Recommended Palm for use with a Mac?

[j_maddison]

I guess I should've said what I was planning to do with a Palm...

Basically, I need calendar, contacts, pictures, good battery life, Mac compatibility.

Ideally I'd also like web and email functions, movie playback, PDF viewer, micro keyboard.

And last, I don't need (nor want) a cell phone.

So far, it seems my requirements point to a Sony Clié... If I can find one. What model would meet most (if not all) of my requirements?

The Sony Clie PEG-TH55 is the model your looking for if you think that Sony is the best option for you. It has built in wifi, which will give you the internet access your looking for. And like you, I want data on the move but not the cell phone capabilities.

http://www.expansys-usa.com/ These guys sell the device, but its ridiculously expensive there. The US version of the handheld is going for a pretty reasonable price in the UK at the moment, so I was a bit shocked to see it going for so much on the US website.

If you dont mind a thumb keyboard as opposed to graffiti input, you might want to look at a Palm Tungsten C or Tungsten W. The Tungsten C has built in wifi, and the C uses GPRS. You can drop a pay as you go sim card into the C and just use it for GPRS access on the go as opposed to using it as a smart phone, thats what I intend to do when I get an imate jam. You can also add an SD card to the Tungsten W to give it wifi access.

As for OS 6, its not out yet and doesnt look like its coming out anytime soon. Palm were expected to use it on their Tungsten T5 model, but it was a no show. So I wouldnt hold my breath if i were you.

Jason

 

[redeye be]

Can devices be upgraded?

not that i know of.

 

[Yvan256]

Oh wow, while searching for the PEG-TH55, I stumbled upon the PEG-UX50... A palm that looks like an extremely compact laptop. I like it. Haven't checked the price yet, though. 😀

I only wish Apple would make something similar (hasn't IBM made some kind of low-power G3+altivec CPUs?).

A sub-iBook would be perfect. Especially if 10.4 can scale the GUI and stuff. And GPU requirements wouldn't be too high for a "low-res" display (such as a widescreen 640x360).

Make it a full-fledged Mac and the battery last about 16 hours, and they'd sell tons of these.

 

[salmon]

A sub-iBook would be perfect.

I agree, I've been waiting for a smaller (8" screen) tablet Mac, but I finally gave up and ordered a Palm Tungsten E. I will not purchase any MS software at all, so the decision was a pretty easy one. The Sharp Zaurus (Linux based) seemed interesting, but was out of my price range.

I also got 1GB SD and keyboard - I get annoyed at large amounts of stylus data entry, and I want to use it as an MP3 player (and other media). It's supposed to arrive tomorrow.

I was looking for decent Mac-oriented reviews of it, but haven't been able to find any. If anybody knows of any, I'd appreciate it.

I'm curious about converting photos/music/videos to better size/formats. Hopefully there will turn out to be a nice easy way of doing this, it doesn't seem that the default Palm software does much for you based on what I've read. The Missing Sync software looks interesting, but unfortunately is pretty pricey for me.