Macworld Forums: Sync services gone crazy! - Macworld Forums

Post your comments for Sync services gone crazy! here

Outlook is a product with no real reason to be anymore. Worst. Email. Ever.

Question: Suppose I want to use outlook. Is there a 3rd party application that will allow it to sync with iCloud?

BradPDX, on 23 May 2012 - 09:04 AM, said:

Why don't you tell us what you really think?

Speaking of Activity Monitor, it's great but doesn't provide all the answers. I frequently encounter situations when my Mac is extremely sluggish, but Activity Monitor shows very low CPU usage. I really wish I could understand how this can happen. I suspect it's related to having lots of Safari windows and tabs open--I too often see the "web pages are not responding" alert--but if the CPU isn't that busy, what's holding things up?

RobLewis, on 23 May 2012 - 11:56 AM, said:

One cause of your problem would be a shortage of memory (RAM). In Activity Monitor, you would like to see a reasonable sum of "Free" plus "Inactive". (Inactive is free except that previously used code is being kept around in case you run an application again that you have quit.) You would also like to see a "small" number of Page Outs (Page Ins are normal when Page Outs are small). Those Safari windows and tabs use memory (they also do in other browsers, although different browsers make different tradeoffs that affect usage). A high level look at this is in http://support.apple...US&locale=en_US and a search for something like Mac OS X inactive memory will provide more details, some of them correct.


--John

BradPDX, on 23 May 2012 - 09:04 AM, said:

What are you going to replace it with - webmail? Yeah - laggy roundtrip every time I want to do something. No thank you. Outlook may have some warts, but especially with calendaring and scheduling nothing else comes close functionality wise.

Dale,

Before changing how you use Outlook or Entourage, try to determine whether Microsoft Sync is actually hurting your machine's performance enough to matter. One thing to try: with the machine essentially idle, note the % of CPU reported for the process. Now start something that uses a fair amount of CPU, and compare the % of CPU reported for Microsoft Sync with that running. If it is significantly smaller and there is still some idle time, the process isn't hurting you much (because it sets itself to a low priority) and you probably shouldn't change you email usage.

Did you look at CPU usage because the machine felt slow or just out of curiosity? The latter isn't helpful in getting more performance from the machine. (You paid for 100% of your CPU cycles--you might as well use them--within reason.)

--John

lawandorder, on 23 May 2012 - 10:56 AM, said:

No, and that ball is in Microsoft's hands for now. MS has indicated the incompatibility and offered no timeline or resolution yet - I found the "official" response in MS's own forums for some time now.

BradPDX, on 23 May 2012 - 09:04 AM, said:

I don't agree with you on this. Outlook was design generally to connect Exchange, and I read MS's marketing when I bought the Office suite. I use Outlook with my Exchange server, and the two work perfectly together. I also use iCloud and have a GMail account, but I use Mail/iCal/Address Book for iCloud and Sparrow with my Gmail accounts - no problems at all on my end.

bonesb, on 23 May 2012 - 01:14 PM, said:

If one is forced to use (or wants to use) an Exchange Server, then yes, Outlook makes sense. I just really dislike the design when compared with other options, including Mail.app. At work we use Outlook/Exchange on Windows, and while it works, it is clunky and cluttered, reminding me far more of 90s products than anything else. Formatting of messages is crude and unreliable. HTML is often poorly rendered. Rules for behavior are antiquated. I cannot abide it's combining of Contacts/Calendar/Tasks/Email - atrocious and time wasting IMHO, just too much junk in one bag. I cannot wait to shut it down at the end of every workday, and I actually LIKE what I do!

If I am just using regular non-Exchange email, then I see no reason to use Outlook at all. That's all, just my opinion. Your mileage may vary.

lawandorder, on 23 May 2012 - 10:56 AM, said:

iCloud on Windows will do this.

BradPDX, on 23 May 2012 - 02:27 PM, said:

Yeah, my mileage varies. I continue to use Outlook, with all its quirks and annoyances, because its ability to categorize and filter is better than any other client I've used (yes Apple Mail, that means you). I wish Apple would make Mail more powerful but that seems to go against its current notion of keeping things simple.

bonesb, on 23 May 2012 - 01:14 PM, said:

Apparently Mail/Ical/And address book also interface natively with Exchange, Although I haven't tried it. I'm sure Outlook has a few more features where that's concerned but I've read favorable posts on Mail/Ical/Address books ability to do this. I would agree with you however that Outlook is a good program. There is a benefit to having all your information in one program and it can do many more reports and better mailings than Apples programs can do.

That said Apple's programs work for me at my home just fine.