Best PDA for OS X?

qwikstreet

qwikstreet

OS X Friendly
Which PDA would you recommend? Is there one that would sync up with iCal, Address Book, etc.

Other than iPod, which I know is not really a PDA.
 
The iPod is most certainly not a PDA, you are correct in that. It's a music player with a couple extra features.

Palm, Handspring, and Sony all make excellent OS X-compatible PDA's, and they all use the practically de-facto Palm OS. All synchronize with OS X via iSync or with Palm Desktop, which also doubles as a calendar/address book/to-do list on its own.

Palm's offerings include the Tungsten series, the Zire series, and the m1XX series (like the m105 or m125). Handspring has some cool ones like the Treo series, which are a PDA-cell phone hybrid. Sony makes the Clié series, which is also excellent (the text is actually a bit bigger on the Clié). Almost all Palm-compatible PDA's you can get nowadays have some sort of expansion port, as well.

I recommend you stay away from Pocket PC's, because while they are excellent devices in of themselves, they have extreme compatibility issues with OS X. Palm-based devices are quite easy to sync with a Mac, but Pocket PC's have maybe 1 option.
 
What would you say is the best budget PDA?

I'm thinking of purchasing one also but don't really want to pay more than £100.
 
It's more than 100 you said, but the Palm Tungsten line are great. The T/1 and just-released T3 have bluetooth which are great for wirelessly syncing (even better if you also have a phone with bluetooth, such as the Nokia 3650). The new T3 is sweet, I'm thinking of upgrading from the T/1.
 
The Tungsten E just came out and I have one on the way. I haven't had a Palm for over a year because I broke the screen on my m505. Anyway, the Tungsten E seemed to offer the most bang for the buck. I really like that I can use it as a portable MP3 player as well.

If you're looking for something in the $100 range, check out the new Zire 71. It's a mere $20 bucks more than a standard Zire and it's a way better package.
 
Actually, the Zire 71 costs $299 and is basically a toned-down Tungsten with a camera. The Zire 21 is an advanced version of the plain-vanilla Zire, boasting 8 MB storage instead of 2 MB, 126 Mhz processor instead of 16 Mhz, and Palm OS 5.2.1 instead of 4.1. Check out this chart to compare Palm devices.

You can get a Handspring Treo 300 PDA/phone for $99 if you sign up for Sprint for your cellular provider. If you don't want Sprint, or you don't want a PDA phone, check out some of their other products.

Sony has a number of devices in their Clié line of products, though none on this page cost under $150. My dad has a Clié, though (I don't know which one), and he loves it.
 
Sony's are starting to sync better with Macs, but the Clies are still not up to snuff as Palm is. The Zire are more basic models (think emac) rather than the Tungsten lines (PowerBooks). And with AeroPlayer, Pocket Tunes or even the lousy free Real player, any of the pdas can be used to play mp3s. The Tungsten line is also good because of the built-in bluetooth, which is really nice when you want wireless connectivity with with phone and pda and Mac.
Brighthand.com is a great forum for all the pdas, give it a check and you might find something there that's along your lines and plenty of info/comments on just about every pda.
 
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