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The Official Launch of the Treo 650
A whole slew of people sent us in links regarding the Treo 650. There's the official release from palmOne, with a new entry on their website. TreoCentral also has launch coverage, including a sample video and first impressions. Engadget also has coverage of the launch as well. Details are that the Treo 650 is an evolutionary upgrade to the Treo 600. palmOne made few external changes, but redid much of the internals. As with the 600 there will be a dualband CDMA 1xRTT and a quadband GSM/GPRS/EDGE version. The most notable new features are an improved 312 Mhz Intel PXA270 processor, a new 320x320 High resolution TFT screen, built in Bluetooth, non-volatile flash memory, a removable battery, and a new connector. Carriers, pricing, and availability are to be announced soon. Another reader notes that this ups the bar for mobile internet - and the last wonders if RIM has any good responses
However, the Sprint Treo has crippled bluetooth:
TreoCentral is reporting that the Sprint version of the Treo 650 doesn't allow you to use Bluetooth for dial-up networking through your computer. Apparently other carriers will, but not Sprint.
Who said Freedom was Fair?
Finally, a smartphone I can take seriously! Too bad it won't be affordable for another three years...
"Dave, I stand still--the conclusions jump to me!" - Bill McNeal, NewsRadio
If we're to surf the web properly with these things, won't we need more than 320x240?
I'm looking at one of these:
HP iPAQ 4700
Look at the nice third photo. It lacks the phone of course, os it's not good enough.
Anyone know if running SkypeOut with one of these is a good idea?
-- jaf
I have to say I think for $550+ the Treo 650 is way overpriced. As a Palm fanboy, I feel sick with mistreatment. For that price, it is currently missing:
- 128 mb ram (at least!)
- voice recorder
- 802.11b
IMO... disgusting at that price. I have and love and setup TONS of Treo 600's, but seriosuly the price is nuts without the above. And to nitpick, IMO the Treo 650 should also have:
- not just bluetooth, but Class 1 (or is it class A) bluetooth with 100m range
- all 128 mb as non-volotile
- voice recorder to record the phone calls too
- easy setup to use device as a laptop modem for windows/mac with open spec to let Linux dudes knock up their own sw
- Camera Flash (even the lame ultra-bright led's actually can save the day with a photo in a very dark room, much better than nothing)
- Software to have web access auto-switch from carrier service to 802.11 when 802.11 becomes availbe, and back again when wifi disappears. Latest Pocket PC devices to this automatically.
Oh, and to REALLY bitch, but to make this thing perfect, add:
- Blackberry e-mail client
memory: 23MB user-available stored non-volatile memory (22MB multi-lingual)
the new Tungsten has over 150 megs of memory while the new treo only has 23? for all the web surifng, emailing, and pictures that people will take, 23 megs doesn't sounds like nearly enough for internal memory that is. Still a really cool product.
AnimeNEXT anime convention
IMHO, that may well be the future for Palms. So, the question now: in a magazine I've seen a shot of some new Samsung phone displaying... PalmOS launcher! Is it just a photo-editor's deed or Samsung really makes Palm-based phones too? Thanks.
"As with the 600 there will be a dualband CDMA 1xRTT and a quadband GSM/GPRS/EDGE version."
For anyone who doesn't understand the technical jargon, here's a handy explanation:
CDMA -- Code Division Multiple Access, any use of any form of spread spectrum by multiple transmitters to send to the same receiver on the same frequency channel at the same time without harmful interference.
GSM -- Global System for Mobile Communications, the most popular standard for mobile phones in the world.
GPRS -- General Packet Radio Service, a digital mobile phone technology. It is considered as 2.5G, between the second and third generation. It provides moderate speed data transfer, by using unused TDMA channels GSM network.
EDGE -- Enhanced Data Rates for Global Evolution, a digital mobile phone technology technology which acts as a bolt-on enhancement to 2G and 2.5G (a.k.a.GPRS) networks. This technology is compatible with TDMA and GSM networks. EDGE uses the same spectrum allocated for GSM850, GSM900, GSM1800 and GSM1900 operation.
Click the links for more info.
To editors: please provide at least some links to explain the terms you use in the story next time. Thanks.
Sincerely,
Pan Tarhei Hosé, PhD.
"Homo sum et cogito ergo odi profanum vulgus et libido."
I'll buy it if tomtom runs on it! Any news about this?
Check populicio.us
Weather or not it is priced right, because it simply fixes many problems with the 600, the market will tolerate it. With HP's 6300 entry into the market, surly one will stand out much more than the other.
"System Requirements
o nes/tre o650/details.epl
Macintosh
Windows 2000 or XP (later versions may also be supported) with USB port (USB HotSync® cable included)"
From the spec page:
http://www.palmone.com/us/products/smartph
Sure it's a typo, but it's not comforting to see how little attention to detail they pay to cross-platform compatibility.
.
"You have liberated me from thought."
Sadly, all these efforts to revive them are futile.
Cell phone are small and becoming more advanced. Lap-tops are powerful and becoming smaller.
PDAs are stuck in the middle. If they try to evolve in either direction, they end up becoming a cell phone or a lap-top. At $650 a pop, even a TREO 650 is too expensive for what it offers.
Most people who are serious about mobile computing and internetr-on-the-go will just buy a slim albeit expensive laptop.
Others who purchase cheaper, less powerful PDAs soon realize how cumbersome it is to use a PDA to just store some phone numbers and appointments when they can use their cell-phone to do the same. So, they end up leaving their PDAs in drawers at home collecting dust.
Like I said.. dead horses.
News at 11: "All Palm websites slashdotted! Entire Palm internet goes down! New record!"
Since it took almost two years to get the Treo 600 on Verizon, and I've already spoken with my account rep who says Verizon has no plans for this phone, I've created a petition to have Verizon get this phone in a timely fashion. Please sign below:
Verizon Treo 650 Petition
Thanks!
Find out about the Lexus Rx400h Hybrid!
I used to live in the US, and got very used to my Palms (I've been using them for years, starting with a Handspring Visor through a Sony Clie), and I was just looking to upgrade my phone, and I ended up getting something that Wasn't The Treo. Why? Because even though I waited until the "official" announcement, and thus knew everything about it, I still don't have any idea when it'll be available here in the UK.
This is pretty lame. Here in Europe (at least in the UK) Palm Pilots and other PDAs don't have nearly as high penetration as in the US, because everybody's got their mobile with them at all times and doesn't want to carry around two devices. However, given past performance, the GSM Treo (which is a worldphone, so you can just buy it in the US and bring it on a plane here and it'll work perfectly with your local coverage) won't be available for several months at best, unlike in the US. Even now, although the Treo 650 is all over the US PalmOne site, it's nowhere to be found on the UK site.
This makes very little sense, given that the biggest competition for the Treo (namely the blackberry and the Sony Ericsson P910i) are available here as soon as the US, if not sooner. Moreover, the SIM-free (i.e. not tied to a particular provider) version of the Treo 600 is GBP525 ($966 at today's exchange rate) from PalmOne UK, while it's $349 from PalmOne US. This whole state of affairs leads me to believe that PalmOne just doesn't get it when it comes to Europe and the attractiveness of something like the Treo. Give it to us now!
It seem that Sony-Ericsson's hybrid phone-pda (P900 / P910) is more powerfull than Treo 650. I don't know about SE's CPU capabilities but _AS_ hybrid-phone it's much more usefull because of touchscreen and pretty imporoved Symbian OS. You can compare by yourself..
SE P910
Treo 650
Fucking a fat girl is like riding a scooter... it's fun 'til someone sees you.
good smartphone. must be. but i'm sceptic and not waiting soon this device. in russia/moscow. previous generation treo 600 avail in moscow in this september at $800. now it at least $750. cheaper price, huh. very good deal ;-)
now wating for support this device from apple, but also some scepticism: motorola GSM phones normally supported sync only from cable, but GPRS dial is available over bluetooth. what a good joke! my fujifilm s5000 camera supported only as usb-storage, but not a camera.
what about localization? see that english-only keyboard. most of devices/programs are developed without localization, and late this available via patches, hacks, some ugly stuff. good deal to one-language, english-speaking people.
Thanks.
Engadget's reporting no WiFi via the SDIO slot. Frankly, for me, this is a deal breaker. The last thing in the world I want to do is move to a WinCE platform, but hotspots are becoming so ubiquitous that I can't help but require it.
I hate to be one to poo-poo new hardware releases, but they had since the 600 to get it right (in fact, early 600 boxes had "support for WiFi via 3rd party solutions written on them)..
I wonder if Palm has recruited Sun/Cobalt product management?
"oohhh... I didn't know Schopenhauer was a philosopher!"
A lot of people have been saying how expensive these are, but they're good for corporate IT. With an SSL + password protected site, I can see which of my servers are alive, pull webservers out, initiate restarts of the webserver, etc. They work pretty well actually. At least when you're not spending your own money :-)
I'd love to see Wifi portability, which some people have been rumoring.
Anyone know if you can use TuSSH to set up a tunnel? I'd like to SSH tunnel and then run the Terminal Services client over it. Yes I'm that masochistic. I've only had the 600 a couple weeks and haven't gotten around to bothering yet, but that would be another big plus.
I like music
23MB user-available stored non-volatile memory
What kind of memory? Battery-backed RAM? Flash? There are many types of NV memory.
It sounds like plenty to me, provided there's a slot for a flash memory card. 9 years ago I was doing image analysis and surfing the web on a Sun SPARCstation 10 with 16 MB of RAM. I have a hunch that the Treo's kernel is lighter weight than SunOS.
The RIM 7100t is a more fair comparison, IMHO. For $199 (after $100 rebate from T-Mobile) you get just about everything the Treo 650 does. I decided I couldn't wait for the 650 to come out so I got the 7100t (Actually, I could still return it if I wanted to). I'm a long time Palm user, and have used the Treo 600 before.
Some notes on my experience of the BB over the Palm:
-No camera. Business device people.
-Can do dial-up networking over USB and Bluetooth.
-Full one-handed operation. Somewhat clumsy at times, but you can get-r-done.
-Push e-mail. (isn't the 650 supposed to have this?) You don't have to buy the BB Enterprise Server software for just syncing e-mail, there's a "desktop" version.
-Software is made for syncing with corporate e-mail, no middle Palm Desktop stuff to break on you
-The new keyboard is not that bad after you use it for a week.
-Push e-mail can be delayed 10 or 15 minutes at times.
-I miss the Calendar Palm app, was much faster to enter an appt and pick the start and stop times.
-Form factor of the BB is pretty slim, fits easily in front pants pocket (older ones were way too big)
-Charges over USB cable, no extra power adapters needed (major plus)
-I miss the 4 dedicated PIM keys on the Palm. Alawys so much drilling in and out of the menus. BB has two blank spots where they could have had two user-assignable keys, that would have rocked. They have a dedicated Browser key and a dedicated Telephone key.
-Soud quality is good to excellent on headset and to the ear to both parties
-No bluetooth to PC sync. Can't imagine why.
All in all, as a business workhorse handset, I think the Blackberry 7100t at $199 is an excellent choice. It's not perfect, by any stretch, but is getting there. I suggest you test drive any of the units (including the SideKick II) at your local T-Mobile (or Cingular I suppose) store....
Questions?
-m
http://www.invisik.com
Although it's always dangerous to generalize, I like to explain the differences between the Treo and the BlackBerry this way:
BlackBerry: email with applications
Treo: applications with email
You can build applications for both platforms, but the BlackBerry is still seen (and being used) primarily as a mobile email device. You can send and read email with the Treo, but you can run many more useful apps on it than on the BB. Which one is better? As usual, it depends on what you need...
EricBlackBerry development info
At work, we just started buying executives these:
0 0/ blackberry7100r.shtml
http://www.blackberry.com/products/blackberry71
They seem pretty cool...
Check the following for information about, at least a potential, response from RIM: http://mytreo.net/news/archives/000159.php#more Essentially, it looks like Sprint, Palm, and RIM have plans to allow RIM to run on a Sprint/PalmOS device.
The Intel processor is "ARM Architecture v.5TE compliant" and also "include[s] Intel® Wireless MMX(TM) technology". I thought MMX was an IA-32 instruction set feature. And I thought Intel dropped their licensing agreement with ARM. Anybody got simple explanations?
I wanted to get a Treo 600 back in the day, and it was not dual band. Then I wanted to get a Treo 650 (through Sprint) and that was also not dual band. What this means is that it does not have analog roaming, so once you are out of the core Sprint network you have NO phone service. This is a problem because I travel a lot and sometimes am in remote locations in rural Wisconsin.
Samsung, apparently, has a Palm-based Treo 650-ish phone coming out in December that has dual band capability. I've been told to watch www.phonescoop.com for it. In the mean time, be sure to ask your provider if your Treo/other phone supports roaming before you make the investment!
CJF
You would have to have a completely new animal, sort of a TSR kind of thing that would add a new networking layer. Since none of the SSH clients support this and most say it can't be done, I suspect it would be really, really hard. Hard enough that nobody thinks it is worthwhile.
All that, and no built in wifi, no SD card wifi drivers in sight (and none under development)?
I'll pass.
I frankly couldn't care less if RIM has a response to the Treo 650. Its software side is about a year behind Goodlink anyway. Blackberry wants me to believe that support for Outlook and Exchange 2003, and being able to actually use your Outlook calendar remotely is an 'amazing new feature' rather than 'expected behaviour'.
http://www.good.com/ for those interested.
Does it still support Graffiti? I haven't seen any comments about this anywhere.
--LWM
It has very little to do with security.
It has everything to do with making money from forcing the users to use the Verizon network to send their pictures.
Verizon is disabling BT only to support their GIN vendors. It has nothing to do with security!
Uhh. All I need to ask Which model! ;)
/Finland. MORE than any of preciosly mentioned products. For which SOME of them has 64MB memory card INCLUDED in package ;)
When something has 8MB of SDRAM & 32MB of flash its not a signle digit number overall
[Communicator]
20-25MB for 7700 Which is other which I'd consider similar...
30MB for 7600
Single digit number is for elcheapo consumer products, which are in different price category.
The Treo costs here
Emacs is good operating system, but it has one flaw: Its text editor could be better.
Can anyone tell me if this will come with an imap/s client? I would have purchased the 600 when it came out but I refuse to pay $60 for an e-mail client on my palm. When I buy a $500+ phone I expect to be able to check my e-mail securely.
For me the deal breaker with this one is the fact that they did not up the camera resolution. It will have better light gathering ability, which is sorely needed, but these days there's just no excuse to have the camera be only 0.3 megapixels. They should have added a 1+ megapixel camera, one, because this is a key feature most of us were looking forward to, and two, because it's a feature that the carriers have no great incentive to turn off.
Not a direct reply to your message, but I thought this might interest you and people who liked your post.
...
My Colour Sidekick's scroll wheel broke, and since I'm having problems with the carrier, I decided to look at the Treo versus the Sidekick. Of course the phone I saw was the 600, not the 650, but a lot of things don't seem to have changed much.
Overall, the Sidekick seems to have by far the better ergonomic design. The keyboard's big enough to type on decently, while the Treo 600's was way too small for my biggish fingers. They apparently changed this a bit with the 650, but frankly it doesn't appear from the pictures like it would make much difference.
The old Sidekick had clear build quality problems, culminating in the broken scroll wheel that forced me to contemplate a replacement. The new Sidekick is much better made, by a far higher quality manufacturer. But the Treo, with its metal chassis, had an almost jewel-like feel that easily carried the day.
The Treo 600's screen was truly awful, the worst thing about the device. This is one place where the new model is an obvious massive improvement. On the screen alone, I would definitely wait for the new model. That being said, with the small form factor and the keyboard being part of the raw size (instead of a foldout like the SideKick), the screen's still going to be tiny and that's still going to make web sites very difficult to read.
The camera on the Sidekick II was a bit confusing to use - I had to have the guy at the store tell me the secret - but seemed to take a decent picture in the light available at the store. The Treo's camera didn't work nearly as well, although none of them are going to be serious competition for my Canon EOS D30. The Treo 650's camera looked to be higher resolution but still pretty bad, I think worse than the Sidekick II's.
The Colour Sidekick II costs $299 to buy or $199 to upgrade from the old model. The Treo costs $450 with a Verizon signup but apparently the phone carrier will reduce that to around $350 if you scream and yell enough.
In the end, I had to side with the Sidekick II as by far the better device. Unfortunately, Verizon had by far the best phone service, so I may consider buying the Treo 650 at a later date.
So what did I do about my scroll wheel-impaired SideKick? I called up T-Mobile and they are sending me a free warranty replacement. I wanted to get a SideKick II if they'd given me a half-decent price on it, but the deal they offered was actually worse than the $199 upgrade deal I would have gotten at the T-Mobile store. This was interesting considering that the T-Mobile guy was positively embarassed he couldn't do better for me than the $199. I think it's a pity T-Mobile ignored an excellent opportunity to upgrade my machine and still make a few bucks instead of sending out one of their old models.
So for the time being, I'm back in the T-Mobile court. I'd be happy there if only the Sidekick's reception wasn't lousy
D
Apparently Verizon crippled its first Bluetooth phone (Motorola v710). See here:
http://www.nuclearelephant.com/papers/v710.html
The shady thing is that not all of Verizon's customer service agents are above board with this. When you call them and ask has Bluetooth been disabled and does it fully work, they say "no," which is technically true (there is minimal support for a headset, which "fully" works), but the customer gets a rude surprise when they order the phone and they cannot do a simple address book synch.
Apparently these carriers want to make more money selling you software to sync your address or make you pay for ringtones instead of using your MP3s--you know, things that Bluetooth was designed to help you do.
There is no doubt I will not buy the 650 if they cripple its Bluetooth on Verizon/Sprint or any other network (which is sad as Verizon seems to have the best coverage in the NY area). Although the techies will know, you have to think that the carriers basically can work in an oligopoly like manner and not care and just "coincidentally" all adopt a similar stance. Heck, I'm wishing for too much in them getting their act together on this issue when we still are generations behind Europe and Japan and can't get a simple flat-rate plan like we can for land-lines. The entire thing seems to run like the used-car industry.
I already know that Nokia is dropping the ball in terms of strategy and you can read more about that here:
http://jmarinez.blogspot.com/
But what I really would like to know is how people receive the new Treo 650 when compared to Nokia's 7610? Both companies have a substantial developer community, but the user interface and experience is different on these two devices. Is the world tested T9 text input system better or worst than the QWERTY keyboard on the Treos? Is a megapixel camera adequate for today's carrier networks (GPRS/EDGE or 1XRTT) or is a VGA camera the way to go?
Thanks.
I had a Treo 600 for about two weeks, but the low resolution display drove me nuts and I ended up returning it. I paid almost $1000 (CAN) for it, so this new price doesn't seem unreasonable. Carriers will offer it for less with a contract.
Now if they could just do away with the aging and fantastically craptastic PalmOS, I'd have something to get excited about.
Moreover, the SIM-free (i.e. not tied to a particular provider) version of the Treo 600 is GBP525 ($966 at today's exchange rate) from PalmOne UK, while it's $349 from PalmOne US
...
If only I were better capitalized
To spur "enterprise Linux," Big Bang, the distributed two-phase commit.
Since it took almost two years to get the Treo 600 on Verizon, and I've already spoken with my account rep who says Verizon has no plans for this phone, I've created a petition to have Verizon get this phone in a timely fashion. Please sign below:
The guy at the Verizon store here says they'll have 'em for Christmas buying.
You'd think the 1xRTT model is for Verizon, but, well, let me know if you ever get a straight and reasoned answer out of Verzion.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
The GSM carriers here (T-Mobile, AT&T, for starters; I belive Verizon carries the Treo only with the CDMA system) sell phones with software locks that prevent you from being able to use the phones on any other system, even if you change the SIM. To buy the unlocked phone, you have to pay $100 or more extra.
However, deals can be had. A year ago a T-Mobile vendor in a mall was ready to sell me an unlocked Treo 600 for $300 (still contingent on a T-Mobile contract, but I wasn't even haggling because I wanted to wait for the next model). I bet a deal will be hard to find at first, but a little patience and shopping around could lead to a decent deal.
media girl
Use this mature & free Voice Recording software, from Ryan Rife:
SoundRec
Thanks,
Peter
I have a Zaurus; it's not what I want.
I explicitly said I wanted something without the waste that is those goddamn thumbads.
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
If their software package requires Win2K or XP to run, does it run with Limited User support? And without any goofy preinstall-for-each-user nonsense? Does the Hotsync manager work with fast user switching? Last I checked, their software kit wouldn't work with either.
Use Evolution instead of Outlook? Bewa
I do read novels on the phone.
Already read:
I robot
Ender's Game
Foundation Trilogy
Foundation's Edge
Right now it's being used as an MP3 portable player.
Donwside: It's expensive.
We are Turing O-Machines. The Oracle is out there.