Zire 71 and my MAC

[Jidoka]

I'm am completely new to the PDA world and the Palm Zire 71 seems like the right choice as my first PDA. I like the camera and MP3 player options in addition to all the other classic functions. My only problem is that when I went to the Palm website to do some research on the Zire 71 I noticed that alot of the options said "Windows Only" or "Desktop Windows Only" for things like the Palm Photo application and the RealOne Player. Does this mean that if I have a MAC I won't be able to use the camera or MP3 player or transfer files properly? What other pitfalls might I run into with the Zire 71 if I have a MAC? Any help anybody can give to me would be deeply appreciated considering that I am fairly naive in the PDA universe. Thanks for the help.

[kevdo]

There is an application "send to handheld" that will move photos and mp3 files to the appropriate directories on the SD card so that you can use them on the Palm.

It isn't a full featured program like on Windows but at least gets the files there (slowly!) via hotsync w/out having to purchase a card reader.

[ebisix]

You shouldn't have any problems. The support site has some good information about using the Zire 71 with a Macintosh.

http://www.palm.com/support/zire71/

[genoahous]

Another option is buying the Missing Sync (http://www.markspace.com/missingsync.html) from MarkSpace.

I don't have a Mac, but have heard good things about this program.

It integrates into iTunes and iPhoto

[Pride Of Lions]

...but as we all know, market size determines everything. Being only a fraction of the home computer market, us Mac people sometimes have to wait for innovations because developers would rather make a product that caters to most of the people. More people means more money.

But be not afeared! There is hope.

Palm Desktop for Mac 4.1 has the goods you need, including the "Send to Handheld" function.

I'd recommend being cautious installing this over Palm Desktop 4.0. I just did this and it caused some corruption somewhere that I'm still trying to uncover. But, if this is your first PDA (thus your first Palm Desktop program) I wouldn't worry about installing this desktop.

Missing Sync from Mark/Space is primarily intended for the Sony Clie people who use Mac's. Having a Palm branded PDA and with Palm Desktop, you shouldn't need to buy any extra program to make it happy.

Now, there are some programs that you may miss out on. Personally (with my Palm Tungsten T + Mac OX.2.6), I miss that I don't get desktop e-mail synchronization that PC people get. I miss my AvantGo offline web browser that PC people get to have. (AG used to support Mac's.) There may be some other stuff out there that sounds cool to you, until you read the fine print that says "For PC's only." And that's life.

But look at it this way, there getting the bugs out of it before they port it over to Mac platforms. :p

Sometimes.
POL9A