Smartphone and Macs and Linux

[danaeris]

On a similar note, any strong opinions about how well specific smartphones sync with Macs, or with Linux? I'd like to be able to purchase or legally download a wide variety of affordable practical applications, and synchronize my mail, calendar, to do list, and possibly other materials as well.

I feel that since Palm is abandoning the OS I ought to explore other options such as Blackberry and Windows Mobile.

Note that I don't really see the iPhone as being for me at this point.

Comments

[laura47.livejournal.com]

i am quite happy with the palm centro and my mac. i don't care what people say about palm being "abandoned", there are tons of programs and i'm happy with it.

when i was trying to pick a phone a year ag my friends said i'd die of frustration with windows mobile.

[geekosaur]

I'm not under the impression they're abandoning the platform; they've actually been pushing PalmOS 6/7 (true multitasking and memory protection) toward release.

Windows Mobile is slowly improving but still not IMO even up to PalmOS 3. Blackberry is somewhat lame unless you have an Exchange server and run their special server software. I have heard of some work on syncing the former with MacOS and Linux; the latter isn't supported by either.

I have one very big reason not to touch the iPhone with a ten foot pole: AT&T's customer support is a living nightmare.

[hellsop.livejournal.com]

I'm curious; why "lame"?

[geekosaur]

My understanding is that most of the fancy mail and messaging capabilities rely on the Exchange gateway. For a long time you couldn't do email at all unless you had the gateway, but I think they support some reduced functionality talking to an IMAP server these days.

[hellsop.livejournal.com]

Essentially, Blackberry.net provides the mail functionality for BIS (Blackberry Internet Service) users, and the Exchange thing you're referring to is a Service application that can run alongside Exchange, Lotus Domino, or Novell Groupware and manages BES (Blackberry Enterprise Service) users. The BIS service includes attaching up to four (I think) additional mail accounts served by POP or IMAP servers, and the IMAP actually works poperly, keeping and deleting mail from the mailbox when requested to. There's a tiny version of the BES service software downloadable for free from RIM, but it's limited to a single user, for the really geeky. Most civilians not using Blackberries as part of a corporate setup do just fine with BIS, and no Exchange is needed by the individual.

[geekosaur]

hm. I don't think I intended to imply that ordinary individuals needed to run Exchange; but then, I tend not to think of Blackberry as useful for individuals, vs. corporations.

[hellsop.livejournal.com]

Touching on the point made in the prior comment: here's a fellow's fairly recent adventure setting up Ubuntu to sync PIM and music on a Blackberry Curve (http://www.chipbennett.net/wordpress/index.php/2008/05/synchronizing-a-blackberry-in-linux/). Functional, but complicated to set up.