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Palm One Says They'll Develop Cell-Phone Line

Posted by timothy on from the who-better dept.

Sammy McLoughlin writes "Palm Addict interviewed Ed Colligan, Palm One's president, who finally put an end to the speculation of the Treo 650. According to the interview, the Treo range of Palm cellphones / organizers will be expanded. The Treo 600 will also be retained." The story's permalink doesn't seem to work for me, but search for "Colligan" within the Palm Addict page for this short but interesting exchange.

83 comments

  1. Treo 300 by karmatic · · Score: 5, Informative

    I like my Treo 300, and it does everything it needs to do. $80 on ebay, and when I use PDANet, I pull 90-160 KiloBytes per second with a good connection. (2.7ms ping, though, so pages still take a while to load). Best of all, it doesn't use any minutes.

    Hopefully, when the 650 comes out, the 600s will drop to an affordable price.

    1. Re:Treo 300 by erick99 · · Score: 3, Interesting
      I think this is the relevant part of the interview that confirms the Treo 650 rumor.

      PJA: Let's talk straight for a moment, Ed. There have been marketing pix of the Treo 650 out on the web for months, and in the past week, at least 2 people have had Sprint reps let them use and photograph actual T650's. The cat is out of the bag, so to speak... Handspring embraced the web community, and leveraged them to build a lot of pre-release buzz for the 600. Why is pa1mOne issuing all the 'no comments'?

      EC: Were not being cagey...we have a plan for release and marketing of the next-gen Treo...and the Treo family. We appreciate the fact that there's a lot of interest built up already. However, we're not going to be rushed by any news leaks on the web.

      PJA: Sooooo...there will be a next-gen Treo? Will it be released before the end of the year?

      EC: Absolutely! We will be making an announcement soon.

      --
      http://www.busyweather.com/
    2. Re:Treo 300 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      2.7 ms is a rather good ping. Sure you got your units right?

    3. Re:Treo 300 by karmatic · · Score: 1

      Doh! Didn't catch that one.

      That should be 2.7 seconds. Thinking about ping, I naturally went for ms.

    4. Re:Treo 300 by zonker · · Score: 0

      how about palm finally releasing palm 6?

      phones and whatnot are nice but 6 would be a lot more interesting if it offers the kind of features beos should afford them... 5 is interesting and a huge jump from 5, but there's so much more potential to be had. i know it takes a while to develop something, but jeeze...

      --

      Large print giveth, and the small print taketh away

    5. Re:Treo 300 by zonker · · Score: 0

      huge jump from 4 that is... ;p

      --

      Large print giveth, and the small print taketh away

    6. Re:Treo 300 by mdfst13 · · Score: 1

      "I hate the IT color scheme, too."

      What happened to all the posts with links to alternative color schemes? I used to be able to quickly scan through the story and find links like

      Readable if garish

      Traditional

      Readable and pretty

      Valiantly defiant

      Gross but accurate
      all over the place. Where have they gone?

      Is slashdot really better off making people find a CSS hack that changes the color scheme (and disables all the ads) on it. pages? Wouldn't it make more sense to enourage the simple use of alternative color schemes and avoid more complicated methods that also interfere with revenue? If I patch slashcode to allow the color scheme to be user specified, will /. adopt it into the main trunk? What is needed here?

      P.S. I'm holding out for a phone that runs embedded Linux. Do I really need a phone that runs embedded Linux? Of course not, but I want one anyway.

    7. Re:Treo 300 by freitasm · · Score: 1

      Are you sure you're talking about kilobytes? GPRS is only about 42kbps (this is kilobits)...

    8. Re:Treo 300 by OlivierB · · Score: 1

      Hi there is a really simple way to change the color scheme.
      Simply edit the url you are currenlty in and remove the part before slashdot.org

      so if it is it.slashdot.org/comme.....
      just make it slashdot.org/comme.....

      And if there is a special color you want you can just put the color scheme you want.
      Ciao

      --
      Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity
    9. Re:Treo 300 by mdfst13 · · Score: 1

      "Simply edit the url you are currenlty in and remove the part before slashdot.org"

      But then it appears separately in my browser history, which makes it harder to find the sites that I would really like to visit. If it is a clickable link (like the five I made), then it doesn't appear separately. Given the way that I use my browser (frequent visits to a constantly changing list of recently visited sites), it is actually easier for me to post my own clickable link and use that than it is for me to edit the URL manually in the location bar.

      It would of course be a lot easier for me if I could set my preferences to use a particular color scheme instead of the IT color scheme. However, there doesn't seem to be much interest in that.

  2. Technology Company releases new Technology Shocker by hattig · · Score: 4, Funny

    Hold the front pages everyone! It appears that the unthinkable has happened!

    Get this! A company in a high-competition marketplace is going to release new products to compete with other companies!

    Yes! You heard that right. They aren't going down the tried and trusted route of hanging on to the previous design, they are going to move forward, expand their offerings and try to get more people interested.

    But! But! I hear you say, why would a company do such a thing?

    Beats me. Sure beats me.

  3. Heh predicted this weeks ago by Mike+Rubits · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Great move from Palm, especially to counter MS' Smartphone and/or PocketPC Phone Edition. If Palm can manage decent battery life - especially important because people don't want their PDA to die out when their phone dies too - Palm could have something here.

    The new product lines will be something to keep your eye on, even more interstingly how this will affect their normal PDAs with PocketPC's rising market share.

    1. Re:Heh predicted this weeks ago by tomsuchy · · Score: 1

      Cellphone batteries have come a long way, and i've seen some tiny batteries on tiny phones... why don't they have two batteries, one for the handheld, and one for the cellphone?

      --
      this isn't a sig. i type this (including the two dashes), every time i post, just to make it look like a sig.
    2. Re:Heh predicted this weeks ago by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I own a Treo 600 and love it. Without the 'Wireless mode' a.k.a. phone, it'll last for a month without a recharge (Useful when going on holiday's and you don't want to take yet another charger...) With the wireless mode enabled constantly it lasts around 5-6 days. Still not bad, and that's after owning it for just over 4 months.

  4. Love it, but the $ by jchristopher · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Love the Treo 600, had a chance to play with one, but can't justify the price. It's been out over a year and there really haven't been any big price drops.

    You can buy a decent Sony Ericsson T610 phone for -$150 with a year's service committment, and buy a decent palm for $99 for a net cost of -$50.

    Buy a Treo 600 instead and you have a net cost of at least $300 after activation, a difference of $350. WTF?

    There's no way it costs $350 more to make a Treo 600 than a decent cell and palm. No wonder Palm stock is tanking! Everyone I know would buy one, but they've priced it out of reach of the vast majority of people.

    1. Re:Love it, but the $ by Sqwubbsy · · Score: 1

      This is too true.
      You can't get market share if you don't subsidize it. I mean, if I'm spending that kind of $$$, I'll get a iPaq.

      --
      $30 Off All Plans: Use code TRIPLESAWBUCK
    2. Re:Love it, but the $ by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Here's what's funny. I've been a Palm guy for years, starting with a III, moving to a IIIx, and jumping to a cheap little Clie SJ-30. I've used the hell out of these things.

      I just got in on the Amazon -$175 (they upped it!) deal on the T610. I was thinking of using the money to upgrade my battered SJ-30. But first I used the phone's built-in Bluetooth to sync wirelessly with iSync on my Mac (it just worked). And then I used the phone's included XTNDConnect software to sync with Outlook via the IR port on my work Win2k laptop. And with about 10 minutes of work, my contacts, calendar, and task list are synced across both of my laptops, my phone, my Palm -- and even my iPod. Without a sweat. I was kind of amazed; I can enter a new contact on my phone, and it appears *everywhere*. Neat.

      And then I realized: hey, wait. If I've got all my phone numbers, my Outlook calendar, my task list, a better ringer for reminders and Mophun games on this phone, why the heck am I carrying around this Palm? Graffiti? I never enter any more than a line of data. I figured I could put up with T9.

      And so I stopped carrying around my Palm. It's a couple of weeks later, and my Palm is sitting dejectedly in its cradle. The T610 isn't even a Palm or WinCE smartphone.

      Pretty cool for a phone they paid me $175 to carry. Score this round: SonyEricsson 1, Palm 0.

    3. Re:Love it, but the $ by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In the UK you can get it on a plan with Orange. I paid £100 plus normal monthly charges. At the time I was looking to buy a PDA in addition to my phone. I couldn't find *anywhere* a single device that incorporates a FULL function PDA plus phone for under £300 to buy outright.
      It's great, as long as you don't mind being tied to Orange for a year.

  5. The link to the story.... by hawkstone · · Score: 4, Informative

    The page was unintuitive and confusing, but here is a permalink to the story that actually works.

    1. Re:The link to the story.... by Val314 · · Score: 1

      This one just says

      Not Found

      The requested URL /palmaddicts/2004/10/_this_morning_i.html was not found on this server.

    2. Re:The link to the story.... by hawkstone · · Score: 1

      Really? When you said that, I expected they moved it. But alas, the link still works for me....

      Maybe try again?

  6. Do people still use PDAs? by Anton+Anatopopov · · Score: 2, Informative

    In europe, the PDA has been taken over by the cellphone. Why would you need a separate device when your phone can already do it all? Its just gadgetry for the sake of it.

    1. Re:Do people still use PDAs? by JeffTL · · Score: 1

      I still use my Palm Tungsten C. Why? I like my cheap AT&T Wireless service on a cheapo cell phone -- though sometimes the antenna on the phone is lousy. I don't want to have to pay outrageous amounts for data services when anywhere I'd want to get online has free WiFi anyway.

      And besides, cellular pisses me off far too much to at this time be mixed into something as reliable (as long as I don't use the web browser -- but that's why whe have PSSH and Unix boxes for the /. fix). The hardware is uncomfortable, the service is unreliable, and dammit, show me a cell phone with a decent mic on it.

  7. Will technologies merge? by demon_2k · · Score: 1

    Will technologies merge? It seems to me that everything is doing everything. Mobile phone - organiser, notebook - mobile phone, tv - dvd player. Are we going towards having just a handfull of devices that are capable of doing many related thing.

  8. Good, and Obvious by GarfBond · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This has been well known in palm fan sites for a while now, and it's really obvious anyway.

    This is also really good for the consumer, cause, if you haven't noticed, the Treo 600 is a really great device (best PDAphone combo out there), buuuuuuut, it continues to stick around the $500 price tag at the phone retailers. For me, that's way too much to pay for either a phone OR a PDA. What having a complete lineup will do is finally bring the 600 down into mainstream prices.

    1. Re:Good, and Obvious by Concerned+Onlooker · · Score: 1
      For me, that's way too much to pay for either a phone OR a PDA

      But it's NOT a phone or a pda. It's both. Yes, I'll definitely give you that it is pricey. Having just recently received one as a gift I didn't have to know the pain of the outlay, but I will say that it is sweet getting rid of an old phone that I hated and now having to carry around one less device. I really like the Palm OS and the Treo600 as a phone is about a hundred times better than the ancient Motorola V120 that I had.

      --
      http://www.rootstrikers.org/
  9. Much better colours by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Informative

    http://shit.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/10/10/0 036254

    1. Re:Much better colours by chris+mazuc · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      Here's a bookmarklet to fix it.

      --
      E pluribus unum
  10. Too little too late by Akimotos · · Score: 5, Informative

    I've always loved Palm, but I see dark clouds ahead. The company always produced lovely and functional PDA's but totally missed out on the smartphone thing. Handspring got it right with the (still) brilliant 270/300 ... and they really had gold in their hands. They were at least one year ahead of the pack. Unfortunately they lacked money to bring it in great numbers to the GSM markets ...

    When Palm bought Handspring, the TREO 600 was just released. And you could tell that Handspring had rushed the smartphone to the market in order to survive. The 600 was simply not completely finished. It lacked BlueTooth and suffers from all kinds of small annoying things. Then there is the battery life .... when you use you TREO for calling you might make it through one day, but use GPRS to browse or for email. I mean: it simply doesn't last a day at all.

    But then Palm bought Handspring and I really hoped they would iron out the not-so-great stuff and release a 610 or so as a quick makeover. But they choose to upgrade their PDA-series 5 times or so, even releasing $89 Zire PDA's and let the TREO 600 battle it out against the smartphones of real phonemakers. Not a very wise thing to do. Especially not when you take into effect that they also missed the RoutePlanner market in Europe. I mean, the lousy PocketPC (my opinion) took a huge bite out of the market, because they offered those carkit solutions with route planners. Palm lagged by 18 months or so... it has cost them dearly.

    SonyEricsson definately did a better job. They at first released the also not-so-great P800 and followed that one by the much better P900 and now, when Palm just announced that the releasedate of the TREO 650 is being pushed back from October to January, SonyERcisson is releasing the P910 ...

    For me for the time being the Palm era is over. My TREO 270 died a month ago (but I still love it) and I only use my Tungsten T (also a very good device) as a route planner ... for daily operations I rely on the Symbian powered P900. The OS is still not as userfriendly as that of the Palm, but the P900 at least gives me 4 days on a battery while really using my phone with camera and GPRS (email, chat, browsing), or my phone as wireless modem for my powerbook.

    1. Re:Too little too late by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      Then there is the battery life .... when you use you TREO for calling you might make it through one day, but use GPRS to browse or for email. I mean: it simply doesn't last a day at all.

      Have you ever used a Treo 600? By the sounds of it you're just guessing that it loses charge quickly, because I've owned one for a good 6 months now and have to say it's got a fantastic battery life.

      I took it away to a festival in August, a whole weekend away from everything. I hadn't bothered charging it for a couple of days before I left, and then I used it heavily for keeping in touch with people by phone, SMS and I used GPRS to get festival information and live news, and I used it often at night because the screen is so damn bright that it makes a wonderful flashlight... I was nowhere near depleting the battery after a weekend of medium-heavy use.

      I use it for phoning and GPRS quite a lot during the week and generally keep it on charge if I'm at my desk at work. At the weekend it spends around 60 hours without a charge, with a few phonecalls, SMS messages and some GPRS usage and constantly on standby. Usually when I get into the office on Monday the battery is >50% full.

      *ahem* So my point again. Treo 600 = great battery life.

    2. Re:Too little too late by mobilebuddha · · Score: 2, Informative

      The problems with Treo600 are being addressed -> Treo650 has BT, removable battery, better camera.

      However, overall, in terms of the US market, SE P800/900 phones have not been nearly successful as the Treo600. How would I know? Just look at the phones offered by all of the major wireless carriers. You will see a Treo600 at/near the top of the Smartphone category from all of the major carriers (except Nextel). I'd say this is the testament of Treo600's popularity.

      I own a Treo600 myself and can't live without it. It has probably the most advanced phone functionalities that I know of:
      1) exportable extende call log (want to see who you called on 6/1/2004? you can, mine goes all the way back to 5/20/2004, and each with length of call, etc);
      2) Multiple #s per name, phonebook size limited only to memory
      3)SMS (with conversation grouping ability so you have better idea of who you are talking with)
      4) it fits in my jeans pocket
      5) I get around 90-110kilobit/sec transfer rate, probably the fastest you can get next to the newest GSM EDGE phones.
      6) HTML compliant web browser that displays graphics, javascript
      7) Palm software base.. no discussion there
      8) mp3 player with SD for storage
      9) a working camera, shitty.. but it works fairly well under well lit conditions

      I am sure there are other things that I am missing here, but I've not seen another phone that can match the Treo600 for its balance of the PDA and cellphone as well as its featureset. So in conclusion, I wouldn't call it too little too late, I'd say they finally got it right!

    3. Re:Too little too late by Temfate · · Score: 0

      You said, "...when Palm just announced that the releasedate of the TREO 650 is being pushed back from October to January". Where exactly did you find this info on the pushback till January?

    4. Re:Too little too late by Akimotos · · Score: 2, Insightful

      True, in the US the TREO 600 is marketleader, but face it: other phonecompanies really haven't put much effort in the 'split standard' us market. Real smartphones (like the P900 and the P910) are only now coming to the US in huge quantities. In the rest of the world, TREO is non-existent and to my frustratation, the are even outsold by the all those windows smartphones ....

      About the point of the 600 you mention:

      1) exportable extende call log (want to see who you called on 6/1/2004? you can, mine goes all the way back to 5/20/2004, and each with length of call, etc); The P900 has that too. You have a major call history. If you add an 'advanced phone manager', you have very advanced features regarding to whitelisting, blacklisting, etc. I couldn't find it for my TREO600.
      The P900 standards comes with support for WAV, MP3's as ringtones and you can make userlists. Every list (or every user) can have his own MP3 (complete songs, if you want it), every MSG (SMS, MMS) can have it's own song, every emailaccount can have it's own song ... the TREO is no macht here.

      2) Multiple #s per name, phonebook size limited only to memory Same on the P900 .. phonebooksize limited to memory (and extendeble with Memory Stick Duo's), very extended addresscards per entry. I mean: I use Isync (MAC) to synchronise with the standard (very flexible) addressbook of my MAC. Some of my contacts have 7 phonenumbers... no problem. Have never been able to get that right in my Palm. Not even using their own software.
      And Symbian has flash memory. So, if you run out of juice, you don't loose any information at all. Never.

      3)SMS (with conversation grouping ability so you have better idea of who you are talking with) Nothing special really. Look at the standard Message facilities of the P900. It supports multiple POP accounts (currenly I read 12 or so), advanced SMS & MMS features (although I wonder who will use the MMS).

      4) it fits in my jeans pocket The 600 looks okay, but the Candybar formfactor is better. That's why Blackberry just released a candybar. It has an external antenna... maybe needed in the US, but not necessary in Europa and the rest of the world.

      5) I get around 90-110kilobit/sec transfer rate, probably the fastest you can get next to the newest GSM EDGE phones. Yeah, but not for a day. Use it for three hours and your battery is dead. The P900 is justs as fast, but can hold out for 2 days very intense GPRS use or 4 days average use (checkin mail, chatting).

      6) HTML compliant web browser that displays graphics, javascript Hahaha, the standard TREO 600 browser is just a laugh. Not even better than the standaard Symbian P900 browser. But who cares on Symbian for the standard browser. We have Opera.

      7) Palm software base.. no discussion there See, see that's what I thought. I have owned a Palm since the '90's and was one of the first in Holland to have 'm and I have owned the complete range (till T1). Even got a special edition of the V from Palm, because I sold a big bunch of it to a customer.
      Since the Atari Portfolio (early 90's) I rely on PDA's ... so after Newton came Palm.
      Anyway, I have tons of software for my Palms, both freeware as paid stuff. When I switched to Symbian, I really wondered about how to go without all that software.
      But for Symbian there already is an awfull lot of software available. Not as much right now as for Palm, but they are picking up. And all major Palm aplications are available for Symbian (including Bugme, Worms and Quickoffice).
      And - although not for me - they have awesome games on Symbian. Really nice, full screen games for which you just put your handheld in an landscape mode to have a small game console. Like I said, not for me, but a lot of people love it.

      8) mp3 player with SD for storage The media department is much better developped on Symbian. Palm doesn't even come close. I mean, the P900 has a vid

    5. Re:Too little too late by Xenna · · Score: 1

      I don't see what all the fuss is about with these treo & SE phones. In the coming weeks the Nokia Communicator 9500 http://nokia.com/phones/9500 is coming out and will blow them all out of the water:

      Symbian OS (like the P900)
      Wifi, Bluetooth and GPRS
      Great keyboard (not like the Treo)
      Great battery life

      I've seen a lot of people scribbling away on their keyboard-less pda's and for me it remains an inferior method of text input. Ever tried doing an ssh session with a pen? The Treo's keyboard is a joke.

      Main disadvantage is the size, the 9500 is quite large. In a few months the 9300 http://nokia.com/phones/9300 will be released that solves that issue at the cost of losing the Wifi and some of the battery capacity.

    6. Re:Too little too late by Fnkmaster · · Score: 3, Interesting
      While I agree with most of what you say, I reached the opposite conclusion. The Treo 600 has some annoying issues, but is still the best SmartPhone on the market. Yes, the P900 comes closest, but it can't really compete with Palm OS for usability, application availability and power/simplicity balance.


      The one thing the P900 does well is BT, which is nice, but with the Treo 600 my need for BT is much more limited, since the data capabilities are quite excellent, and the thumb keyboard makes real email, SMS and IM applications usable. Yes the GPRS battery suck problem is an issue, so I let it disconnect when it's not being used, since reconnection takes a pretty trivial amount of time. I have almost never used enough data in one day to suck the battery dry, I think it's happened to me twice. Yes, it is fishy that I can use the thing for 3 or 4 days of regular voice use without needing a recharge, and one to two days with modest data use, max, but this is a small compromise to make for the power of this phone.


      Hopefully Palm One will continue to offer their upgrade program in the future so I can get the promised improved battery life and bluetooth in the Treo 650 for a reasonable price. Then my life would be truly complete. I just hope Palm keeps delivering, so I don't have to stoop to getting a Symbian device... ugh.

    7. Re:Too little too late by tcr · · Score: 1

      I'm a happy Treo 600 user too (got there from two generations of Nokia Communicators that were good, but the form factor killed it for me in the end).

      The 650 looks good, but there is speculation that the CF slot hasn't been re-designed from the 600 version, so it won't supply enough power to use the Palm WiFi card.

      That's a major bummer, as it would be a fantastic plus given home WiFi and the new facilities in pubs, shops, etc.

      --


      Information wants to be beer.
    8. Re:Too little too late by Akimotos · · Score: 1

      The 9500 is much too large for me. And the keyboard still is no good. I mean, from an usibility point of view, I think I even prefer the TREO keyboard over the 9500, since the formfactor of the TREO is better than that of the 9500. You have to put down the 9500 to make good use of the keyboard. If there is the luxury of puting the thing down, I prefer the BlueTooth keyboard for the P900 over the extra size thumbboard of the 9500.

    9. Re:Too little too late by Xenna · · Score: 1

      It's not out yet so it would seem you couldn't have tried it yet. The 9300 is a lot smaller apparently if that's a biggy.

      The 9110 and 9210's that I owned before had a very usable keyboard, that really can't be compared to the Treo. (yep I tried a 600 too)

      The 9210 keyboard is very usable even while walking because you support the device with your hands while typing with your thumbs. That works pretty well. No need to put it down at all.

      Try one before knocking it...

    10. Re:Too little too late by Akimotos · · Score: 1

      We have had an early 9500 for a testdrive regarding applications we produce for a mobile provider. I played on it for 3 hours or so. Simply not my tool. It is a very nice tool with all the wireless features. It even supports EDGE if I'm quite correct. However, I think it is too big to carry it around. In that aspect, the size of the 9300 indeed would appear to be much better. Haven't seen that one come in the house yet.

      I don't know why I can't get used to the Nokia 9000 series. I mean, in the past for over three years I worked on an Atari portfolio. Compared to that wobbly keyboard, the 9100 (and up) keyboards indeed are a breeze. But I prefer a pen-on-a-screen or a fullsize (foldable) keyboard. Then again, I don't do SSH ... so maybe that's it :)

      Btw, I also got the P900 as a test object. After I had handed it in, I went back to my Palm and I kept missing things. Very strange sensation, especially given the fact that I 've had a Palm for maybe 8 years or os. The P900 was the first 'gadget' after the Palm V, that really got me hooked. I mean, I have had some blackberries and some really nifty phones, but the P900 somehow made a lasting impression.

    11. Re:Too little too late by Akimotos · · Score: 1

      One other thing ... in contrary to those three hours on the 9500, I did have 4 weeks to really test the P900. And - also important - the 9500 was just tested on the application intended (and playing maybe 45 minutes with email and browser), while the P900 was to be used in a situation with lots of email, browsing and IM. That also happen to be the key features that I myself need a lot. Connectivity for me is more important than carrying around documents, or being able to create and edit WORD and PPT files with my mobile phone. What I mean to say: I acknowledge that I didn't give the 9500 all the time it deserved (enough to dislike the size though), but that wasn't because I didn't want to try it longer or didn't love the gadget level of it. The reason I only spent three hours on it, was because some guy-wearing-a-tie wanted it back, because he 'needed it for some other customer' ... I was certainly not happy with that and - if given the option - would automatically have traded sleep over more testing.

    12. Re:Too little too late by Xenna · · Score: 1

      The size is the biggest disadvantage of the 9xxx Nokia's. The size and the build quality, they tend to break a lot and are expensive to get fixed. That's the reason I switched to a Clie TG50/T68i combo 15 months ago when my last 9210 failed.

      I'm disappointed with the software (I had expected the Palm platform to do better) and the terrible keyboard of the Clie so that's why I'm considering going back to a Nokia (If I can extend the warranty).

      My main applications are browsing (which is better on the Clie). SSH, mail, SMS, IM (which are much better on the Nokia due to the keyboard) and of course the PIM apps (which are more or less on par). The speakerphone is just great.

      I'm still not sure if I'll get the 9500 or the 9300, but thankfully the Clie is still in great shape, so I'm in no big hurry... ;-)

  11. iPalm? by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 2, Interesting

    There hasn't been any real question of whether PalmOne would continue their Treo line, especially when rumors of a Treo "Ace" were confirmed by announcements of the 650 with Ace features, in the rumored Ace release window (2004Q4, possibly even October). Palm spun Handspring "back in" on the strength of its Treo 650 last year. The real question is why they'll keep splitting/confusing their market by selling two "tops of the line", a T5 and a Treo 650, with similar features, instead of a single combined unit that's second to none. The other compelling question is whether Apple would finally spend that fat bankroll they've nursed for decades, rolling all that Palm/Handspring tech into a musical iPhone that changes the world even more than did the original Macintosh. Steve Jobs, please "Reply to This" .

    --

    --
    make install -not war

    1. Re:iPalm? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You want me to jump into the middle of this free-for-all? In case you haven't noticed, this market is saturated with some really tough players. What do I know about the cell phone business anyways? I'm going to stick to the "lower hanging fruit" for the time being. iPhone -- kind of catchy isn't it?
      - Steve J.

    2. Re:iPalm? by afidel · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Steve doesn't want to get into the smartphone market because he can't controll the experience enough. They wouldn't controll the price, they wouldn't controll support, and they wouldn't controll the network it runs on (unless they did an exclusive deal which would be stupid as it would be too niche a market to justify the development costs). Not only that but Steve seems to have a personal grudge against PDA's since the Newton was the first project he killed on his return since it was a pet project for the man that ousted him.

      --
      There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
  12. Treo 650 pics by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    Engadget has pics of the Sprint version of the Treo 650 here: http://www.engadget.com/entry/2487384516216828/

  13. Palm's focus on phones has clearly hurt their PDAs by Mal+Reynolds · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Sure, Palm One's Treo's are nice. But a lot of us don't want our cell phones built into our PDA's. And some of us in medical and security conscious fields can't bring cell phones into work environments. Unfortunately, it looks as though Palm One is putting all their development into Phones, at the expense of their PDA's.
    I had $400 bucks put aside to buy the new top of the line Palm PDA. I'd heard the T5 was about to be out, and was ready to buy it day one. Then I read the feature list and was shocked to find it has none of the new features I was looking for.
    It is a horribly disappointing device. It has no Wi-Fi, they've removed the voice recorder and vibrate alarm that was present in the T3, and they've made it out of plastic instead of the T3's metal housing. It has no camera, only a single memory slot, which means no place at all for an external memory card if a Wi-Fi card is installed.
    And that new multi-media version of Palm OS? The one based on BEOS? The one that was released to developers nearly a year ago? No it isn't present either. They're using the same old Palm OS that's on every other Palm device on the market.
    Sony is of course out of the Palm PDA market, but devices they released 8 months ago are still better than what was just announced by Palm. It's sad really, I don't want to buy a WinCE machine, but the only machines with big hi-res screens, built in Wi-Fi, removable batteries and featuring full multimedia support are WinCE.
    Message to Palm: Get off your butts, crash develop a feature laden, high end PDA (not cell phone) and release it in the next few months. Either that, or just cede the entire high end PDA market to the WinCE machines. Or hell, just license one of the many Taiwanese designed WinCE PDA's and drop PalmOS on it.

  14. Re:Works for me... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    In Soviet Russia, posts ignore YOU!

  15. bad idea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Palm One Says They'll Develop Cell-Phone Line

    Shouldn't they just stick to making cell-phones instead of cell-phone lines? And what are these cell-phone "lines" anyway? Air? I can make that in my parents' basement; no need to start a company.

  16. I don't know about this...... by theJerk242 · · Score: 1

    If PalmOne can't even make built in wifi for it's newest pda (the tungsten t5), what makes people think that they'll have awsome cell phones?

    --
    Red Bull gave me wings and I flew into the ceiling fan.
  17. I'm not a huge fan of my treo 300. by Mustang+Matt · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It has some really annoying "features"

    1. The battery is internal so it's not easily pulled/replace (see comment 2)

    2. Sometimes the palm OS will crash and there will be a reset button on the touch screen but it's so locked up you can't hit it, and the phone's power button won't work either so you have to leave the screen open until the battery completely dies.

    3. This phone's SMS doesn't work with Sprint's network so the keypad is only really useful for managing the phone book.

    4. Treo 300 doesn't have built in modem software like my old Kyocera 6035 so I can't hook it up to my laptop and dial up to anything. I might be able to use Sprint's vision software but I'm not sure if there are additional charges for that.

    5. It doesn't use the standard audio jack for the headset. I thought my phone was broken until I discovered there was a special headset for it. I'm not sure what the difference is. It's still mono with a mic. I can't imagine what different wiring patterns there would be.

    6. Battery life isn't great.

    7. No bluetooth! (I don't think the Treo 600 has it either.)

    8. I can't sync it up with Mozilla Sunbird! (yet) but this is no fault of Palm's I suppose.

    9. It seems like I have to go into sprint and get PRC updates more often than I did with other phones. This might be a sprint thing I'm not sure.

    10. It's not a very bring screen.

    Overall I'm glad I bought this phone used off ebay for $100 vs paying new prices for it. I wouldn't buy it again.

    --
    The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. - Benjamin Franklin
    1. Re:I'm not a huge fan of my treo 300. by SoupIsGoodFood_42 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Errr... Do you have a point? I mean, the Treo 300 is very old, I'm not sure how it's supposed to relate to this artical.

    2. Re:I'm not a huge fan of my treo 300. by Planesdragon · · Score: 2, Informative

      When your Treo locks up, unscrew the stylus and hit the rest pin on the back. You might need to hold it for a bit, but this will cause a "hard" reboot.

    3. Re:I'm not a huge fan of my treo 300. by philipdl71 · · Score: 1
      1. The battery is internal so it's not easily pulled/replace (see comment 2)

      True, although how often do you replace a battery?

      2. Sometimes the palm OS will crash and there will be a reset button on the touch screen but it's so locked up you can't hit it, and the phone's power button won't work either so you have to leave the screen open until the battery completely dies.

      Unscrew the tip of your stylus and stick it in the hole in the back of the PDA marked reset. This will give you a soft reset. In order to get a hard reset hold down the power button by the antenna while doing this for about 20 seconds and then release it. A dialog box will appear which will allow you to clear all data on your PDA.

      3. This phone's SMS doesn't work with Sprint's network so the keypad is only really useful for managing the phone book.

      The SMS or lack thereof sucks on the Treo 300. If you want to use SMS you're pretty much consigned to buying Treo300SMS ($19.95).

      4. Treo 300 doesn't have built in modem software like my old Kyocera 6035 so I can't hook it up to my laptop and dial up to anything. I might be able to use Sprint's vision software but I'm not sure if there are additional charges for that.

      True. You have to buy PDANet ($34.00) which will let you use Sprint's vision service and download all the data you want to your laptop/desktop.

      5. It doesn't use the standard audio jack for the headset. I thought my phone was broken until I discovered there was a special headset for it. I'm not sure what the difference is. It's still mono with a mic. I can't imagine what different wiring patterns there would be.

      It's a smaller form factor and the wiring allows for a button connected to your headset which does things like allow you to hang up the phone. It does kinda suck they didn't use standard size adaptors but headsets aren't too expensive these days.

      6. Battery life isn't great.

      Yeah this is definitely true. Especially when your battery starts to wear out after a year or so. I got a little gadget which plugs in and allows you to charge the PDA with 4 rechargable AA batteries. It comes in handy when I start running low on power after a lot of LCD/radio use.

      7. No bluetooth! (I don't think the Treo 600 has it either.)

      True

      8. I can't sync it up with Mozilla Sunbird! (yet) but this is no fault of Palm's I suppose.

      Hopefully the Mozilla people will add this feature soon.

      9. It seems like I have to go into sprint and get PRC updates more often than I did with other phones. This might be a sprint thing I'm not sure.

      AFAIK there is one ROM update for the Treo 300 if that's what you're referring to but I heard mixed reviews for it so I didn't install it although I'm not sure if there is any data to back up the claims I read on the internet. I heard data throughput was marginally improved at the cost of more battery use and decided on that basis not to fix what wasn't broken.

      10. It's not a very bring screen.

      Yes the screen is hard to read in direct sunlight. It's nowhere near as bright as the 600.

    4. Re:I'm not a huge fan of my treo 300. by datastalker · · Score: 1

      I *am* a huge fan of my Treo 600:

      1) This is true, but I've never had a need to replace it yet, and I can get up to three days charge, and recharging is a snap.

      2) The 600 has a hardware reset switch that is located on the back of the phone, and is easily pressable with the pointer that screws out of the stylus. That being said, I've only had to use it twice since I've gotten the phone.

      3) Since I use Verizon, I can't really speak to that, but I get close to 50K/s at times, and the SMS and MMS work perfectly.

      4) If that Sprint stuff doesn't work out for you, look at: http://www.junefabrics.com/palmnet/.

      5) There is an adapter for the Treo 600 that lets you use it with stero headphones. It sounds awesome, and since Pocket Tunes does .ogg, I have no problem playing all my music. And 1GB SD cards are only about $80 right now, so there's plenty of space.

      6) This is still true with the 600 - I would prefer it go for about a week or so, but three days still isn't too bad.

      7) No bluetooth. So I have to use a wired headset for now. The 650 will have BT.

      8) Check out: http://multisync.sourceforge.net. I got my Tre0 600 to sync with Evolution, so you stand a good chance of being able to sync yours with Sunbird.

      9) It sounds like it. I haven't had to get any yet from Verizon.

      10) I'm guessing you meant "bright". Oddly, I have my 600 on the lowest brightness setting and I still think it's too bright.

      When the 650 comes out, the 600 will lower in price, so you may want to trade up to a 600 at that point - and consider not using Sprint anymore, too. ;)

      --
      Find out about the Lexus Rx400h Hybrid!
  18. Pocket PC input? by Free_Trial_Thinking · · Score: 1
    I spent an hour searching on google a while ago and I cannot figure out how to enter text on a pocket pc? Does it have a grafitti system like a palm?

    And however the input works, how to people find PDA's compare in the realm of text input?

  19. Re:Palm's focus on phones has clearly hurt their P by enigma48 · · Score: 1

    I'm not sure the last time you looked into what Palm is selling but I can't recognize the company from your description.

    They have at *least* 8 active models right now, only *one* of which integrates a cell phone.

    Their $149US model plays MP3s, Video, supports thousands of colours, uses SD cards of at least 256MB (I've read about people using 512MB and 1GB) with support for bluetooth and wifi ALSO with an SD card. The next model up gets you a 360x360 transflective screen, 65k colours and a built in VGA camera.

    They have models from under $100 to over $500 and have been reviewed as very competitive. Palms used to use 25ish MHz chips and now range between 100-400MHz ARM chips.

    Palm OS has gone through *massive* revisions and a rewrite over the past couple years. Moving from the Dragonball processor to ARMs and the XScale wasn't easy.

    I haven't used a recent WinCE machine but the new Palms are *immensely* more responsive than even the somewhat M-series. Response time to starting most apps was pretty close to the time it takes for a keypress to register on my screen right now. I am exaggerating, but not by too much.

    Palm's also have retractible screens (just one model), Graffiti 2 is now out, and still have decent battery life (The Zire 72 is apparently an exception). Full VGA support is expected in the next batch of new models.

    There is a fair bit of critism about the T5 - I haven't read any of it, wasn't interested in going that high end - but it seems like you've wrote off the company based on your expectations of a single model.

    I'm not really even a Palm fan - I've used one for a few years, very sparingly. You might want to back up a little and give yourself some distance, there are several excellent Palm models and PalmOne != T5.

  20. Re:Palm's focus on phones has clearly hurt their P by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It is a horribly disappointing device. It has no Wi-Fi, they've removed the voice recorder and vibrate alarm that was present in the T3, and



    My $150 Nokia has these features. Why the hell woulddn't be included (worse *removed*) from the
    T5?!


    they've made it out of plastic instead of the T3's metal housing. It has no camera, only a single memory slot, which means no place at all for an external memory card if a Wi-Fi card is installed.


    They are shooting themselves in the foot doing this. Not only not including common features found
    on *cheaper* cellphones, but removing built in
    Wi-Fi as well. With the loss of all of these features, just why the hell is the device so
    expensive?!

    (if this was a marketing droid^Ranalysts decision,
    they need to fire him, fast.)

  21. Omitting key features+more expensive?!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    It is a horribly disappointing device. It has no Wi-Fi, they've removed the voice recorder and vibrate alarm that was present in the T3, and
    My $150 Nokia has these features. Why the hell woulddn't be included (worse *removed*) from the T5?!
    they've made it out of plastic instead of the T3's metal housing. It has no camera, only a single memory slot, which means no place at all for an external memory card if a Wi-Fi card is installed.
    They are shooting themselves in the foot doing this. Not only not including common features found on *cheaper* cellphones, but removing built in Wi-Fi as well. With the loss of all of these features, just why the hell is the device so expensive?! (if this was a marketing droid^Ranalysts decision, they need to fire him, fast.)
  22. Then I lose all my data right? by Mustang+Matt · · Score: 1

    Won't I lose everything with a hard reset? I mean I can always resync I guess.

    One time after losing everything I resynced and it actually deleted all my records. The last time I lost everything I backed up my palm desktop files and then did a resync.

    --
    The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. - Benjamin Franklin
    1. Re:Then I lose all my data right? by Planesdragon · · Score: 1

      Won't I lose everything with a hard reset? I mean I can always resync I guess.

      Maybe. The reset button has two modes--"soft reset", which just ends all processes and starts again, thus not killing your memory, and "hard reset", which clears the RAM and boots from ROM (thus losing any not-backed-up data.)

      Don't you lose everything if you let the battery run down? Or does your Treo have a flash memory backup?

  23. My point by Mustang+Matt · · Score: 1

    Their past product is kind of shoddy and I hope their new ones are better. Treo 300 isn't that old. It was still on the store shelves last I checked.

    --
    The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. - Benjamin Franklin
    1. Re:My point by SoupIsGoodFood_42 · · Score: 1

      Have you missed all the reviews and generaly positive feedback about the Treo 600? I have one myself and it's a well-designed, reliable device. And the Treo 650 seems as if it will fix most of major complaints people have made about the 600.

    2. Re:My point by Mustang+Matt · · Score: 1

      Must have missed them but it sounds promising.

      I'll probably wait until I can buy one on ebay for half retail price.

      --
      The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. - Benjamin Franklin
  24. URL for Ed Colligan interview by pjarts · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Hi, I did the interview with Ed Colligan for Palm Addict. The correct URL is: http://palmaddict.typepad.com/palmaddicts/2004/10/ _this_morning_i.html PJ Arts

  25. BT on Treo by hey! · · Score: 1

    I've read that the headers for the BT chip are on the board, but it's not included because Sprint doesn't like BT.

    --
    Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
    1. Re:BT on Treo by Akimotos · · Score: 1

      Ah, that is interesting. Didn't know that, but can imagine the Sprint Concerns, given the fact that Yahoo Groups (ahum) offers all kinds of needful software to help P900 users make ultimate use of the British Telecom wireless BT network in the UK.... Vodafone was pretty upset when the learned that they were sponsoring nice P900 handsets (through subscription) while most users made calls through 'alternative' channels available. British Telecom fixed the hack within the week or so.

  26. BIG FLOPPIN' WHOOP by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yes, palmOne has been saying this for over a year now. nothing newsworthy here.

  27. Intel Sonoma platform finally fixed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Intel Sonoma platform finally fixed Äîìàøíèå êèíîòåàòðû sonoma Intel has confirmed that its next release of Centrino, codenamed Sonoma, has been fixed and will ship in Q42004 in low volume. Sonoma is the highly anticipated follow-up to the release of the latest Pentium-M microprocessor (Dothan), which is the primary artillery behind the current Centrino platform. Currently Centrino consists of a CPU (Pentium-M), an Intel chipset (Intel 855), and an 802.11b/g wireless LAN adapter. ÀÊÓÑÒÈÊÀ Íàáîðû (ðåñèâåð, ñàáâóôåð, öåíòð è êîëîíêè) | Íàáîðû àêóñòèêè B&W | Íàáîðû àêóñòèêè CAV | Íàáîðû àêóñòèêè Harman Kardon | Íàáîðû àêóñòèêè Infinity | Íàáîðû àêóñòèêè JBL | Íàáîðû àêóñòèêè YAMAHA | Ðåñèâåðû | Ñàáâóôåð&# 251; | Ñòîéêè äëÿ àïïàðàòóðû | Óñèëèòåë&# 232; sonoma

  28. Need version without camera by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    I like convergence and having one item that does many things, so that I have less thingies to carry.

    But...

    Whenever I go to the local strip club, they always ask, "do you have a cell phone?" and then ask to inspect it. Luckily, my phone doesn't have a camera. If it did, they wouldn't let it in.

    Please make a version w/out camera, so I don't have to leave it in the car when I'm getting lap dances.

    BTW, I'm totally serious.