Has anyone out there ever gotten an 8700 series to sync to a mac via bluetooth? If so, I'd love to know the steps you took. I cannot get it working at all. I can sync via the USB cable and PocketMac, but cannot get it working via bluetooth. I assume that PocketMac will be needed in all cases since I am not a BES user.

For what it's worth the whole experience has been very un-macish and user unfriendly. This PocketMac stuff feels like its put together with toothpicks and scotch tape.

It can't be done.
Maybe someday, but not now.

Bummer. It seems like one of those "don't hold your breath" items as well.

I've been looking at many posts, because I'm trying to decide between a treo 650 and and bb 8700. I have found that one can sync a bb via bluetooth if they downlowd pocketmac.net. Also, if anyone has some objective advice about the pros and cons concerning both your wisdom is welcome. Thank you.

Bluetooth sync is too slow anyway. I did it with my treo and the sync speeds were glacial. Enjoy that glacier joke by the way, since your kids won't know what one is.

chi20696: I used Palm devices for many years before switching to BB a few years ago. I jumped because Palm wasn't supporting the Mac platform the way it once did, and was hinting about dropping support entirely.

Thus, I can't state at this point that the Treo is the way to go if you own a Mac, but I'd suggest investigating Palm's HotSync support and which Macs/OS its desktop software works on. If both appear to work with the latest Macs (especially the Intel ones) and the latest version of Tiger, then Palm has a real advantage over BB in terms of syncing with your Mac/iApps because its desktop software was excellent when I was using it.

From there, it's a matter of determining which platform/phone offers the features you want/need, and which plan you want and how much you want to pay upfront/monthly. The BB is strongest in handling e-mail, especially corporate, so that's the strongest reason I use the 8700.

Good luck!