vB Easy Archive - Anyone useing a P800 with a Mac?

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Anyone useing a P800 with a Mac?
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Posted by: Beedut

I'm thinking of getting a P800. I know it works with iSync but is the Mac locked out of it's other features?
Info on the website is extremely limited and doesn't even list Mac OSX as an OS it can use. YET it's featured on the Apple site. I don't want to blow $1000 bucks if the thing is esssentally incompatible.

Posted by: Ludwig

what do you want the mac to do with it? I use my P800 with my powerbook g4 and it works just fine

Posted by: Beedut

Can you do it through the USB connection or is it Bluetooth only?

I've got a Dual 1.25 and a G5 in a production environment so I don't want to go bluetooth if I don't have to.

Do you need special software to convert video or does it use the quicktime codec?

The website specs say...
The PC requirements are as follows:
Microsoft®Windows® 2000, Me, XP
Minimum recommended hardware configuration for the version of Windows in use
30Mb free space on hard disk

Posted by: Ludwig

I have not done anything Quicktime with my P800, so I cant answer to that.

Nor can I answer to to USB cable issue if it will work. I strictly use bluetooth and its flawless.

Your G5 should have bluetooth built in, and I dont see any issues in using it even if it is a 'production' or technical computing machine.

Posted by: mhedges

fyi - although iCal sync is officially not supported, there is a mod you can make in the settings in iSync which allows iCal to sync with the P800.

I found this solution on the apple support pages

Posted by: ill trooper

You should know that syncing is only supported in OSX, but most Mac people I know are on OSX anyway.

I use a dual g4 and a USB 'd-Link' brand Bluetooth adaptor, also use the adaptor on my G4 Powerbook and it's very easy to use.

The syncing works well although some people have had troubles; The first time I sync-ed, I let the phone create my address book in the Mac OSX 'Address Book' and used it as a foundation to create the 'uber-address' book, which is what OSX likes; all your contacts are stored in the same place - all your e-mail addresses, names, phone numbers, etc. are all in the same place.
I used to have one address book on my computer, and that was synced with my Palm device, but my phone was totally different and my e-mail app had it's own address book as well.

Now with iSync it's across the board - my desktop, my phone, my powerbook all totally in sync. Also backed-up on my iDisk (remote server space with Apple, through my .Mac account). With sync-ed photos for the address book on both the phone and the Mac. Very slick and convenient. Especially with the phone being able to generate and send e-mails, it's nice to have all that stuff all the same.

Transferring files to and from the phone is easy also, the USB cradle is useless (nice stand though) since SE doesn't support Mac with it's little 'p800 Suite' or whatever so once again it's Apple vs The World... and they answer well with the 'Bluetooth File Exchange' designed for all blutooth phones. Transferring files is quick and easy, you drag and drop on the app (I put it in the dock), the only hiccup has been that sending a file to the phone brings up a dialog bog on the Mac that the phone does not support the file type, but if you hit OK it sends successfully anyway, so who knows... Sending from the phone, the file gets saved on the desktop or wherever you specify.

The only thing you can't really do is a 'system back-up' from the p800 to restore the memory contents after a catastropic crash or system flash upgrade to the phone, but most avoid this anyway since it also replaces some of the phone's new system software with old files you just updated with a flash upgrade... Some people just back everything up to their MemoryStick and replace it when they get the phone back.

Also it seems there are numerous utilities (Tracker is one I think) that aren't available on the Mac, (bummer), but I've been all right without them.

The new iSync (1.2) will be out with Panther OSX 10.3, allegedly to be released on October 3rd, (10-3-03, get it? duh) and it adds full calender support for Symbian (re: p800) phones although there is a very basic 'hack' that you can do to support it right now... Look on the iSync discussions on the Apple site and it's all over the place there...

I'm not sure what you mean by 'production enviroment,' but I don't think you'll have conflicts of any kind. Unless you mean your office computer guy will freak out if you install software, I know how those guys get... Maybe you use USB dongles or something.
I use my Macs for professional audio, (ProTools 6, Reason, Spark, Live, etc.), professional graphic design (illustrator, photoshop, quarkXpress, fonts, etc.), and professional video (Final Cut, After Effects, etc,) and I have been effectively using my machine with Bluetooth active, actually it's totally transparent as far as I can tell...

*Plus a weird little thing you can do is turn on Bluetooth in the OSX 'Address Book' app and it displays a 'caller-id' style dialog box on your computer screen to tell you who the incoming call is from when your phone is ringing - and if it's in your address book, the picture comes up too.
Cool if you have your phone in your pocket or out of sight... and you can send SMSs from the computer.

As for the Quicktime question, I think you need to convert the video to a very specific video codec for it to play correctly on the phone, also something that can be found on this site somewhere... Look on versiontracker.com for a converter.

Sorry for the long post but I looked for answers like this too before I got my p800, hope this helps...

Posted by: bestjudge

Quote:

Originally posted by Ludwig
I have not done anything Quicktime with my P800, so I cant answer to that.

Nor can I answer to to USB cable issue if it will work. I strictly use bluetooth and its flawless.

Your G5 should have bluetooth built in, and I dont see any issues in using it even if it is a 'production' or technical computing machine.

G5 is not gonna have bluetooth build in ,but you can get as an option.

Posted by: mnalla

I am using a PB G4 with all of my contacts, e-mails, tasks, notes, and calendar in Entourage X.

I am interested in also buying a P800 or the next generation (P810/P900) and before I do that I want to know if there is a way to sync between my Entourage X and the P800 (or the nextt generation) for all my contacts, tasks, calendar, and notes. This would then allow me to share the details in these features back and forth between the 2 devices as I now do with my Palm TT.

If this is possible then I can ditch my Palm TT and then just carry around a single device instead of my phone and my PDA. I suppose I can connect the 2 with Bluetooth.

Thanks in advance for any information and advice.