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Handspring Treo 270 Leaked
Brian writes "Details of Treo 270 codenamed Atlanta, handspring's next communicator which incorporates a color display is leaked. PDA LIVE.com has the scoop and the photos!" I think this one's uglier than its predecessor, but it's got color and claims similar battery life, so if you're looking for a very wide phone, this could be it.
* There still is an external antenna
* the keyboard is still sized for 7 year olds
* I still can not lookup agenda while talking on the phone...
The gadget value is quite high. The usage value is far less than (bluetooth connected) pda + phone.
Sony should come out with a laptop with a pop-out cell phone that allows web access on the laptop, and a regular cell phone that you can carry with you. Heck - you could even sync the information with the phone when you re-dock it, or place video calls with the laptop (since Sony seems to like putting digital cameras on their laptops).
VisorCentral has also picked up the story (complete with pictures):
http://visorcentral.com/content/Stories/1448-1.htm
FCC also has info including the users manual
Voice and "twitch" interfaces will be the norm.
It's called ubiquitous computing, and it will herald a new era in personal technology.
Karma: Good (despite my invention of the Karma: sig)
It's too ugly to be left out in the open and too big to fit in your pocket...
Too expensive to be a PDA and too limited to be a laptop replacement...
I think in the short-medium term, it will still be multiple devices that take off i.e. having PDA, ,mobiles, laptops, protable music-players rather than all-in-one units. However, there will be more connectivity between devices.
Bluetooth seemed to be a part of the solution but problems (i.e. cost, compatibility, power consumption,availability) have limited its impact.
Here, read the actual things submitted to the FCC here including internal photos, a manual for the 270, etc., etc. Or you can just go to Visorcentral (www.visorcentral.com) and read their writeup on it. But the FCC's page is more informative, IMO.
Mark
I submit that you're a minority. Ultimately I think we'll have voice-recognition technologies in our handhelds and some sort of on-demand backwards connection to our `laptops'. Both laptop and PDA/phone/etc will be `mere' peripherals to whatever our central processing and storgage system is. Yes, laptops will get smaller and smaller, but they're forever going to be constrained by screen size and (to a lesser extent) power. I don't think we'll ever see a laptop with a 17" screen that fits in your pocket. Unless you've got hellacious pockets, of course.
Peripherals, unlike central systems, map well to to specialized uses. My PP just died, and I'm seriously considering the Treo. It means that I'd carry one peripheral rather than three (pager, phone, PDA). For me (and many others) that's a big win.
With any luck, the Treo will last three years, which is all I expect from a computer anyway. Even if you happen to be right and fully integrated laptops take over, it isn't gonna happen in the next three years. Thus again, the Treo is the right answer even for the mid-term.
In the short term, it means better integration between phone lists, email, notes, etc. And to me, that's more than worth the three year cost per year. At the end of three years . . . well, we'll see what's out there.
Step back, boys, eschasi's goin' shopping!
Exactly : they make more money forcing all their consummers tobuy the same product than developping fewer specific product with less features...
But in the final you not only get something too much featured compared to what you primarily shopped for but also you pay a lot:
a phone with subscription with an organizer with mp3 playing abilities is more expensive than only one of the above...
let's take the nokia 9xx0 : it costs 1500CHF here.
the previous treo was also 1000CHF expensive!
if you supposedly want 2 of these features only, you can buy a 300CHF palm (or a psion revo) + a 300CHF philips mp3 expanium.
you may even add a cheapphone to this equipment while keeping the costs lower than this all-in-one.
why would you ask ?
because you don't want your organizer to require a daily battery load.
my palm can work 2 months on batteries.
my mp3 disman can play non stop during 12 hours.
my phone, well... it will support a one hour conversation.
so, no way, buying too much will first reduce your mobility, especially on the battery-life point of view.
Trolling using another account since 2005.
I can see that you've actually never played with the Treo, despite your comments. Walk into any CompUSA and try it...
So does Treo.
This is a matter of taste. To me, the Samsung (while a wonderful device that many of my friends own) looks like a big ugly block, and the Treo looks more professional.
Go to CompUSA or wherever and hold them up against each other. I think you're wrong on this.
And the Treo looks and feels something like both, but not 'primarily' like either one. For those of us who use cell phones for more than ten minutes a week, and who use PDAs primarily as organizers rather than portable computers, this is a better trade-off.
I picked up a Kyocera QCP6035 phone for CHEAP ($100 at Best Buy) a month ago. They're discontinued now, I think, but CompUSA still has em for $150, and they're practically free with a new account with all the rebates they throw at you. It's an 8MB PalmOS 3.5 PDA and SprintPCS phone combo, and it's BEAUTIFUL. Great battery life (for now), great reception over my older Samsung and Sanyo Sprint phones, and the best part: the built in net connection.
:)
The phone comes with Sprint's dialup service built in, and doesn't cost any more than normal airtime. For a poor college kid like me the cost is silly low and I can do AIM, SSH, VNC, web/email, IRC, and never have to go into the office ever again
The IRsync capability as well as being able to use it as a modem is nice. Biggest downside is the serial cradle it comes with, but I think they have a USB one you can buy now.
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"how can the same street intersect with itself? i must be at the nexus of the universe!" - cosmo kramer
The visor Prism is $299. The visor pro is $229. The current Treo is $399, or $299 with a trade up.
Both have rechargable batteries, 16 MB memory, and an expansion slot. And the prism has color when the current Treo 180 does not.
Guess what the expansion slot fits? A Visorphone which is free with activation.
So basically I'm paying $170 or an old PDA for a keyboard on my new PDA. I used to think this thing was cool, but when I got a visorphone for my existing Visor Deluxe (ohhhhh its coming soon!) I got over that real quick.
"All great wisdom is contained in .signature files"
Jesus, what a bunch of mean comments. Ugly--too big--not as capable as a VAIO--too limited in too many ways--
Well, I disagree. I'm a happy user of a Handspring Visor for the last year or so, and it's been a wonderful tool as an organizer, news reader (via Avantgo daily updates), entertainment package (with a nice Freecell version and Mille Bournes clone), and document reader (I keep the NCI Cancernet PDQ database on it, and I've also read a few novels on it using iSilo).
These are great little devices but I've been waiting for internet connectivity before getting a new one. I would have gotten a Treo 180 but I figure that if I'm going to have to recharge anyhow (for any wireless device) I might as well wait for color. This new model fits the bill perfectly.
Additionally, I really like the enhanced calculator that Handspring has in their devices as well as the Citytime application for resetting times when traveling. I am among the few people out here who still don't have a cell phone, and this will even let me join the 1990s with a handy device.
Size? My Visor Platinum is significantly larger than the 270 and it is invisible and unnoticed in my pocket when I carry it. I don't go to work without it.
Capability? The 270 should be able to satisfy every use I have found for the Visor, but it has twice the memory and a nicer display. Those card games and documents will be easier to see on a good display.
You want to edit Word documents, write up your departmental expenditures with Excel, watch videos, listen to MP3s--forget it with a device like this. But I challenge anyone to produce any device with a form factor as friendly as my Visor or a Pocket PC that won't drive you nuts while doing those things. You want those capabilities--you must get a laptop. No pocket device form factor will make such jobs possible, without something crazy like accurate speech recognition or a virtual keyboard interface.
For guys like me, this Treo 270 is exactly what we want. The only real gripe I have is that I would like a nice telnet/ssh client built-in so that I could do my remote administration.
I also have an i300 and spent some time comparing with a freinds treo. The treo is wider but not as long as the i300 and they weigh about the same. I think the treo is nicer for talking since it elongates when you flip it open. Additionally the holster for the treo is a bit nicer than anything I have seen for the Samsung.
In favor of the samsung though is that the battery is removable and this is a big plus. With the treo you cannot swap out the battery when it gets low you need to plug it in. The talk time for both units seemed to be about the same for a full charge.
Since I normally use my phone most in the car and with a headset I am fine not have the flip up earpiece and the holster I am getting used to but hope someone will come up with a better one soon.
To address one of the other concerns brought up. Sprint does have a solution for getting your exchange mail but it is a bit clunky. Additionally I thought the mail synching feature of the treo was not available yet? at least it was not when the phone first came out.
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