I upgraded to a Handspring Visor in 2000 and continued to sync with both my iBook and my G4 PowerBook (OS 10.1, 10.2, and 10.3) just fine, again using Palm Desktop and no third-party software.

IMPORTANT NOTE: While I was using Entourage for my email correspondence and address book for my computer, I was only ever using Palm Desktop for the CONTACTS, CALENDAR, MEMO PAD, and TO DO LIST). I never needed/wanted my email on my handheld. I never needed/wanted my Entourage address book to match my handheld address book, since I wasn't using my handheld for email. I never used (still don't use) Entourage's calendar, task list, or notes. It never mattered to me that the contacts in my handheld didn't have the most current email address, as I'd never be sending email without launching Entourage on my computer, and that's where the most updated email address would be. It never mattered to me that the contacts in my Entourage didn't have the most current phone number, as I'd never be calling someone without checking my handheld for the most current number.

Enter: upgrade from Handspring Visor to Handspring Treo 600 (original recipe) in January 2004. I was still able to sync my data to the Palm Desktop default in my PowerBook (running 10.3) and, while it was NOW starting to bum me out that I had different contact information in my handheld (from which I could now send email), it wasn't such a big deal that I felt the need to merge my Entourage contacts into the handheld. So, I never did. No biggie. As long as I could backup my handheld to my Palm Desktop and not lose all of the data, I was happy (enough).

In August 2004, I had to get a palmOne Treo 600 to replace my Handspring Treo 600, due to a defect in the "silent/vibrate" mode. I was able to backup the old Treo, put the data on the new Treo using my PowerBook running 10.3, and send back the old Treo. No problem.

Then came the upgrade to 10.4 on my PowerBook.

I was never able to sync or backup again.

Then came the new computer: iBook G4 running 10.4.

Still can't sync or backup.

Basically, I've been living in fear for most of 2005 that something, anything could go wrong with my handheld and suddenly five years of calendar, contacts, memos, and to do list items (all with lovely categories) would just go poof.

I'd really like to exhale.

So, here's (in order of importance) what I'd like to see happen--with your help, of course!

1. ability to sync/backup my handheld (palmOne Treo 600 running no third-party software) to my computer (iBook G4 running 10.4.3) without losing data. Palm Desktop is where all of the data is currently archived on my computer, and if I could just do a good ol' fashioned sync/backup to that, I'd be pleased as punch.

2. optimization of the data in all of the different places on my computer, using the most efficient (yes, even if I have to stop using something the way I've been used to using it for years--I don't fear change... much) method of syncing.

REMINDER: I do not wish to have my emails synced between the handheld and Entourage (which, yes, is my preferred email system on the computer--but, again, I can change to Mail or Thunderbird IF YOU CAN GUARANTEE ME A REALLY COOL RANDOM-SIGNATURE GENERATOR, AS THAT'S LIKE MY FAVORITE THING, OUTSIDE OF BEING ABLE TO SEND/RECEIVE FROM TEN DIFFERENT ACCOUNTS IN ONE WINDOW). No interest, whatsoever, in having my handheld and computer matching, in terms of the emails on them.

I never use a calendar program on my computer.
I never use a to do list on my computer.
I never use a memo pad on my computer.

I use my handheld for all of that. Only.

So, all I want (and again, this is secondary to item number one, above--which is more than sufficient a "fix" for me) is to merge the addresses in my Entourage with those in my handheld WITHOUT HAVING TO THEN REMOVE A ZILLION DUPLICATES. I currently have something like 4000 contacts in my handheld. I have almost 6500 contacts in my Entourage Address Book. Obviously, many of these files are in both places, but they aren't identical listings, by any stretch of the imagination. Ack. Yes... this could get ugly.

Or maybe it already IS ugly?

Yeah... I thought so.

As I understand your messages, the Treo and the iBook are NOT in sync and the only up-to-date copy is on the Treo. Is this correct?

If that's the case, I would go to the Palm store (I think that there's still one in Century City near the Apple Store) and buy a Backup Card. Put it into the SD/MMC slot of the Treo and push "Backup" and wait. Nothing needs to be installed on the Treo. This will ensure that, whatever you do subsequently, you should have a solid backup of the Treo's data.

2. optimization of the data in all of the different places on my computer, using the most efficient (yes, even if I have to stop using something the way I've been used to using it for years--I don't fear change... much) method of syncing.

Decide on what you want to use for your contacts, calendar, memos and tasks and export from everything else. Backup the datafile on the application on which you've decided and then import the odd-products-out files. This may take some data manipulation but not much and "no pain, no gain."

REMINDER: I do not wish to have my emails synced between the handheld and Entourage (which, yes, is my preferred email system on the computer--but, again, I can change to Mail or Thunderbird IF YOU CAN GUARANTEE ME A REALLY COOL RANDOM-SIGNATURE GENERATOR, AS THAT'S LIKE MY FAVORITE THING, OUTSIDE OF BEING ABLE TO SEND/RECEIVE FROM TEN DIFFERENT ACCOUNTS IN ONE WINDOW). No interest, whatsoever, in having my handheld and computer matching, in terms of the emails on them.

Mail will do random mail signatures on any account.

I never use a calendar program on my computer.
I never use a to do list on my computer.
I never use a memo pad on my computer.

I use my handheld for all of that. Only.

Yes, but you need something on the Mac to which to sync the data and for storage and manipulation (if needed).

So, all I want (and again, this is secondary to item number one, above--which is more than sufficient a "fix" for me) is to merge the addresses in my Entourage with those in my handheld WITHOUT HAVING TO THEN REMOVE A ZILLION DUPLICATES. I currently have something like 4000 contacts in my handheld. I have almost 6500 contacts in my Entourage Address Book. Obviously, many of these files are in both places, but they aren't identical listings, by any stretch of the imagination. Ack. Yes... this could get ugly.

If Mary Jones on your Treo and Mary Jones on your iBook are the same person but have different information, you will have to go through ALL of the duplicates to decide which to keep as you do the sync. That can be terribly tedious.