[PLUG] Phone/PDA Recommendations

[Chris Dawson]

I'll second the Treo recommendation.  I love my Treo.  I cannot live
without it.  It has decent support on Linux, which is to say, the best
that you will find with any other cell/pda combo right now.  PalmOS
has the largest variety of apps.  Lastly, and this should not be
understated, they have the best interface for a pda hands-down.  I
switched temporarily to a Blackberry, but couldn't use it due to zero
linux support, but also because I could not get used to the interfaces
for entering data.  Once you start entering data into your Treo, you
will not be able to use other interfaces because they are inferior,
IMHO.  This goes for the PocketPC Treo; I'd stay away from that.

Chris

On 12/28/06, Wil Cooley <wcooley at nakedape.cc> wrote:
> On Wed, 2006-12-27 at 16:46 -0800, Charles Sliger wrote:
> > I'm looking for insights on phone/pda combo's.
> >
> > I like the look of the ones that open up and have a full keyboard.
> >
> > I use MS/Outlook now but I'd like to transition to something else like
> > Thunderbird.
> >
> > I've gotten the impression that syncing with something other than Outlook is
> > rare.
> >
> > I want to find a device that can sync with my desktop for things like
> > schedules, contacts, notes, etc.
> >
> > I've had problems in the past getting repeating appointments and tasks to
> > sync.
> >
> > Any insights appreciated.
>
> A Treo is the way to go.  I have the same Kyocera that Rich mentions,
> but you can no longer get new service for it due to its lack of E911 or
> somesuch.  But I don't miss it; my Treo 650 is so much nicer--the color
> screen is much more usable in low-light and much higher res, so Google
> Maps[1] is actually usable.  It has enough CPU power and an SD expansion
> slot so it's also quite capable as a music player.
>
> And yes, it syncs with Linux.  Kinda.  The data formats for calendar,
> contacts, etc are well-supported, since they haven't changed much over
> the years.  Actually syncing with the stock 'visor' kernel module is
> spotty; it works sometimes and sometimes it doesn't.  I don't think it's
> seen much love lately.  pilot-link[2] has finally had a new release
> after 3(!!!) years, which includes support for talking directly to the
> device via libusb, instead of having its access mediated by a kernel
> module.  From the little testing I've done, it's much faster and works
> reliably, but currently requires to be run as root to be able to
> open /proc/bus/usb/* as it needs.
>
>
> 1. http://www.google.com/gmm/treo
> 2. http://www.pilot-link.org/
>
> Wil
> --
> Wil Cooley <wcooley at nakedape.cc>
> http://nakedape.cc
>
>
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