Windows Mobile owners have had a love/hate relationship with Microsoft ActiveSync for years. Sure, it's a lifesaver when you want to synchronize data with Outlook. But it doesn't do a great job of managing multiple partnerships, transferring files between your PC and PDA, or synchronizing with Macs.


Microsoft has replaced ActiveSync in Vista with a new Mobile Device Center. But here's a few programs that might help if you're running Windows XP. Most aren't alternatives to ActiveSync so much as add-ons.


ACiD Sync is still in beta, but it already shows a lot of promise. It does one thing, and does it well. That's synchronize data between your PC and a storage card on your device every time you cradle your PDA or sync over Bluetooth or WiFi. You must have ActiveSync installed for this to work.

If you've ever tried copying a large file from your PC to your PDA using ActiveSync you know that it's slow-going. ACiD Sync manages this task much, much faster. It also provides a nice progress meter to give you an idea of how long you'll have to wait for the synchronization to complete.

Today Microsoft officially launches its Zune media player. But I've had an iPod competitor in my pocket for the last few years: My PDA. And it's got something that the Zune doesn't -- podcast support. Well, kind of.

Just like the Zune, Pocket PCs don't come with software allowing you to automatically download podcasts, or to easily organize them. But with a little tweaking, and a couple of free programs, you can add those functions.

You can use Juice to download podcasts to my PC and a program called Mobsync to transfer them to my PDA. It might lack the wow factor of a podcatcher that runs on your PDA, like Pocket Podcasts. But unlike Pocket Podcasts, this sytem runs automatically in the background, and doesn't require you to connect your PDA to the internet to download new shows.

Juice (formerly known as iPodder), is probably one of the best cross-platform podcatchers. It runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux. The free program is pretty easy to configure. You can select podcasts from a list or copy and past your selections. You customize how frequently the program checks for new episodes, and how long it will keep episodes. And you can place them in any folder on your computer.

Next, use Mobsync to automatically transfer the files to your PDA. Mobsync lets you sync as many folders as you would like on your PC with a folder on a Windows Mobile PC. So if you create a podcasts folder on your PC and place all of your downloaded shows in subdirectories, you can sync the whole group of them with a folder on your PocketPC, either in main memory or on a storage card. When you're done listening to a podcast, you can delete it from your PDA and next time you sync it will be deleted from your computer as well.

Mobsync version 1.09 is available for 9.45 Euros (about $12 US), or you can pick up a free copy of version 0.94 which seems to work just fine for most purposes.

If you're looking for more advanced features, ACiD Sync is a new program that will go a few steps further than Mobsync. For example, say you've got a small memory card, but want to sync hours and hours of content. There's a plugin for ACiD Sync that will resample your mp3s before copying them. Another plugin will downsample pictures to VGA or QVGA resolution. ACiD Sync Lite is available for $10, a full version with support for syncing multiple desktops will be released soon.