Check my post no.13, this option is far easier and will work with your setup.

A fully connected device with its own calendar and contacts applications, but no easy way to sync with Outlook? WTF? Why doesn't Nokia just provide a utility to do this? It's such a no-brainer that I can't believe the product doesn't ship with it already.

Thank you for reminding me to go back and investigate the software you recommend in that post. CompanionLink does look to be a better (read: less convoluted) solution, and I may well purchase it after playing with the free, Rube Goldberg solution a bit longer.

In the past I've found GPE Calendar to be unusably clunky, so I don't want to spend even the small cost of CompanionLink on this experiment until I'm sure I'm not just going to uninstall GPE again.

Now, now, the N800 is a connected device that doesn't come with a Calendar, and the built-in Contacts application is so limited it's not even useful to most...

Err, I'm just making things worse, aren't I?

That's a lovely reoccurring argument in this forum. Basically, it has to do with the N800 being brought to us today by the letter "N".

Eh, even with the Palm OS devices I've owned, out of the box Outlook synchronization was always so poor that I've always had to use third party software. I've always had to use third party software. I've always had to use third party software.

Nuts. I'm still disappointed, and now I miss Beyond Contacts.

OTOH, ten years ago the sync software shipped by Psion with the Series5 worked just fine (under Win95 and through a serial link, fer crissakes). Ditto for Nokia's PC Suite you can download for free and use even with their lowly unsmart phones... so it's not like it's impossible :-)

I wonder why you people can't just go to web site and read the device specs before buying it? Are there anywhere promise of Outlook sync? No? Then it's your fault. Or maybe someone can't read? N800 is Internet Tablet mainly intended for the web. Not just another PDA. If you need Outlook sync maybe take a look on WinMobile devices? But do not cry when you'll discover that they're slightly worse in web browsing, that there is no such funny things like Pidgin or Xchat and it is hard to SSH from device and virtually impossible to ssh to device.There is no universal things in the world. Each device has strong and weak sides.

We're not saying we've been duped into buying the IT believing it had PDA functionality... just that there is no (valid/technical) reason it should not.

After all, it doesn't say on the box either that it has xterm, xchat, pidgin, ssh and a gazillion other goodies, because it doesn't -- they're all available nevertheless, and without them an out-of-the-box IT with only its original software is quite a drab proposition...

OTOH, it does say on the box that it has an email app -- just not that it doesn't quite work :-)

Why use outlook to begin with? Its slow, buggy and I am sure most dont even use more than 25% of its total features.

That's actually part of the reason why I started this thread - I started using Outhouse so that I could support it (loved Sidekick) and now that I have a Windows/Outlook desktop and a Linux/Unknown Tablet, I'm looking for a replacement for Outlook that I can also use on the tablet - what do you use?

Someone just sent along a link to PIM/Pi ...

A very amusing rant.

Personally, I bought my N800 mostly for browsing the web, and, at the time I purchased it, specifically intended to never sync it with Outlook even if that became an option. As time passed though, I've taken to carrying my N800 with me at work, and become less interested in also carrying my T5. At the same time, various bits of software have appeared that make synchronization with Outlook a viable option, so I figure, why not have a go at it?

I've joked in previous posts about being disappointed that Nokia didn't bundle Outlook synchronization software, but I'm not, really. If enough people buy Nokia Internet tablets and want synchronization, then third party free and commercial options will likely appear to meet those needs. Even on Palm OS, where basic synchronization was included, numerous companies and individuals offered alternate solutions.

As I said above, I bought my N800 mostly for browsing the web. However, I would not have paid what I did were that all the device did. I paid my money because I was getting a general purpose Linux computer that can fit in my pocket. That's the need it really fills for me.

I don't want any of the games folks are porting. I don't need GPS mapping software, free or commercial. I don't need a half dozen alternate media players with three dozen wacky skins each. I don't have any use for Skype. There's a lot of folks working on a lot of software for the N800 that doesn't benefit me at all--directly.

And I think that's great, because it grows the software base for the platform. More software, in diverse areas, will expand the areas in which the ITs are useful. That, in turn, increases the likelihood of the user base growing. More users, with new needs, will feed right back into growing the market (free and commercial) for software.

I want all that potential, future software to come. I want Nokia make crazy money selling these nifty pocket computers built on an open platform so they don't go away. I doubt I'll buy every Nokia IT model. I certainly won't buy or download every bit of software. But I want it all out there, so the good stuff I want appears too. I want lots and lots of people to be happy IT users because I'm really selfish.