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daload · Jun 6, 2005, 10:18 AM

Hi All,

I need a good PDA that will sync nicely with iCal (I would like to be able to add events and to-dos from the PDA), Address Book, Mail and what not.
I tried out a Palm T3 but did not like the way it synched up via bluetooth, also the iSync plugins were sketchy.

I have a 1.25 G4 Powerbook 15", Bluetooth, Tiger OS X.

Could you all recommend me a good a PDA?

Thanks,

Erik

turtle777 · Jun 6, 2005, 10:24 AM

Palm PDAs in general are better to sync than a Windoze based PDA. I wouldn't sync with BT on a day-to-day basis though. With a cradle via USB is more stable.

-t

Krypton · Jun 6, 2005, 12:08 PM

With software from markspace.com, PocketPCs work just as well with OS X as Palms.

daload · Jun 6, 2005, 05:16 PM

Is there any other options for PDA's?

Randman · Jun 6, 2005, 05:23 PM

Treo's the hot pda these days.

Severed Hand of Skywalker · Jun 6, 2005, 10:25 PM

Try the palm lifedrive.

fisherKing · Jun 6, 2005, 10:35 PM

what's wrong with the t3?
i just got one, and love it.

i sync with bluetooth...
address book, ical...work great.

(only memos go to palm desktop, an otherwise-useless app)

AC Rempt · Jun 7, 2005, 12:38 AM

They don't make T3s anymore, so you have to really hunt to get one.

I also have a T3, and it's a good PDA. With Missing Sync, the aforementioned MarkSpace software, it's even better. I sync with iCal and Address Book without a problem, and I even surf the Web via Bluetooth and my G5.

BT syncing is slow, though. More a problem on the BT end than the PDA end, from what I've read.

jaxxe · 09:56 AM

Just ordered the Lifedrive. Had the Palm Pilot way back in '97. Gone through the Sony Clie phase. Been a PPC user, then bought the Zaurus CL-3000 (4GB). Returned the latter, still have the PPC. Got a Newton Messagepad 2100 too! But looking forward to the arrival of my Lifedrive, hopefully tomorrow. Maybe will post about it... when I finally put it down, maybe...

The Wolf · Jun 7, 2005, 02:31 PM

I just bought the Treo 650 with Verizon. I gotta say that I am now really pleased with this device. However, I completely hated it initially since: (1) it's not a flip phone; and (2) I couldn't get used to the interface (not nearly intuitive as a Mac). However, after setting up the Bluetooth sync, downloading a couple apps (Snappermail, pTunes [like iTunes], TCPMP [to watch ripped DVDs] and something to even view my efaxes on the phone), I NOW REALLY LOVE THIS THING.

It syncs both ways with my AIBook (to and from), and finally gives me the ability to leave my AIBook at home once in a while (I have always brought my Mac with me becuase I need access to my calendar at any given moment for my work). The bottom line is that it's not a Mac, but is nevertheless a pretty nice tool that's easier to carry around. The way it interacts with iCal is still not perfect. It will NOT properly record a multiple day event from iCal (only the first day will be logged). Further if you use certain symbols in iCal like π or ∆ it will not be able to print the event at all and simply log an error message to that effect. However, I think that overall it's definitely a step in the right direction and will hopefully only get better. Plus, from what I hear, it's way more powerful than the blackberries.

P.S. the Bluetooth sync works fine for me (I have nearly 500 contacts in my AddressBook.app and 4 different calendars in iCal which I use pretty extensively). A sync only takes a couple minutes to complete so long as I haven't added a bunch of new apps to it. In the event that new apps are added it will take a little longer during the first sync only.

TimmyDee51 · Jun 7, 2005, 04:41 PM

Agreed. The Treo rocks. I have a 600 (no BT), and I haven't had any issues with synchronization. If anything, I'd say Tiger has made syncing Palms better.

midwinter · Jun 9, 2005, 08:29 PM

Originally Posted by jaxxe

Just ordered the Lifedrive. Had the Palm Pilot way back in '97. Gone through the Sony Clie phase. Been a PPC user, then bought the Zaurus CL-3000 (4GB). Returned the latter, still have the PPC. Got a Newton Messagepad 2100 too! But looking forward to the arrival of my Lifedrive, hopefully tomorrow. Maybe will post about it... when I finally put it down, maybe...

I think we might be the same person. Had a Palm Pilot, upgraded it to the Pro, then a Visor, then a Newton 2100, then a T-610, then a Clie, now an iPaq.

iPaq driving me NUTS with sync issues and the iApps/iSync (I sync among three Macs) and am thinking about a T3 or T5.

AC Rempt · Jun 9, 2005, 08:58 PM

I have/had a Newton 130, 2100, a Palm III, and Clie 610T, an iPaq and now a T3. I am getting to the point where I'm pretty tired of the platform though because it just doesn't seem to evolve that much. I really want a nice Web tablet that I can take on the road with a minimum of connection hassles. The LifeDrive does look good, and playing with it a Fry's was fun, but it doesn't seem to be much of an improvement over the T3 except for a few more features.

As for syncing, Missing Sync makes my Palm life easier, and I imagine it would also help for PPC.

Severed Hand of Skywalker · Jun 10, 2005, 01:25 AM

I owned the original newton, the 130 and the 2000. I got a Palm Zire 72 a couple years ago. I like the hardware but I found the OS so damn primitive to the newton OS I couldn't take it. I sold it 6 months ago.

TiDual · Jun 10, 2005, 04:36 PM

While I'm neither a fan of MS or Dell, I went for a Dell Axim x50v: fast, 640x480 res, wifi + bluetooth, and very nicely built. With the large capacity battery it easily runs 8-10 hours. Plays ripped DVDs beautifully (you can get a 2hr film down to about 500MB using handbrake, and play the films on the PocketPC using betaplayer). PocketMac Pro does a pretty decent job of syncing, via cradle, bt + wifi.

midwinter · Jun 10, 2005, 09:55 PM

Originally Posted by TiDual

PocketMac Pro does a pretty decent job of syncing, via cradle, bt + wifi.

PM Pro worked great for me for nearly a year, but lately it's been an utter PITA. I borrowed my wife's old Tungsten T and have been using it for the past few days, and the sheer ease compared to the iPaq is astonishing. I'm going to hold on to the T for a few more weeks, but I'll likely sell my iPaq+kit and buy either a T5 or a T3.

Timothy Maxwell · Jun 12, 2005, 08:55 AM

Please let us know how you like the LifeDrive when it comes in.

Timothy Maxwell · Jun 12, 2005, 08:55 AM

Originally Posted by jaxxe

Just ordered the Lifedrive. Had the Palm Pilot way back in '97. Gone through the Sony Clie phase. Been a PPC user, then bought the Zaurus CL-3000 (4GB). Returned the latter, still have the PPC. Got a Newton Messagepad 2100 too! But looking forward to the arrival of my Lifedrive, hopefully tomorrow. Maybe will post about it... when I finally put it down, maybe...

Please let us know how you like the LifeDrive when it comes in.

jaxxe · Jun 14, 2005, 10:33 AM

Originally Posted by Timothy Maxwell

Please let us know how you like the LifeDrive when it comes in.

I'm a happy LifeDrive owner. I've had it for exactly a week now. It does everything I expected, then some. Wifi was a little dodgey over the weekend, but seems to be working fine now. Bluetooth connectivity is sweet.

There is a noticeable lag in app launching, but nothing that annoys me. There is even an app out now "Shark Cache" that does away with most of the lag.

I downloaded a program the other day that allows me to connect wirelessly to my wireless network drive. I can view the directories, upload to the network drive, and download from it. Never even attempted to this from my iPaq, but the LifeDrive made it easy.

I've got several movies on there. Playback is good enough for a device like this.

The slip-case is top-notch. I would expect that after paying so much - 60,000 yen in Japan!

The body feels very good in my hand. The aluminum is always cold at first but warms to your hand - quite comfortable. You may not believe this, but the LifeDrive is just a little heavier than my Nokia 6630!

Wherever I am in the house the LifeDrive is with me. At work, at breaks, on the commute. I'm happy.

I've read a number of reviews with some criticsm about the LifeDrive, but not many say they don't regret getting it.

-cornelius

Severed Hand of Skywalker · Jun 14, 2005, 11:56 AM

Shame the lifedrive is so damn expensive. You can get laptops for that price nowadays.

turtle777 · Jun 14, 2005, 04:44 PM

Originally Posted by Severed Hand of Skywalker

Shame the lifedrive is so damn expensive. You can get laptops for that price nowadays.

A laptop for the price of the lifedrive ?
Thanks, I take the lifedrive. That's last longer and give me less of a headache...

-t

Phat Bastard · Jun 14, 2005, 04:48 PM

Thanks for the mini-review of the Lifedrive, jaxxe. I'm curious, are you using the Lifedrive to listen to music at all? Do you find it is too bulky to carry around to listen to mp3s? I started a thread on this topic but no one has replied to it so I thought I'd ask about it here.

AC Rempt · Jun 15, 2005, 03:54 PM

Hey jaxxe,

How does the wi-fi impact the battery life? I just bought a wi-fi card for my T3, and it drinks battery juice a gulp at a time.

It's good to hear you like you LD, though. The forms on Brighthand seem pretty split on it for a number of reasons.

lhparker4 · Jun 15, 2005, 06:51 PM

I'm so glad I found this thread...

Our company uses Oracle Calendar (also known as Corporate Time) on our company PowerPCs and iMacs for scheduling meetings, etc. At home, my wife uses iCal on our 800 MHz PowerPC G4 to schedule family stuff. I'm constantly missing meetings or events because I don't have one device that reminds me of events on both calendars. I'm thinking of finally migrating from my paper organizer to either a PDA or a smartphone that can unify all my scheduling. My concern is that if I try to sync up both calendars to a single application on a PDA, things will get overwritten or screwed up. Is there some work around for this? What would you recommend to somone buying their first PDA or smartphone who works with Macs at work and at home?

AC Rempt · Jun 15, 2005, 08:14 PM

You should be able to use a PDA to sync your calendar though you might have to update your wives on it manually unless you keep them both on iCal.

This first thing I would recommend is Mark/Space Missing Sync because Palm's software on the Mac isn't that great. Missing Sync does a much more elegant job of linking your Mac with a Palm.

Let's see what others have to offer, and welcome to the thread.

lhparker4 · Jun 16, 2005, 10:48 AM

Thanks for the warm welcome. Any one else care to chime in on this topic?

AC Rempt · Jun 17, 2005, 02:46 PM

Guess no one else has anything to say, so I'll point you to brighthand.com, a very active and solid PDA site.

Good luck.

doucy2 · Jun 17, 2005, 02:50 PM

yea i loved the t3

doublep · Aug 14, 2005, 07:44 AM

To those who bought the LifeDrive:

Could you tell me if you can play movies (DVDs ripped to Divx format for handhelds) with it?

Thanks.

Buck_W · Feb 11, 2006, 03:34 PM

Originally Posted by The Wolf

I just bought the Treo 650 with Verizon... The way it interacts with iCal is still not perfect. It will NOT properly record a multiple day event from iCal (only the first day will be logged). Further if you use certain symbols in iCal like π or ∆ it will not be able to print the event at all and simply log an error message to that effect.

I'm considering a Treo 650. It will be my very first PDA, so I have no experience at all with any of these things. I am very interested in syncing it with iCal, so would someone please elaborate a little more on what I can expect?

The Wolf · Feb 11, 2006, 04:09 PM

Expect pretty much everything to work except as noted above. BT wireless synching is amazingly fast (I have over 750 contacts in AddressBook, and use iCal exclusively for my office calendaring system). Also, it syncs both ways (Treo -> AIBook and AIBook -> Treo). Here's a good resource...
http://discussion.treocentral.com/forumdisplay.php?f=67 Personally, I didn't get any of the extra sw like Missing Sync, etc., b/c it's working just fine without it. If you have any specific questions, I'd be happy to try to answer them.

fwiw, I just got DUN working over BT. It is really nice to have and I don't even use a data plan. I just use an earthlink dial-up account and my minutes.

kcmac · Feb 11, 2006, 05:29 PM

I use my iPod.

I've had all the Newtons and several Palms. With my PB and iPod, I am set. Plus, I got my music with me.

slugslugslug · Feb 11, 2006, 08:30 PM

Originally Posted by kcmac

I use my iPod.

I've had all the Newtons and several Palms. With my PB and iPod, I am set. Plus, I got my music with me.

Did you read the original post?

... (I would like to be able to add events and to-dos from the PDA) ...

You may be all set with the iPod, but daload won't be.

daload: I hear good things about smartphones using the Symbian OS with Series 60 or UIQ interface. The former is usually on Nokia phones and the latter mostly Sony Ericsson (the p800 and p900 series). UIQ uses a stylus, and while S60 doesn't, I hear the GUI is very easy to navigate.. A lot of said phones are pricey, but perhaps not as much when you compare to the combined price of a phone + high end PDA.

iSync support is usually there, but I don't know how the selection of Apps compares to PalmOS or WinMo..

Buck_W · Feb 11, 2006, 11:13 PM

Originally Posted by kcmac

I use my iPod.

How detailed is the calendar on the iPod when it is synced with iCal? Is it more detailed on the Treo?

mikochu · Feb 12, 2006, 01:00 PM

I have a Clie NX80 laying around. Anyone have one of those? Wondering if Missing Sync is worth purchasing...