Which PDA will be best for...

[flyfish29]

My wife needs a new PDA for her work (school) but is not a PDA power user.

She wants the PDA to do (in order of preference):

#1 reliable syncing with an iBook (new last week) without having to troubleshoot issues.

#2 sync with iCal (she likes iCal and we want to sync/subscribe iCal our iMac at home and iBook at school using .Mac)

#3 reliable/quality hardware

(note: this last one is a wish, not a need. If she needs to spend more money to get the above and the following is possible, then great, but if she can get the above 3 on the cheap the we would probably do that.)

#4 (if possible at reasonable cost) sync with a Filemaker database with roughly 3,000 people in it. (this database has not only addresses, names and school names, but some text fields as well. She only wants to sync the names, school names and phone numbers)

She wants to get one for less that $200, but do as many of the above as possible. What are our options and what are your experiences with the various PDAs in this price range. She doesn't need color screen.

She was using desktop Palm with limited succes on OS9 on an old iBook, and we are still having problems getting her old palm to sync with 4.2.1 on the new iBook using OSX- but we are hoping it was just because she was using an ancient palm PDA.

I did quite a bit of research (couldn't find anything on MacRumors that helped me much) and have taken out the Zire 21 due to data loss when close to a cell phone! (per amazon feedback)

 

[question fear]

ok...i would suggest a palm zire 71 if you can find it cheaply, or a tungsten e...
the distinct advantages of both of these are: color, usb connection, native syncing with isync (at some point palmsource-the people who make palm os-will stop builing this in), secure digital slot (for pictures, large files).
zire 71 also has a built in camera.

in terms of sheer ease of use, the tungten e is an excellent bet. its sleek, small, comes with a flip cover and only does the basics.

also, you shouldnt have too hard of a time with isync/ical/palm desktop once you have it all set. you need to set isync to override the palm desktop and once you do its all happiness and light.

edit: i noticed you said she doesnt need the color screen, but its hard to find a quality one that will perform over time thats NOT color these days...only really really low-end or really old palms are still monotone. also, a search on versiontracker turned up four palm os programs that sync with filemaker pro.

 

[flyfish29]

Thanks for the info...it was the direction I was heading but didn't know for sure. Do you or anyone else know about memory size and the filemaker software programs...would a Zire 71 or the Tung. E be able to hold the database I am talking about as well as sync it. I looked to apple and they have filemaker mobile for a price that syncs everything I guess with multiple PDAs.

 

[question fear]

not sure how big the files are...usually files get compressed by mobile programs (eg wordsmith compresses word docs to fit better on palms). the tungsten e, if memory serves, has 32mb of internal ram vs the zire 71's 16mb...

but if the files are going to run large-ish, and filemaker mobile supports expansion cards (most programs requiring extra mb's usually do) then just pop a secure digital card in the palm...once you set your options in filemaker for expansion card you should see it like normal internal memory.
so it wont be tough for a non-tech/non-palm person to easily utilize the extra space and data.

 

[KingSleaze]

Thanks for the info...it was the direction I was heading but didn't know for sure. Do you or anyone else know about memory size and the filemaker software programs...would a Zire 71 or the Tung. E be able to hold the database I am talking about as well as sync it. I looked to apple and they have filemaker mobile for a price that syncs everything I guess with multiple PDAs.

I like my Tungsten C with built in 58 meg of user-able RAM, but any of the newer ones with an SD slot and, oh say, a 256 meg SD card should more than adequately fill your need for storage space. There are even larger SD cards if you should need even more room.

 

[question fear]

I like my Tungsten C with built in 58 meg of user-able RAM, but any of the newer ones with an SD slot and, oh say, a 256 meg SD card should more than adequately fill your need for storage space. There are even larger SD cards if you should need even more room.

absolutely. sd cards are getting bigger and cheaper....so storage is easy.

tungsten c's extra ram is great...i really wish palm acted faster at dumping more ram into lower end devices...evne now the tungesten c is waaay out of the price point the original poster wanted. and 58 megs free is more than enough for a newbie palm user.

 

[AoWolf]

zire 31 its has a color screen sd slot and 16 megs... Right now palm one has free shipping and you get $50 if you trade in an old pda. I think this would be right for your needs because it is only $150 and has the latest version of the os.