which pda(s) are compatible?

C

connie T

Hi I want to buy a pda and want to be able to upload my entourage &
address book to it. Do you know which brands are compatible with
entourage for Mac? The stores I asked at do not seem to know much about
Macs. Also simple is good, does anyone know which brands require the
least amount of preparation? Thank you!
 
C

connie T

Thank you, I hope to buy something that is compatible right out of the
box, but if I have trouble finding that, it is good to know there are
other options.
Anyone else know which brand(s) work?
 
C

connie T

Thank you Alan. What I meant by "out of the box" is that I was shown a
couple of pdas that have the conversion language built right into them,
so you only have to plug the pda into your computer & it is ready to
down/up load info, without having to install a separate operating
system or other software. I think the name of the product line might be
iPAQ. It may only be windows compatible, not Mac. hmmm it is looking
like there may be no way around having to install extra software.
 
M

Michel Bintener

Connie,
in the current PDA market, there are two major handheld devices, Palms and
Pocket PCs. Pocket PCs use a flavour of the Windows CE operating system, I
think, whereas Palm devices use the Palm OS. Of these devices, Palm devices
will work "out of the box", as you put it: they come with a Mac-compatible
software called Palm Desktop which will allow you to transfer data from you
Mac onto your Palm and vice-versa. Additionally to that, there are free
conduits available for iSync and Entourage, which means that if you'd rather
use other software than the one provided by Palm, you can easily do so, for
example by synchronising your contacts and calendars with iCal and Address
Book through iSync, or by synchronising your Palm data with Entourage.

Pocket PCs, on the other hand, are more popular among Windows users, so they
don't come with Mac software, i.e. they won't work "out of the box". The
iPaq is one of those; note however that there are third-party solutions
available which will allow you to sync them with your Mac. By the way, there
are also more advanced third-party solutions available for Palm handhelds,
in case the conduits that come with it are not powerful enough for you.

So, to sum it all up: most Palm OS devices will work "out of the box",
Pocket PCs won't. And Palm has announced that they won't be supporting the
Mac platform for future releases of Palm OS, so as long as the Palm pilot
you'd like to buy runs on Palm OS 5.x or lower, everything should be
alright.
 
C

connie T

Thank you Michel for taking the time write such an informative reply!
(Sorry it took me a while to reply, too many to-dos - part of the
reason I want a PDA to keep me organized)

I think I will just head on over to my local electronic store and check
out the palms, it seems they will be easier to set up than playing
around with other software.

Thanks especially for the heads up on the fact that if I go with Palm I
need to buy one that uses OS 5.x or lower!

If you are in Canada - Happy Thanksgiving!
 
C

connie T

WOW, that is an excellent tutorial Mickey! Thank you for sharing it
with me. I particularly like that you include links to all the
downloads you mention in it. Very useful!
I think I have all the info I could possibly need now for making my
choices & how to make my choices work for me.
Thank you again, & Happy (Canadian) Thanksgiving!
 
S

Scott Melendez

Connie,

Even the Windows Mobile handhelds (formerly known as Pocket PC) do not work
³out of the box². Windows users must have install ActiveSync, which is part
of the installation CD with any Windows Mobile device, just as Palm users
need to install HotSync. (You CAN use iSync if all you want is to sync
contacts and calendars, but you would still need a way to sync data between
Entourage & Apple¹s Address Book/iCal.)

I use both types of devices. Palm handhelds are the most compatible with
Macs; even the Documents to Go software is pretty much on parity with the
Windows version, so you can create native Word and Excel files on the Palm.

Since Windows Mobile devices need ActiveSync to work (and I don¹t think
Microsoft has any plans for ActiveSync for the Mac, nor do I think will
Apple build it in its sync services), Mac users need a third-party conduit
such as Missing Sync or Pocket Mac to work with these devices. However,
neither of these programs currently work with the newest and coolest Pocket
PC devices, which run Windows Mobile 5.0 and ActiveSync 4.0. To add insult
to injury, if you use Acrobat 7, you can no longer sync PDFs to Palm
devices. Some iPAQ and Dell models still use Windows Mobile 2003, which you
can use with the above-mentioned vendors.

Which is a shame, because I personally like the those devices better.
Whatever one may say about the Windows interface, it¹s better than Palm¹s. I
use my iPAQ to sync with my Windows laptop, and it uses the same Outlook
interface for its PIM functions (which is more similar to Entourage than you
might think). I find the iPAQ a more enjoyable device to use overall; I¹ll
probably like it even more once Mark/Space gets the software to work with
Windows Mobile 5.

You also get more ³bang for the buck² with Pocket PC models ‹ just about all
the HP and Dell models have WiFi and Bluetooth built in, with very nice
screens, and good software. Windows Mobile and Excel Mobile are familiar
territory, and even Internet Explorer on Pocket PCs is better than Palm¹s
browser.
 
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