Customer Reviews

Motorola USB Data Kit for Motorola V Series and Timeport Series Phones

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

This is a great product, period. It allows you to update all your phone book, type in your memos, and schedule in all your events and meets throughout the year. If your a worker on the go, then this is definely the product for you because not only do you have a get v series phone but you can also use it as an organizer as well. The best part is that you'll be able to type entries in via your personal pc so, you don't have to deal with punching entry with tiny phone keys (you'll appreciate your keyboard even more) or small cell phone displayed. Beware though, the Starfish software is a bit tricky to install especially if you'll running Windows XP, just make sure to get all software updates before you start synching. LASTY, MAKE SURE YOUR PHONE IS READ AS A MODEM ON YOUR COMPUTER AND NOT A PHONE, OTHERWISE THE PHONE HAS NOT INSTALLED CORRECTLY AND YOU NEED TO CAL TECH SUPPORT AT MOTOROLA.

This is cable and the accompanying software are in theory quite powerful. The software allows you to synchronize information in your phone with other sources -- most notably Outlook and Palm Software.

Don't even bother trying to run the TrueSync software that's including in the box -- it is so poorly designed and buggy that it is unusable. Motorala offers an upgrade to TrueSYnc 3.1, which is so far superior that it feels like a whole new product. Just install the old version (the update refuses to install otherwise) and go to the Motorola site for the update.

Be prepared to spend a little bit of time setting everything up to begin with, but once you get going it works great. With due deference to the experiences of other reviewers, the software works great with both Palm devices (although you need Palm's HotSYnc software for things to work) and Outlook. I simply plug in my phone and my PDA, click a button and within a minute or so, all of the information in my phone, my PDA, Outlook, and Palm Desktop are synchronized with one another. This is highly recommeneded if you need these features.

Also, it is rumored that with thisd cable you can dial your phone into an ISP to connect to the internet. This feature hasn't worked yet for me and I haven't been able to work things out with the tech support people at Motorola, so I can't recommned this product for that purpose.

From Motorola's customer support site:
"The phone only supports one phone number per contact per field. So when you perform a sync with contacts that have multiple phone numbers, TrueSync enters each contact separately as many times as you have phone numbers for it. This is working ***as designed***."

All personal information management software (like MS Outlook) allow you to enter more than one phone number per contact (fax, cellular, home, etc). If TrueSync cannot sync contacts with more than one phone number then TrueSync is completely unsuited for its intended purpose.

TrueSync also puts duplicate contacts on your phone each time it is sync'd with your computer. So if you have 30 contacts with 3 phone numbers each, after three sync's you get to manually delete about 60 duplicate contacts from your phone.

TrueSync will also hose up all of Outlook's Business Name fields. By default TrueSync maps Outlook's Business Name field to the phone's Company field. After sync'ing, all Business Names disappear from Outlook's Address Card folder view. If the phone's Company field is mapped to Outlook's File As field, then it rearranges all of the Business Names. Delta Airlines becomes Airlines, Delta. This happens no matter how TrueSync's First Name, Last Name setting is adjusted.

TrueSync also removes all of the formatting from Outlook's phone numbers. Nicely formatted numbers like (800)-555-1212 becomes 8005551212. This happens regardless of whether TrueSync's Preserve Phone Format option is selected.

This is one time where I wish I had read the Amazon reviews before I made a purchase. This product is so bad it boggles the mind.

I purchased the product because I have a Motorola V60c and a Motorola i90c. (While the i90c is not listed here as a compatible device for this cable, the Motorola website lists it as an accessory). My intention was to use the data cable and software to synch the phone books on the two phones and the phones of my associates at work. I could not get it to work with either phone and totally hosed my phonebook in the process.

I spent HOURS trying to get it to work on 2 separate machines (ThinkPad T21 and a COMPAQ Deskpro EN) both running Windows 2000 professional. I also downloaded the "upgrade" to the software. To call the software "buggy" is a complement. The StarFish software is so poorly engineered that I find it difficult to believe it ever passed any significant testing. I could list some of the faults I discovered, but I am limited to 1000 words.

Let me just say this. I hold 3 Microsoft certifications (including Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer). I work on Desktops, PDAs, Servers and core network equipment such as Cisco Routers and Switches, CSU/DSUs, FRADs and Bisync equipment on one of the worlds largest IT enterprises. I am not uninnured to technical challenges but this one beat me.

I simply gave up trying to get it to work. Thank goodness for Amazon's relatively painless return process.

Motorola should do something about this incredibly bad product.

This data kit may be pricey, but if you can justify the costs you will like it.
I have Windows XP and Outlook 2002 and it is fantastic that I now have all my Calender information on my v60t phone. Installation of Starfish was a breeze. I also installed all Starfish updates before I did my first sync. I'm really going to enjoy this! My only wish is that I would really like a cover for the data link when it is not connected to the phone. All those tiny connections looks like they could be damaged easily.
Some hints: During installation, you will notice that Outlook 2002 is not an option, just select Outlook 2000.

I have a Motorola V400 phone (Motorola says this is the right kit for this phone, although it is not on the list of compatible phones at Amazon). Anyway, I can't get the phone driver to install on Windows XP. This may not be a problem for other phones, but I wanted to warn buyers who have a V400 that ths product did not work with my V400.

This is the type of software that you either love or hate - as you can tell by the other reviewer's ratings. If you simply want to sync your phone with MS Outlook (which makes entering contact information a breaze), this product is for you. If you are a person trying to sync "popular Personal Information Management (PIM) software" (direct quote from package) with your phone, it doesn't appear to be possible, so don't waste your time or money.

I bought this product to keep my v60 phone in sync with my Palm software. Basically, I'm screwed. I've been trying (on and off) for the last 3 months to find a way to download a Palm sync application. The package says that "additional PIM application support available via online product updates." THEIR ARE NO ADDITIONAL PIM APPLICATIONS AVAILABLE! Don't be mislead.

If you want to do anything besides sync with Outlook, this product isn't worth its shipping cost.

The included synchronization software, TrueSync, is supposed to work by searching the Outlook Contacts for entries that are members of either the "SIM Card" or "Phonebook" categories, which need to be created by the user. However, in using this software with Outlook 2000 and attempting to download approximately 175 contacts and phone numbers to my Motorola v66, the TrueSync synchronization software would only bring down the first 25 or so. If a contact had only a company name with no person name, then the downloaded contact name was displayed on the v66 by phone number only without a text name. I tried using the included TrueSync Desktop PIM and it didn't work any better. The synchronization software is just plain defective.

This software is not worth the money. The paper instructions are WORTHLESS!!! Installed on Win2K and had to select a "port" phone was connected to - I have the USB model but USB was not a choice. Only COM ports. Finally found burried in some on-line piece a "note" to select a com port even if you have the USB model.

Finally after getting a connection to the phone and setting up a phone book (no calendar) it took 24 MINUTES to "SYNC" 83 names and phone numbers. Come on, I could have hand punched them in in that time.

I tried to find out the format for entering phone numbers. Didn't find a thing so I entered them as ###-###-####. After the first sync all the numbers were changed to ##########. This is in the desktop where the change was made, not the phone. I can accept it in the phone but "Why change the desktop?" Ever tried to read a 10 digit number straight. I can't.

The terminolgy used is difficult to understand, the errors flashed on screen when you try to do something don't make any sense and at one point it kept telling me to close the phone book I was using but the close menu pick was grayed out. Go figure. At that point I was ready to give up.

Bottom line, this software is a bunch of ____ and I'm going to try to return it. I talked to Motorola before I got it and they cautioned me about not buying it directly from Motorola at a higher price. They asked if [company] was going to support the product? My question back to them was "Why should it need any support?" Now I see why they said that.

I have been at this for about 5 hours and finally have my 83 names and numbers in the phone. Each "sync" was over 20 minutes. And they charge money for this product, I call it Garbage!

Don't buy this product unless you have v-e-r-y l-o-w blood pressure and a lot of time on your hands.

The one good point is it's a perfect example of how NOT to do a piece of user software.

TruSynch is a decent tool for snchronizing your mobile phone with your outlook, but, it's pretty darn slow and buggy; even after the latest update.

Two issues you should know before buying. First, TruSnych does not have a function to disable at windows startup. It gets really annoying seeing something in your systray that you rarely use. Second, data transfer from your computer to your phone is really, really slow and pretty much jacks up your computer afterwards. After synchronizing my outlook with the phone, I was unable to use my keyboard and had to restart the computer. Why is this? Because the makers of TruSynch really missed alot of bugs during their beta testing. Simple as that.