Will iPhone sync work through VM if I already sync on Mac?

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mhedstrom
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Joined: Wed Jun 06, 2007 23:21

Will iPhone sync work through VM if I already sync on Mac?

Post by mhedstrom »

Hi, I have a Mac, and I run Diving Log through VMWare Fusion (which works like a charm). My iPhone syncs through itunes on my Mac. I'm really interested in getting the iPhone version of Diving Log, but I don't want to mess my Mac sync up at all. If I got the iphone version, and ran the "sync" through Diving Log going over Wifi, that will run independently of any other iphone sync, correct?
gregm
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Re: Will iPhone sync work through VM if I already sync on Ma

Post by gregm »

mhedstrom wrote:Hi, I have a Mac, and I run Diving Log through VMWare Fusion (which works like a charm). My iPhone syncs through itunes on my Mac. I'm really interested in getting the iPhone version of Diving Log, but I don't want to mess my Mac sync up at all. If I got the iphone version, and ran the "sync" through Diving Log going over Wifi, that will run independently of any other iphone sync, correct?
Hi ... I am the developer of Dive Log on iPhone.

Yes, the Dive Log on iPhone's sync over WiFi is completely independent of the iTunes sync that you do over the USB cable to your Mac. In fact, I personally run Diving Log 4.0 through VMWare Fusion on my Mac and regularly sync Dive Log on iPhone with Diving Log 4.0 over WiFi while still maintaining my iTunes connection directly on the Mac natively.

Note that to sync with Diving Log 4.0 through VMWare you will need to arrange for your iPhone and your guest OS to be on the same subnet. The default setup for VMWare is to create a "NAT" network connection for the guest OS. You will most likely need to change the network to "bridge mode" in order for Diving Log 4.0 to see the iPhone.

This works very well, but be aware that in "bridge mode" your Windows OS will be exposed directly to the same network that your Mac is on. So you will want to make sure that your router is providing firewall or NAT protection. If you are on an "open network", you will want to turn on your Windows firewall and anti virus software (if it is not already on) to protect your guest OS.

One final side note. Dive Log on iPhone's data is backed up (along with all your other applications) through the normal iTunes backup of your iPhone/iPod touch. This process is completely separate from the WiFi sync with Diving Log 4.0 but does provide an extra level of safety if your iPhone is ever lost or corrupted in some way. The only way to recover this backup data is via a full recovery of your iPhone.

Please feel free to post back with any specific configuration question that you have or difficulties using the sync feature through VMWare.

Best Regards,

Greg

Greg McLaughlin
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mhedstrom
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Joined: Wed Jun 06, 2007 23:21

Post by mhedstrom »

Thanks for the reply, Greg! When I get some spare time in the next few days (a hard thing to do with a new baby around :), I'm planning on trying it. I'll post if I have any other questions.
mhedstrom
Posts: 46
Joined: Wed Jun 06, 2007 23:21

Post by mhedstrom »

Wow, that was easy. I already had Bridged mode set up on my Vmware, so it basically was just a matter of buying the app, and running the sync.

2 things I noticed in my quick look around.

1) I'd love it if in the section with the air if it pulled the fact that I'm using Nitrox 32 from Diving Log.

2) I'd also like to see the Statistics section fleshed out a little bit more. For example, let me pick "Cozumel" and give me a list of all the dives I did in Cozumel.

Also I haven't noticed, but it'd be cool if it could pull photos from Diving Log as well.

Other than that, I haven't played with it a ton, but it looks great! I'm submitting a review via iTunes after this. :)
gregm
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Post by gregm »

Excellent ... I'm glad that it worked easily for you.

Thanks for the input on the app ... feel free to keep the input coming as I'm continually working on improvements to the app and appreciate all the input that I can get.

If I understand your first point correctly, I think you'll find the "mix" is reported under the dive metrics section (with depth, time, deco, etc.). I went back and forth between the tank section and the metrics section and chose to put it with metrics since it is more relevant to your depth, time and deco information. You just need to tap on that section of the Dive Details page and it will reveal more details including the "mix" if one is set (tap the edit button on that screen and you can edit all the information). I have been thinking about bringing the mix detail up to the overview screen ... let me know if you'd like to see that.

The Statistics section will become more fleshed out over time. I plan to add more statistics in addition to being able to "drill down" to find out which dives match a specific statistic, dive buddy, location, etc. Frankly, I just ran out of time for the first release.

Finally, photos is an area that we plan to work on as well. There are some technical challenges with photos that will take some work on both sides of the wire(less) but we'll get there.

Cheers,

Greg
mhedstrom
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Joined: Wed Jun 06, 2007 23:21

Post by mhedstrom »

I found the mix after you mentioned it. I think where I was expecting it to be was on the picture of the air tank on the main page. I thought it would've been cool to see the air tank with what mix it was in the center of it.

For a first release, I'm extremely impressed with it, and I'll keep my eye out for updates. If you ever need a beta tester for future versions, I'd be happy to volunteer my services. :)
gregm
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Post by gregm »

My original thought was to try to color the tanks so that they matched the type of gas that you were using (I do that with the Nitrox Tools and Trimix Tools apps on the iPhone). The reason that I didn't do it is that the "mix" field in the database format is a free form text field (to support all the different methods of storing the mix used by different dive computers and desktop dive log applications). It is really hard to reliably parse a free form field like that and get consistent results. Printing the value of that field on the tank would suffer from the same problem.

Some day, we hope to have expanded support for technical diving and may be able to be more creative with the extended information that will be available.

Thanks for all the input and the kind words about the release. Feel free to send me e-mail at: "gregm at moremobilesoftware dot com" and I'll add you to the list of folks interested in beta testing new releases.

Cheers,

Greg
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