[colug-432] seek linux-friendly phone that consolidates old Palmfunctions and phone

[clharting at rocketmail.com]

I purchased a Palm Centro (Sprint) on ebay back in October.  Not exactly Linux-friendly, but it works for me.
An option you might consider is the Palm Pre Plus (Verizon).

Chris Harting

'Always do right.  This will gratify some people and astonish the rest.' -- Mark Twain

-----Original Message-----

From:  R S Prigan <lordscotus1 at gmail.com>
Subj:  [colug-432] seek linux-friendly phone that consolidates old Palmfunctions and phone
Date:  Fri Jan 28, 2011 3:34 pm
Size:  2K
To:  colug-432 at colug.net

Greetings

I have long been seeking a phone (Verizon carrier) that integrates the
best functions of my old Palm Pilot (iiixe) and my handy phone!  I
seek easy sync of Addressbook and Calendar, along with phone
functions.  I don't want to pay Verizon's outrageous data fees.

In the past I used the Palm IIIxe with KAddressbook, KOrganizer, and
KPilot.  These worked nearly flawlessly up through KDE 3.5.10.  I find
that KDE 4 has dropped Kpilot ...  Also, use of the Palm had fallen
off even before I moved to KDE4, as the phone was eminently more
portable (see next).

For my phone, most recently LG vx8300, I have had success with BitPim,
importing the recent pertinent portions of my Calendar (from the
KOrganizer .ics file) to gain READ-ONLY access to my Calendar (with
some truncation of entries due to phone's limitations).

In my quest to integrate these functions, I recently tried an LG
Cosmos phone. While I like the keyboard and setup, it failed to even
equal the ability of the vx8300 via BitPim:  I had difficulty copying
the Cal to phone with BitPim, yet alone finding a way to 2-way sync
it!  (So my daughter appreciated inheriting a new texting monster
phone!).

BitPim development seems stalled, however?  www.bitpim.org  So I might
be SOL there soon.
I've looked at some other syncing utils, to no avail.  might re-visit

** ANY ADVICE on phones that might actually SYNC with Addressbook and
Calendar from KDE4  (can still use ics files, but somewhat perplexed
by the Akonadi server framework,  .... "if it's not broke ...")  I DO
like the format of the Cosmos:  slider w keyboard, NOT touch).  The
Samsung Intensity II seems quite similar, and *may* actually work with
BitPim ...  and verizon can sell sans data package!

**  The ideal might be a phone that actually RUNS linux, and could be
synced easily. if all else fails there's rsync or the like to at least
copy latest edition of .ics to phone, pending finding a smart sync

Sometimes I wonder if the best solution is simply to carry my flip
phone and add a netbook to whatever container I might tote!?

Your experiences with phones will be appreciated!

Scott