For a company that develops software for PCs and PDAs, Microsoft has never done a stellar job at letting those devices play well together.

ActiveSync and its successor, Windows Mobile Device Center only let you sync your calendar and contacts with Microsoft Outlook. You can't even synchronize with the new Windows Calendar included in Windows Vista.

That's why Laplink PDAsync 4 is so attractive. The program let you sync dozens of devices with your Windows 2000/XP/Vista machine, including PDAs and smartphones running Palm OS and Windows Mobile. But it also lets you synchronize your data with the following applications:

• Microsoft Outlook 98, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2007
• Lotus Notes R5, 6.0, 6.5, 7.0
• Novell Groupwise 6.5 SP2, 7.0
• Lotus Organizer 5.0, 6.0, 6.1
• ACT! 2000, 5.0, 6.0

It'd be nice to see Thunderbird/Sunbird on there, but you can always use BirdieSync for that. PDASync doesn't come cheap. It'll set you back $50, but there's a free trial available.

[via jkOnTheRun]