THSCC Forums

I'm thinking that I'd like to consolidate my Palm and my cell phone into one unit. It looks like there are 3 (4) primary options out there.

1) Palm OS 5 (major Palm renovation)
2) Palm OS (older)
3) Microsoft Windows of some sort
4) Blackberry

At this point I just use a normal old cell phone and a Palm IIIx. I'm not too attached to the Palm OS, and really just want to be able to have an address book/cell phone/day planner together. I do NOT plan to buy any internet functionality.

Some sort of compatibility with a Mac is preferred (so I can synch the address book to the Mac, etc). I know the older Palm OS and the Mac play well together. I haven't researched any of the other options yet.

Thanks for the advice.

Scott

You didn't mention which service provider you prefer. If there is a preference, that can make a big difference.

The other things you have to consider are do you *want* to use it like an original Palm was intended (with graffiti input) or do you care if it is thumb keyboard based?

I've personally got the Kyocera 7135 with Verizon. I like the size, the fact that it is a flip, the external CID display, and that it's Palm. I don't like that it's PalmOS 4.5 as there are no decent web browsers for it (though you apparently wouldn't care about that). I don't like that it crashes fairly often (once every couple weeks or more you find you have to hard reset it, which isn' t completely horrible as it doesn't lose it's data or anything). I don't mind graffiti. It's also been VERY sturdy (surviving drops and the like).

I have been doing research and *really* want the new Treo 650, but I'm not even going to consider switching to Sprint to get it. I don't see the Treo 600 as a big enough "upgrade" to switch to it now, either. I had a Kyocera 6035 with Sprint for a long time and I find Verizon's coverage MUCH better for the areas I frequent than Sprint. That may not be true for everyone, though.

I prefer PalmOS to any of the other options, but a) I hate MS, and b) I've had a Palm device since the first 128k version came out (and pretty much every major upgrade in between). Heck, I can go back and see what was in my schedule like 7 years ago since I've been able to maintain the same database since day 1. Occasionally that's been useful, too.


--Donnie

Thanks Donnie.

I hate MS as well...

I've got AT&T wireless and have no real complaints, however I was planning to make the jump to Verizon based on the good feedback from almost everyone that has them.

Scott

Scott, not so much a hardware suggestion but a provider one. Try and borrow a phone from the providers that you're considering, and bring it home and use it. I switched to Verizon last year (from Sprint) and it worked great everywhere...except my house. Where it basically did not work at all.

Brought home a borrowed Cingular phone and gave it a shot. I've been happy with my Cingular Nokia 6200 ever since.

Most (all?) of the phones nowadays have limited PDA function built into them. Mine's got a calendar that you can set alarms for, and the address book is very feature rich. From what I understand, I can even sync the calendar and address book with my Lotus Notes calendar at work, all over Infrared (though I have not attempted this).

I hated my Palm Pilot. Stupid graffiti writing thing never worked right for me.