What's your favorite PDA (bluetooth, small, sync /w OS X, and no cellphone)?
July 2, 2005 6:34 AM   Subscribe

What's your favorite PDA ? My wishes are: no cellphone like the treo, bluetooth, ~small form factor, and good syncing with OS X. Thanks!
posted by joshgray to Computers & Internet (10 answers total)
 
After switching a few months ago, I found my trusty Dell Axim to be a royal pain in the ass to use with my powerbook. There are a handful of pocketPC-OSX syncing apps, the one i tried was a little cumbersome.

Instead, I ebay'd the Axim and picked up a Palm Tungsten E2 and haven't looked back. The bluetooth hotsync is a joy to use. I also use the pda to keep my Win2k box at work running groupwise in sync with my powerbook.

Office Depot recently had a $100 MIR on PDAs over the memorial day weekend and they also have $ off coupons - never pay retail on a PDA!
posted by neilkod at 7:25 AM on July 2, 2005


Response by poster: I have been eyeing the other one, the T5. Thoughts? I totally used to love my old Palm V. So small and sleek. Either of those that small but still usable?
posted by joshgray at 7:46 AM on July 2, 2005


I've got a Tungsten T5. Works for me, and not had a problem using it with my Mac at home, and Win2K at work. The T5's screen is very nice, it's built solidly, and the battery life is good. I don't use it as much more than an eReader, though, which I guess is a bit of a waste of its capabilities.

keswick, I can't the hotsync button on my Moleskine. Please hope me!
posted by veedubya at 9:48 AM on July 2, 2005


I've got a Zire 72 that I sync with my Mac at home and my PC at work. In both cases I had to resort to third party apps for syncing (Chapura for the PC and Missing Sync for the Mac). The form factor is not much larger than my late lamented Palm V and it's got a camera, Bluetooth and a SD memory slot. Battery life is nowhere near as good as the Palm V but since it's color and much faster, I can deal with it.
posted by tommasz at 12:51 PM on July 2, 2005


Joshgray, thanks for posting this question. I too used to love my old Palm Vx and was about to post the identical question, word for word.

Let me know what you get and how you like it?
posted by ikkyu2 at 2:54 PM on July 2, 2005


Love my Palm m500. If you're looking to upgrade a Vx, the m5xx series are almost the same form factor but better in many ways. Bet you can find one real cheap if you aren't looking for the whiz-bang new features of the Tungstens.

I want a Treo 650 but I'm not sure I can afford it. :-/
posted by grouse at 4:20 PM on July 2, 2005


I have a Tungsten T3. Its an older model with less built-in memory than the T5 but slightly smaller due to the sliding design. No problems at all with it and it works well with my Powerbook. Of course you can always use memory cards to increase the storage capacity, and I'm sure you could find one for a good price now.
posted by manilamd at 7:52 PM on July 2, 2005


Ignoring the OP's no-cell-phone constraint, I love my Samsung i500. I think it's better than the Treo 6x0 (flip, for one) but didn't get nearly the press of the Treo for some reason -- probably lack of thumbboard. Still, since it's also my cell phone and very small, I always have my PDA on me, and "that has made all the difference". Far smaller than the Kyocera 7135, by the way, and smaller even than the Treos. And I believe you can now buy it for $150, which is a small fraction of what I paid for mine.
posted by intermod at 7:48 AM on July 3, 2005


I thought I'd wait until your question had been answered before sticking my oar in but intermod is absolutely correct. I've had a number of PDAs, both PocketPC and Palm, and they're only useful if you have them with you all the time. Having to carry two gadgets around means you're less likely to take the PDA with you when you leave the house. You then end up jotting down notes on paper and forget to enter them into your PDA. The PDA then becomes out-of-date and is used less frequently. And so on.

If your PDA is embedded into your phone then it's in your pocket whenever you need it. This is how you get maximum usefulness out of it. Just get a Treo ;)

If you're still dead set on a standalone PDA and want Mac compatibility, avoid PocketPC. Maybe even look at the Linux PDAs?
posted by blag at 12:53 PM on July 3, 2005


Does the Samsung i500 sync nicely with the Mac?
posted by Taken Outtacontext at 5:45 AM on July 4, 2005


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