I have been a palm treo user for years, and now I looking to switch to the new 8350i from nextel. I have been carrying 2 devices (plam) and cell phone for 12 years.
My question is I have been using plam desktop for 12 or more years and I like it for its simplicity over outlook. Does the Blackberry have a similar product or does it just sync to outlook? I have gone to 2 nextel store and no one has an answer.

Thanks

Sounds like you're on a personal plan like me. I don't use Outlook with my BB Bold, but if you want a desktop application, that's pretty much it. I believe Yahoo and (I"m sure) Google will sync your BB data so you can use their web based portal.

I'm using Google to sync contacts and calendar wirelessly, no problems and I barely miss being on a corporate BES. Google just added tasks to the features available in the web portal so I'm sure they'll be updating their sync program to sync with BB tasks. That means, for now, no task or notes sync.

For notes, I don't use the memopad, I use ideaMatrix which is much better. Tasks I use todoMatrix, again, much better than the standard BB apps, but these are preimum programs.

Regards-Michael G.

BB doesn't have anything similar to PalmDesktop. As the previous poster mentioned, Outlook is the most used application. Google Sync can work for contacts and calendar info. You would need an email client on your desktop to read mail there. Mail doesn't syn so there are many you can use. Outlook has it all in once place and makes it easier to keep everything current and in sync.

...and everything syncs with Outlook which is useful for when you decide to switch devices down the road.