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The Handspring Treo In Real Life
Motivations The Treo 180 intrigued me when it was announced. I thought that it was close to the ideal unified device for me, because it would increase the utility of the Palm OS by integrating telephony and providing wireless web and email access. After a few weeks of research into the development of the Treo and its expected feature set, I decided to buy one and to quickly end service on my Nokia mobile phone and RIM pager.
I quit the other products altogether because I realized that as long as I was able to fall back on them, I would never fully adopt the Treo. After a month of using it, I still see situations where I could do what I want to do with my old devices more easily than I can with the Treo. Nevertheless, I am glad that I got rid of the other devices, I am learning to live with the current limitations of the Treo, and I believe that the Treo is just going to keep getting better in the next few months.
Hardware and Support
In the past, a number of friends told me that the Handspring Visors that they bought had serious quality problems. Issues most often cited were memory problems that caused otherwise stable applications to crash, and display failures. So, I was concerned that Handspring would have difficulty producing a device reliable enough to be used as a mobile phone.
My Treo 180 seemed solid for the first 18 hours I had it. Then I discovered that the backlight on the display did not operate at all. This is a show-stopper on the Treo because it is virtually impossible to use the mobile telephone feature in your car at night without the backlight. I expected to have to deal with this problem for a while because there was a two to three week wait for delivery of new Treo orders at the time.
To my surprise, I got a replacement Treo that worked properly in less than two days, and I had a week to transfer my data from the old Treo and return it (at no additional charge). The only thing I had to do to get Handspring Technical Support to offer me a replacement was indicate that I had read and followed the troubleshooting instructions that appear on Handspring's support web site. My conclusion from this experience is that hardware quality is acceptable and product support is excellent.
I want to mention a couple of physical design issues about the Treo 180 that I have not seen addressed in other reviews. One view of the Phone application is an on-screen dial pad, used to dial numbers not in your address book. Until I started using the Treo, I did not realize that much of my mobile phone dialing had been accomplished in the past without looking at the dial pad. In other words, I dialed by feeling the relative position of the keys. This is impossible with the Treo on-screen keypad.
A smaller design problem I noticed is that the headset jack is on the upper left side of the unit, right above the jog dial. This makes using the headset difficult unless the headset plug is flipped up so that the cable extends above the device, opposite the way most people would naturally orient the plug.
I also feel obligated to comment on the Treo's internal battery. The low-battery warning comes on fairly consistently after about 2 hours of call time. Since I spend a lot of time on the road, I tend to carry my charger in my briefcase, and charge when I am at my desk. This works well for me because the charger works quite rapidly, but some people will be disappointed by the relatively limited capacity of the Treo battery.
Palm Software
Although I was an experienced Palm user before I got my Treo 180, it took me a couple of weeks to understand all of the issues surrounding software for this device. Probably everyone knows that the 180 is the first PalmOS-based PDA to ship with a built-in keyboard; this has a number of side-effects that you won't be able to evaluate properly even if someone hands you a working Treo so you can try it for yourself.
The first problem, which you won't notice if you just look at the phone and calendar applications, is that most existing Palm applications do not provide menu equivalents for all of their major functions. I work around this problem in two ways: I downloaded a utility called PowerJog that allows me to use the jog dial to click on-screen buttons. My other approach is to look for applications that work better than the ones that Handspring ships with the Treo. For instance, I think One-Touch Mail 2.3 is ill-suited for the Treo: it's overkill for hand-held email and it's not keyboard friendly. A better choice is Mailer from ElectricPocket, although it is $29.95 after a 30-day trial period.
The second problem I ran into was the assumption that Treo users would happily use Windows or the Macintosh as their desktop or laptop OS. Many Slashdot readers use Linux instead. Although there are a number of ways to synchronize the Treo using Linux, some of the Internet applications are configured via a Mac or PC application, and then installed through the synchronization process.
OTOH, I would argue that the PalmOS is the single greatest strength of the Treo. Programs already exist to add functionality to the jog dial and to configure the extended functions of the Treo (like which application starts when the lid is opened, and which program runs when the user holds the Option key and presses an application button). None of this functionality was developed by Handspring, but the user community added it within a couple of weeks of the Treo's release. Handspring seems to understand that it is delivering a communications platform, not just a PDA with phone and Internet features added.
Internet Functionality: Not Really Ready for Prime Time
I bought my Treo knowing that Internet access would not work smoothly for a while. This is because the communicator was shipped before GPRS (Generalized Packet Radio Service) support was ready. Yes, you can make data calls to an ISP and this works well, but call setup time is still at least 30 seconds, which seems like an eternity to me.
I want to use GPRS, but I am seriously questioning whether users paying for their own mobile service will sign up, due to the high rates providers are charging in the United States. For instance, VoiceStream's highest-use consumer GPRS plan charges $39.95 a month for 10 megabytes of data transmission, plus $4.00 for each additional megabyte. This is in addition to the monthly service plan for voice calls. Cingular GPRS rates are similar. Nobody I know has used GPRS enough to have a feel for how much data service they will actually use, but the rates worry me.
SMS (Short Message Service) is a big feature of the Treo, which should make the communicator a hit in Europe and Asia where SMS is used more than in North America. There are two problems with SMS on the Treo, IMHO. Every American cell phone user I send SMS messages to is shocked that their phone has this capability, and they often don't know how to respond. The SMS client application, Handspring SMS 3.5H, has a bug in it that makes it difficult to reply to SMS messages received from VoiceStream's SMS-email gateway. The bug is a relatively simple addressing problem that was acknowledged by Handspring Technical Support. But, I have not seen anything indicating that they have updated their SMS client, and I'm not sure that this problem occurs on any other provider than VoiceStream.
Handspring recently announced a software/service offering called TreoMail that is touted as a competitor to Blackberry Enterprise Server. The Blackberry product lets corporate users read their Microsoft Exchange or Lotus Domino mail on a Research in Motion pager. Handspring apparently feels it needs a product like this to be credible in the corporate wireless email market.
I am using a Beta version of TreoMail Internet edition, which periodically connects my POP3 mail account to a server at Visto which hosts TreoMail. This product is really immature, because it's obviously intended to be used with GPRS rather than dial-up Internet access, and my Treo doesn't support GPRS yet. The problem should be mitigated by the option that TreoMail provides to send an SMS message when email arrives, but Handspring recently announced that the SMS alert would only work on Cingular's network until beta testing is completed.
Conclusion
I think Handspring made the right choice by shipping the Treo 180 before GPRS support was completed. The device is so well designed and the mobile phone-PDA integration works so well, that the hardware and software glitches I've identified seem insignificant. Handspring is making progress toward delivering mobile Internet applications, and third parties are developing software for it as well. I like the Treo so much that I am playing with IDEs for Palm OS development that I never would have looked at when I was using a Palm V.
This device is not for everyone, and it is virtually useless in areas where GSM cellular service is not available. That's a large part of the more rural areas of the United States and Canada as we speak. But, AT&T Wireless and Cingular are rolling out GSM support on their networks over the coming months, and devices such as the Treo will begin to take off. This is one of the first integrated communication devices that has more advantages than drawbacks, but it won't be the only successful one.
Slashdot welcomes reader-submitted hands-on reviews.
For the past year, I have searched for a single device that could replace my cellular telephone, PDA, and pager.
duct tape and matches
sig
Well, sounds like something that will be cool now, but quickly eclipsed when GPRS comes out. Too bad...this would have been cool about 2 years ago..
Too bad,
Joe
can you imagine a beo^H^H^H^H **bEEP**
troll detected,
post aborted
IP banned
Sig you!
Many of us have been overly pleased with our Kyocera QCP-6035s, many for well over a year.
Color Cell Phone + Color PDA = horrible battery life, which is why many of us are sticking to what we have which already works, aside from the whole treo's lacking trimode thing.
no text.
Most of this article is US specific. (based on the 1900mhz GSM band) The rest of the world (900/1800mhz GSM) has a whole slew of additional options, and this is one area where the US really falls short in comparison.
mailto:<?=implode("@", array("chris", implode(".", array("php", "net"))))?>
I tried the Visor Phone when it was released, and always felt like I was going to break it. It was bigger than I was comfortable with, and really hurt my wrist trying to hold it to my ear. This sounds like it's a little more egonomic. I may give it a try, since I dropped my Visor and damaged the screen anyway.
I was finally able to look at one of these things first hand at a local Best Buy. Naturally, it was a floor model and didn't work.
How are the keyboards on these things? It felt kind of mushy. They keyboard itself is rather small, so I wanted to gauge how the Handspring guys had handled the error control, etc. etc.
... to turn off the cell phone part of it and have just the PDA on?
The only thing preventing me from buying one of these guys is that I'm concerned I can't use it on a plane. This may sound silly to some people, but I like the idea if simply carrying that aboard instead of my laptop. Since I already carry a cell-phone around everywhere I go, then that'd mean one less thing to carry.
Anybody know if this is possible?
"Derp de derp."
Folks have already said that the Treo can make a data call to an ISP and establish an internet connection. Cool.
Can the Treo also be used as an external modem for other devices that want to do that? One of the things I like about my StarTAC is that a simple cable turns it into a wireless modem for all my laptops. Can I do something similar with the Treo? If not, it's of no use to me, as I'll have to carry around another phone anyway for laptop use.
Long Battery Life
PalmOS 3.5
8 Megs ram
Multi-Mode Cell support
Excellent Palm Phone Integration
Built in Wireless Modem
Works GREAT with Blazer Browser
The phone supports SMS and tons of other features. Sure it is a tad big, bit it is worth it. Sprint is upgrading there network as well to suport 1000 character SMS messages to other networks as well.
I can check my mail, telnet into the servers and run some checkup scripts, surf the web and talk to my wife all on a single device. Plus i can drag the cradle with me, and use the wireless modem from my laptop and login to the interenet while i'm on the train. Albeit only 14.4, but better then nothing.
The Kyocera is about 130.00 from Sprintpcs.com and you get a 50.00 and 75.00 rebate.. so its only a few bucks. BlazerBrowser is a free download and for more information check out
SmartPhone (Kyocera) Source
What?!?!? A slashdot story with no link. Well, here's one for the Treo
A hot dog and a hummer, and he probably called it even.
It will be upgradeable when GPRS is ready.
This is a show-stopper on the Treo because it is virtually impossible to use the mobile telephone feature in your car at night without the backlight
Is it too much to ask that you pull over before you call someone in your car, at night? Maybe stop under a street light somewhere to chat?
Driving around at night on your phone is dangerous, to you and to other people. Why can't you wait the 10 extra seconds to get somewhere that you can stop at? I for one am tired of getting almost run over by some idiot on a cellphone every day. I walk to work, and pretty much everywhere else. And when I get a walk signal in a cross walk and start a cross, and some guy on a cellphone comes around the corner making a right turn and almost kills me, it really ruins my mood. So do me a favor, stop it. Just put the damn phone down for 5 minutes, get where you are going, then talk after you park. There is no good reason to be on the phone while the vehicle is moving if you are driving. If it's an emergency you should probably be stopped anyways, if you're on the way to the hospital you should have called before you got in the car.
Ugh... crazy yapping bastards on their phones...
Kintanon
Check out JoshJitsu.info for Brazilian Ji
From the Treo FAQ:
Q. Will your product be upgradeable to GPRS?
A. Yes. In the second half of the year, Handspring plans to offer a software upgrade that enables Treo to work on GPRS networks. The upgrade will be available from Handspring's web site. The current hardware in Treo is GPRS-ready.
Q. What version of GPRS is the Treo communicator going to use?
A. The Treo communicator will support GPRS Class 2, which will provide two channels down and one channel up (otherwise know as "2+1").
"Mod, mod, mod...and another troll bites the dust."
Picture of the Treo
sulli
RTFJ.
The thing that makes me distrust the Treo is the inclusion of a really tiny keyboard instad of a more functional Graffiti writing area.
While I know that, eventually, a Treo with such an option will be available for people who can Graffiti write faster than they can peck tiny chicklet-sized keys, I do not think it was wise for Handspring to roll out the keyboard model first, as the early-adopters are sure to be those replacing their Palms...with business users rolling in after it's been proven useful.
Just my two cents...
It's all about cargo pants. Sure, I get laughed at going to through metal detectors and I have to wear a belt, but I've got my cell phone in my left leg pocket, PDA in the right, pager in my upper left pocket and, uh, silly putty in the upper right pocket.
As much as it would be convenient to carry just one item, it still seems like 3 is the way to go for a little while longer. Being able to feel the phone keys is a big plus, and being able to lookup and enter something on my Palm while I'm on the phone is key. Breaking one item won't cripple the others, and changing services is much easier that way.
Still free with a one year contract. Basically, its the grand-daddy of the Treo. Form factor is a bit bigger, no GPRS (ever!) but pretty much does everything else. Cell Phone, Palm Software, Internet Access. What more could you want? Plus, with the Prism, you've got color!
For those who have tried both, how does the Treo compare to, say, the Kyocera series of PalmOS-based smartphones, or even the old Qualcomm pdQ series?
(BTW, I think the Kyocera is your only option currently if you want Palm + phone in one unit and you are on a CDMA-based wireless network, such as Sprint or Verizon.)
yes, the solution is:
DON'T USE INTERNET EXPLORER
understand?
If at first you don't succeed, then sky diving definitely isn't for you.
yea this thing bites
_ 1_16&B =ie
& thre adid=18161
p ?s=&thre adid=18496
1)no color
2)not tri or quad band, cant use it to travel
try a sonnyericsson P800
http://www.sonyericsson.com/spg.jsp?page=C2
truth be known, Microsoft makes a nice unit based of pocket pc its called the XDA O2
http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php?s=
if your going to buy a all in one then dont waste money on some things that dont support the true benifits of GPRS/GSM.
other nice phones
http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.ph
Firstly, you can choose between buying the Treo with the thumb keyboard OR with the graffiti/stylus instead. Secondly, if you've ever used a Blackberry/RIM pager, I really don't think you'd think you can write faster with a Palm. I've been using Palm for years, but I could quickly beat my own graffiti speed within, say, 2 or 3 hours of using a blackberry. Honestly. The only problem with such a keyboard, as I see it, is that it requires a certain form factor and that you need to find some alternative pointing device, which may be inferior to a stylus for pointing, but on the aggregate... I suspect this thumb keyboard would be much more desirable.
And don't tell me not to check my voicemail while I'm stuck in freeway traffic! Or to be more clear: tell me if you like, but I will ignore you.
sulli
RTFJ.
In the particular case of PDAs, when I shifted to using a bare-bones PalmOS device a few years ago it was, and still is, the most limited option available in many ways. But it worked; it provided useful functionality not available in a low-tech form in a good form-factor; and the penalties weren't hard to adapt to. So it became a habit.
Why do people still use the Palm OS? I mean, I can understand that most of you probably hate Microsoft, but I mean c'mon, the IPaq is so much better in every regard over the PalmOS. I suppose price might be the major issue, but other than the two above-mentioned issues, is there anything that the PalmOS does better than PocketPC?
The Treo looks like a good Smartphone/all-on-one-device/whatever you want to call it... but at $399 with activation, how many can they realistically expect to sell? While the price isn't too terrible when you compare the cost of purchasing PDA/Cell Phone/RIM-style devices separately, that's a pretty good chunk of money to lay down especially if you've already invested the $$$ in separate devices (and already have a wireless contract with another carrier.)
:)
And then there's the longevity issue; Handspring has put all their eggs in one basket with the Treo. Donna Dubinsky made a vague announcement back in January that Handspring is exiting the traditional organizer market... they're dropping their only color device, the Prism, and the rest of the Visors are still stuck at Palm OS 3.5 with no plans for improvement to the Visor line.
While a company has to do what's in its best interests in the long term, the episode could have been handled better than it was; Dubinsky's vague statement pissed off a lot of current Visor owners, and Handspring probably lost a lot of potential Treo customers right there; why buy a Treo if Handspring is going to be belly up in a couple of years, or move on to some other product after you've invested hundreds of dollars on the Treo and accessories?
That being said, if I could comfortably afford one and needed a new wireless contract, I'd probably go for it.
>>For the past year, I have searched for a single device that could replace my cellular telephone, PDA, and pager
I've had a visorphone for over a year now, and it satisfies all of the above criteria, except for the pager. Though you can run sms, yahoo im, and though I've never tried it, you could probably run finger while telnetting. A little bulky, but not much more than a visor with a box of matches stuck to it. Besides you can get a cheap visor for $99 and the phone for "free" with contract. (As opposed to $450 for a treo). Plus you can plug in other modules when not in use as a phone.
Web access is about as satisfying as eating soup with a screwdriver, but in an emergency, it works.
I'd like to see the following integrated, myself:
MP3 player
PDA
Good-sized hard drive with firewire/USB2.0 interface
I've seen two of these together, but never all three.
Ooh, a sarcasm detector. Oh, that's a real useful invention.
The single biggest problem with this device is that it's not GPRS ready yet. I think it was a mistake releasing it without this capability - especially if you live in one of the big urban areas like I do (NYC) where gprs is available already. I don't think they should have delayed it just should have made at least a beta patch available.
I really would have preferred keeping my sprint service, but bit the bullet and changed to voicestream only to find out less than a month later that sprint will have the treo in the summer (probably the color one). *poof* there goes another $600...
the Nokia 9290. It does pretty much everything - Wireless Web / Wireless E-Mail / Office Use / Organizer / Mobile Multimedia and of course its a phone too. It states that it hasn't been authorized by the FCC yet, but when it is, I think this will be one of their best ones out there.
'Go for the eyes, Boo, go for the eyes, aaarrrrrrrr!' -- Minsc
..and I'm very happy. I won mine over at www.visorcentral.com . A few notes:
Battery life improves by leaps and bounds if you have the second generation treo. Apparently, Handspring had the wrong specs for the radio and it can be set up with longer standny (though not talk) time. How? Get it replaced with the "newer" version, which has larger letters on the keyboard as well as a "language picker" app that lets you choose from various Euro langauges.
3rd party apps are indeed the way to keep the treo happy. Switcheroo is an excellent way to launch apps directly from the keyboard, and TreoButton allows you to remap several of the main buttons in good ways.
Connection time is reduced by five or ten seconds by using VoiceStream's own WAP ISP number and settings.
Handspring finally put the IR port on top!
The speakerphone works excellently.
Size is excellent as well, it feels smaller than it looks, because of slightly curved corners and edges.
The sound switch on the top is one of those hit-your-head-because-its-so-simple ideas. a physical switch that turns off ALL sounds that you can check if you're paranoid about that sort of thing.
The phone/radio management is also good, switching it on and of easy. Also, dialing is easy too, especially once you have the numbers in your address book. another neat feature is you Can use the physical keyboard to punch out new numbers, and the treo will recognize that you're pecking out a new number, not spelling a name.
I currently use a Handspring Visor Platinum and a Samsung SCH-3500 with SprintPCS.
I connect the two via a cable from Gomadic.
It works fairly well. I currently do not sign up for Sprint's Wireless Web deal, so I pay by the minute (adding it to my plan would require $10/month, and I would like to keep my current plan).
I do not use it that much, only when travelling, which basically means about two weekends a month or so.
I was impressed with how easy it was to set up. After getting the cable, it probably took about ten minutes of fairly easy work to get connected the first time.
Having to carry both items is not that big of a deal. I tyipcaly carry my phone in my front pocket and my Visor in a rear pocket. And since I am usually travelling, I typically have either a backpack or another bag with me, as well.
Connecting takes about 25 seconds. On occasion I will get dropped almost immediately after connecting. I have started to notice that the drops seem dependent on the charge of the battery. As the cell battery gets lower, the more drops I get.
Connection speed is limited to 14.4
I currently only check my email. I have not done any web work with the Visor. I use Eudora's free email client. Being able to leave mail on the server, using POP3, means that I do not have to worry about synching the email with the desktop, a Mac, when I return, which I think is key.
Eudora/Palm also allows you to disconnect immediately after a send/check, which cuts down on the minutes used (nice when I am paying for access by the minute).
I think that eventually I will go with a combination device like the Treo. It will be a while, though. There are many times when I only carry my phone, and I like having its smaller size. Even now I am considering purchasing a phone smaller than the 3500.
- (c) 2018 Hank Zimmerman
They need to make this thing color and have more wireless companies (i.e. AT&T) pick this up. Can't be that expensive or bulky to make this thing color. Don't get me wrong, Palm is falling behind on this too. It seems to me that these companies release things as they see fit and that always isn't the best that is possible, for instance: Why is the new wireless palm (1705) not color? Anyway, I guess I have color issues!
dave said: "most existing Palm applications do not provide menu equivalents for all of their major functions"
huh?
does this mean that if you're pecking away at a keyboard model, you'll still need to yank out the stylus from time to time in order to hit an [OK] button?
yech.
i guess there's a keyboard mechanism for accessing classic palm menus though?
thanks for the review, dave.
- a Palm-based OS
- an always-on IP connection (a la GPRS)
- a big hard drive (~10 GB to start)
- digital still/video camera
- music/video playback
- cell phone
- and pluggable into a desktop for instant syncing like the iPod
I would SO be there for that.You can have my one-button mouse when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers.
I've been seriously tempted to buy a Treo for the past couple months, however....
How's the coverage area in your experience with Voicestream (decent provider??) or Cingular? I live in the Philadelphia area and travel to NJ, NYC, and MD frequently. Apparently my only option is voicestream here, but is the coverage good in your experience where you are and outside? I'm on Cingular with a Nokia 8260 right now and I really don't want to give up decent coverage.
Also could you perhaps further expand on how it compares to the blackberry for the email service, not necessarily the integration with corporate email, but in general. I'm not so interested in web browsing, but I love the blackberry and the ability to get emails almost instantly without having to explicitly connect and stuff. I've got a Motorola T900 via Skytel which is sort of comparable, but I find the messaging size limitations rather annoying (I believe it piggybacks on SMS or something)...
as soon as you combine your palm pilot and cell phone in one you'll be lucky if you are able / allowed to jot notes down on your palm while on the cell phone.
get a handsfree headset and really hope that the all-in-one designers weren't morons and don't lock it in phone mode while you're talking.
A) PalmOS devices get vastly superior battery life for the same functionality. Note: If you try to use a PocketPC in the way that they are advertized (e.g., Word, Excel, mp3s, etc), your batteries quickly drain.
B) PalmOS based devices tend to be smaller.
C) PalmOS is simpler and easier to use for PDA tasks (e.g., address book, contacts, etc) since they involve fewer strokes and such.
D) PalmOS devices cost less.
E) A wider selection of PalmOS applications.
I'd phrase the question another way, how is a PocketPC superior for the tasks that I need? Namely, what makes it superior, never mind not inferior, as a PDA? I just don't see it. Until batteries are improved on substantially, processing power grows rapidly, wireless connectivity is truely dependable, and/or data entry (e.g., keyboard) is improved on substantially, I just don't see a compelling argument for going much beyond what PalmOS is today. Palm is still very much on the game today and PocketPC's nominal improvements in offerings of features seem almost irrelevant given the missing pieces of today and probably tomorrow.
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.
tgssh works well on the Kyocera. Unfortunately, the default POP mail and www browser (both Eudora apps) only support SSL if you have the newer version of the firmware / default applications. The old versions have the options coded in, but if you select them it'll just tell you to upgrade and unselect them again.
- Sig
Over ten times as many. I know. I worked for Palm as of two weeks ago. We count these things. Check out PalmGear.com -- it has several times more apps on that one site alone than exist for PocketPC in total.
:-P
Also, some of us still hate drop-down menus, heavy/large devices, and generally poor interfaces.
Here's a couple of reasons I can think of off the top of my head:
:)
1) PalmOS apps are designed generally to do one thing, and one thing only, really really well. WinCE apps carry the baggage of trying to be everything at once.
2) I'll betcha my Prism can outlast your iPaq between charges. My supervisor has an iPaq and he's constantly bitching about battery life, losing data, and so on. I can go a couple of weeks without worrying.
3) Keep the size of the screen in mind. It's the size of an index card, and thus, is really good at organizing anything you could fit on an index card - phone numbers, addresses, forms to fill in for databases, etc. The Palm rocks at this because there's no expectation for it to do the work of a desktop (or even a laptop). The apps are therefore very trim, and when designed well, streamlined. The iPaq, again, has the legacy of "It's Windows! It does it *all!*" to live up to - hence, you tend to get a giant multipurpose app that requires lots of viewing space to use and is cramped to work in. Most of the time I don't need *Word*, I just need to look at a document quickly. That's my experience, anyway.
4) Many many many many apps. Most of them free or cost a mere pittance. iPaq apps, not so much, and not as wide a variety. Again, just my experience.
5) Cost. For the price of an iPaq I could get a more powerful laptop (although a bit dated) that could do all the same things with my existing software - and would be easier on the eyes.
6) Ease of syncing - my user base of 3500+ seems to be able to deal with "insert into cradle - push button - remove from cradle" better than the bizarre continuous syncing model of the iPaq. I can't explain it, but them's the facts. I think that again, it has to do with the expectations of how the device is supposed to perform.
7) Fast navigation and info retrieval. I think it was a mistake to put the Windows interface, start button and all, onto the iPaq. It looks like Windows, but it doesn't *behave* like Windows. For me, a guy who has supported Windows since 3.11, trying to navigate around the iPaq is bewildering. The Palm built a quick little interface from scratch, closer to the *way* early Macintosh days, and for the design of the device, it works more cleanly for me. I don't expect it to act like anything other than what it is - a Palm. The iPaq has enough subtle differences from Windows to throw me off course.
There's more, but I've already typed more than I think I should have.
This isn't to say there's no downside to the Palm. Application interoperability is a joke at best, there's a lack of standardized formats in which to to keep the same type of data, and if you want the multimedia/MP3/quicktime/whatever in your pocket, looks elsewhere or prepare to by more hardware. I don't miss looking at movies the size of a postage stamp, though. Keeping the interfaces common is rough too - seems like everybody wants to design their own custom buttons to do the same thing.
I think it comes down to this: the PalmOS is good at keeping all my information nuggets together, and at retrieving them quickly. When I'm on the go I don't generally need to recalculate a spreadsheet, tweak my thesis paper, or browse the web (tho there are Palm apps that will let you do these things if you want them). The PalmOS excels as an information manager, and is a damn good one, and I find it more useful to me than a laptop-equivalent would be under the same circumstances. The iPaq tries to replicate the Windows document creation and management experience, and on a device that size with the consessions to the human interface, it doesn't fly.
Again, just me.
GMFTatsujin
Does GPRS have any advantages that outweigh the restrictions on data transfer?
The SprintPCS service I get with my Handspring + PCS springboard is only $40/mo and it's unlimited in terms of transfer - it's billed by the minute instead, and when you sign up for the Wireless Web package those minutes come out of your voice allocation. IE those "200 anytime and 238472834723487 weekend minutes!" turn out to be incredible deals for those of us who are at work during the day and out at night. The speed is pretty OK - I mainly use it for ssh and it is perfectly usable. Web access is fast enough, even with images.
he loves her more than he will ever show
she loves him more than she will ever know
...keep that bitterness close to the heart!
It still looks like the Visor PDA's are better. I would get a Prism with two modules. One would be the VisorPhone. The other would be the Wireless Ethernet. Then I'm covered anywere.
I have only one problem. I'm in the middle of nowhere. I have to pay $360 for ISDN. Who knows what I would have to pay to get setup with this. We dont have Sprint out here.
The above is not worth reading.
The low-battery warning comes on fairly consistently after about 2 hours of call time. Since I spend a lot of time on the road, I tend to carry my charger in my briefcase, and charge when I am at my desk. This works well for me because the charger works quite rapidly, but some people will be disappointed by the relatively limited capacity of the Treo battery.
This is true- the battery life is pretty much unacceptable on the Treo. However, the new firmware shipping on newer units is supposed to dramatically improve the battery life. Supposedly, Handspring will make this downloadable soon.
Yes, you can make data calls to an ISP and this works well, but call setup time is still at least 30 seconds, which seems like an eternity to me.
This doesn't have to be the case. If you dial into your own ISP, it will take quite a while to negotiate the connection - but if you are using voicestream, you can call into their ISDN enabled number. It's quite reliable and connects in about 6 seconds. When I switched from my standard ISP to dialing into voicesteam's (which is free, BTW) it made all the difference in the world as far as usability of the internet features.
One thing the review should have mentioned is that it is not tri-band, but dual band (different versions sold in us (800/1900mhx) and in europe (800/1800mhz)), which means you can't take it to europe and make it work with one of their prepaid plans.
The reviewer complains about glitches in the sms (short messages) support. I would like to know anyone using effectively sms for their work.
I think sms will never catch up in the us and in fact even in europe it is used only by kids fell for it. Let's face it spending 2 minutes to type an "I love you" or "see you at 3pm" with the numerical keypad is not the most efficient use of your time. Just dial the number and leave the message on the voicemail for god's sake.
I've been looking for an compact solution for sending short telemetry messages back from vehicles, based on a widely deployed and affordable transport service. How feasible is it to hack up a piece of software that will send messages using SMS from one of these?
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
What's the big fuzz about here? As far as I can tell, and quite amazingly, it seems that the big form factor is what makes the Treo and similar devices so sought after. I mean, my cell phone can do everything the Treo can; the only difference is that PDA functions are more handy on the Treo because of the larger screen and friendlier keypad.
For me, the whole point of a mobile device is its portability. If I want something which can display large amounts of information and which is easy to type on, I'll use my laptop. It's a case of balancing portability and usability, and on that scale the whole Treo/PDA class of products just seems to fall between two chairs for me.
-- If no truths are spoken then no lies can hide --
And I would agree generally with many of the points above. :( ), but having buttons on opposing sides means its convenient for neither lefties OR righties.
1) The ability to voicedial does not mitigate the loss of tactile dialing. I do 75% of my phoning while driving (yes, I'm one of THEM) and not being able to dial while driving is really tough. Voicedial helps, but then I have to have the number in my addressbook first.
2) the joint functionality is barely more useful than duct-taping a phone and a pda together. Sure you can dial numbers out of the address book, but the two branches of functionality (phone functions: call logging, message reception, etc) are all on the "phone" interface. The palm functions are all on the palm interface. Want to look up a spreadsheet while you're on the phone? SORRY.
3) the buttons/ergonomics are atrocious. Part of it has to do with the only case available being this clunky folding leatherette POS (with no belt clip, I might add
4) the power meter is a fantasy. Have the phone on, it reads 50% remain. Turn off phone, it says 25% remain (only running the palm?) turn phone back on, it says 100% remain. Reliable=not!
5) the software interface is possibly the worst. Sure the palm's the palm. But the phone didn't have to be locked into a rectangular grid of 1-9 buttons like a phone - it's a screen, they could have done anything with it. No ability to scroll through what's on the screen with any of the buttons, and a lot of the phone functions are hidden beneath buttons that only a stylus is small enough to hit.
6) the phone is mediocre in terms of signal control, reception, dropping etc but that might be Sprint vs. AT&T (my old carrier)
Despite all this bitching, I'd still give it a 5.5 on a 1-10 score (10 being good). I only have to carry 1 "thing" which is a plus. And all my stuff (no matter how clumsily presented) is in one place.
It's clearly first-generation, and it will get better, but hey, that's life at the bleeding edge. I just wish I could find SOMEONE at Samsung that would care about these user issues, so the i-Whatever could be better.
-Styopa
The problem with that is that Sprint's coverage is for shit in my area (Northern NJ), so much so that I got rid of my old Sprint phone as soon as my contract ended.
As for Verizon, I simply refuse to deal with that company unless there are NO other options.. They are possibly the worst company I have ever had dealings with.
All movements for social change begin as missions, evolve into businesses, and end up as rackets.
My question is, is the Treo as durable as a normal cell phone? I own a Visor Deluxe, and am dissapointed with how flimsy it seems compared to other PDAs. I've compared it to the Palm V and a Sony PEG-T615C, both of which seemed much more solid and sturdy. Don't get me wrong, my Visor served me well for a year and a half, but now is seeming rather useless since I got a Nokia 3360.
The Nokia is very durable. The first day I had it it dropped 4 feet to pavement and didn't even scuff the finish. The removable plastic shell seems to really protect it well, and I don't feel like I need a case or anything. If it gets scratched or scuffed, I can buy a new cover. Plus it has appointment alarms, clock, phone book, and games, and (supposedly)can be used as a modem. Maybe I just under-utilized my Visor, but the phone does enough for me.
So does the Treo seem solid. Would you feel comfortable tossing it across the room to a friend to use? Would you bang it down on the coffee table in disgust after an exasperating call?
that's nice finally m$ is releasing the source code of its product?
"In the past, a number of friends told me that the Handspring Visors that they bought had serious quality problems."
"To my surprise, I got a replacement Treo that worked properly in less than two days, and I had a week to transfer my data from the old Treo and return it (at no additional charge)."
I have had a bit of experience with Handsprings support. The first time, the screen on my Visor Edge shattered. I'm not sure how, just woke up one morning and it was so. I had had it for about 9 months and ended up paying $80 for a "new" unit. A day or two later I got it and sent my old one back in the same packaging. A month and a half later my "new" Edge died. I called tech support and it turned out that my unit was a referb, they sent me another. I'm still up and running with it.
So, with the visor edge you get poor quality and good support. I hope the long-term quality on the Treo proves to be better. They look like cool devices.
-jason m
UGH, 2+1? Any they sell this in Europe? :)
:)
With all GPRS phones for sale here, it works at 3+1, 4+1 is available for some phones, as is 2+2, and 5+1 is hitting the market next month...
Sorry Handspring, that won't do
this is NOT off topic. gets your mods straight sucker!!!!!
...topic
it is ON topic, on topic of the repeat topic topic,
Can someone who has used a Kyocera 6035 tell me if I can talk on the cell phone with a headset and use the PDA to read and write information at the same time?
Same question for the Treo...
- For the complete works of Shakespeare: cat
I currently have used the visorphone for more than 15 months now (Prism+Visorphone). I've had issues now and then where my TCP/IP Stack crashes or I had some issue where my screen looked like tv w/o cable. I just do a hard reset, slap in the backup module and im back up and running instantly. I've been able to sample a Treo in my local Dept. store (Working model). Slapped in my GSM Card and used it for about an hours. Its incredibly light. I do like it somewhat. I found it a bit harder to navigate the menu's. My major issues is that A) It has no module support. If I crash, Game Over. Id have to do a hard reset and run back to my office or home. And B) It doesnt have IR. (Hey I gotta omniremote ) And C) my luxury complaint is no color(for now). In the last /. article where it talked about the debuit of the Treo I cited having the module support to keep downtown at a minimal. I've seen a few people in my local area using the Treo but I havent really talked to them about how works.
Side note: Aside of it having a very fantastic battery life and very light. I love its Ultra-Strong Antenna.
There's no Freedom like UFP-dom
I'm British. Everybody I know uses SMS on their phone. Most of these people are between about 24 and 36 - not really 'kids'... (Well... you might not agree if you're 58, but I'm assuming you're a bit younger than that... ?)Most phones here have a T9 or equivalent system that makes composing SMS messages fairly quick. It's not exactly a 102-key keyboard, but it's not bad. Perhaps you don't have that kind of thing over the pond yet.
SMS messages are superior to leaving text messages in several ways:
a) The message is stored on the phone - you don't have to ring up somewhere every time you want to listen.
b) There's no problems with not being able to understand what someone is saying on the voicemail because their reception has broken up partway through.
c) You can send an SMS without making any noise, or in places where it's too noisy to practically hold a conversation on the phone (Down the pub for instance...)
d) You don't need to talk to the person. You can't rely on being able to leave a voicemail. Sometimes you want to send the message without the chat.
e) Phone numbers etc.. are much easier to send, as you can often cut and paste to/from the message.
SMS is neat. Much like email, just a bit smaller and more portable.
Does the European Treo support GPRS, seeing as it's avaliable across most of Europe now?
I've found that there's little compromise in the Treo for either phone or PDA work. I went from a IIIc to a Treo 180 and the only thing I really miss is the grafiti area (which is an option).
The phone UI is quite good. I liked what I had on the 8290, but it's a lot easier to see the limitations I had over there when I moved away from them. My caller ID now shows the full name and phone number (and which of that person's numbers it is). When I miss a call, it lets me know who I missed (right now it's showing me the ``You missed a call.'' screen with the name, which number (W), the actual phone number, and the date. Under this there are two buttons, ``OK'' and ``call back.''
And damnit, I've got a mobile speakerphone now.
I'm only keeping one addressbook. I realized that the one on my phone and the one on my palm had been growing apart when I looked through my old phone last night to make sure everyone I called was in the palm.
I now have direct wireless internet access rather than having to line my phone and palm up use IR to dial (which is actually harder than it sounds).
I have one clock to set instead of three, and I set it via ntp last night.
Overall, I don't think I gave up very much at all, but I got a lot in return.
-- The world is watching America, and America is watching TV.
I beg to differ on the SMS bug mentioned in the review. VoiceStream has a proprietary SMS to email system where they match up the inbound email address and an email service center number so that you can respond directly to an email via SMS. This works fine on Treo.
It has never been possible to respond cleanly to inbound sms/emails so this is a reasonable solution from VoiceStream.
Has anyone used the Treo with Cingular as the "ISP", which is how their other phones work? If used that way, then it would just 'cost' airtime, instead of $0.15 a minute. But Handspring previously said that it will NOT work that way...
Your review answered a lot of my questions and of course stimulated discussion. It's appreciated!
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
If somebody is too stupid to drive and talk on a phone at the same time they probably shouldn't be on the roads. What's next are we gonna have to rip radios out of cars. Hey can't have passengers the might distract. The answer to problems in this world on not to coddle the weak and incompetent but to make them strong and competent.
Yes, you can. In fact, the Kyocera even includes a built-in speakerphone function, which supports voice-activated call answering.
Breakfast served all day!
The experience I've had with handspring tech support has been very positive. They're really quick about replacing broken devices and less likely to charge you for it that you'd expect.
My wife broke her first one by dropping it, and they replaced it for free, and didn't complain when she took a long time to send back the broken one.
Neither of us have had any problems with the hardware (other than when it had been dropped), so it seems to me like you either get one that's fine or you get one that's just broken, and you can get it replaced without too much trouble.
...the high rates providers are charging in the United States. For instance, VoiceStream's highest-use consumer GPRS plan charges $39.95 a month for 10 megabytes of data transmission, plus $4.00 for each additional megabyte. This is in addition to the monthly service plan for voice calls. Cingular GPRS rates are similar.
Holey moley! You guys may have the cheapest ADSL rates in the known universe, but Europe is the place to go for GPRS. The GPRS network is already in place here, and here are the O2 rates:
US:
10 meg per month $39.95 + $4 per meg over 10
O2 Europe:
0 meg per month $2.55 + $3.50 per meg over 0
10 meg per month $17.60 + $1.8 per meg over 10
And if you really want to go mad:
50 meg per month $44.00 + $1.32 per meg over 50
That's the plan for me!
Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more, Or close the wall up with our American dead!
Have you tried another wireless email solution called Basejet? www.basejet.com. It's an always on wireless email solution that supports Exchange, Notes, POP, & IMAP for Handspring Treo, VisorPhone, Samsung i300, Kyocera 6035, and non-convergence PalmOS-based devices.
I'm not the first one to do this, but anyone who's in the market for a device such as this should definitely consider the kyocera smartphone.
I had reservations about the unit; it is a bit large, and does have a few drawbacks, but the engineers that developed it did an admirable job. The phone functionality is almost seamlessly added into the Palm OS. Battery life is also impressive; I see 4-5 days of life with light-moderate use.
It's worth noting that the best bet right now for wireless data seems to be CDMA-based networks (which this phone is designed for). 14.4kbps, ±700ms latency, and 5-6 second call-setup time.
To answer a question that someone had asked about the Treo: You can in fact turn off just the phone functionaluity for use on an airplane. It simply functions as a regular Palm at that point.
At the price it's going for now $150 from Sprint, it's also a far better deal than the Treo. However, it doesn't have the dual-band, worldwide capabilities of its competitor.
Only on slashdot can a posting be rated "Score -1, Insightful".
The Sony Ericsson P800 is not out for another 6 months at current estimates. And although it runs Symbian's EPOC OS, it will likely be similar to the version on the new Nokia 7650 which is out in a few weeks. And I'm told that it doesn't even have a web browser (just WAP), let alone a keyboard.
Much more capable is the XDA made by mm02 running Pocket PC 2002. Gorgeous beast - similar to the iPAQ but with a phone inside. Treo has a keyboard though, so is better for emails. This might be out soon...
You should probably take a look at the manual for your phone. You can access any of the palm features while your on the phone. Additinally you can dial directly from your address book. Use the palm scroll to page down or up then you can use the scroller on the side to scroll line by line to the entry you want to call then press the button above the side scroller which is normally the record button. You then get to choose which number to call and push the button again and it calls.
I compared notes with someone I knew who picked up a treo. we were at lunch and put the two side by side. The i300 is decidedly smaller but weighs about the same. The i300 also comes with a spare battery that you can charge in the back of the cradle. Even though the unit is color I have gotten the same talk time as I was getting on my old Motorola Star Tac with an extended life batery. Additionally it charges quickly off of the car charger and since I picked up the car charger I have not had to use the 2nd battery once.
-- This Space Intentionally Left Blank --
I'm completely addicted to my Treo - not because it does anything that my old palm+cell phone combo didn't do, or omnisky service but because it's all there in one incredibly small and handy device.
The 2nd generation battery life is borderline but works for me (suitable for weekend trips with heavy internet use without a charger) and it is much smaller than the kyocera or samsung phones (or the Nokia, or the announced PocketPC phones).
It does have negatives (no mute function, are they insane?) but having my information, my internet access with me almost all the time is fantastic.
I'll probably pull my SIM card, sell this one on ebay and get a 270 when they're out, but for now, I'm in heaven.
The only thing that competes in my mind is a Bluetooth PDA (PalmOS or PocketPC if that's your bag) and a Bluetooth phone. No IR, no cables, just connect. These hassles may seem minor, but this is a realm dominated by usability issues.
I don't like the idea of having one big clunky device that does everything.
I'd much rater have a bunch of small, single purpose devices that can talk to each other, using Bluetooth or something similar.
That way you have your phone, which is just a phone, as simple as possible. Then you have your PDA, which can connect to the web and share contacts by talking to the phone. Then you have your MP3 player as another device. Then the MP3 player, phone and PDA can all play sound through your one wireless headset.
Hopefully now that bluetooth is finally almost here, this sort of thing can become a reality.
What you really want is a Bluetooth SDIO card for your Palm and one of the many GPRS/Bluetooth mobile phones out there. You get a great, light, high battery life phone. You also get to continue using your PDA, but with fast email and web access. In a year or two, you can upgrade either and still have a working combination no problem. Hey, why not get a groovy BT headset - you'll never need to get your phone out of your pocket/bag again, apart from to recharge it! (Make calls with voice dialling. Update your phone book with Outlook and auto-syncing...)
Now you're convinced it works better, justify it with the numbers:
Bluetooth upgrade for your Palm = $129
Bluetooth/GPRS phones e.g. Ericsson T65 = $220 or $30 with a contract (in the UK)
Total = $350 or $160 with contract
OK, heck let's chuck in a new Palm m125 for $200
Total = $550 or $360 with contract
Treo = $550 or $399 with contract.
Now you see why Bluetooth is so special.
I recently bought a Kyocera Smartphone, and personally love it. It comes all of my cell phone stuff with the Palm I grew to love :).
:).
To answer all your questions on whether the apps can be used while talking, I know the Kyocera has a built in speaker phone that is fairly decent. Thus you could talk and enter data at the same time.
Anyways, I love it, and for being free (all those rebates really were nice), it sure beats the hell out of a Treo
~RaGzz
$999 for the combo, or separate $249 +
$149 = $398 and $602 in your pocket. I bet for $602 you can afford a pair of pants with room for both.
If you could be told what you can see or read, then it follows that you could be told what to say or think - BoC
I keep a work-bag with:
* thinkpad
* various pcmcia goodies
* palm V with usb charge/sync cable
* some funny-make sprint phone with a builtin 14.4k modem (9-pin serial DIN for laptop or palm V)
* rio mp3 player
despite being a pursesnatchers wet-dream, it's got everything i need to administer one of my servers remotely. I like keeping them seperate too:
They all have seperate power sources, so draining one doesn't kill me completely (I have fixed many problems with nothing more than my palm and my phone), in many cases, I can use one's battery to run another for a short while (in a pinch), and the total battery usage is MUCH LOWER than a more integrated solution.
I get about 4-5 hours "talk time" before my cellphone needs it's battery swapped out. With it's built-in 14.4k modem, it's not draining my laptop battery (which can do about the same-- a little bit less under heavy use though) -- and it doesn't take as much power to drive those serial ports as it does to drive a pcmcia cellular modem.
I can charge the palm, modem, and rio all off the USB wire (drawing power from the laptop), and overall, survive the moderately-connected life for about three days total, just with what's in the bag.
Maybe just keeping contacts and telephone numbers memorized is all you guys do with your gadgets, but I actually have work to do...
The speaker phone on the Kyocera 6035 is so good you won't need to bother with a headset, unless you want to keep the other side of your conversation private.
Please tell my servers how to leave a voice message if e.g. the mailserver gets stuck or the air conditioning craps out and everything starts to melt.
this must be one of the Slashvertisements they were talking about a few days ago.
-no broken link
Voicestream does seem to recognize that existing customers upgrade their phones from time to time and provides appropriate discounts. I recently upgraded my phone after having had it for about two years. I called customer service, explained that my phone had become a bit old and beat up and that I wanted a new one, told them which one I want, and they offered me a good discount on it: $50 less than they were asking new customers for the same phone in the local Voicestream store. The only downer was that I had to order it on the phone and wait while it was shipped to me, as they said they no longer provide discounts to existing customers *at* *the* *stores*.
I don't know if this policy applies to the Treo, but you could ask.
Now that I think about it, several friends of mine who are sprint customers got discounted prices on replacement phones after a year of service, although the choices they were offered were limited. (However, in one case he brought the phone back to the Sprint store and told them "I hate this phone", so they gave him a store credit to use on any phone he wanted, and he got one he really loves.) You might want to call Sprint and inquire.
- talking with our passengers because it is distracting,
/. login... tintagel(at)NOSPAM(dot)cheerful(dot)com
- listening to the radio or CDs because we can't hear traffic cues around us,
- taking responsibility for our actions because with over-zelous laws there will be little room to exercise good judgement.
(whew! that pegged the sark-o-meter)
But seriously, why not try reminding people to behave responsibly instead of suggesting new laws that don't really cut to the heart of the problem. In the 7 years that I have been driving and using a cell phone at the same time (even WITH a stick shift) I have been involved in exactly 1 accident, and I was NOT using my phone at the time.
Everyone, please be responsible with your wireless driving!
...can't remember my
Well, that seem like an unofficial apology from the Editors for users posts and comments...
T his is an Anon because I'm not ready yet to commit Karma-no-HaraKiri 8|
Or am I mistaken ? Well, hands on reviews are welcome.
What about hands on comments ? 8)
_____________________________________________
could it be that perhaps people think they "require" just too damn much shit!
A slip of the foot you may soon recover, but a slip of the tongue you may never get over. -Benjamin Franklin
I have a visorphone and find it to be a very valuable asset. I used to carry around 3 devices all the time:
1. Cell phone
2. Visor
3. iPod
Now, I am down to two devices and feel pretty damn lucky to be rid of that damn phone. Doing text messaging was a joke. And now I have internet access...and not on some small little screen... I love my visorphone.
I think that this topic is really important. Market researchers think that so called smartphones are going to sell in big numbers very soon. There are two ways you can appoach this subject. One is to make phones smart, the other to enhance PDAs. Whicheverway You go the most important question to the Slashdot crowd would be which OS is going to empower those things. Why? Because if it is going to be a new one (Symbian, Java for mobile) there is going to be a big market for apps.
Now the contenders are Microsoft PocketPC (formerly known as Windows CE), Symbian (formerly known as Epoc) getting developed by a company owned by Ericsson, Nokia, Moterola and Psion, Palm and a special edition of Java.
Ericcson (now together with Sony) and Nokia use Symbian for the Nokia Communicator and the Ericsson R380 (follow up P800 this fall, my choice btw.) Siemens uses PocketPC for their current device, Handspring has the Palm, and Moterola (for some strange reason didn't go for Symbian even so they own part of the company) decided to use their own OS and make it ready for some kind of Java mobile edition.
I don't know which one wins. If all OS's become Java ready it will be Java. Symbian is strong, because the biggest two are using it. Don't count out PocketPC yet, it is Microsoft and a lot of Compac iPac lookalikes are popping up from Southeast Asia.
It will probably not one standard, unfortunatly. GSM did a lot for the European market as in one standard -> cheap devices -> good coverage -> good adoption.
I just loved the comment that most Americans don't know their phones can receive SMS messages and don't know how to reply!. As a long-time SMS user in the UK I marvel at the complete inability of US carriers to even remotely duplicate the pan-European GSM network. I can even send an SMS to friends on the other side of the world in New Zealand!. (and this costs about USD0.07 per message, by the way).
I also concur that the idea of the Treo is just plain silly and that a Bluetooth-enabled phone and a Bluetooth-enabled handheld is a much more sensible approach. Whipping out a Treo to make a call on a London street would sure get you some giggles when a modern European GSM phone weighs around 85g (or three ounces for you American non-metric Luddites) - and fits snugly in the palm of your hand instead of looking like some kind of oversized Star Trek communicator. Dammit, don't these marketroids do any user testing!.
This is flat out wrong. I've never synched my Treo (lack of Handspring support for OS X, and a messed up PalmDesktop 4 install), yet I've happily surfed the web and checked my email when I've had a spare moment.
Regarding the battery life, I'm not on the phone that much, so I've managed to go 48 hours without a charge, without a problem. Even so, it does charge amazingly quickly (1 hour).
While he is correct about the headset/jog dial placement, I've never consciously noticed it until now. The angled jack rotates so easily, I've always nudged it out of the way without a thought. I'm more concerned with who the JogDial is calling while in my paocket. And I should mention I use both the jog dial and the headset a lot.
That said, I use the headset mostly because the flip-up speaker so directional, it is difficult to use. You have to align your phone to you ear just so in order to hear the other party.
Also, the headset has a really cool feature I love: an answer/hang-up button on the cord. You never have to find your phone or pull it out of your pocket in order to take incoming calls if you use the headset. Unfortunately, this makes finding replacement headsets impossible; you better like the design of this one. While I have read complaints from other people on the headset, mine has worked great; I have gotten compliments on its clarity multiple times.
Also, I'm not sure where he gets his prices for data dialup. Cingular includes the option if you signup for SMS messaging, at a cost of 4-10 dollars a month. I haven't seen any bandwidth quotas in that, but that doesn't mean they don't exist. This pricing plan is new for Cingular, and I was initially hesitant to use it until this was clarified.
And lastly, I wanted to mention that Handspring has really done a great job with the usability of their Phone/SMS/Addressbook integration. Comparing with my co-workers who also have Palm based phones (unfortunately I don't know models), Handspring wins hands down. Additionally, those programs have the best menu keyboard shortcuts (Expense, Memo, etc. seem limited to clipboard accelerators), but I will now look into PowerJog for button cycling.
My overall opinion: I love it. It is expensive, but it's won me over. In part, I'll admit because it such a good solution over no Palm, which was my stance prior to this because of the # of devices issue. Also, my previous cell was nearly as big (Nextel i1000), so size hasn't been a problem.
Bzzzt! The P800 actually has a unified Web, WAP, XHTML and i-Mode browser.
And the XDA is hardly "more capable" - the P800 has an onboard camera, Bluetooth, HSCSD and is tri-band, to name but a few advantages.