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What smartphones offer best compatiability with different OS's

F

foges

Senior member
Im thinking of either getting a blackberry, iPhone or a HTC. Thing is i need it to be compatiable with different OS's. I run OS X Leopard on my notebook and linux-ubuntu (mainly) plus vista on my desktop. I really need it to be compatiable with a callendar/organizer programs. So who is best?
 
All of the major OS's offer decent MacOS support, and all of them have methods to sync under Linux that aren't too painful.

iPhone has great Leopard support, but getting the best Linux support involves jailbreaking the phone which could be a warranty invalidating action. If you don't particularly mind jailbreaking the iPhone, then you can install OpenSSH on the iPhone and then you can "scp" stuff back and forth over WiFi and there are software packages to enable media syncing. Alternatively, if you have a newer iPhone, you can sync data to it using Funambol http://lifehacker.com/388785/s...ne-wirelessly-in-linux

Blackberry has great Leopard support too, but doesn't offer any official support for Linux either. OpenSync allows syncing with Evolution, but OpenSync was not particularly user friendly last time that I saw it (you had to compile new releases yourself...). The Funabmbol Blackberry client also works well under Linux. If you are comfortable with compiling things, then Opensync would work for Linux, and Blackberry supports Leopard.
http://www.funambol.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenSync

Windows Mobile devices generally have decent MacOS support, and decent Linux support using Funambol.

Nokia has good MacOS support Linux support and there are plenty of tutorials about sync'ing Linux contacts using Kontact and, more recently, Funambol, and how to enable file transfers.


I think any of them will work for you. You have good Leopard support on any of them, and Linux supoort for all four using Funambol. Funambol works on all 4 OS's just about equally well for sync'ing data. For media sync'ing, the iPhone will require jailbreaking, but the other three have good media sync'ing support under Linux - particularly Symbian where you can just mount the filesystem and move the files around using "cp" or your Konquerer or Nautilus or whatever. For the others, just use mini-SD cards and adapters and mount the Flash card and move files as you see fit.
 
i use a samsung i760 with wm 6.1 with my mac and my wifes vista laptop. i sync with both, and tether with both for internet when i don't have wifi available ( i travel 24/7)
 
Thanks. Seems like i shouldnt be running into too many problems. I think ill get a blackberry. Anyone know what the release price of the blackberry curve should be?
 
edit:

Sprint $149 after $100 MIR
Verizon $149 after $100 MIR
TMobile OOS so dont know
ATT $149 after $100 MIR


So, $149 after $100 MIR. Requires new 2 year contract unless your negotiating skills are 1337
 
lol. Thank you. I actually live in europe, but was thinking about getting an "unlocked" one from the states. Any idea on prices without contracts? and do they sim lock the phones?
 
Originally posted by: foges
Switzerland, the BB's are super expensive here, you?
Click to expand...

UK. There are TONS of cheap BB's on ebay.co.uk. You'd probably get quicker/faster/cheaper service from there. Pearls are cheap, Curves are a bit more.
 
Thanks. Ill defenetally have a look there when the bold is released.

Since you know so much blackberry stuff, maybe you can answer another question i have. I called my provider yesterday and they said that if i wanted to use a blackberry with push mail i had to get an additional subscription of 20CHF per month which includes 5MB 😱 I thought that was quite expensive, she claimed it was due to that they needed to set up some things with london servers. Now she also said that i wouldnt need to buy that additional package to use blackberry messenger (i just pay for the data sent). Does this sound logical to you? I was under the impression that it BBmessages and PushMail worked the same way and was based off the PIN?

EDIT: Ok i have to conclude that the biggest cellphone company here is run by idiots (or super smart people that are good at fooling consumers). Here is the deal.

I checked out thier website and it said that to use blackberry services it only costs you the normal websurfing price (0.10 CHF / 10kB).
Or you can get a BlackBerry plan for 20CHF a month which gives you 5MB download in the country and 0.5MB outside the country.
Or you can get a Surf plan for 10CHF a month and you get 50MB in the country (250MB if you are under 26, which i am 😀)

So I decided to call them, thinking that maybe the Surf option could not be used with PIN messages and stuff, only http, etc...

Here is my converstionation with a rep:

Me: If i get a blackberry can i use the MB's from a Surf option to to BB stuff.
Rep: Yes of course that is no problem, but if you are getting a blackberry, you should defenetally get the special BB plan.
Me: Well that plan costs twice the price and you only get a tenth of the transfer, so its prety much 20 times as expensive....
Rep: Well yes, true...
Me: Ok, thanks (hang up. think to myself, "those idiots, i wonder how many people are fooled by this plan, just because it has blackberry in the name)
 
Yeah, well the BB plans 'should' be unlimited data like most are in the UK, but BB push email data is compressed so for personal use you should be 100% fine with 5Mb a mo. A high volume email only corp user will use maybe 10Mb a mo.

The BB deal will give you BIS email (ten email accounts pushed, gmail, hotmail, POP3 etc) an @blackberry.com address and BB messenger. If you juts want to use the Web or google maps/gmail app then the surf plan would do, I guess. Those plans don't seem very clear.
 
I'm not doubting that 5MB is more than enough for emails, but you still get less transfer at a higher price.

On thier website it actually says "next to the cellphone plan you dont have to pay anything extra for BlackBerry® E-Mail". The Blackberry email option is actually just for file transfer. The rep i talked to yesterday must not have known what she was talking about.
 
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