MacUser reader Jason has a dilemma, one that we thought perhaps the MacUser community could give him a hand with. Without further ado, let me pass along his question to all of you:
I use a Blackberry, and even with the Missing Sync, find it awful. I’m so spoiled by my Mac’s ability to just work I found my self missing it on every mobile phone I use.How about it, MacUsers? I really like my E815, but I don’t think it would meet Jason’s needs, since it wouldn’t really be good for email. Will Jason need to hold out for Apple’s mythical iPhone, or is there something out there that can do what he wants? Hit the comments below and help him out.All that said, I’m in the market for a new phone. Ideally, in a perfect world, I can check e-mail and sync contacts/calendar items. All the other features are secondary.
Any ideas on what phones out there boast the broadest support for Mac users? What phones with these features do other mac user have?
Honestly, the most Mac compatible phone I have found is my Motorola RAZR v3 BLK from Cingular. It can, using iSync, synchronize calendar items and contacts from Address Book and iCal, and, if you have Entourage 2004 updated to the latest update, you can sync calendar and contacts from there as well. The RAZR can check POP3 email, and you can set it to check every so often. I love mine for email. It doesn't have a QWERTY keyboard, but it does have predictive text that is a huge help. You can pick up a RAZR for very little these days. It can also act as a modem for your Mac. The only downside is that it only has a GPRS connection. If you are with Verizon, however, it has EV-DO.
I use a Sony Ericsson T637 (it's a year or two old) and it syncs really well with my contacts and calendar, but I've never used it for email; it has the capability, I just haven't had the need.
Try the Nokia N80. It has a wide range of email support, uses the Safari browser and has GPRS, 3G (US & EU style) and WiFi. For Mac support you may need to get an iSync plug-in from novamedia (http://www.novamedia.de/sync/index.html).
The Treo Has been the best for me. Since Mark/Space's most recent Missing Sync update, I have been in heaven with the way that my Treo and Mac communicate. It does all of the all that he is looking for, mail, syncing, full mac compatibility, it's just great! If you have a bluetooth mac or bt adapter it's even more heavenly.
You should try Pocketmac for syncing with your balckberry, it is free for blackberry owners. Goto www.pocketmac.com to download it. Take a look and you may not want to get rid of your blackberry, I swear by mine!!!
i have a sony ericsson k750i and it works flawlessly with my powerbook g4 and macbook pro over bluetooth and when i need to get the fabulous 2.0 megapixel pictures off the phone i plug it in the USB and up pops iphoto. addressbook, isync, internet connect and may apps play well with this phone right out of the box, no software from sony is needed, in fact in the documentation sony just points you to apple to use this phone. sony did just release a theme maker utility for use with sony phones. by the way, i have a theme on my phone that makes it look like Mac OS X. here is a good review of it: http://www.mobile-review.com/review/sonyericsson-k750-en.shtml
Anyone have any experience or thoughts on the new Motorola Q from Verizon? It looks promising, aside from the steep $80/mo data plan they practically require.
Anything from SonyEricsson.
You should try Pocketmac for syncing with your balckberry, it is free for blackberry owners. Goto www.pocketmac.com to download it. Take a look and you may not want to get rid of your blackberry, I swear by mine!!!