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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.
Hasn't the Mitsubishi Trium Mondo (a CE-based PDA/Phone) been available for a while?
:)
As a side note - I recently picked up a Sony CMD-J5 to find it also does SMTP/POP3 in addition to the normal WAP services - and the WAP browser (Microsoft Mobile Explorer) can cope with 'simple HTML' - it's good enough to browse Slashdot in 'light' mode, at least
Great product, nice to see more Smartphones, but first? You could have bought (months ago in some cases):
Ericsson R320 (Symbian)
Nokia 9210 (Symbian)
Mitsubishi Trium Mondon (PocketPC)
Sagem WA 3050 (PocketPC)
Kyocera QCP 6035 (Palm)
Qualcomm PDQ phones (Palm)
I'm probably leaving some out. So, great idea yes, first, no.
--- There's no place like 127.0.0.1
So where is the bluetooth connectivity on this one?
This device has been around for a while. As a bonus it's cellular therefore is available where GSM is not.
War is necrophilia.
So where the spec says it's a 'world' phone, it aint.
IMO 900MHz + 1800MHz + 1900MHz = world phone.
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.
Finally, Handspring has done it before everyone else
From the website: Coming early 2002
Sounds to me they haven't done anything yet.
Talk about being first: I bought my Nokia Communicator many _many_ years back. (mainly for the l33t telnet client hehe)
1: Good hardware. Handspring doesn't have it. They've got a 33Mhz 16-bit Motorola Dragonball processor. It can (slowly) serve the most basic mobile data needs (email, instant messaging), play a couple of neat little games, and be a pretty effective organizer, but that's about it. Palm OS devices are stuck at 8 or 16MB's of total capacity, which sure as hell means you won't be storing any large files (movies, MP3s, etc) on it. They need modern hardware, like an ARM-derived platform, to overcome these inherent limitations. (I know, I know, Palm says it's working on it, but that was supposed to materialize how long ago now??)
2: Good software. The Palm OS is an old, creaky 16-bit rag that maxxed-out its potential back in '98. Memory isn't protected, there is no support for multi-tasking, and just getting color on that thing was a chore and a half (you still find it only on the most expensive devices). You need a modern 32-bit OS like Symbian's EPOC (or even Pocket PC 2002) to do these things natively. Along with a modern OS comes support for faster, better hardware (both Symbian EPOC and Pocket PC run on ARM-derived RISC processors), and more storage space (like IBM microdrives).
3: Decent network support.The Treo has network connectivity tacked-on as an afterthought. Again, this is the Palm OS's fault, not Handspring's. Back in the day, the Palm OS just wasn't designed to be doing the job it's doing now. But other mobile operating systems were built around this stuff, and can handle wireless network protocols natively. Microsoft's Smartphone platform (code-named Stinger) is set to be deployed in GSM and CDMA networks all over the world next year, and Nokia's 9210 (running on EPOC) will be in both the European/African/Asian and American GSM markets. It'll be pretty simple to add GPRS/EDGE (and then UMTS) support to the device because that's what it was designed to do.
I applaude Handspring for forging ahead, but they've inhereted a real huge (possibly fatal) liability from Palm with that ancient operating system.
Blue skies, Barthy Burgers, girls...
The FAQs for the Treos are here.
Quick sum-up:
Treo 180 = Keyboard, 180g = Graffiti.
No Springboard functionality.
Colour due mid 2002 (extra $200!!).
North America providers = Cingular, VoiceStream, Rogers AT&T, Microcell.
Trade in available for VisorPhone customers.
CDMA version in the works.
here
Been out for a while, quite popular. Yes, it will appear in the US too, called Nokia 9290.
it's in my head
Oh no, not again!
Must... get... chastitybelt... for... creditcard.
Road to Hell is paved with frozen door-to-door salesmen.On weekends many of the younger demons go ice-skating down it