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A couple of other things I've noticed about the Treo after another day & a half's use:

The system supports "snoozing" an alarm (like it did before), but in a more comprehensive way. You can click a "done" button to get the screen the hell away from you, in case you're in the middle of something important, like a game of Warefare, Incorporated. After that, a little flashing asterisk will appear in the upper-left corner of the display, which you can click on to bring up again. Otherwise, the alarm will re-appear in a minute or two. Alternatively, you can still Snooze it for... 15 minutes, if memory serves. If more than one alarm is set for the same time, or if more than one as gone off since you've been paying attention, they appear in a list. This is MUCH nicer than having to click "Snooze" on half a dozen items if you've left your Treo in your bag all day. You can also click on an individual item in the list, to jump to the datebook and edit/delete/whatever it. Well done, Handspring!

You can now send SMS directly from the phone; not just receive. Of course, the ability to look up numbers in your Contacts is nicely integrated. According to Sprint, there are no charges associated with sending or receiving SMS messages. I can't speak for other carriers. Supposedly, the messages are also threaded. Since I haven't used it for long, i can't verify how well this functionality is implemented. However... I had an informal conversation with a tier 2 tech, after befriending her by teaching her about the Treo 600, which she'd not even seen yet. She said that Sprint is currently having problems with their SMS system (and apparently has for the last two weeks), and that during that time and until further notice, you cannot send or receive SMS messages through Sprint. I know this to be partially false, since I've had no trouble receiving messages. However, an attempt to send a message was met with the following error:

"This service will be available soon. You will receive a text message when it is ready. Until then, you can use Short Mail to send text messages to any other wireless phone from the browser."

Now, this message appeared in bold red text, as a part of the message I sent, in the outbox. It was not an error reported by the Treo, nor an incoming SMS, but a message generated my Sprints messaging server. When I initially asked about this, I was told that Sprint didn't support sending SMS. When I explained further (and mentioned that this was one of the selling points of the Treo 600, and something that Sprint was touting), she admitted the issues with the SMS system. Oh, one other item of note: According to Sprint, there is no charge for sending or receiving SMS, locally or internationally.

With regard to my previous comments about the camera being very discrete: it's only hidden on the carbon (CDMA/Sprint) version of the phone. The silver (GSM) version's camera is significantly more obvious, though whether a non-geek would notice that it's a camera, and not just a black dot is a matter of conjecture. On the carbon version, is easy to make it look like you're just trying to read your PDA at a better angle. It helps if you make goofy-looking "Huh?" faces. ;-)

The ability to attach photos to a contact record and/or caller ID reference does not appear to be a feature that's part of the factory Treo. You'll need to download a 3rd-party application to support it.

There has been some conjecture as to whether or not the Treo has built-in GPS hardware. The Phone Preferences info box had this to say about it:

"Select "Enable 'Location Privacy' if you would like to prevent Palm OS applications from receiving your location information (approximate latitude location). For your safety, your location information will always be provided during a 911 emergency call, regardless of whether

I have a Hitachi G1000.. and I think it's pretty geeky? :) Nothing like IRCing from the shitter anywhere you go!

Microsoft Patents 'Phone-Home' Failure Reporting

Darn. I just set up Argus to monitor server failure and phone me when it happens. Are the evil monkeys coming for me now?

I'm sure that $100 was with new activation or through some retention plan offering. However, the 8100 is still only $200 if you bought it outright with no plan (there was a general $50 rebate 2 months ago from RS that worked even without activation). Sprint phones are not as cheap initially but considerably cheaper when bought without a plan upgrade or extension compared to other carriers prices. I just replaced a stolen Sanyo 4900 and it was only $150. Verizon and others typically add at least $200 to every phone they sell if you are not a new subscriber or updating your existing phone through the retention department, kinda sucks paying $229 for a bare bones Nokia or Motorola. I guess if you never loose, break, or want a new phone without signing a new contract, the Verizon method of phone pricing might work for you. Just one of the many differences between the current cellular providers I thought I'd point out.

You don't happen to have a sprint A500 phone like I have, do you? I found out it's not really 3G and it doesn't have GPS.

You can, however find out your location relative to base stations that are at known lat/lon locations, and they used gps to find these tower locations. Enabling the GPS rx'er that I thought I had bought was one of the first things I tried to do when I joined the sprint pcs developer program

I have a relative who works at a large cell phone company. At this company, they not only have to install back-end programming at the switch and call routing level, but they also have to install software in customers' handsets.

Why is that a big deal?

Older phones that customers have come to rely on, and that they understand how to operate, must be replaced. While this only affects handsets that have to have their number changed (your old handset works great until you switch numbers), it's still a hassle for both the company and the customer:

• The company must trade a new phone to the customer at no charge. Since the phones are subsidized already, this only raises the loss the company takes on each handset it sells.
• Since the handset must be replaced, the customer has to go to a local store and actually physically trade the handset back. A typical trip to a store at this company can take three hours. Customers don't like that.
• The customer must also remember to copy each item in their built-in phone book because there's no mechanism to move it from one handset to another. If they forget, their phone book is gone.
• The customer must then learn how to add numbers to the phone book and operate the new handset. Some of the handsets, like the Samsung N100, have unresolved ideosyncratic problems with them (like, sometimes when you terminate a call, the handset hard-locks such that only removing and replacing the battery will resolve it, which isn't a fun operation when you use a leather case like most folks do). The customers get confused and then call customer service for help.
• The incoming customer service calls place a larger load on their support infrastructure. The company I'm talking about is apparently looking at going back to mandatory overtime. While they pay well for it, being required to work 50 or 60 hours a week or being threatened with losing your job gets old after several weeks, because it seriously cuts into family time.
• Each incoming call to the customer service center costs an average of something like $10 to service, even if it's a 10-second call. Since the company has already replaced the handset, a money-loser, and pissed off the customer by having to do so, also a Bad Thing, increasing call volumes also cost the company money without any compensating new revenue.

While it's true that it will benefit the customer to have number portability in place, even without the lock of the number on the customer that's now gone over the number, there is no real benefit to the company. Everybody will be doing it so there's not even any competative advantage.

Cell phone companies are simply looking out for their revenue streams (as good public companies should) because number portability is nothing but a money loser for them. In a business that's still mostly in the red anyway, it's no wonder.

rw

This thing might be what you're looking for -- it does have games, but making them work well is hardly the focus of the thing. Hell, it doesn't even have a web browser ;).

My Sprint Samsung A460 has this but you can turn it off. It's the "location" option in the setup tool.

That's not exactly what Enhanced 911 is all about. Dialing 911 from your cell phone has always patched you to the correct 911 center (unless the cell tower happens to be close to a border). The major goal of E911 is the tell the emergency operaror where you are located. You can read more about E911 on the FCC website.

There are many cell phones currently on the market which have what is called Assisted GPS. As another posted mentioned, Assisted GPS cell phones merely take measurments of the signal strength coming from various GPS satellites. These measurements are forwarded to the cell tower which calculates the mobile phones location. This is mainly implemented to support E911 in the cheapest way possible. However, I have seen numerous postings on the SprintPCS developer website forums that there are plans to put together a Java library which will permit application developers to write J2ME apps which can query the lat/long of the phone. Those postings are from Sprint employees, but they currently seem to be suggesting that we will see this as part of the Location API included with the Java MIDP 2.0 to be released 4th Quarter 2003.

If I did not state it clearly above, once the cell tower calculates your position, it currently has no reason to pass that info back to your phone. The Location API will work by asking the cell tower for your location, not by reading some registers in your phone. Without the Location API (and the supporting software on the towers), there would be no way for you to write a mapping application that ran on your phone, regardless of how much memory you have. For obvious reasons, such a library would have to query the phone user before permitting the application to obtain location information. I also imagine that Sprint would have to come up with a scheme to prevent folks from reverse engineering the Sprint library and then implementing their own libraries which would not bother asking for permission. That is probably at least part of the reason why it is taking so long to get support for polling your phones location.

Umm...

I concur. Additionally, the most important thing about ANY wireless service is coverage.
I'm a former Sprint customer specifically because the service is awful. I dropped about every other call.

You can't roll out service like this for anything important (aka your business) w/o being sure coverage is excellent. And what do we get from this review? A short blurb about the great coverage in Arizona, where you can see all the way to Las Vegas on a good day.

Somebody please wake me for the detailed review on coverage from Wheeling, WV to Bangor, ME. From Colorado Springs to Steamboat Springs. From San Francisco all the way to Seattle.

Until then the rest of this review is pretty much covered here unless the suck factor of 2 inch WAP browsing is new to you.

Doesn't it seems like the market is being cluttered with a variety of devices that do essentially the same thing? PDAs already do this, my old cell phone delivers text alerts, hell my old pager did it as well, the tablet pcs will facilitate this...its just same content, different devices.. I already have one of these given to me by my employer, its much more convenient than a clunky watch, plus, sprint gives us unlimited data on our montly plan... As far as MS goes..All of these devices center around their "software as a service" plan, which integrates into your .NET wallet which will efficiently handle this (-_-)

Provided you don't mind Sprint PCS (I don't).

You have to pay the cost of a service plan, but Sprint is offering such plans that include unlimited after-hours voice and unlimited data for $40 a month.

Yes, by default mail must be routed through their equipment. But likely for mass-market easy use. You're quite free to install your own software that can do anything you want.

You can install your own stuff onto the regular phones if you do a bit of hackery - but if you get a phone that is sufficiently advanced - a Palm (Handspring Treo) or PocketPC phone (Toshiba 2032), then you can load your own software easily. With the right software (eg Qualcom's Eudora) you can access whatever email you want - you can even SSH into remote computers from your phone (with Top Gun SSH).

Hell, Microsoft even has a *full* copy of Visual C++ for embedded devices (Pocket PC, Smartphone) available for download from their website - for free! Same is possible with Palm (although I've not done it). How's that for making your own wireless crap you to run on your phone!

Sprint PCS seems to be the first to offer an unlimited data transfer plan (PCS Vision).

Yes, that's unlimited data transfer. Download all the apps you want, run network-enabled J2ME apps, browse the web, as long as you want! This is significant because it raises the incentive for running these phone based apps.

What's interesting is that they're marketing a distinction between their voice and data services - other providers, AT&T, Verizon, TMobile, etc. don't make as clear of a distinction between the two, nor are they setting themselves up to be viewed as a wireless *information* provider, rather than traditional wireless voice services.

I can't wait to trade in my phone for a Samsung A500 or an LG5350. :)

No, I'm not a sprint employee. I was just blown away with the possibilities presented by unlimited wireless data services! :)

Basically any company with a big enough apparatus wants to control its public image, and it can't do that if its rank-and-file representatives are speaking when they're not spoken to.

Sprint PCS squelched one such representative who was participating in alt.cellular.sprintpcs. Over the four or five months she hung out in the newsgroup (as a publicly known SPCS employee, but not representing the company in any official capacity), she made a number of customers happy by offering solutions to their problems, or offering ways that they could get Customer Care to take care of their problems without calling the President's office or escalating to a supervisor. Her respect in the newsgroup was very high.

When she left the newsgroup, here is what she said.

It's telling. Especially telling is the 40+ responses she got.

Big companies can't deal with the Internet. It's too new, too public, and too uncontrolled. Despite all of our whining about corporate control and ICANN's UDRP and copyright and DMCA, the fact remains that the Internet scares the crap out of large multinationals.

And that won't change any time soon.

...Every day you'll see the dust...

What ones have you seen? As I said, I've never seen a Java-based phone that prevents developers from loading their own apps.

You can get the LG 5350, Samsung SPH-A500, Samsung SPH-N400, Sanyo 4900, and Sanyo 5300 through Sprint PCS. There's a developer program at developer.sprintpcs.com.

You can get the Motorola i85s, i50sx, i55sr, i80s, i90c, and i95cl through Nextel. There are developer programs from Nextel and Motorola.

You can get the RIM BlackBerry 5810 from AT&T Wireless and T-Mobile. RIM has a developer's site with an SDK and simulator.

If you look at their service map of the Boston area (it is relatively good coompared with their coverage in the rest of the nation) you will see they favor the interstates and main roads. Same as in Houston and other places I have been so far. They have to get away from the idea that cars are where people use their phones. Especially with data services.

Connection to the Vision network via anything other than a Vision enabled phone is a violation of the new TOS.

No it doesn't.

And another to Sprint's recyling program.

Sprint donates the money from recycled phones to Easter Seals, Verizon sells recycles and gives airtime free phones to sufferers of domestic violence.

Either way, my $.02 going for a good cause,

$.02/KB (or more) over 2MB, file sharing sounds like a steal! Seriously, until the rates for data tranfers goes down (save for maybe the Hiptop device) file sharing over a cell network is not going to be popular.

While not the answer to the general question ("What do you do about avoiding signing up for Passport?"), but SprintPCS does offer similar services without the need for Passport (so far).

I just logged on and checked my mounthly usage and the settings for my phone.

SprintPCS

I also have the wireless web for $5/month, allowing me to check my email by handpring Visor to my Samsung SCH-3500 with the use of a cable from Gomadic.

I get service in most metropolitan areas.

Perhaps this would be a good SlashPoll:
What cell provider do you use?
SprintPCS, Verizon, etc.

Danger has flat-rate data pricing. Still, I wonder what Danger does if you plug in a camera and use it as a webcam, saturating the network.

The integrated phone/camera has interesting potential if the data cost problem can be overcome.

I've been using Sprint PCS for years now, eagerly awaiting this nationwide upgrade. Now that its arrived, where's the information on what phones can take advantage of the new network? I have a Sanyo SCP-4500, which apparently is not compatible with the new 1xRTT network ... the 4700 model is, but apparently only with the voice side of 1xRTT, data speeds are still as slow as regular CDMA.

The Sprint PCS site has NO readily apparent information on the new 3G network - you'd think it would be front-page news, either on the PCS site or on Sprint.com. What would be even nicer is an email from Sprint PCS to all current subscribers of the Wireless Web option indicating (a) which phones will be able to take advantage of the faster speeds on the 1xRTT network (b) what the costs plans are for the networks (c) what additional peripheral devices are available and (d) what to do to sign-up (online, preferably).

What's the deal here?

Do you mean like my cell phone?

Samsung A400

The "PDA" I use the most is my cellphone, a Sanyo SCP-6200. It's a very slim, small phone but has a lot of functionality. The calendar and phone book are invaluable in everyday use. And since it is a cellphone I have it with me all the time, which is not neccessarily the case with my Visor. Plus, it also has a web browser so I can check my Yahoo! mail whenever I want to. And it even has a voice-memo recorder. And I *know* that this thing can survive abuse...I've dropped it five times in the last week, and I've only had it for a week!

In general, eventually all phones will come heavy with PDA features, as discussed on Cnet here.

Detailed Sprint PCS coverage maps, by city

Oh, and here is another, IMHO, more useful map:

http://www1.sprintpcs.com/media/Assets/Maps/usmap_ b6.gif

The link should be this:

http://www1.sprintpcs.com/media/Assets/Maps/usmap_ 492f2.gif

However I decided to wait for now for two reasons. One is that Handspring recently announced that they will be supporting CDMA (logical considering Qualcomm just invested $10 Million in them). Thus I expect a CDMA Treo will come out some time this year.

The other reason I am waiting is that Sprint PCS is about to roll out their new 3G Network this summer. Among other things, this will offer data speeds up to 10 times faster than the current network can. In fact, Wired is running a story today on the demo roadshow that Sprint is running right now to show off applications of their new network.

Sprint isn't showing any new handsets for it yet, but one will presume they are forthcoming. In fact, I'm guessing thats why the price on the QCP-6035 has dropped so preciptously (from like $300 to $100 or so) in the last couple of months---I'm guessing Kyocera has a successor model waiting in the wings.

Hence I wait.

However I decided to wait for now for two reasons. One is that Handspring recently announced that they will be supporting CDMA (logical considering Qualcomm just invested $10 Million in them). Thus I expect a CDMA Treo will come out some time this year.

The other reason I am waiting is that Sprint PCS is about to roll out their new 3G Network this summer. Among other things, this will offer data speeds up to 10 times faster than the current network can. In fact, Wired is running a story today on the demo roadshow that Sprint is running right now to show off applications of their new network.

Sprint isn't showing any new handsets for it yet, but one will presume they are forthcoming. In fact, I'm guessing thats why the price on the QCP-6035 has dropped so preciptously (from like $300 to $100 or so) in the last couple of months---I'm guessing Kyocera has a successor model waiting in the wings.

Hence I wait.

Not true! The Samsun I300 is available for the Sprint PCS network, is color, and dual band. What I'd like to see is a comparison between it and the Treo.

Sprint:

http://www.sprintpcs.com

Verizon:

http://www.verizonwireless.com

Verizon = $249.00
SprintPCS = $140.00

SprintPCS $50.00 rebate

Free Wireless Web & Voice Command for 3 months

And when you get your phone in, if you choose a year long contract from sprint and are a new customer you get a 75.00 rebate. (atleast i did)

Now for the 40 bucks or so after all rebates, you get a wireless phone, wap device, cell phone, great calling plan and a full blow Palm OS PDA to boot.

Sprint:

http://www.sprintpcs.com

Verizon:

http://www.verizonwireless.com

Verizon = $249.00
SprintPCS = $140.00

SprintPCS $50.00 rebate

Free Wireless Web & Voice Command for 3 months

And when you get your phone in, if you choose a year long contract from sprint and are a new customer you get a 75.00 rebate. (atleast i did)

Now for the 40 bucks or so after all rebates, you get a wireless phone, wap device, cell phone, great calling plan and a full blow Palm OS PDA to boot.

Sprint:

http://www.sprintpcs.com

Verizon:

http://www.verizonwireless.com

Verizon = $249.00
SprintPCS = $140.00

SprintPCS $50.00 rebate

Free Wireless Web & Voice Command for 3 months

And when you get your phone in, if you choose a year long contract from sprint and are a new customer you get a 75.00 rebate. (atleast i did)

Now for the 40 bucks or so after all rebates, you get a wireless phone, wap device, cell phone, great calling plan and a full blow Palm OS PDA to boot.

I don't think it's too unreasonable that a combination GPS, PDA, and phone could be made available at $100/pop within the next 6 years.

ummm....the samsung palm+phone combo has the same voice recognition features present in the other samsung phones....check it out at SprintPCS

SprintPCS has a second generation device available, the Samsung SPH-I300. Color display, virtual Grafitti, dual-mode, external connection for hooking up your laptop, full HTML browser, voice recognition, second LCD (for Caller ID), among other features. It's also pretty compact. They also still offer the Kyocera. The Treo isn't bad, it may be "always on-line", and maybe you want GSM for one reason or another, but it doesn't look "revolutionary" to me.

Watching movies on my phone is dumb -- I'd rather watch them on my home theater or in a real movie theater.

Reading/writing email on my phone is dumb -- I'd rather do that on something with a _real_ keyboard, thanks.

Relax, their will be PC/PCI cards that use 3G technology to provide you with internet access just like your ethernet and WiFi cards today.

If we can make wireless devices that actually have a _use_ (think wireless Newton), then maybe we're getting somewhere.

The SprintPCS Visor phone springboard module actually has built in support for 3G, so that when sprint turns on their 3G support (now in testing), the visor phone will be ready for it. (Although it only supports the lower ISDN-like speeds of 3G, which is what Sprint PCS will roll out first.)

In fact, I daresay Sprint PCS is closer to rolling out 3G than Cingular, since they already have an all digital CDMA network laid out across the nation, and have been testing 3G for quite some time.

http://www.sprintpcs.com/aboutsprintpcs/Cdma_3g/ in dex.html

Note that you can store a limited number of voice-activated phone numbers with the Samsung i300, another phone/Palm alternative...

I'm surprised there hasn't been more mention of the Samsung I300 - what seems to be the best Palm/phone combo currently available (with color to boot). As was mentioned above, here is the link to the Sprint I300 page (Verizon coverage is coming soon). Downsides include the traditionally short battery life (although 5hrs with the extended battery isn't terrible), no expandibility slot, and a steep $500 price tag. However, it does weigh only 6oz, which doesn't seem bad for a color Palm. If they would have added a CompactFlash slot and MP3 player, this would have been a killer device.

This Samsung phone looks more practical to me in the short term: Palm interface and PalmOS, color, and dual-band. Yes, I wouldn't mind having the keyboard and GPRS of the Treo, but who knows when the Treo will actually be shipping, what the service availability and coverage will be, what kind of surchages they will add, etc.

thousands, five, what's the difference?

No, seriously... I realize there are at least two (and possibly as many as four) other providers that cover more than ten square miles with something resembling recent technology.

Good thing The Market has provided us with all these choices, eh?

I've been very impressed lately with the frequency and size of donations from businesses/corporations:

Microsoft donated [www.microsoft.com] $5M in cash to United Way in NY, $5M in licenses/support/tech help.

Sprint has donated [www.sprint.com] handsets and redirected a cell from NJ to NYPD. They've also provided phones for city, state and local government officials and to the American Red Cross for use in recovery efforts.

GE has pledged $10 million to a fund that will assist the families of the firefighters, police officers and emergency rescue personnel who perished while responding to the attack on the World Trade Center. [from www.ge.com]

AT&T has donated [www.att.com] $1M to American Red Cross and $10M in prepaid calling cards.

Verizon has offered [newscenter.verizon.com] free local calling to and from payphones on Manhattan streets.

I'm sure there are many more. As I look at Amazon's donation center, it looks like it's going up at about $4000/min.

This makes me proud to be an American.

Thats a Palm V or Palm VII AND a phone. You don't have to wait to get it, its available NOW.

I've read recently that they have a color unit that will be available soon, but if you need it now, and don't want your BF number too high (Batman factor ) then this is the ticket.

Sprint PCS and Verizon Wireless are currently in a race to roll out 3G here in the USA by the end of this year. They are both using cdma2000, a 3G stadard which requires no additional spectrum.

Sprint PCS 3G FAQ

Verizon Wireless Press Release

Actually they're already available...there's a phone/palm combo that works on Sprint PCS networks and has wireless internet capabilities...(www.sprintpcs.com has info)

Same thing with my Samsung SCH-3500 - acts like a plain 14.4 modem. I've had great luck with coverage in Pittsburgh and NY.

From the Sprint Wireless Web Connection FAQ:

How does my Sprint PCS Phone differ from a standard external modem?
Aside from the obvious difference that it's wireless, the biggest difference between your Sprint PCS Phone and an ordinary modem is that there's no modem in your Sprint PCS Phone, PC, or laptop - the modem actually resides within the Sprint PCS Nationwide Network. However, to your computer, your phone looks the same as an ordinary 14400 bps external serial modem. To you, the important difference is that your connection is wireless.

Altough I never had much luck with Sprint's (optional) compression/proxy software.

Just because US companies don't use GSM doesn't mean that US cell phone technology is five years behind GSM-using countries.

I've got a UK Orange mobile for when I travel in Europe, a SprintPCS phone for personal use, and a Nextel for work. Based on sound quality alone, US phone networks beat GSM hands down (at least Orange's network).

How about features? Can your precious GSM phone networks do Voicecommand or DirectConnect? I doubt it.

I think it's better to compare inter-country GSM roaming to interstate roaming in the US. My Sprint & Nextel phone work in almost every major market in the US (and Sprint even in Canada) - that's all that matters to most people in this country.

While the company did comply with rules for overtime pay, the fact that it went on for years non-stop reached well past the point of abuse. For a company that says it respected the rights of workers, and espoused allowing employees a balance of personal and professional lives, it sure didn't seem that way when you could take two paid vacation days in a week and still have to work your 20 hours overtime.

And while it was official company policy that the company cooperate with any legal attempts by employees to organize, at least where I live, there are lots of reasons to fire people. It's also interesting to note that the company chose locations for its call centers in weak employee-rights states ... Texas, Tennessee, Kansas, etc.

Not all unions are good. Not all of them are bad. And sometimes they can provide protection against abuses by employers.