Hey,
got a Desire recently, which I basically love. The only thing that's giving me troubles is syncing Outlook (2007, will upgrade to 2010 shortly) contacts and calendar and the general way to use the Desire for legitimate PIM (especially calendar).
I used both an HTC Himalaya and Athena running Windows Mobile before, and the one thing that always worked smoothly was syncing with Outlook. Also, I really liked the way Outlook Mobile worked as a PIM solution (I used a today screen plug-in called Calendar+ I think to display my appointments for the next 10-14 days).
First of all, HTC Sync doesn't really work well for me. First time sync went just fine, but subsequent syncs put all my appointments of by one hour (I am in the GMT+1/CET time zone, that might have to do with it). This is especially annoying, as full-day appointments, birthdays, etc. are now displayed as lasting from 01.00 to 01.00 am.
Contacts get synced multiple times, so each phone contact is now available at least twice and as often as four or five times (all the contacts get linked into one by the Sense UI though).
Also, multiple groups are merged on subsequent syncs, for example if a contact is in the groups "Family" and "VIP" in Outlook, they are now in an Android-only "Family\;VIP" group.
Furthermore, Calendar (both from Android and HTC) really feely toy-ish, compared to Outlook Mobile. I was used to full-day-appointments being displayed as a general line of information with other appointments being display by time or length, including place and maybe conflicts with other appointments. The Android/HTC calendar just shows me a long list of things - I could use a spreadsheet or even a textfile if that's all I wanted or expected out of a calendar.
Is there an app, including widget(s) that is somewhat more like Outlook/Calendar+ on Windows Mobile?
Also, could my syncing troubles get solved if I decided to sync Outlook with Gmail/Google Calendar and sync the Desire with these (even though I'm not too keen to store these things in the Google Cloud).
Kind regards and thanks for any info anyone could provide!
Hi,
I have most of the sync working, but still get some odd things happen, like no GAL lookup and occasional duplicate entries. There is an app call Touchdown that is worth a look.
I am trying to get HTC to fix my issues, will let you know how I get on.
Peter
my HTC sync works fab!.. I have an Orange Uk .. slate colour !
I have office 2003 and at work 2007.. all works fine .
Contacts and calender works fine.. when you first sync you do get mutiple entry's for each user .. but the phone sorts this out for you ... re the mobile , facebook gmail etc
UK ist GMT, so maybe it's a bug in Sync that throws the appointments off by GMT±x hours?
It's OK that the contacts get merged, I jsut don't see it as desired behaviour to have every contact in my phone 8-10 times, even if the phone merges everything into one.
If I change any contact info on the phone and sync back into Outlook, who can guarantee the proper change is applied to the respective Outlook contact?
PIM - Personal Information Manager, what "smartphones" where soposed to be, what they used to be, what Android needs to become.
I CANNOT STRESS ENOUGH, the 3 most important features of any PIM device is:
1. UNIVERSAL SEARCH
Search of the entire phone (not the internet), search through all your personal data, thru the contacts, notes, calendar, spreadsheets, memos, to-do lists, word processing files, SMS/MMS, thru every native apps, thru every 3rd party app data, anything and everything on your phone (not the internet) quickly and completely the way Palm OS did. Fast information retrieval of your personal data and databases is the most important and single most useful thing on this planet as far as PIM’s are concerned. Not links to twitter, not cool little icon creation tools, not fun cutesy little play things, but real world useful things.
2. UNIVERSAL CUT/COPY & PASTE
The ability to copy an address or sentence out of a text message or email, (not the entire message, only the portion you need) and paste it into a contact, or paste it into a memo or task field, or it into Google maps. Or Copy part of a to-do list item and paste it into a spreadsheet, or copy a value out of a spreadsheet cell and paste it into an email etc.
3. DESKTOP APPLICATION to sync with.
A desktop application to sync with, to back up all your PIM information (contacts, calendar, to-do lists, memos, wordprocessing files, spreadsheet files etc, to your PC and vice/versa (without being forced to use Outlook). Not syncing to “the cloud”, I don’t want all my personal info spread out all over the internet for who knows who to snoop through. I want my personal info on my phone and my desktop PC only. A Desktop application to be able to do the bulk of your data entry from your PC then syncing it to your phone instead of having to type out and tons of personal data, such as useful formulas, extensive notes about people, long letters or ebooks you want to cut and paste into your desktop app so you can sync it to your phone so you can read it on the road at your leasure without trying to type all that data into your little touch screen pad. To be able to look up information and data stored on my phone without not having to wait on a slow connection as it stores and retrieves from the cloud. And to be able to look up the same information on my desktop app when I can’t find my phone. To backup my data or retrieve it without being dependant an internet connection. When I lose my old phone, I want to be able to sync the new phone to my Desktop application had have all my personal info and data files loaded on to my new phone putting me right back in business without skipping a beat.
Primary PIM Apps to be fully intergreated with each other on the phone and on the Desktop are:
* Calendar/Scheduler/with very flexible alarms (i.e. repeat every third Thursday etc.). Should have Day/Week/Month/Year views.
* Contacts/Addresses/People that will show the long names on the screen when you select it.
* To Do List (KISS applies here, just need to easily slide line items up and down on the priority list and/or give it a changeable priority level, and to be able to attach longer notes if need be)
* Memo/Notes/Flash Cards to store anything and everything you think to write down to take note down, any thought, idea, note, comment, list of items, what someone said – Any and all inputs instantly retrievable by the “Universal Search”.
* Media/Pictures/Video/Music sync between desktop and device.
* Third party attachment handler (to automatically sync spreadsheet files for instance).
Store, Retrieve, and Manage/Manipulate Personal Information, that’s what Personal Information Managers (PIMs) are for. Not for doing animated gifs or other cutesy time wasters.
This is something the Twit(ers) writing software today don’t understand, not everyone has the luxury of laying around drinking soda pop and twittering each other all day, most of us need to actually get some work done in the real world. To manage and access personal information as well as internet info.
I would have switched from Palm OS to iPhone a couple years ago but the iPhone had no universal search or universal copy/paste at the time which made the iPhone worthless game machine to me. So I stayed with Palm. Now that Palm OS is being replaced with WebOS, I see now that the “new blood” writing the new Palm WebOS software left out the 3 most important things, the very things that made Palm great to begin with. So I bought a Droid Incredible, it falls flat on it’s face as a PIM, now I am back to carrying two devices a Palm OS for an actual working PIM, and a Droid for all the other “cool” stuff. Don’t get me wrong, I love the Droid but it would be nice to get them back into one device again. The industry sometimes goes backwards instead of forwards. Now I see that Apple finally caught up to Palm by including a universal search and copy/paste into the iPhone finally, Android needs to catch up to Palm OS also, in a hurry, otherwise I may have to sidestep to an iphone when my one year contract is up.
PalmOS had a much more precise touch screen, all you had to do to select text was touch your fingernail, pen, or stylist to the letter you wanted to start with and drag to the end point to highlight the text you want, and then hit Menu/Copy. The new Johnny-come-lately touch screen phones do not have a precise way to select text directly, though the iPhone has come up with a good workaround for this, it’s not quite as fast and easy as the PalmOS but just as accurate at selecting only what you want, and it is universal just like the Palm.
If and when iambic ports Agendus to the Android OS it will be a great day for Android users, but the MOST IMPORTANT thing is we still need universal search & copy/paste across all 3-party applications. When I was a palm user I didn’t see the need for Agendus (a very robust PIM) because it seemed redundant on the Palm, but I could see the need for it on other platforms such as Windows devices, iPhone, BlackBerry etc. Now that I am a Droid user I see the need for Agendus for the Android. Agendus is starting to sound like a great Idea, a robust PIM application that can be ported to any new phone platform that comes out, that way you learn one app and keep it with you across platforms as the phone market keeps changing.
Related
I have been looking online to sync my s620 with my macbook, but I can't seem to get it to work...
Does anyone know if there is a program or anything to sync with mac?
thanks all
Missing Sync for Windows Mobile
The Missing Sync is your answer
Good thing you've decided to get into this now, and not a few months ago. Recently, The Missing Sync for Windows Mobile 4 (MS4) came out, which introduced support for Windows Mobile 6. It's got a slew of nice features, including SMS/MMS logging, importing pictures into iPhoto (though I haven't figured out how to make it work yet), video conversion, and folder synchronization. Also, it uses SyncML (Apple calls it "Sync Services") so you get the nice "more than 5% changes" notifications you get when you use iSync.
My biggest problems with Missing Sync is that it can be a little unstable and/or slow, fortunately it's very modular, so if a single component fails (which is actually quite rare) it doesn't affect the rest of the program. BlueTooth syncing with a removable BlueTooth module. But I'm thinking that this is due to the unique nature of using a USB BlueTooth module for a non-system protocol. I'm sure if you have a built-in BlueTooth module, you'll be fine. I also have an occasional problem where, while syncing the calendar, I get a notice that some large number of events in my calendar have been deleted (always more than 5%), but usually telling it not to sync the calendar, then syncing again takes care of the problem. It's relatively minor, when you consider that there is an pretty easy work-around.
The other thing isn't so much a problem with Missing Sync, but rather limitations of existing technologies. MS4 can't extract CABs from installers (EXE or MSI), though there are other tools to do that (cabextract, File Juicer), but even they have limited success. You also can't install firmware upgrades, so you better have an emulation (VirtualPC and Q come to mind), virtualization (Parallels Desktop or VMware Fusion) Windows API (Wine) or a Windows PC for that kind of stuff. Actually, now that I think about it, Q is incapable of performing firmware upgrades since it doesn't have USB mapping implemented yet, but if you don't want to spend money on VirtualPC (I don't blame you) and you want to support the open source community (besides Steve Baller and Bill Gates, who doesn't?), keep an eye on it.
Otherwise, I don't regret my purchase at all, and it makes WM5/WM6 syncing completely viable on a Mac. Now if only Microsoft would pick up on some of MS4's features for ActiveSync...
I'm coming from a Nokia 5800. Although the software was buggy as hell, Ovi Suite was still a great piece of software to sync all of my phone's data to a local copy of my PC (as opposed to Google's nosy cloud storage).
Ideally looking for something that could archive my contacts--as well as abilities to create/change/delete on my PC which would then sync with the phone. Also download all SMS's, photos/videos taken, and manage music.
If what I've read is true, google music should take care of this, its supposedly an itunes-like software
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App
Check out Double Twist. There is PC software and an app. Not sure if it would cover all your needs (ive never used it), but it appears to be a decent itunes clone for not just Android but other devices.
theres an app callled mybackup in the market. it will back everything up to the sdcard, then u can copy backup to pc if this helps.
Since people aren't too familiar with Ovi Suite: I need something like Palm Desktop for Android, and I don't want to pay $40 for CompanionLink.
Dude, you need to learn to love the cloud.
From GMail/GMaps/GVoice/GDocks/GCal/Picassa, I have every email, sms, voicememo, picture, video, call history, transcribed voicemail, task, appointment, map location, contact, document, etc. All from any webbrowser in any location, all damn-near instantly synced with my phone.
...but to answer you question, search for HTC Sync. I think it only works with Sense tho, so you will have to wait and flash the Z firmware once the hackers make the g2 flashable.
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App
Dude, I love the cloud.
But I also love having a local copy on my computers (which I back up regularly and save to my Dropbox). Being able to edit contacts and calendar entries without having to bring up a webpage is huge to me.
Different strokes for different folks I guess.
I live and work on the cloud. I never run any backups. I store nothing locally other than 4TB of pirated moves/tv. Being able to access everything from anywhere even if my house has no electricity is huge to me.
What's so bad about opening up a webpage? Opening outlook or whatever doesn't seem any different to me. Unless I am using my computer as a TV, all I ever need from it is a webbrowser, which is nice since every computer and smartphone in the world has one.
I do program ASP.NET/Win32/other and need that dev environment, but that too is all running on a VirtualPC in the cloud.
Not all of us always have constant data access, nor want to depend on it.
Plus, the difference between a webpage and outlook is MASSIVE.
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App
I know this is a pointless argument, but I am curious if you have ever given gmail with gtalk-desktop in your tray a real chance?
I used outlook at a job for work and personal for 6 years, then used outlook for work another 5 while using gmail for personal, and for the last 2 I have been gmail only. I always had the newest version on the newest os, but not in the last 2 years.
In outlook I was always sorting and running a search all was always dog slow. I can find anything in gmail as easily as finding any webpage with google. Gmail integrates with google calendar just as well as outlook and they can sync to eachother. Just sayin.
...anyway, did you look in to HTC Sync? Also, you could always run an exchange server at home and sync over the air.
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App
I'd probably choose services that keep the home PC synced with the cloud, keeping a local copy of what GMail etc use. Enough people do that that there are tools for that, and of course your phone syncs easily with the cloud. I think enough Android users drink the Google kool aid that there's not as much interest in syncing directly phone to PC without using the cloud as an intermediary. After years of wired syncing, I'm thrilled to have it work without any work on my part, personally.
But a search did turn up both The Missing Sync for Android and Handset Manager - both look to still be a bit buggy, but maybe they'll do the job or be worth watching.
We need HTC to make HTC Sync for non-Sense phones. Period.
rpmccormick said:
Different strokes for different folks I guess.
I live and work on the cloud. I never run any backups. I store nothing locally other than 4TB of pirated moves/tv. Being able to access everything from anywhere even if my house has no electricity is huge to me.
What's so bad about opening up a webpage? Opening outlook or whatever doesn't seem any different to me. Unless I am using my computer as a TV, all I ever need from it is a webbrowser, which is nice since every computer and smartphone in the world has one.
I do program ASP.NET/Win32/other and need that dev environment, but that too is all running on a VirtualPC in the cloud.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Totally agree, That's the only way to go, really. When I moved up from my Moto Cliq to the G2 it took all of 5 minutes to get my phone the way I wanted. The hardest part was customizing my icon on the home screen. The data all synced from Google. My list of installed apps was backed up via "App List Backup" and I just re-installed them. Done.
I'm guessing (hoping?) that the current WP7 solution for transmitting stuff on and from the phone can not be the final concept. Its fine for now, as a workaround to send e.g. word and pdfs files per email onto your phone and vice versa, but forever? There must be a better solution.
I think the best solution is either through zune or through a dedicated folder plus mass storage mode.
An other program (and I include outlook) is a really bad idea in my opinion because users don't want to open more than one program to sync their phones.
Zune is a little bit awkward because its the dedicated Music/ Pictures/ Vids Part of your Phone. If everything would be synced through zune it would break with the separation that Microsoft build with the different hubs.
What do you think - where will Microsoft go with this topic? And does anybody know how Apple solved this with their iPhones?
001mic said:
I'm guessing (hoping?) that the current WP7 solution for transmitting stuff on and from the phone can not be the final concept. Its fine for now, as a workaround to send e.g. word and pdfs files per email onto your phone and vice versa, but forever? There must be a better solution.
I think the best solution is either through zune or through a dedicated folder plus mass storage mode.
An other program (and I include outlook) is a really bad idea in my opinion because users don't want to open more than one program to sync their phones.
Zune is a little bit awkward because its the dedicated Music/ Pictures/ Vids Part of your Phone. If everything would be synced through zune it would break with the separation that Microsoft build with the different hubs.
What do you think - where will Microsoft go with this topic? And does anybody know how Apple solved this with their iPhones?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The fastest way would be Zune and Bluetooth send/receive.
It's necessary to have it to stay with the platform.
Skydrive and Mesh is almost certainly where they're headed. I'd be extremely surprised if Zune ever supported Office file transfers.
The cloud, nothing is faster than the cloud.
Edit a file on your desktop and it updates on all devices.
Need to share a file? Just share the link.
Cloud synchronization will be the norm.
.....edit...
Jeffgeno beat me to it.
nothing is faster than cloud??? crazy.... upload to cloud and download to phone or upload direct from PC to phone.. which faster??? and safety??? upload confidential file to skydrive??? more crazy.....
We need a place to sync outlook files but aside from that what other files do you want on your device.... they're not necessary... I dont really wanna set up this whole cloud business
Cloud is great but in many scenarios IDIOTIC.
To put a doc on my phone I need 2 devices with connection - PC and phone. Sick!
And it's the first time I can't send anything by bluetooth to any other dumphone or phone without any data transfer. Sick too.
Right, let's just clear this up shall we?
Currently there are several methods of getting a file such as an Excel spreadsheet onto your phone.
1. Email it to yourself, then open and save the attachment on your phone.
2. Use the Live Mesh sync included with Windows Essentials to sync your excel files to Skydrive. Then navigate to your Skydrive on your phone and download the file(s) you need from there to your phone.
3. Download and run one of the many small free Webserver apps on your PC. then you can serve your files over your home network and download them to your phone just by browsing to your mini website.
I don't use 1, I tend to use 2 and occasionally 3 as some apps like 7Pass (a password manager) use web servers to obtain the (in this case a password) file from your PC.
The way forward will actually, IMHO be 2. But instead of navigating to your skydrive in a browser, it will become a native function, just like it is now with OneNote. The kind of instant two-way sync that OneNote has will be replicated for Word, Excel and Powerpoint, and possibly for any other types of file as well, which will hopefully allow any app to obtain its own filetype over Skydrive and indeed sync with it.
I'm optimistic this will happen in the update coming soon, but it might wait until the fall.
Jim Coleman said:
The way forward will actually, IMHO be 2. But instead of navigating to your skydrive in a browser, it will become a native function, just like it is now with OneNote. The kind of instant two-way sync that OneNote has will be replicated for Word, Excel and Powerpoint, and possibly for any other types of file as well, which will hopefully allow any app to obtain its own filetype over Skydrive and indeed sync with it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think this is the best way to go and hope microsoft will do it like that sooner or later.
I understand that and it's a valid point.
I too would like to have the possibility to sync files _without_ having any network connection because sometimes there simply is no network or you're in a foreign country...So hopefully there will be a way microsoft makes this possible.
But besides of that, syncing over cloud is important for me at least as long as i am at home or something.
I use a combination of email, DropBox and Skydrive, I would love to have the ability to sync directly with Outlook since my company doesn't have Exchange or if they had a sync tool like Google that will update your calendar through the cloud.
On a side note how do you save a PDF that I emailed to myself? I tried to open and save as and it doesn't give me that option.
rsacipher said:
I use a combination of email, DropBox and Skydrive, I would love to have the ability to sync directly with Outlook since my company doesn't have Exchange or if they had a sync tool like Google that will update your calendar through the cloud.
On a side note how do you save a PDF that I emailed to myself? I tried to open and save as and it doesn't give me that option.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Once you open it it's automatically saved to the phone.
kabumm said:
I too would like to have the possibility to sync files _without_ having any network connection because sometimes there simply is no network or you're in a foreign country...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Er, if there's no network connection or you're in a foreign country, then you would just be using the locally cached copy of the file, until you either returned home or entered an area with coverage, at which point your phone would sync up.
The point is, your phone would be syncing on-the-fly whenever it could, and using local cache whenever it couldn't sync. Strikes me as the best of both worlds.
Jim Coleman said:
Er, if there's no network connection or you're in a foreign country, then you would just be using the locally cached copy of the file, until you either returned home or entered an area with coverage, at which point your phone would sync up.
The point is, your phone would be syncing on-the-fly whenever it could, and using local cache whenever it couldn't sync. Strikes me as the best of both worlds.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Okay, thanks for explaining. I didn't know that.
Well then it's good news. Except you will have to stop your phone from syncing when roaming. But i assume, that is possible? (couldnt test it out)
I'm not offended. I don't think no one else is either.
Its silly that they provide you with a cord for media, but that same cord is useless for one of the other touted features.
Guys, please keep this thread on topic, and quit with the bad language. Swearing is not tolerated on xda.
I'm going to assume that the integration will be more advanced and full soon... The whole point of this device is to utilize live functions... Like SkyDrive
Sent from my HD7 using Board Express
Cleaned thread!
Deleted: off topic's; Rude posts; Flames, etc .
Please, Keep this thread clean and quit with the bad language.
Thank you.
Your talking about from phone to PC right? I think MS should give an option to allow an adjustable amount of your phone's memory to be used for USB mass storage functionality. Like make a slide saying, Maybe I want 2GB available, or maybe 20mb. You know to copy file formats WP7 supports. Atleast for what you can't sync via Zune Desktop software.
My AT&T HTC Tilt 2 is nearly a year old now, and I've recently run into a very irritating problem. Every time I try to use the "Update Now" feature (Contacts -> Updates and Events tab -> Menu -> Update Now) to update contacts' Facebook pictures and whatnot, the entire UI crashes and has to reload. No error messages or anything like that at all; the screen simply freezes for 15-30 seconds and the HTC Launching TouchFLO 3D screen comes up.
This issue has expanded to encompass any time I try to edit a contact (on that note, the "Link to Facebook account" button no longer does anything except cause TouchFLO to crash) or even open the Updates and Events tab.
I'm still using the same ROM that came with the phone (hard reset once or twice, so essentially the same thing), meaning Windows Mobile 6.5. Like I previously mentioned, I'm using the TouchFLO 3D UI (my attempt to update to the Sense UI went terribly).
Is there anything I can do to fix this, aside from hard resetting again? I've got a lot of contacts (more than will fit on my SIM card, in fact), and I'd really rather not go through all the steps of personalizing my phone for a third time if I don't have to. It'll be like November before I'm eligible for an upgrade with AT&T, so that's not a viable option right now, as much as I might like it to be.
Another side note: Using Windows Mobile Device Center, is there a way to basically copy all of my contacts and whatnot from my phone to my computer without adding in the contacts from Outlook? I'd really rather not deal with a bunch of random email addresses sitting in my phone's contact list. If this is possible, I may just try to use this method, hard reset, and then put the contacts back on the phone. The rest of the personalization isn't nearly as time-consuming as adding in another 80-ish contacts and then fixing the names of the ones I managed to fit onto the SIM card (because the SIM card saves them in the format of "Smith, John" in the last name field and nothing in the first name field...).
I've also got a 16GB microSD card, if that would be of any benefit in any of these endeavors.
Any and all help is appreciated! Thanks!
Any ideas?
Not sure about all your facebook issues, but a great, quick and easy program that can save and restore contacts anywhere (including your storage card, if you like) is PIM Backup:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=1189061&postcount=1
I use it all the time since I flash daily and I NEVER have any problems restoring my 200+ contacts using PIM Backup.
I am about to make my first foray into an Android device (Motorola Defy - Android 2.1 on the Telstra network in Australia) after years and years of faithful Symbian servitude. There is one little thing that is bugging me about Android so I thought I'd ask the experts as I've spent hours looking for an answer and still not coming up with a clear answer.
I understand I can turn off contact and calendar sync with Google quite easily but I'm unable to find anything to suggest how hard/easy it would be to sync my contacts and calendar (via USB, Bluetooth or WiFi - no real preference) to my local computer running Linux, specifically Ubuntu, rather than the cloud. I would prefer it sync to Evolution as this is what I have been using for years now with various forms of SyncML and Symbian phones (most recently syncevolution).
I would really prefer not to give over my hundreds of contacts and all my personal appointments to the cloud so I'm searching for a solution that doesn't involve customising the basic software too much for preference. It doesn't have to be a 24/7 sync, I'm currently just running it on an as required basis. I would even be willing to pay for the service providing it works.
Now I understand the whole "don't buy an Android phone if you don't want to use Google's services" and I've seen many posts like mine deteriorate into "why do you even want this?" so bearing in mind I've considered these arguments already is there anyone with any constructive suggestions?
This...?
https://android-client.forge.funambol.org/
I was looking at this sort of thing but couldn't understand, would this require the installation of my own funambol server on the computer here or would just installing the client on the phone allow it then to talk SyncML to something like hxxp://syncevolution.org/ (unable to post outside links yet sorry for the crap link)? Sorry if it seems noobish but want to confirm before spending money on something that may/may not suit my needs.
I'm not sure as I don't use it myself. I mentioned it cause you mentioned you've been using SyncML in the past so I think it may help...
Thanks for the pointer. I'm trying to work out if
Handset+SyncML client -> Syncevolution -> Evolution
or
Handset+SyncML client -> SyncML Server -> Syncevolution -> Evolution
is going to end up being the case. I guess it's one of those "just get it and see" things it would appear. I was just hoping this could be confirmed either way beforehand because a SyncML server is going to be a fair bit of work for just one phone and one instance of evolution.
I'm looking to get the Motorola Defy in the next week or so, so I will make sure I report back how it goes if no one else has any other information beforehand.
Just a quick follow up for anyone else looking into this. If you have the time I would whole heartedly suggest setting up your own personal funambol server as I couldn't find a reasonable solution to my problem.
As I don't have the time at this point to do that I have used iCal Import/Export in conjunction with Touch Calendar (I dislike the layout of the default calendar and Touch lets me repeat an event every X days which is good for shift workers like myself) for my calendar needs. I have been using the inbuilt Motorola Phone Portal over wifi to import/export vcards into the phone for my contacts.
So now I have my contacts and calendar in the phone and can manually import/export which is as close as I've gotten to syncing locally at this point. If I figure out anything else I'll post back again and I'm still open to other suggestions that are a bit simpler than a separate funambol server.