To say Kevin was "overjoyed" with the news of Desktop Manager finally coming to Mac would be an understatement. I ventured into New York today for a T-Mobile event to check out the Curve 8520, and I was excited to see an early version of Desktop Manager for Mac up and running. RIM Product Manager Andrey Feldman took some time to give me a quick look at the software, and I must say it is great to finally see it in action. There is no exact release date (none that I could get anyone to admit at least) but I was told it will be available in September. I was able to play around a bit and got a good look at some of the features.
The software for Mac is a "trimmed but functional" cousin to that of Desktop Manager for PC. It will operate in the same manner with some mild differences like the ability to sync with iCal calendars and easier OS updates. It has the "same functionality with a different interface", and has been designed to be as user friendly as possible as it is geared toward the consumer market. You will be able to easily sync with iTunes, even across multiple Macs, and install OS updates with a few clicks. The biggest note is that the software will supposedly not allow you to install a leaked operating system on your device, only those that have been officially released by a carrier. I'm not sure exactly how this could be achieved, but details were vague so we'll have to wait and see. Not many of the features are new, but overall just a quick look those included are as follows:
- Integrated Media Sync for iTunes
- Backup and Restore
- Install/Remove 3rd party applications
- Ability to automatically sync multiple iCal calendars
- Ability to sync with Entourage
- Ability to sync multiple devices on multiple Macs
- Event settings for syncing (which device calendar to sync with, merge etc.)
- Automatically detects new carrier released OS upgrades for devices
- Ability to rename a device and view available free device memory
