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Treo, Combination Cellphone and PDA
-homb- writes: "Finally, Handspring has done it before everyone else: The Treo, a combination cellphone, wireless POP3 email, and PalmOS PDA. Plus, the first version comes with or without a keyboard. I love my Blackberry, and it looks like the keyboard is the way to go for email. And the next version coming later on next year will have color." We mentioned these earlier.
I wonder if these smart phones will get mainstream or if they always ill be the tech kid's gadget. Take the nice Sony VAIO's for instance: nice machines, but too small to really "use". Will you read your e-mail on a smart phone? Do you get your mail subjects on your regular cell phone right now? Better question even: Do you want to?
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The Treo is the innovative product the Palm community has been expecting from Handsping, and I believe it will be a huge success. Here, in no particular order, is why:
1) Size. Have there been other smartphones? Yes. Like this? No. This is neither a clunky phone-grafted-onto-an-organizer nor a strange organizer-grafted-onto-a-phone. This is a truly integrated product. It is small enough that I will finally be able to ditch my Palm/OmniSky and Nokia for one pocketable device.
2) Keyboard. Even though I've used Graffiti for several years, I have to admit that it is still a pain. Some may disagree, but the fact is that the vast majority of users will be able to enter text faster and more accurately with a QWERTY keyboard--even a thumb keyboard. If you think such keyboards are too small, just look at the success of the RIM Blackberry to see how much people love them.
3) Software. Handspring has done a great job integrating the Palm OS with the phone. They didn't just include a "Dial" app, they've included Blazer (their wonderful browser), Messaging (SMS), Phone Book (a Palm Address Book upgrade that has dialing capabilities), a POP3 client, etc. Out of the box, this will be a true Internet phone.
4) GSM. My fellow Americans may question this (since GSM has relatively limited coverage in the U.S.), but GSM was the right choice for Handspring. When GPRS rolls out (in the U.S. Voicestream has already started), you will be able to upgrade your Treo to support an "always on" wireless connection. Always on is much better than dial-up, even Sprint's "Quick Network Connect" dial-up (which basically just means that Sprint PCS is your ISP). Other, more popular U.S. mobile standards (CDMA, TDMA) are not moving to always on as quickly as GSM (although I've heard reports AT&T is upgrading to GPRS), and a true smart phone needs an always on connection. The other (obvious) advantage of GSM is that Handspring can sell the Treo in Europe and Asia.
Anyway, I will certainly buy a Treo when it comes out, and I think many others will too. The real question is how the Treo will stack up to competitors like the Danger Hiptop.
I noticed the lack of springboard modularity too.
Funny that they should abandon what has basically been their chief selling point over the Palms.
Anyhow, if you wait till mid '02, they're releasing a colour version ( Treo 270, $599 ).
The R380 is btw released as 380e, an updated (much faster) version with USB as well now.
(and of these, the 9210 will appear in the us as 9290)
Links:
Symbian
Ericsson
Nokia
it's in my head
The one thing I really want from a phone/PDA combo is to have checkboxes for appointments to turn the ringer off, and back on when the event is over. I usually forget and leave my ringer on untill someone else's phone rings during class, and then turn the ringer off, forget, and leave it in vibrate until I miss a call. It's not _that_ big a deal because nobody ever calls me, but it would be a nice feature anyways ;-)
once these companies switch over to arm processors for their palm devices, Linux should be ported to them w/o too much trouble.
Palm is supposed to have the port done next year... then we get to hijack their hardware;)
If Palm upgrades the hardware to something else, then they are kissing the installed base of software goodbye. The best they can do is to emulate the existing hardware for the apps with native code for the OS. (ie all the hacks (interrupt vector code) that make user customization to the Palm OS would be broken.) Anything beyond that, you might as throw in a dragonball CPU with the new one and dual boot just like Gameboy Advance.
The current Palm is too expensive for the tiny display and slow CPU. The OS sucks big time (eg lack of file system/directory). The only saving grace is that the OS rarely rarely crash. This is something Microsoft should learn.
What's the alternative? Microsoft's handheld platforms are nowhere near as usable, mature, or efficient as PalmOS. But unlike Palm, the Microsoft handheld platforms also really don't want to talk to anything other than Windows, and you can't develop for them on anything other than Windows.
As far as I'm concerned, PalmOS is still the best game in town for handhelds and phones. Maybe some of the Linux-based devices will make it out the door at some point. Maybe Palm will come out with a decent, modern 32bit OS soon. But I doubt Microsoft ever gets a clue and starts untying their different systems from one another or starts using open, well-documented ways of storing data; and until they do, I think it's foolish to put your data on their devices.
Yup, I agree, if you're entering extensive text (eg writing emails) a keyboard really is necessary. For folks not wanting to wait for the Treo, there is a similar keyboard add-on from Etherage called the ClipKee. Even more portable than the Stowaway. Seems like if you combined that with a Visor and VisorPhone you would get a clunky version of the Treo.
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