Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

icruise · Mar 16, 2003, 04:57 AM

I'm interested in maybe getting a new PDA, but I want something that can be synched with my powerbook, preferably via bluetooth. In particular, I am thinking of the CLIE PEG-TG50, since I would like a built-in keyboard, along with bluetooth. I'd like to sync with Entourage rather than iCal, although either would probably be ok.

I know that you can use The Missing Sync to use a Clie on the Mac, but the webpage doesn't mention bluetooth support. I know the PEG-TG50 is too knew for people to have gotten it yet, but maybe someone has had experience using a bluetooth memory stick or the PEG-NZ90, which has been around longer. Any comments?

ajprice · Mar 16, 2003, 07:33 AM

I know you're looking for a Clie, but I have a Palm Tungsten T which has Bluetooth built in. Bluetooth sync works fine, except for after the Mac has woke from sleep for some reason, Bluetooth won't connect then, and you have to restart the Mac. Don't know where the problem is with that, Mac OS X, Palm OS, or Bluetooth. The advantage of a Palm over a Clie is that you don't need any Missing Sync stuff (I was thinking of holding on for a Clie SJ33 myself, but then the I got a Tungsten with a BT USB adapter for free).

Cadaver · Mar 16, 2003, 08:39 AM

With MacOS X, you don't need The Missing Sync to sync to a Sony Clie. The "only" thing The Missing Sync gives you in MacOS X is integration with iPhoto, iTunes and the ability to mount the Clie's memory stick on the desktop. But for basic Palm OS sync, it's not necessary.

The Missing Sync is pretty slick actually. I can export MP3s right to my Clie TEC-665C right from iTunes with a couple of clicks. And iPhoto will export pics right to the Clie in the proper format & size. It's nice.

hadocon · Mar 16, 2003, 09:02 AM

Bluetooth sync works fine, except for after the Mac has woke from sleep for some reason, Bluetooth won't connect then, and you have to restart the Mac. Don't know where the problem is with that, Mac OS X, Palm OS, or Bluetooth./B]

You have to reboot your Mac to get synch working after a system sleep? Jesus. That sucks. This is why I no longer use any of my palms. The hassle of having to reboot just to synch is BS. Someone (Apple / Palm / whoever) has to address this problem. I mean gimme a break. This ruins the whole functionality of the palm. What if I wanted to sunch some directions to a party in a hurry, but I cant because my computer has been sleeping all day (as it usually does when I am at school). I have to sit there like an idiot and wait for my computer to reboot and all my login apps to launch before I can synch a few lines of text? I can just write it down on paper for christ sakes. My f*ckin Newton has a better synch experience and it has been EOL'd for over 5 years!

Gimme a break Apple/Palm - your solution is a POS.

I have owned 4 palms/clies over the years and I want to like them. The problem is with Palm Desktop. You know what? It simply does not work. Neither does iSynch.

My advice is to wait a bit. Apple knows that the PDA experience on OS X is crap - I am going to wait until the end of the summer before I even look at PDAs again. I know, I know. I want one now, but the simple truth is that the hassles with OS X make it not worth it right now. Those that use Palm PDAs with OS X are either huge gadget freaks that are using them as toys and not production enhancers, or developers...

If all you want is quick easy synching of address, to do's, small text files, small pics etc. get a t68i - It is not perfect, and I admit that I would rather have a cool Palm, but the t68i just works whereas the Palm does not.

If you have an insatiable lust for gadgets, beleive me a t68i with a bluetooth headset is just as cool gadget-wise as any palm.

slider · Mar 16, 2003, 12:15 PM

Originally posted by hadocon:
You have to reboot your Mac to get synch working after a system sleep? Jesus. That sucks. This is why I no longer use any of my palms. The hassle of having to reboot just to synch is BS. Someone (Apple / Palm / whoever) has to address this problem. I mean gimme a break. This ruins the whole functionality of the palm. What if I wanted to sunch some directions to a party in a hurry, but I cant because my computer has been sleeping all day (as it usually does when I am at school). I have to sit there like an idiot and wait for my computer to reboot and all my login apps to launch before I can synch a few lines of text? I can just write it down on paper for christ sakes. My f*ckin Newton has a better synch experience and it has been EOL'd for over 5 years!

I think the sync problem is just with bluetooth, not a usb cradle. The Newton has no bluetooth.

hadocon · Mar 16, 2003, 12:55 PM

Originally posted by slider:
I think the sync problem is just with bluetooth, not a usb cradle. The Newton has no bluetooth.

The cradle is also weak. How many people hae that working reliably? Palm desktop screws up users regularly. Crap.

Cadaver · Mar 16, 2003, 01:43 PM

I use iSync/iCal, Documents To Go, Palm Desktop (for memo pad) and a freeware Mail.app conduit on my Clie (via cradle) and it works all the time, every time.
No rebooting. Works after sleep. It just works.
Sorry you've had bad expereices, but Palm syncing works just fine for me. I'd say I've got a pretty slick setup. No less functional than any I've seen on a PC.

hadocon · Mar 16, 2003, 01:51 PM

Originally posted by Cadaver:
I use iSync/iCal, Documents To Go, Palm Desktop (for memo pad) and a freeware Mail.app conduit on my Clie (via cradle) and it works all the time, every time.
No rebooting. Works after sleep. It just works.
Sorry you've had bad expereices, but Palm syncing works just fine for me. I'd say I've got a pretty slick setup. No less functional than any I've seen on a PC.

Not too shabby, I guess. Can you read PDF's on your clie?

torifile · Mar 16, 2003, 01:55 PM

hadocon,
The rebooting thing is not a common issue. I've not had any problems syncing my TT with my 12" powerbook. I didn't even have to reboot after I first installed the palm software, even though it told me I need to. So far it's been smooth sailing.

maxintosh · Mar 16, 2003, 02:27 PM

Agreed. The Tungsten|T syncs without problem with my PowerBook running 10.2.4.

Just a warning, though. A lot of people don't like the Clie keyboards. They're not at all like the Treo thumbboard. You should try one out in the store before you buy such an expensive machine.

glideslope · Mar 16, 2003, 06:07 PM

I've been syncing my Clie SJ30 with Palm Desktop 4.0 on 10.2.4 for a while. Never have any issues.

My understanding is that Missing Sync is required on any Clie with Mp3 abilities. The SJ33 will not sync on my mac. The only real difference over my SJ30 is it's Mp3 capability.

icruise · Mar 16, 2003, 07:27 PM

Thanks for all the replies so far guys. Am I right in that none of you is using bluetooth with a Clie?

I considered the Tungsten, but I really want a keyboard. I don't have any illusions about typing long things on it (my Zaurus has a pretty good keyboard, but anything more than a few lines is painful). Still, for entering an appointment or whatever, it should be fine. I really don't like graffiti or onscreen keyboards. I got relatively good at graffiti back when I had a Palm V, but I came to the conclusion that it just wasn't a good idea. I felt like I was being made to jump through hoops just to use my PDA. Also, for some reason the Tungsten isn't sold in Japan (aside from imported English versions) and I want Japanese support.

What about the synching with Entourage issue? Any problems there? I'd rather use that than Palm desktop.

as2 · Mar 16, 2003, 09:26 PM

No, don't use bluetooth with my clie, but would like to if I can get a memorystick adaptor for my T615.

Just for the record I've had no problems using my clie with iSync, Documents to Go, Palm Desktop and Mail.app.

Adam

JB72 · Mar 16, 2003, 10:27 PM

More than a bit on the delicious side. I do wish it had the lighter metal of the other models though. I'll be watching for prices to fall on this model.

icruise · Mar 16, 2003, 11:29 PM

And your point is?

JB72 · Mar 17, 2003, 12:38 AM

Originally posted by Icruise:
And your point is?

Just to provoke you to sarcasm.

Actually I just thought I would mention it as it seems we are both in the market for a similar product. Although I really couldn't justify buying a Clie that didn't have a camera.

icruise · Mar 17, 2003, 02:38 AM

Originally posted by JB72:
Just to provoke you to sarcasm.

Actually I just thought I would mention it as it seems we are both in the market for a similar product. Although I really couldn't justify buying a Clie that didn't have a camera.

It is a pretty cool product, but I already have a much nicer digital camera, so I couldn't really justify paying extra for that. Also have an iPod (and an MP3 playing Zaurus), so MP3 playing does nothing for me. I've had several PDAs with cameras in the past -- admittedly much worse quality -- but I found I would use them a lot at first but then the PDA features would turn out to be the most important. It's also surprisingly big, and of course expensive.

That's why I am considering the PEG-TG50. It also looks like it would match my 12" powerbook pretty well...

JB72 · Mar 17, 2003, 01:37 PM

It is a pretty cool product, but I already have a much nicer digital camera, so I couldn't really justify paying extra for that. Also have an iPod (and an MP3 playing Zaurus), so MP3 playing does nothing for me. I've had several PDAs with cameras in the past -- admittedly much worse quality -- but I found I would use them a lot at first but then the PDA features would turn out to be the most important. It's also surprisingly big, and of course expensive.

That makes sense. I have an iPod, but I generally use a 35mm camera for pictures, but want a digital camera for easy snapshots. Sounds like we're both trying to minimize the total number of devices in our bag.

That's why I am considering the PEG-TG50. It also looks like it would match my 12" powerbook pretty well...

That does seem like a better solution if you already have a digital camera.

Anomalous · Mar 17, 2003, 03:04 PM

Originally posted by hadocon:
You have to reboot your Mac to get synch working after a system sleep? Jesus. That sucks. This is why I no longer use any of my palms. The hassle of having to reboot just to synch is BS. Someone (Apple / Palm / whoever) has to address this problem. I mean gimme a break. This ruins the whole functionality of the palm. What if I wanted to sunch some directions to a party in a hurry, but I cant because my computer has been sleeping all day (as it usually does when I am at school). I have to sit there like an idiot and wait for my computer to reboot and all my login apps to launch before I can synch a few lines of text? I can just write it down on paper for christ sakes. My f*ckin Newton has a better synch experience and it has been EOL'd for over 5 years!

These kinds of problems were common under OS 9, especially with KeySpan adaptors. However, at least for USB, things are much better in OS X, although I don't know about Bluetooth.

icruise · Mar 18, 2003, 11:34 PM

I got a chance to play with the new PEG-TG50 yesterday. Overall, pretty cool, but the keyboard does kind of suck. The keys are not tall enough. They barely stick out above the surface making it hard to push them. But I'm sure I could still type faster than I could enter data with grafitti. It's got a nice feel to it, and it's pretty small. The PDF viewer application was very impressive.

I also found an old article in an online Japanese mac magazine that talks about syncing Clies with macs via bluetooth. Interestingly they acted like it might actually be a good solution, since they didn't have the problems you have when you try to use the cradle. They were using a bluetooth memory stick module and a USB bluetooth adapter (along with the beta version of bluetooth support for OS X) but they said bluetooth syncing worked with all of the Clies they tried. So I am thinking that it would probably work. Not sure if I want to be a guinea pig though.

The other possibility is the Sharp Zaurus SL-C700. It's more expensive, and syncing with the Mac is completely impossible at the moment (although some people are apparently working on it) but it does seem very cool and many of the accessories from my old zaurus (AC adapter, batteries, 802.11b card, SD card, microdrive, etc) will work. If it had better battery life, I think I might go with it, but as it is it looks like it would get worse battery life than my powerbook, which is really bad for a PDA. Hmmm...

icruise · Mar 25, 2003, 03:06 AM

Well, I went ahead and bit the bullet and bought the Clie PEG-TG50. Interestingly the closest store to me said there could be as long as a 3 week wait to get them after ordering, but the next store I tried had them in stock...

Anyway, it works fine with the mac using bluetooth (haven't tried USB syncing yet, but my guess is it won't work without The Missing Sync). But I was able to get it to sync with my 12" powerbook without much trouble and with reading any instructions. I had a little trouble with the device key concept, but once I figure that out, it went smoothly. I'm syncing with Entourage using the Microsoft handheld conduit, and it seem to work perfectly. This is the Japanese version, but the English one shouldn't be any different. It's pretty nice.