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Review of the Handspring Treo
axlrosen writes: "Walter Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal reviews the new Handspring Treo, and loves it. 'For the past week, I have been carrying around a new hand-held, wireless device that is simultaneously the best personal digital assistant I have ever used and the most capable cellphone.'"
another pointless cell phone. how about making the networks better before trying to make kick-ass phones?
Ack!
Evan - needs to hit preview before submitting
I think we have to work more on improving cellular and digital networks around the country/world before we get excited over some fancy new phone that can make a 5 course meal if you press *2211. What good is a phone like this if you don't have service? I live in Connecticut, and my StarTac doesn't work in my house, at my office, intermittently in NYC streets, and never in a subway train. Cool phones are great, but more service would be better.
I guess it's something like treading water until the boom comes back and everyone needs one of these again.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
It's sad to see something like this just coming out in the US. This and the VisorPhone, and the Kyocera palm phone are really the only PDA/Phone combos available here. I had the Kyocera, and it was terrible. This just pales in comparison to iMode, even without the buggy 3G enhancements they just rolled out. When will we get some decent wireless data service?? Japan has color, video, IM, web, games, and just plain awesome looking phones, and we get a cell/palm hybrid. yeah......
Where's my lobbyist? Right here.
The Treo is a world phone. It works on the GSM standard and is equipped for use in both the U.S. and Europe. In the U.S., it will work with carriers like VoiceStream and Cingular.
Yeah, GSM. So I spend $400-$600 on a cell phone/organizer, plus steep monthly fees for cell phone/internet access. And to top it off, I'm locked into GSM, which here in the USA isn't exactly the leading protocol.
The Gardener
--
My boss and I were looking at these this morning on handspring's site, and we came to the conclusion that they either look really good or really bad, depending on your point of view.
For PDA users, this is great because it's smaller than you're PDA and it's also a phone, so you don't have to carry another device.
Most phone users, though, don't have a PDA, so they won't get to carry fewer devices, and the form factor really sucks in comparison to the newer phones on the market. Plus, if a PDA was something they wanted to have, they'd have gotten one in addition to a phone already. Why carry something as bulky as my phone a year ago just to have a set of features I don't really want or need?
For me, this looks pretty cool. For most of the people I work with, it's just bulky and expensive.
Narrative
When will it be understood that this kind of phone is never going to be useful?
Too big to be a good phone. Too small to be a decent PDA.
It's a large clunky prototype of what is to come. I assure you the future isn't in handsets.
Scientists are so fascinated with the possibility that they can that they never stop to think if they should.
Traffic Deaths due to Cell Phone Drivers continue to rise, as the total dead begins to approach the figure posted by Mohammed Atta. And still we have hands-free device laws in exactly zero states.
Enter Handspring with a slick, convenient cellphone integrated with a PDA. A live wire for streaming Internet content, beamed directly to the driver's seat of the person pushing a Chevy Suburban down the freeway ahead of you in rush hour traffic. A cell phone which requires two hands to operate in PDA mode is now in the hands of the millions of American drivers who refuse to stop pinning a cell phone to their ear while driving.
Please understand that I'm not attempting to bash the technology. I only wish that companies like Handspring would consider the impact of their actions before unleashing something like this on innocent commuters. Anyone with a rush hour commute knows that people irresponsible enough to weave through traffic talking on a cell phone exist and are numerous. And they will buy this phone, take both hands off the wheel, and practice "Graffiti" at 60 miles per hour.
Does anyone know how hard it would be to make a cell phone deactivate itself if it starts moving faster than 40 miles per hour? Could you perhaps triangulate the three nearest PCS towers?
If guns kill people, then CmdrTaco's keyboard misspells words.
So much for Taco Bell's foray into the tech sector, someone else can now boast of having the hot new handheld.
Cory
God invented whiskey so the Irish would not rule the world.
No metion of how well the PDA and native phone functions integrate. The Kyocera Palm OS phone is BAD at this, as you can't dial numbers out of synced contacts.
Anyone know how this unit handles this?
I think I've heard of those...
WARNING: This is a rant.
Walter Mossberg is an idiot. Meaning I don't think I have ever agreed with one of his gadget reviews with the exeption of the original Handspring Visor. Why would you use this retardo phone. I wouldn't be caught dead with it. Check out the 3G phones from DoCoMo for great portable devices in this category. (although they have software bugs, the hardware is tremendous.)
Dumb guy, dumber phone.
Unless you think that big is the new small....
I'll ask the question everyone is thinking. Has it been hacked. How does it do Linux?
I think the design is very well done expect for perhaps the keypad. I don't understand why they continue to arrange alphanumeric characters in a QWERTY arrangement on such a small keyboard, when a different layout would make much more sense. The auto word complete feature mentioned though is a good idea (Windows CE had this). Also, the resolution of the LCDs used in these things are very low and it makes text readablity difficult. That is one reason I prefer the windows devices (240x320 resolution) over the palm models. Finally, I believe that the ability to be able to access a document or search for information from anywhere is very important. If I have a question, I want to be able to go to Google and find the answer within 30 seconds. Will this be possible with the bandwidth and limited screen space that this device has?
It's the 21st century. Where, I ask, is my Jet Pack?
New slashdot Poll
Just got a $400 rebate from purchase of 300 hours of unlimted action with my Microsoft RealDoll. I think I'll spend it on
1) ipod
2) Treo
3) 3com 4 port wall plate
4) Xbox w/ hacking tools
5) A night with John Romero
Note to Handspring (and whomever else):
Add voice recognition capability!
How many people have phones now that you can add voice tags to people's numbers? This should actually be rather easy to implement in the Treo, I'd imagine. (I didn't see it explicitly stated in the review.) Imagine just saying someone's name, and their business card comes up and it asks you if you want to dial their number. Sounds like a winning deal to me.
Other than that, add some Bluetooth or 802.11b capability in there. Then I can use this as an uplink for my laptop. Or I can beam business cards with RF instead of IR. Or imagine being able to zap someone your business card through SMS. That's another cool feature.
These devices are ALMOST there. We're almost to convergence, and I think I'll wait a generation or two and take another serious look at it.
Where the wind blows, the tumbleweed goes.
Treo: Great toy features
- hardware keyboard (Treo 180) OR grafitti (Treo 180g) but no sense of which is cheaper.
- 8 hour battery life: This seems short for either a cell phone OR a pda.
- only GSM network -- great everywhere but US, where it can be called "OK" at best.
It's not really there yet: only 16MB of RAM, not upgradeable, and no plans for a springboard module for EITHER additional RAM OR an MP3 player. Too bad: That would be useful integration!
Well what can I say, SPH-I300 vs. Treo. I should think that SPH-I300 easily tops most any pda/phone currently on the market. Allbeit the I300 is not compatible with 3G networks, but come on we barely have 2.5 networks... lets face north-america is quite far behind when it comes to cellphone technology. I live in canada, and we have only one major GSM provider.
I'd like to see this Treo mate with a SCP-6000 and see what happens. Also has anyone noticed the likeness between this Treo and the old Motorola I1000-plus phones. But its definately a step in the right direction.
Fighting for Peace, is Like Fucking for Virginity.
Fighting for Peace, is like Fucking for Virginity.
This looks like a nice, solid product.
I like the keyboard, I'm curious how the Graffiti works. Do you just write anywhere on the screen, or do you have to bring up a writing area?
It's too bad they don't have a springboard slot. If this could take my Soundsgood MP3 player and my GPS it would really sweeten the deal.
This looks like a great upgrade to my current Visor. I was going to get a springboard phone just before I ended up moving to North Dakota where Handspring didn't have coverage. If their coverage expands, this will let me finally stop having to carry a cell and a PDA.
And 16MB of memory, lord what will I do with it all? I'm doing great with 2!
obviously no deficiencies vs. no obvious deficiencies
- While having a single standard is a good thing, having competition among multiple technologies is also a good thing
sPhMany US cell networks were built before GSM was created, and must provide legacy support for the older standards
In terms of voice quality, no system out there beats the original Motorola analog
While GSM is an impressive technical and political achievement, do remember that one of its unstated purposes was to prevent Motorola from dominating the EC mobile market the way it dominated the US, and to give Ericsson, Nokia, etc. a competitive edge. In this it succeeded, with assistance from poor management at Motorola of course
This, like many innovations, is just another step. Handsprings are slightly more modular than other forms of PDAs, while still having the minimal power consumption associated with palm pilots.
Many people, including myself, believe that the next frontier of technology is small, portable devices that communicate with each other wirelessly, though each device has a specialized function.
In order to make that happen, we need to start with devices such as handhelds - which CAN be easily specialized through software, and which have readily available wireless capability.
Its true that its "Just another handheld," similar to all of the other handhelds, but its more functional. Its not like another model car, which is exactly like the previous model, except that its "new and improved" (i.e. new and the current fashion); this is another piece of the puzzle.
And IT DOES MATTER that its slightly more functional. The advent of the 386 chipset allowed a whole new class of problems to be solvable that where previously too slow to do research - I know that this is the case for my field, which is computer vision. As time progresses, even more problems are being researched.
I'm looking forward to using technology such as this -perhaps even this model - in the near future (when it becomes pretty inexpensive - perhaps two or three years from now) as a module for home automation - it would be just about perfect for the purpose.
Mod me down and I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine!
I want this instead:
Yopy
So if you are listening Santa...
Do a google search before posting.
Its called the SL-5000D Zaurus PDA and is currently for developers only.
And yes, it does run linux (2.4 to be exact) along with PalmTop, QT, and Personal Java.
Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day.
Teach him to eat and he will fish forever.
I just picked up the Samsung SPH-I300 avaliable with SprintPCS last weekend.
It's a color PalmOS, 8MB memory which is shorter and narrower then my Palm Vx, though just slightly thicker. It does have the ability to dial from the sync'ed address book, and all the usual PalmOS features.
And it's avaliable now, though you may have to search a little to find it at a SprintPCS store. From what I can see, it has all the features the Treo has and more, except the physical buttons
More information on the phone can be found at http://samsungusa.com/i300/
... someone create a new product that will keep people unemployed. Or how about the government and wall street do their jobs and take care of the u.s. economy?
Sorry just my retarded ramblings...
... is simple. It's what people are used to, and what they expect. I know exactly where to find a "A", or an "R", on a QWERTY keyboard. I don't want to have to re-learn this just for my handheld.
I can mostly deal with it being a GSM only device, and not have TDMA or CDMA, but calling it a dual-band world phone is pretty much an outright lie. Yeah, its a "world phone" if you never travel across oceans.
I still might get one if the service plans are good, but being able to go to the UK and stick a £10 Virgin pay as you go sim card in it would make the thing a true winner.
I hadn't heard it until I went to Handspring's web site after reading the article, but a color version is due "mid 2002." It's the Treo 270. No real details other than it has a color screen and will be $599.
Here's a ZDNet article from late October about Cingular's plans to do so; the article mentions that Verizon is considering doing the same:
fencepost
just a little off
You can not actually touch type using such a small keyboard though and you are limited to looking at the keys and then pressing the letter you want. They may as well place them in a logical order. BTW I type exclusively in Dvorak, learning a new keyboard does not take very long.
Every Treo communicator comes with Blazer(tm)--the award-winning wireless web browser
:-)
Good thing: If this trend with 'web-browser in your hand computer thingy' catches on, perhaps sites starts providing pages which I can surf without resorting to Netscape 4.5:s "future proof" mode (view source, cut, paste).
Why Netscape 4.5? In digital unix you kind of take what's offered to you...
Open Materials Database
WOW, what a bargain. Well I know what I'm gonna use mine for! "Reminder: call smelly guy in front of my apartment and comment that 'While the cost of this device might be enough to save people like you, I'm sure the unecessary convenience it offers me will one day be as valuable as the lives of multiple human beings.'" Homeless people have cellphones, right?
(Disclaimer: No one wants to force you to spend your money helping people not die instead of buying insanely priced doo-hickeys that you don't need, but I reserve the right to make fun of you for choosing not to in such a rediculously extreme example as buying things like this. As always, it's just my opinion.)
I think for their next iPod, Apple should add a couple features:
;-)
1) Cellphone that works with all the cell networks
in the world.
2) 802.11x or whatever that new superfast wireless
standard is that works with 802.11b, v.92 modem,
Gigabit ethernet, and the LCD backlight should be
able to blink morse code.
3) Military GPS accurate to 1"
4) A keyboard and also hand recognition (but not
graffiti crap, REAL hand recognition). And voice
recognition.
5) It's screen should be color and widescreen
format so I can watch my cracked DVDs on it.
6) It should run linux, but have virtual machines
so it can also run Palm and Windows apps. Oh, and
a gameboy advance emulator.
7) The battery should last at least a week,
preferably two.
8) None of this SDMI crap. I can put on and take
off anything. In fact, it should have a video and
audio in, so I can take input straight from my DVD
player into the device and share them with my
friends.
9) It should be the same size it is now, and still
use firewire.
10) Flash card, Smartmedia, multimedia card and
PCMCIA slots.
Oh, and I won't pay more than $150 for it.
That'd be cool!
obviously no deficiencies vs. no obvious deficiencies
Where did you see 8hour battery life? Here's the section from the article that you seem to have missed (as did the person who modded you up to 'Informative' it seems):
Battery life is adequate. As a phone, the Treo gets about 2.5 hours of talk time and 60 hours of standby time. With the phone function turned off, it gets about three weeks of battery life as an organizer.
60 hours of standby cellphone time is better than my current phone and 3 weeks PDA time is pretty darn good too.
Also, the Treo is meant to be pretty small, adding a Springboard on would add quite a bit of size and weight to it. If you want a Springboard slot, get a Visor.
<rant>
Why do cell phones and these things have external antennas? It's not as if the case is metal. I'm sure they could find enough room inside the case to place that stubbly little wart of an antenna if they really wanted to. (Say along the edge of the flip up lid.)
</rant>
"I'm not impatient. I just hate waiting." - My Dad
North Carolina performed such a study. A take on it can be found on the Libertarian Party web site.
I'm not a Libertarian, but if they use PHP they can't be all bad.
..well, ok, they could use some help from the Demoronizer though.
I/O Error G-17: Aborting Installation
easy solution...move to a city where a car is pratical and avoid urban planner designed mass transit systems.
Oh yea, avoid the 1.5 hour commute each way also.
Rant: Handwriting recognition. It'll never work. It can't ever work. People can't read my handwriting. I can't read my handwriting and consequently I've given up doing it for anything more important than a shopping list. And I usually fail to get something at the shops for exactly this reason.
I like that PDA's are sprouting keyboards, and I like the idea of attempting to use a Zaurus or similar for my email, but I'll probably be waiting for a Symbian based phone+pda combination. Once again, bring it on, the money's sitting in my bank account waiting for you to make things that don't suck.
Dave
I write a blog now, you should be afraid.
I have a Qualicomm QPC it never leaves the cradle and it hasn't had service for almost a year now. You know the Qualicomm phone with the palm pilot in it.
Battery life sucked, the unit expected to be placed on it's cradle 3-5 times a day (It will completely recharge in 30 minutes) and if you left digital land your freshly charged battery died within minutes on standby or seconds in a call.
If this unit cannot give me 2 days without needing a charge (which means within 3 months it will need daily charging due to battery life loss) It is worthless.
I really hope they have improved the battery life or at least offer a battery backpack for those of us that use a phone to death and dont sit at a desk most of the day.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
How much did they pay you for this "endorsement"?
bah..
Cell-phone/PDA combos are a neat idea, but until there is a major advancement in display technology, either the phone is going to be too big or the screen is going to be too small. Not even the whiz-bang new Japanese phones address this.
This is probably the most interesting innnovation from the PDA market for a long time now. The launch of the new PocketPC from MS is not that nice to begin with, it was basically a non events.
Speaking of lack of Innovation, Palm has been doing nothing but staring at the wall for the past year, I am one of those that own a m505, it's cool but it is but no means innovative.
Palm was suppose to come out the Palm m705 (bascially a smaller form vector version of the illfated Palm VII), I am pretty sure they canned that thing probably because when they see Tero is going to murder it like crazy.
Tero is an innovative PDA/Phone hybird, not because they understand the lack of graffit, form factor, ease of use is the key for that market segment.
Now, I have a question to ask, unless you are a diehard Tero fan without a PDA, why don't you just get a really crappy cellphone then hook it up to your PDA? It's probably cheaper too.
kawai
Ring...
Click, conversation starts with Cisco...
*FUCK!*
Crashing noises as network guy tries to find batteries...
*FUCK!*
More crashing noises as network guy tries to mess with tiny plastic plate on back of Treo, beefy fingers dropping batteries and plastic parts everywhere.
*FUCK!*
Sounds of Treo being used as a hockey puck because when palm devices lose power, they lose really important things like your Cisco engineer's callback and trouble ticket numbers.
MORAL: when palm/handspring figures out that thing called flash or NV RAM, and comes out with easy to change batteries (like cell phones), then the product may become appealing in a work environment.
'Hail Eris, baby, hail Eris...pfffffffttt.' *cough* 'Yeah.'
Yes, but most of us don't give a damn which keyboard layout we use and instinctively know where to find keys on a QWERTY keyboard. The point is not how easy it is to use another keyboard layout, the point is that only typing freaks care.
My CIS teacher today was talking about using 802.11b in lieu of Excite@Home and what not (he may be getting cut off tomorrow.) That got me to thinking about an iPaq/Yopy (or any of the other linux/pocket pc capable PDA's), 802.11b PCMCIA/CompactFlash card and a VOIP application, all combined with a nice NAN (Neighborhood Area Network.)
About 5 linksys WAPS ($139 a Piece on Pricewatch) would cover our entire campus (I have my own personal one but it just covers the dorm.) Anyway, carrying around a little PDA (or using your laptop) would give you nice voice/video/data as long as you were in range, spread those WAP puppies around the city and that would be pretty pimp. Imagine roaming with nice speeds anywhere in town.
That brings me to the point where I am clueless. Can anybody help, how do you provide seamless transitions between WAPs? I'd hate to be downloading a file and wander out of one WAPs range, can another closeby pick me up seamlessly? (I know I can connect to either, but can it switch automatically without interrupting communcation?) Linux seems to usually be the most ahead in these types of bleeding edge apps... Anybody have any URLs?
worldLOG Connecting the lives of friends and family.
My sig, http://www.jdhodges.com
Except that it's huge compared to the Treo and has no cover for the screen.
What a dork, call this a flame if you want but have you even held one of these things??? Obviously not since you are complaining about how big it is. The Treo is a good bit smaller then the standard Nokia, which is the number one phone on the market. Heck, except for it's antenna, it's smaller then my wallet.
Get a clue before you post. Some fool might think you know what your talking about.
I've owned my Kyocera Smartphone for several months now and I really like it. They've done a good job at integrating a Palm and a phone. I couldn't care less about color, video, IM, web, and games. I also happen to like the look of the Smartphone.
If you reply, do so only to what I explicitly wrote. If I didn't write it, don't assume or infer it.
I hate to say, the last Newton Apple produced had excellent handwriting recognition.
I'd love to have a Palm with that code it in..
Note that you can store a limited number of voice-activated phone numbers with the Samsung i300, another phone/Palm alternative...
Twelve-and-three-quarter inches. Unyielding. This wand belonged to Bellatrix Lestrange.
huge compared to the treo? you know not what you speak of. the i300 is smaller than any other palm/phone combo on the market.
oh, and it's color.
oh, and it has a speaker phone.
oh, and it's under 5 ounces.
> Except that it's huge compared to the Treo and has no cover for the screen.
:)
Emmm... no.
Treo: 4.3" x 2.7" x 0.7", 5.4 oz
I300: 4.9" x 2.28" x 0.82", 6.0 oz
I wouldn't say that it is huge compared to the Treo... 0.6" longer, 0.4" narrower and 0.12" thicker.
Though, yes, there is no cover for the screen. That's what screen protectors and cases are for
Of course, the I300 is avaliable now, while the color Treo is still half a year away
There's no mention of the little "gotchas" such as data service fees: $5/mo + $0.15/min modem access (Cingular) or for GPRS (yes, it's out there, but not much) it's $15 for the first 500k plus $0.07 for each subsequent k (Cingular) or $20/5M + $5/M (Voicestream). And we won't even go into roaming fees. Note the vast disparity in pricing between Voicestream and Cingular.
Nor does he speculate about the poor likelihood of a timely GPRS rollout. Voicestream has it already, but you can only get it on the West Coast if you're in Washington- the Pacific-Bell (California & Nevada) side of Cingular isn't well known for its infrastructure, so who knows if it'll be available locally even by the time the Treo update is available.
So, yeah, the hardware and software are nice and the thing is nice as both a phone (though I'd probably prefer bigger dialing buttons) and PDA if you like the Palm OS (though he doesn't go into how much smaller the screen is compared to a normal Palm or Handspring Visor), but using the thing to its full wireless capability can get expensive. And considering that the GPRS support isn't yet available, the wireless capability is partially vaporware.
The high-res CLIE models (both monochrome and color) actually run at 4 times the resolution.. 2x in both dimensions.
- jon
Ganymede, a GPL'ed metadirectory for UNIX
How does this differ at the end (besides the fact that it works in the U.S.) from the Nokia 7650 (http://www.nokia.com/phones/7650/index.html) or even from a traditional Nokia Communicator ? This is not a troll but honestly, any insight would be appreciated.
I agree, the future isn't in the handsets, its in the wearables.
:)
But I disagree that the size should matter.
Size doesn't matter, usage and implementation does.
I believe we will see even smaller devices that will succeed, but not just for any application or in any environment.
In the US and many other places you can forget about any 'real' data communication using a pda device until the service issue has been sorted out. But in Europe where GSM is good and you can almost smell the 3G networks, and Japan where the networks are extraordinaire, its the other way around. The service is there. We scream for devices that are not just a mobile phone with a game and some SMS features. Here the market are ripe, so if the American manufacturers wants some business, all they need to do is deliver the advances products and launch it here with the same initiatives they would have done in the States. But mark my words if they are not going for keeps they should rather stay away and leave it up to japs and eurotrash such as yours truely
Here we have the service and even if the device is the size of a wristwatch, if only implemented with the right applications to suit the environment, it will rock the blueeyed danish and swedish blondes panties off.
my favourite fantasy, should I have the opportunity, would be my own personal modified version of the wristwatch from IBM labs in Zurich which are equipped with microphone, bluetoothed earplugs, linux, sandisc flashcard, 1.3inches color display and camera combined with webservices applications for advanced management (and later on blessed with a projector or visor and 'virtual keyboard'). Even without the wishware in the parantheses you would have a client device that in collaboration with web services would give you so many new advantages to make you daily life simpler and more organized, that leaves you with more time for real fun.
imagine the applications with the programmable device connected to the internet utilizing administration and communication software that sorts and organize all the information and makes it available to and for you, on your command.
when the IBM wristwatch with linux was covered here on slashdot a while back I posted some of my fantasies as well and I made a small note about if IBM, Nokia, Ericsson should be interested, I would be happy to cooperate. Amazingly some good IBM professor from Zurich wrote me an email encouraging me to take contact. Greetings to you, if you should read this again. I would love to at least initiate some sort of communication regarding the subject. Unfortunately I lost your address when my thinkpad's harddrive suddenly said: NO MORE. so just to leave it up to mr. chance here is my address again: caspera@sophistic.com
Why did I just write all this again?
Actually, I can't wait for a handheld with wearable microdisplay and a twiddler. One that's light and cool and doesn't alter my metabolism.
The fact that you "type exclusively in Dvorak" merely labels you as a gullible idiot, who's opinion on the matter is worthless.
I used to carry a RIM pager for mobile email, my visor for PDA purposes and a cellphone.
I thought the TREO would solve my problems, but I took one look at it, and forget it, its ugly, bulky and a jack of all trades, master of none.
I decided to go against waiting for it, and instead got a Visor Edge and a Red-M Blade Bluetooth springboard and bought a Ericcson T39 GSM phone.
Now I have mobile e-mail and internet access on my visor with my cellphone in my pocket.
I make a call on my cellphone and use it handsfree with the bluetooth headset. If I'm not driving, I can use my visor and talk on the phone.
On top of it all, the T39 works with pay-per-use SIMS in Europe and Asia, and has worked well in London and Hong Kong for me.
Its kept my devices small and the cellphone in my pocket. (T39 is VERY small phone)
I recommend this to anyone who can put up with Voicestream as a cellular voice subscriber.
I will switch to AT&T or Cingular once their GSM networks are up and running.
good luck.
(connected so I don't go to the office...)
I don't know about bluetooth, but voice recognition needs a crazy amount of CPU oomph (to use a technical term). I could see it on an ipag, but on a 30something mhz dragonball? I don't want to say I don't believe it can be done, but I'm a little skeptical. Also, I seem to recall the PalmOS being designed for a PDA that would be running fairly lightweight, simple apps. Is that OS the right choice for a PDA if you want to do this? EPOC ER5 runs on PDAs with processing power similar to that of a high-end PalmOS machine, but also provides multitasking and better memory management.
Just my uninformed, ignorant, kneejerk responses (as I'm sure dozens of people will be telling me very shortly.)
I'm the stranger...posting to
Please mod this pathetic peice of shiet down.
I have a VisorPhone. I like it. I'd rather have the Treo, of course, but I won't even consider one until they fix an annoying problem: the light.
The top of the Treo looks exactly like the top of the VisorPhone. There is an on/off button, a light, and a ringer switch. The on/off button is irrelevant, and should probably be removed, but the light is what bugs me.
The light can be blinking green, blinking red, solid green, or solid red. Only one of these are useful. It blinks green if it has service, blinks red if it doesn't, and is solid when it is charging (green is fully charged).
The lights *should* be:
- solid red if out of service or off
- blinking red if running out of juice
- blinking green if you missed a call, or have voice mail, or an alarm has gone off, with bonus points if it blinks in a pattern to indicate how many calls you missed
- solid green if connected
The lights *should not* indicate:
- if the phone is charging or charged, because I already know that it's charging if it is in the cradle
- if the phone is on, because I don't need a night-light when I sleep
I hope they will improve the user interface with these changes. The fact that they made a Treo shows that they care, even a little bit.
but I agree coverage in NoVA, at least for ATT and Nortel, sucks with holes and drop-outs in the damndest places. (Like Tyson's Corner, a MAJOR office and retail development area that's basically an "edge city", or areas in sight of AOL and MCI Worldcomm.) I'm sure, however, that the coverage near congressional and FCC staffers overseeing the cellular industry is first-rate.
Sounds of Treo being used as a hockey puck because when palm devices lose power, they lose really important things like your Cisco engineer's callback and trouble ticket numbers.
You are right of course, but the palm does have a significant advantage over mobile phones. It can backup the info on your pc, so even if you lose it, you can retain all your info.
while i've been longing for an integrated cell phone + pda, they have a big drawback for travellers: you can't use them on airplanes at all.
yep, that's right, no playing traffic, pocket rogue, tetris or solitare on the airplanes. you still need to carry something seperate for that.
I picked up a Samsung SPH-I300 at my local Best Buy two weeks ago, if for nothing else because the sales drone offered me 24 months 0% financing and the Sprint rep was willing to throw in 2 free Palm M100s and a $30 rebate. It was a sweet deal for a sweet... phone... or is it a PDA? Hard to say really. And I think that's where these convergence devices are going to be stuck just until they figure out exactly what it is they want to be.
I'm not saying that I don't love my SPH-I300, because I really do. It's a really wonderful little Palm (160x240, Virtual Graffiti, slim form factor, weighs around 6 oz.) and being able to check my e-mail and have (albeit slow) wireless web access is really an amazing thing. But it certainly doesn't excel as a phone. It's not nearly as durable or as tiny as I like my phones and the virtual keypad is, well, not as good as a real thing.
It is, however, a good compromise for those of us that need a PDA and have very limited phone use -which, in my opinion, is really the only market for these $500 PDA-Phone combos anyway. If you're looking to buy one of these devices and are expecting to get a phone with PDA capabilities, you're bound to be disappointed.
DigiSquid Design.
I went through the McDonalds drive-through with a friend a few days ago. After the order the guy asked me if I wanted to try a Chocolate Sunday.
'twas the first time I've ever heard them not mention the word fries. Maybe it's just me not going there much. Maybe it's just new in NZ or something.
I was almost going to ask him if it was free, since he said try, as if they where giving them away as free samples or something. But then I remembered it's not a good idea to mess with the staff at food places when you buying your food there.
One other difference worth mentioning: The Treo is available ONLY as a GSM CancerPhone, while the Samsung and it's Kyocera cousin work with the much more biologically friendly CDMA.
(CDMA is also much better for mobile data connections because of its soft handoff capability, which allows the phone to "talk" to multiple cells simultaneously to produce a smooth transition rahter than the abrupt switchover used by other systems.)
"The future's good and the present is nothing to sneeze at." - Roblimo's last
The Treo uses an internal, rechargeable battery pack, not AAA's. Even with my ancient Palm III, though, I have never ever ever lost ANY data during a battery swap. Ever. As long as you get the batteries back in there within about a minute, you're fine. My friend once zapped all his contacts by installing the batteries backwards, though...so don't be a dumbass and do that. Worst case scenario? Sync the thing before you swap batteries...then it just doesn't matter if the thing zaps itself to hell.
Why yes, I AM a rocket scientist!
Hrm, Treo is also a Danish pain killer.
Unselfish actions pay back better
Seemed ok. I agree with others that the networks around here need more improvement for these convergent devices to really take off.
My main rant with this is the keyboard - too small for my tastes. Perhaps it's big fingers, but it was *not* very ergonomic for me, and that lowered my impression of the overall product. I had to really concentrate to work the buttons. I would probably rather fight the Graffiti system (or tap a virtual keypad) then try and punch on that keyboard. But then again maybe if you have small fingers, or really sharp nails, it might work good for you.
I didn't see that new 'sideways' Nokia phone (at Comdex) with keys on either side of the screen (I'm sure it was there). But I would gather that *might* be better as the keys could be spaced a bit farther apart. Or, they could be close together and have more of them (which gives the same result). I'm not sure, I wish I spent the time to check that.
Anyway, some food for thought for those of you with larger digits.
- A non-productive mind is with absolutely zero balance.
- AC
u have to try similar newbie from Siemens but runs Pocket PC: http://www.my-siemens.com/SX45.
The Treo is a really cool device, but you'll have to make some decisions: Keyboard or graffiti pad, get it now or wait for the color screen.
Probably i'll never get one, I'm from Holland and all of the cool stuff isn't available here: You can only buy an AIBO directly from Sony, I can't find the Kyosera Smartphone anywhere and my guess for the Treo is that I won't be able to get my hands on one.
Network vendors have been wanting mobile companies etc. to upgrade their networks for a couple of years. Unfortunately, the phones to drive consumers to be interested have not been available. Mobile operators have to have consumer revenue to build bigger/better networks. Now that there are phones which are driving 2.5/3G it is more likely that the newer networks will happen.
No, it means I took a few minutes of time to do research and I know type 20WPM faster than most people. I now spend less time typing than most people do. Try different things. It doesn't hurt.
I'm surprised that there is nothing out on the market for this device as well as any other wireless PDA that would allow remote control of a PC. Something like PC Anywhere running on a device like this would be very useful. I know Carbon Copy (now out of business) had a version that would run on Windows CE devices, but I never heard much about it. Does anyone know of any other programs that would allow wireless remote control of a PC.