BlackBerry® Link

[sdgardne]

There are several workarounds, each at different price points. If sync2 is free, then it's fine for using Gmail as the pass-thru for calendar/contact sync. Outlook.com, including it's connector to Outlook client, is totally free.

The key challenge that remains is those who are on dedicated domains, who do not wish to appear to others (e.g., customers) as anything but that domain. As it stands, it appears that while they can synchronize their contacts and calendars via many means, the processing of calendar invites/replies remains problematic in that it may well go back to their customer "from" the account they are using to synchronize their calendar, rather than their primary domain account that they wish to maintain their identity with.

Further, since the device cannot "spoof" a different "from", then initiating calendar invites on the device would likewise be problematic.

So, much can be accomplished, but not yet full replacement of the functions available prior to the BB10 methods. Testing continues...

Good luck!

[G2M]

Scope, I'm still holding out for the US launch to have the link fix. However, interestingly iphone is the only non blackberry phone on the market to support usb sync to outlook. It only does it for contacts and calendars so it is not as functional as OS7/BB outlook sync, but it does provide that option.

[ThinkReferrals]

The Calendar sync without cloud is still a massive issue for me and I have chosen to wait for the update and not use a calendar on my phone. Contacts on the other hand were equally as important and even more confidential and I realized they could be updated through my bluetooth headset. Never thought of that initially but it will work for me till BB catches up to the iPhone 5's ability to sync Outlook with the phone via a USB Cable, it would be devastating if iPhone became the business tool of choice.

The phone itself is amazing though and I am happy I held out with my Torch till the release. There are a few minor issues with the keyboard but I am sure they will be worked out. I am upset that music and movies and images can be synced with a USB cable through the desktop interface but important private Outlook data can't, this is actually an insult to the business user that held out believing that BB would respect our Business needs and not downgrade from Business Tool to Toy.

Outlook is still the standalone calendar that I use because of Privacy policies my company must abide by and till now it gave me the ability to keep my data between my phone and my computer without compromising privacy by uploading to the cloud or keeping the calendar data on the cloud.  I am holding my breath that BB has not abandoned those of us with this ongoing need.

[Xandrex]

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G2M wrote:
Scope, I'm still holding out for the US launch to have the link fix. However, interestingly iphone is the only non blackberry phone on the market to support usb sync to outlook. It only does it for contacts and calendars so it is not as functional as OS7/BB outlook sync, but it does provide that option.

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the sync does indeed works in the two directions from Outlook to the iPhone, and from the iPhone to Outlook, as explained here:

https://office.microsoft.com/en-ie/outlook-help/synchronize-outlook-and-apple-iphone-or-ipod-touch-c...

but it requires iTunes so the question is: is this really an offline feature? Are you not sending all your contacts to Apple in the meantime...

[G2M]

Good point. I was assuming that it wouldn't go to apple/it would be offline. I don't own an iphone, so I have no idea. Either way looks like ill be hanging on to this 9900 for quite some time.

[ThinkReferrals]

Sadly, you are likely right about it going to the cloud if you have to have iTunes installed.  Well, that is a bit of a silver lining for BB since being inferior to iPhone on the Business end would be sickening. It still leaves a black hole for those of us that have no choice to or just prefer to keep our private and confidential data private and confidential.  The third party app that people are waiting for is not reported to use the native Blackberry calendar so that will likely bring on a Playbook / Z10 calendar share issue as well.  How does this seem all that complicated or so easy to toss out by the BB10 development team?

[scopewizard]

This matter appears as one of the most important point in this forum and other web comments. Some users have already switch to iPhone5 as a knee jerk reaction. They will soon find out this solution is no better than the ones offer on this site. This being a brand new OS one should expect a few growing pain. I am confident BB is listnening and working on a solution. As playbook Bridge and sync, updating the tablet OS might resolve a lot of the raised issues. Sync contacts and calendar is not as critical to meas for other users. If BB acts on user's concerns and needs, it will go a long way to maintain and attract customers.

[Xandrex]

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scopewizard wrote:

Sync contacts and calendar is not as critical to me as for other users.

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the main issue is that RIM has no way of knowing how many people used the Outlook/BlackBerry feature in the Desktop Software and the Desktop Manager.

I guess it is because most people have configured their Desktop Software / Desktop Manager to connect to the internet (because they do not want to be notified when a new OS is available), so RIM does not have stats about that.

[Xandrex]

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ThinkReferrals wrote:

How does this seem all that complicated or so easy to toss out by the BB10 development team?

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I am not justifying anything, but look from a project perspective:

you have a software project, with hundreds of features (missing and existing):

• Some of those existing features have bugs:
• some of the feature bugs are important
• some of the feature bugs are not important
• about the missing features:
• some are doable with your current tech tools, but not done because of time
• some are not doable with your current tech tools, and :
1. either can be done by developping such a tool
2. or can be done by licensing/buying an existing tool

The sync between Outlook and a BlackBerry phone, for the Desktop Manager and the Desktop Software, relies on a technology called Nokia Intellisync. For some reasons, I guess RIM does not want to use that technology anymore.

So the synchronization feature is currently not available, and not doable with RIM's current tech tools. You then fall back towards :

• either do nothing
• or do solution 1
• or do solution 2

both solutions will take a lot of time. for instance, Apple took at least 4 years to bring that to iTunes, through a Microsoft Outlook addin (requires VB.net or C#.net skills).

RIM obviously will be faster, but not just a few weeks.

[rogshore]

Lots of things RIM/BlackBerry could have done but given the importance of the function to directly sync from Outlook via USB/Bluetooth (and they knew it was important to many in the business community), they should have at least floated the fact it would not be available months ago to get feedback as to the prudence of this action.  I would have thought they'd been just a wee bit more sensitive to the needs/desires of their loyal following than to just blindly step into this steaming pile.