelessnetworkproducts.c...OD&ProdID=1115

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/...d80352c7e.html

http://rfdesign.com/next_generation_...er_bring_wifi/

http://www.tombridge.com/rta/2005/09..._create_a.html

Just a handful of examples demonstrating that there are numerous ways to get at wifi, both sedentary and mobile.

An application to display iCal files would be already something.

Having synchronized contacts would be nice (easy import from VCARDs could do).

Having a unified inbox for SMS and email would rock (I used to have that on my treo (and on an older palm model before then))

Just thoughts

I have been a palm/treo user for over 4 years, and can count on the fingers of one hand the times I've opened the calendar app.
I need a device to 1) browse the web in a legible usable manner 2) connect to email 3) do instant messaging and 4) Skype. It needs to be portable and have a good chance of connecting to wifi while i travel.
Right now the N800 looks pretty good for what I need.

Sorry your settings do not allow PM... enjoy verkkokauppa, I go there at least twice a week.

S

1, 2 are ok on the N800...3 is non existent and 4: If you believe Skype will ever be available on the N800..I have a bridge I need to sell

They may, and I mean "may", do a BT sync to the PIM and other info on an Symbian device. They will not do a PIM application on the N800 this year. btw, most of the PIM work is being done in ES, not the N series.

Your response to number 3 is absolutely incorrect. I successfully use GAIM for IM on a regular basis on the 770 and N800.

And please explain the rationale behind your Skype skepticism. Personally I have few reasons to doubt it will happen.