Back in 2007 Nokia started releasing iSync plugins. Also back in 2007 I read a similar Sony Ericsson announcment.

The slight difference: Nokia iSync plugins actually exist.

As every project needs a kick-off… here it is.

• There is a great tool called iSync Plug-In Maker (it’s included in the Apple Developer Tools)
• Apple already has many Sony Ericsson plugins included in iSync (so it’s easy to diff Apples plugins with the plugins you exported via iSync Plug-In Maker)

And finally:
We crafted a Sony Ericsson K800i plugin via the iSync Plug-In Maker. It’s 100% compatible to the plugin provided by Apple. As it is not possible to modify “exported” plugins via the iSync Plug-In Maker, we are providing the dot ppdoc “source” file here as a free download.

@ Sony Ericsson:
We’d provide more samples, but since we just have this old and shabby K800i we had no chance to througly test other plugins (but it looks like our K770i plugin works as expected, so far noone complained). Of course donations are very welcome. What about a nice new K850i?

Maybe you should also add an iSync section at developer.sonyericsson.com where developers upload iSync plugins for your review (of course you should offer some incentive for uploading).

@ All:
Your welcome to modify the plugin and build plugins for new phones.

• Probably the documentation at developer.sonyericsson.com (-> Docs & Tools -> Phone Specs -> Whitepapers) will be helpful (looking up SyncML specs etc).
• Use the automated tests of iSync Plug-In Maker.
• Have a look at the iSync plugin introduction at thetaoofmac.com
• Read Apples iSync Plug-In Maker userguide.
• If there already is support for a similar phone, use FileMerge (also included in Apples Developer Tools) to check for differences between your plugin and the existing plugin.

Of course donations are welcome, too 🙂 If you blog this article, please add ???U0UtaVN5bmMh??? (SE-iSync! base64 encoded) to your title and your tags. We???d like to track the spread of this article. If it spreads like hell, probably Sony Ericsson will more likely offer iSync plugins in the future 🙂

via open.source.mac