[X4U] Smart phones for Mac

[Dave B]

 From experience:

Syncing Crackberries to a Mac can be troublesome. One must use a third- 
party solution from either PocketMac (provided free by RIM) or  
MarkSpace (not expensive). Neither one is flawless. I have a  
frustrated real-estate agent who I'd consider to be a power user of  
their 'berry. They have troubles with calendar events becoming  
corrupted and giving iSync fits. For what it is worth, RIM has begun  
hiring Mac developers, but it will be a while before we see anything  
from them.

My wife and I both have "older" Nokia smartphones (E61 and N80) that  
are fully supported by iSync. We have very few issues with them.  
Leopard does a better job of syncing all day events than Tiger. Nokia  
also has a nice app for syncing music / photos between their phones  
and iTunes / iPhoto. Call quality on the Nokia's is better than a  
Crackberry or a Treo. Software availability is astounding for the  
Symbian phones.

I can't fault your co-worker for not considering the iPhone. For me,  
having a QWERTY keyboard on my E61 makes hammering out emails a  
breeze. I've tried the iPhone and just couldn't get it to work well,  
even after 30 minutes of trying. And the lack of cost effective data  
plans in Canada makes the iPhone only slightly more useful than a  
Touch. Never mind the 'closed' platform, lack of official availability  
here, having a camera isn't permitted in many offices I go to,  etc,  
etc.

You might want to suggest to your co-worker that they take a look at  
some of the phone importer websites to get a better idea of what is  
available. Companies like Expansys http://www.expansys-usa.com/ or  
even Tiger Direct http://www.tigerdirect.com/ for example have plenty  
of unlocked and unbranded phones available.

Regards,
Dave

---
"Imagine the disincentive to software development if after months of  
work another company could come along and copy your work and market it  
under it's own name... without legal restraints to such copying,  
companies like Apple could not afford to advance the state of the art"

-Bill Gates, 1983 (New York Times, 25 Sep 1983, p. F2)

On 22-Apr-08, at 07:46, Simon Forster wrote:

> Well, my significant other is due to copy across data from her  
> (work) Crackberry onto the Mac and then synch with her Palm (Palm OS  
> not Windows mobile OS. What does the Treo use?) - so I'll let you  
> know how it all goes.
>
> ATB
>
> Simon
>
>
> On 22 Apr 2008, at 11:30, Jesse Leo wrote:
>
>> Hello,
>>
>> Anyone have any experience using either a Blackberry or a Treo with  
>> a Mac? A
>> co-worker is trying to decide between the two (she adamantly  
>> refuses to
>> consider an iPhone for whatever reason). Basically she just needs  
>> it to
>> store contact info and send/receive email. Oh yeah, and make calls,  
>> too ;)
>>
>> Any info or advice would be great.
>>
>> Thx,
>> Jesse
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> X4U mailing list
>> X4U at listserver.themacintoshguy.com
>> http://listserver.themacintoshguy.com/mailman/listinfo/x4u
>>
>> Seven Cent Deals - Great legacy stuff Great Legacy Price
>> http://www.drbott.com/prod/db.lasso?cat=Seven+Cent+Deal
>>
>
> _______________________________________________
> X4U mailing list
> X4U at listserver.themacintoshguy.com
> http://listserver.themacintoshguy.com/mailman/listinfo/x4u
>
> Seven Cent Deals - Great legacy stuff Great Legacy Pricehttp://www.drbott.com/prod/db.lasso?cat=Seven+Cent+Deal