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That's not my experience at all as a PDA user. I found that my first PDA (a Palm III) became an indispensible part of my life in short order. Over the years I upgraded to newer models and still use my for PDA for mundane tasks because it allows me to perform these mundane tasks more efficiently.
But I also use it as a cellphone , to keep passwords secure, to connect to the Internet, read news, e-books, as a desk and travel alarm clock and for many more things. I don't know if children will really use the device in this article but this mature adult will never grow tired of his PDA.

Sorry if you think the review is too US-centric. I wanted to emphasize the current GSM network availability issues in the United States, without implying to Europeans and Asians that the phone wouldn't work for them. I believe the 900/1800 version offered in those areas works very well, and has fewer limitations than the US version.

So buy the one with the Graffiti pad instead. Problem solved.

Picture of the Treo

It will be upgradeable when GPRS is ready.

What?!?!? A slashdot story with no link. Well, here's one for the Treo

Handspring is recommending that Visor users refrain from using Palm's release of Desktop 4.0, mostly because Handspring hasn't done their own testing with the new software.

However, it's working fine with my Visor Platinum. Just one gotcha - the Palm distribution tries to install update files (which, obviously, don't work on the Visor). The solution is to delete or rename the "PalmOS Updates" folder from the folder that the Palm Desktop application is stored in (it can't find the updates, so doesn't install 'em. Simple.)

A-friggin-greed!

If you want a 16 meg MP3 player, cheap digital camera, and sexy handheld organizer, here's ($31) your ($93) answer ($199).

Oh, and if you're still whining about pocket space, fine($52). STILL under $400.

I agree, one of the reasons I shoot my girlfriend don when she tries to plug the "accompli" is the lack of palm OS (Full sized screen too). I might as well get a Palm 705 (449$). That seams a better deal for me, but the all time killer: The Handspring Treo! If I put these two up for the battle against eachother, I can't see why I would want this Accompli thing. After all the accompli is 649$! (Without service plan). I'm kinda hooked on this service plan here for the Treo, too bad I have to wait a bit for it to be available in Canada (A week or few?).

I agree, one of the reasons I shoot my girlfriend don when she tries to plug the "accompli" is the lack of palm OS (Full sized screen too). I might as well get a Palm 705 (449$). That seams a better deal for me, but the all time killer: The Handspring Treo! If I put these two up for the battle against eachother, I can't see why I would want this Accompli thing. After all the accompli is 649$! (Without service plan). I'm kinda hooked on this service plan here for the Treo, too bad I have to wait a bit for it to be available in Canada (A week or few?).

I find it interesting how the major cell phone manufacturers don't seem to be shy about creating their own proprietary PIM software on each different model phone they produce. I prefer the Treo for its use of PalmOS, which has the market share today - I like the idea of being able to have some of my favorite apps on the device as well. Whereas, something like this, you better like what they put on 'cause you ain't gettin' no different.

The person you are replying to may have been looking here at the Treo site. Since everything he quoted applies directly to Treo and I got the same result as you when looking for the Blackberry price.

An easier way to go is to turn a regular GSM or PCS phone into a text device with OpenDK by Fazigu

thank you

Maybe I am wrong, but dosn't the Treo provide all of these features, and the benifit of a widly adopted OS with programs and a computer sync feature? It seems to me to miss alot of the features of the Treo, and not provide a whole lot in return. Save money, maybe, but you still have to cary your palm around.

It says here "GPRS upgradeable upon availability" - that rather implies it's not GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) at launch. That makes this rather less desirable - it's not "always on", and you're charged by time rather than by data. The fact it says "upon availability" makes this sound like a rushed out product. Compare this with the RIM Blackberry, which has been out for ages and has GPRS.

1. Where is the color screen?

Mid 2002

2. Way to expensive - 549 US dollars "without service activation" I kind of like my current Cellular provider.

Sorry

The color model Found Here It should be out mid this year.

For those who want the scoop, there's a video available with the co-founder of this neat little gadget (he also was the inventor of the Palm Pilot that many have come to love).

The formats supported are RealPlayer, Windows Media Player, and QuickTime. It's available in 56k, 100k, and 300k flavors.

I just watched it and thought it was kind of neat.

http://www.handspring.com/products/treo/choose_spe ed.jhtml

That's a bit disappointing. Handspring's Visor Pro has 16MB. It kinda bumped up the standard (at least in my mind). I'm surprised Palm didn't spring for the extra 8. The thing's already $449, you'd think that they wouldn't mind kicking the price up a bit more for such an important feature.

In response to this from Handspring, probably.

What do you mean, "begin to sell their OS
separately"? Haven't you ever heard of
Handspring?

How do you get a refund for the Windows CE license you aren't using

How do you get a refund for the Windows CE license you aren't using

the IR for data transfer and the IR for controlling your TV are in different parts of the spectrum, that's why you Visor and most Palms for that matter don't do a good job at controlling your TV. You can get an IR transmitter for a Visor that fits into the springboard slot that's in the correct part of the spectrum.

True, but 60 bucks is a little steep when you can get a universal remote for around 10 at Radio Shack.

Now what these things would really be good for is cheating at laser tag. Too bad it's gone out of fashion.

I'm not saying Apple will NEVER release a PDA. I just don't think this is one of them. Now, whether or not they'll be introducing a flat panel iMac at MacWorld, or whether we'll be getting G5s, now those are interesting questions...

For that matter, why would anyone want to be so "wired" as to have a need to get to the web from their handheld in any case?

I spend 30 minutes each weekday on the train going to and from work. Right now I pass the time reading the paper, but I wouldn't mind having this little gadget instead, especially since I need a new cell phone anyway.

Look closer. The Treos are also available with Graffiti.

I doubt if this will really affect Handspring in any major way since they just license the OS from Palm. Palm will most likely be the ones who feel the pain as they're the ones who develop the OS. Besides, Handspring are going to be moving away from the Graffiti input method to that of a built-in keyboard (e.g. Handspring Treo).

Both of Handspring's Treo phone/palm gizmos look like they have chiclet keyboards instead of the standard graffiti area as an option.

Palm seems to have been clueless - could Handspring have known that Xerox was gonna win? Seems like more than coincidence to me...

...Handspring's Treo. (The logo even has a flat line over the 'e' indicating a long 'e' sound.)

I'm sure lawyers will not be involved in this.

From what I've read so far, Cingular is one of the cellular service providers who will be offering the Handspring Treo. An integrated pda, cell phone, messaging system, and all around wireless device plus more bandwidth can't possibly be a bad thing. Hope it works out.

The Handspring Treo is both a phone and a PDA. You were looking for a unit with a keyboard? How's this one?

- 16MB of RAM is mighty good for a PalmOS PDA without an MP3 player built in. I have a Sony CLIE with 8mb of RAM and an 8 mb memory stick and it's easy to keep memory available with very minimal memory management (ie delete the programs you don't use). No PalmOS devices until recently (ie September) had more than 8mb of RAM onboard.

- The Treo 180 is the "base" unit. The color 270 will hopefully have some kind of expansion. It costs $200 more than the mono unit and color PDA's generally only cost $50-$100 more than their comparable monochrome devices (ie, Palm's color m505 is $70 more than their mono m500; Handspring's Prism is $100 more than their mono Neo, even though the Prism has a rechargable battery). The $200 increase must be coming from someplace other than just the screen: Hopefully hi-res and a SD or CF slot will be included. Handspring's FAQ indicates they won't have a SpringBoard Treo anytime soon... which is a shame, since they make damn nice MP3 player Springboards (with lots of additional memory to boot).

- GSM isn't THAT bad in the US. Maybe it's just because I live on the west coast, where GSM (Cingular, Voicestream, AT&T) seems to be more popular than the alternatives (Sprint, Verizon). And, according to Handspring, a CDMA (and/or other network) version of the Treo is on its way.

- The battery life ain't that bad... the Treo has 2.5 hours of talk time or over 60 hours of standby time [handspring.com]... pretty much the same as my Nokia [nokia.com]. Maybe the color Treo will have a better battery, since color screens eat up batteries faster.

- By the way, for the dummies posting about how "big" the Treo is... it ain't that big. My tiny Nokia phone is 4.3" tall, 1.9" wide, and 4.2 oz. The Treo is 4.3" tall, 2.7" wide, and 5.4 oz. It'll still easily fit in my pocket!

- 16MB of RAM is mighty good for a PalmOS PDA without an MP3 player built in. I have a Sony CLIE with 8mb of RAM and an 8 mb memory stick and it's easy to keep memory available with very minimal memory management (ie delete the programs you don't use). No PalmOS devices until recently (ie September) had more than 8mb of RAM onboard.

- The Treo 180 is the "base" unit. The color 270 will hopefully have some kind of expansion. It costs $200 more than the mono unit and color PDA's generally only cost $50-$100 more than their comparable monochrome devices (ie, Palm's color m505 is $70 more than their mono m500; Handspring's Prism is $100 more than their mono Neo, even though the Prism has a rechargable battery). The $200 increase must be coming from someplace other than just the screen: Hopefully hi-res and a SD or CF slot will be included. Handspring's FAQ indicates they won't have a SpringBoard Treo anytime soon... which is a shame, since they make damn nice MP3 player Springboards (with lots of additional memory to boot).

- GSM isn't THAT bad in the US. Maybe it's just because I live on the west coast, where GSM (Cingular, Voicestream, AT&T) seems to be more popular than the alternatives (Sprint, Verizon). And, according to Handspring, a CDMA (and/or other network) version of the Treo is on its way.

- The battery life ain't that bad... the Treo has 2.5 hours of talk time or over 60 hours of standby time [handspring.com]... pretty much the same as my Nokia [nokia.com]. Maybe the color Treo will have a better battery, since color screens eat up batteries faster.

- By the way, for the dummies posting about how "big" the Treo is... it ain't that big. My tiny Nokia phone is 4.3" tall, 1.9" wide, and 4.2 oz. The Treo is 4.3" tall, 2.7" wide, and 5.4 oz. It'll still easily fit in my pocket!

- 16MB of RAM is mighty good for a PalmOS PDA without an MP3 player built in. I have a Sony CLIE with 8mb of RAM and an 8 mb memory stick and it's easy to keep memory available with very minimal memory management (ie delete the programs you don't use). No PalmOS devices until recently (ie September) had more than 8mb of RAM onboard.

- The Treo 180 is the "base" unit. The color 270 will hopefully have some kind of expansion. It costs $200 more than the mono unit and color PDA's generally only cost $50-$100 more than their comparable monochrome devices (ie, Palm's color m505 is $70 more than their mono m500; Handspring's Prism is $100 more than their mono Neo, even though the Prism has a rechargable battery). The $200 increase must be coming from someplace other than just the screen: Hopefully hi-res and a SD or CF slot will be included. Handspring's FAQ indicates they won't have a SpringBoard Treo anytime soon... which is a shame, since they make damn nice MP3 player Springboards (with lots of additional memory to boot).

- GSM isn't THAT bad in the US. Maybe it's just because I live on the west coast, where GSM (Cingular, Voicestream, AT&T) seems to be more popular than the alternatives (Sprint, Verizon). And, according to Handspring, a CDMA (and/or other network) version of the Treo is on its way.

- The battery life ain't that bad... the Treo has 2.5 hours of talk time or over 60 hours of standby time [handspring.com]... pretty much the same as my Nokia [nokia.com]. Maybe the color Treo will have a better battery, since color screens eat up batteries faster.

- By the way, for the dummies posting about how "big" the Treo is... it ain't that big. My tiny Nokia phone is 4.3" tall, 1.9" wide, and 4.2 oz. The Treo is 4.3" tall, 2.7" wide, and 5.4 oz. It'll still easily fit in my pocket!

hardware keyboard (Treo 180) OR grafitti (Treo 180g) but no sense of which is cheaper

They cost the same. It's purely personal preference as to which you get.

8 hour battery life: This seems short for either a cell phone OR a pda

Where did you get that number? It's 2.5 hours talk time, 60 hours standby time, which is quite reasonable. Look here.

The Handspring Visor (any model) and the optional MiniJam MP3 Player could provide a viable solution. It comes with a 64mb memory card that does not limit which way the music (or any other data) can be transfered.

The Handspring Visor (any model) and the optional MiniJam MP3 Player could provide a viable solution. It comes with a 64mb memory card that does not limit which way the music (or any other data) can be transfered.

My wife has become quite the geekess. Last month she decided the ethernet cable in her laptop bag was the wrong size, so she got out our spool of Cat5e and crimped a new one. Damn, I love her.

Anyways, she's tired of carrying her phone and her Palm and her pager. So we found the Treo, SmartPhone, and I300. Anyone have hands-on tales about them?

Do any of them really work as well as the separate components do? I've heard some of them are like a complete Palm with a crappy phone strapped on, while others are a decent phone with a weak PDA wedged inside. And do any of them have good synergy across the features?

This is my geek inventory:

iPod: $399
Canon s110 Digital Elph: $399
32 Meg USB Thumbdrive: $40
Nokia 8290 (or 8260): $99 (with activation)
eTrex GPS: $99

Of course, if you wait until January, ditch the Nokia for a Treo.

Handspring is coming out with the best Palm phone I've seen yet. It's called the Treo, and information about it can be found here.

Handspring is coming out with the best Palm phone I've seen yet. It's called the Treo, and information about it can be found here.

I think it's rather amusing that on the Handspring Treo page, on one of the pics of it, they talk about the ability to send text messages(SMS), and on the screen on the treo, it reads, "I think our internet connection is down again :-("(hope they got permission from despair inc to use their trademark symbol), and right under that pic they talk about the Treo's wireless net capabilties...

-Henry

You mean like these?

(Sorry about that third ASP link)

Sounds like you'd like Handspring's forthcoming Treo, unless you're married to Microsoft.

It's the first PDA-phone I've seen that isn't overly PDA-ish with a phone tacked on (Visorphone) or a phone with a PDA stuffed in (Nokia Communicator, various Qualcomm and Samsung entries).

If you had a Visor, you could do just that.

• Symbol Technologies licenses the Palm and creates several units which can do RF, 802.11, and include a barcode scanner (high-output LED)
• Handspring invents the Springboard slot and implements pseudo-USB support for connecting the devices.
• Sony mimics that with the MemoryStick, but adds VFS support, and takes Handspring's USB protocol, changes one function, and makes their own spin on it.
• Handera, formerly TRG builds upon that with a sliding graffiti area (thanks for incorporating my idea from #palmchat back in 1998 on that one), and adds CF and SD slot architectures (still serially connected storage though, can't "run apps" from each card concurrently)
• Palm comes out with the replacement to the Vx, called the m505, and includes the Sony VFS extensions, the Handspring hardware port design (internally) and the Handspring USB modifications, but changes it enough to make yet a third fork of this pseudo-USB protocol. They also make sure to make every single thing about this new device completely incompatible with every single other thing available for their devices, even down to a 2mm change in the stylus length (I have a more detailed enumeration of those changes found here).

Why does Palm think they're about to, in any way, create a new hardware device that they think will surpass these existing innovative devices? Palm is ALWAYS behind the curve on hardware advances in this area. We're not even talking about comparing them to the iPAQ, VTech Helio, Agenda, Yopy, and the other dozens of non-PalmOS, non-WinCE handheld PDA devices.

Currently, Palm's OEMs for the PalmOS® software include:

• Sony
• Handspring
• Handera (formerly TRG)
• Qualcomm (bought out by Kyocera)
• Kyocera
• Symbol Technologies
• ...and others.

They get licensing from each and every one of these OEMs. Their hardware is the last thing to ever be updated. It is without a doubt, the least innovative portion of their business.. and they're choosing to keep it?!

I don't quite understand the motive behind this decision on their part. I suppose I'll find out at Palmsource in February.

• Symbol Technologies licenses the Palm and creates several units which can do RF, 802.11, and include a barcode scanner (high-output LED)
• Handspring invents the Springboard slot and implements pseudo-USB support for connecting the devices.
• Sony mimics that with the MemoryStick, but adds VFS support, and takes Handspring's USB protocol, changes one function, and makes their own spin on it.
• Handera, formerly TRG builds upon that with a sliding graffiti area (thanks for incorporating my idea from #palmchat back in 1998 on that one), and adds CF and SD slot architectures (still serially connected storage though, can't "run apps" from each card concurrently)
• Palm comes out with the replacement to the Vx, called the m505, and includes the Sony VFS extensions, the Handspring hardware port design (internally) and the Handspring USB modifications, but changes it enough to make yet a third fork of this pseudo-USB protocol. They also make sure to make every single thing about this new device completely incompatible with every single other thing available for their devices, even down to a 2mm change in the stylus length (I have a more detailed enumeration of those changes found here).

Why does Palm think they're about to, in any way, create a new hardware device that they think will surpass these existing innovative devices? Palm is ALWAYS behind the curve on hardware advances in this area. We're not even talking about comparing them to the iPAQ, VTech Helio, Agenda, Yopy, and the other dozens of non-PalmOS, non-WinCE handheld PDA devices.

Currently, Palm's OEMs for the PalmOS® software include:

• Sony
• Handspring
• Handera (formerly TRG)
• Qualcomm (bought out by Kyocera)
• Kyocera
• Symbol Technologies
• ...and others.

They get licensing from each and every one of these OEMs. Their hardware is the last thing to ever be updated. It is without a doubt, the least innovative portion of their business.. and they're choosing to keep it?!

I don't quite understand the motive behind this decision on their part. I suppose I'll find out at Palmsource in February.

That iPAQ wireless pack is roughly equivalent to Handspring's old VisorPhone.
The VisorPhone is available now, and has been for some time.

As another poster pointed out, it does look a lot like an integrated VisorPhone (also GSM), so you could probably use the service lookup utility on the Visor Phone page (which also mentions that Cingular is a provider).

-phil

It looks like a nice unit, a combination of my VisorPhone (alas long departed) with the keyboard of my Motorola text pager with my Visor Platinum. The only big flaw to me is the loss of the Springboard slot - Handspring's FAQ indicates that they intend not to engineer this in to the Treo in the future either.

I think they are thinking that people jonesing for graffiti will use a third party application/hack to use the full screen for handwriting recognition. Or maybe voice recognition will really take off now.