PalmOne Commits to Treo Fix

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Posted by michael on Thursday November 25, 2004 @05:38AM from the oops dept.

Kodi writes "After the brouhaha over the Treo 650's memory architecture resulting in less usable space, PalmOne has committed to upgrading the ROM to fix it. In the meantime they'll send Treo 650 owners free 128MB SD cards on request."

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Wow - that's sounds like a good deal... by ThogScully · 2004-11-25 05:43 · Score: 2, Insightful

I haven't read the article, so if the summary is misleading, then I take back all these comments...

But I kinda wish now I was an earlier customer of these just to take advantage of this offer. They seemingly turned a customer service nightmare into a great spell of luck for early adopters... I wish more companies were like this.
-N

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Priceless:-) by khrtt · 2004-11-25 05:48 · Score: 5, Funny

* Treo 650 - $599
* 128 MB SD card - $15
* Staisfaction from having been given the $15 card for free - priceless.
1. Re:Priceless:-) by khrtt · 2004-11-25 12:51 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  SD is more expensive than other types of flash memory.
  
  I actually went to the trouble of getting the $15 price off pricewatch (no URL for you, figure it out for yourself). Surprizingly, 128MB SD, MMC and CF all start at $15, and 1GB sizes show only about 5% price difference. So, your information is outdated.
  
  *ducks*
  
  Than, again, my girlfriend got a 128MB SD card at RadioShack, two weeks ago, for $79.95. Good deal, if you ask me (for RadioShack).
  
  *unducks*
HUH? by Run4yourlives · 2004-11-25 05:52 · Score: 2, Insightful

At 6-7MB a song, it's most definatley an album.
Brouhaha by fireboy1919 · 2004-11-25 05:54 · Score: 4, Funny

Whoa. I mean, I knew about the memory issues, and stuff, but I never thought it would escalate into a full-scale brouhaha. Maybe I should return my palm.

I don't want to get any of that, you know, brouhaha on me.

So...um...what's a brouhaha?

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1. Re:Brouhaha by mcg1969 · 2004-11-25 06:00 · Score: 2
  
  Jefe: We have really caused quite a stir about the NVFS issue!
  El Guapo: How big of a stir?
  Jefe: A big stir!
  El Guapo: Jefe, would you say that it is a brouhaha?
  Jefe: Yes, El Guapo. It is a brouhaha.
  El Guapo: Jefe, what is a brouhaha?
2. Re:Brouhaha by fireboy1919 · 2004-11-25 06:27 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  I knew this was going to happen.
  
  Somebody was going to come along and ruin the joke by telling everyone what a brouhaha was.
  
  Fine.
  
  brouhaha (noun) - a large, rather hairy, south American snake known for it's prized tusks. Because of their value, and inability to breed in captivity, they have been hunted nearly to extinction, and are therefore considered unlucky.
  
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128 SD? Sah-weet! by Kujila · 2004-11-25 06:03 · Score: 2, Funny

"Hey Palm, I have a Treo 650, could you send me that free SD card now?...Proof of purchase? What? You don't believe me? OF COURSE I have a Treo 650, it's right here!....somewhere..."
warning: troll food inside by khrtt · 2004-11-25 06:04 · Score: 3, Interesting

I've programmed for both. MS design is better. Palm got too entangled with its "Zen of Palm" concept, and was late to adopt to faster processors and larger memories. As a result, the darn things have a nasty kludge for a filesystem, which makes programming anything but organizer-type applications a nightmare.

This lack of proper filesystem is what Palm is trying to patch now, but the original design is so inappropriate that fixing it only puts more kludges on top of other kludges. Which is where the current Treo bug really comes from.

I don't know if the Palm is dead, or not, but it would take a good system architect to fix PalmOS. I kinda wonder if Palm would hire me; i'd enjoy the challenge.
Re:Why 128MB? by NetNifty · 2004-11-25 06:05 · Score: 2, Funny

Your address book being bigger than 128MB is the problem they're trying to fix :P.

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Re:Palm is dead by DuncMan · 2004-11-25 06:16 · Score: 2, Insightful

This group doesn't hate MS as such; it hates bad businesses which harm the IT industry and users. For the last few years that's been Microsoft. Next year it could be Linus Torvalds. Who knows?

Anyhoo, palmOne and PalmSource are far from 'dead', though Microsoft's advertising might give that impression. Palm OS is still the most appropriate operating system for a PDA (sorry Linux), creating a versatile tool that happens to be a computer rather than a computer which happens to have PDA features.

More at http://www.zdnet.co.uk/talkback/?PROCESS=show&ID=2 0020611&AT=39147405-39024180t-30000029c .
PHB by Gryphon · 2004-11-25 06:23 · Score: 4, Interesting

Who wants to bet that a "Dilbert" probably pointed out the problems with the new memory architecture, but was over-ruled by a PHB with no clue?
1. Re:PHB by Mr_Silver · 2004-11-25 06:52 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  Who wants to bet that a "Dilbert" probably pointed out the problems with the new memory architecture, but was over-ruled by a PHB with no clue?
  Who wants to bet that the PHB who over-ruled him had his hands tied behind his back because of the head of marketings commitment to the board and an already pre-paid advertising campaign which would have costs millions to pull at the last minute?
  As much as it would pain Slashdot readership to know this, not all managers have no clue.
  
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What a refreshing change.. go PalmOne! by nightfire-unique · 2004-11-25 06:32 · Score: 4, Insightful

Wow. Now *that* is a company that wants your business. Litigious corporations apt to sue their customers to silence them in a similar situation, take note:
This is how you're supposed to do business!
Kudos to Palmone.

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1. Re:What a refreshing change.. go PalmOne! by CrackerJack9 · 2004-11-25 16:58 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  When was the last time you bought something used and it still had a full warranty? Just curious, because I can't think of any.
  
  Also taken for what it's worth: I had a 600 that they replaced for free (and even shipped me a new one before sending the busted one back) and they even paid shipping for both ways. Granted, it was covered under warranty because I didn't buy it used from Jimbo's Pawn Shop down on 15th street.
This is good by ribo-bailey · 2004-11-25 06:57 · Score: 3, Funny

I always get a good feeling when companies do the right thing to fix their mistakes. Where's my free harddrive from Microsoft?
Similar thing happened before by Jacco+de+Leeuw · 2004-11-25 07:03 · Score: 3, Interesting

Some Palm and Handspring models shipped with faulty DRAM. Instead of replacing the unit, Handspring released a patch which slashed the battery time in half. Still bitter about it...

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Palm Customer Service by mszeto · 2004-11-25 07:47 · Score: 2, Interesting

Palm has me as a loyal customer, pretty much forever. Not only do I like their design and their OS, I also like their customer service. A few years back I brought a palm IIIc, and it had a screen problem, so a new one was given to me. Then, the same one, 7 months later had a faulty screw, and they gave me another.

These both happened to be known issues to them, and they gave me a new one with no questions asked. I'm not surprised at this move at all.
especially... by Run4yourlives · 2004-11-25 08:41 · Score: 2, Funny

when you're trying to carry around an ego that weighs a ton.
Fix Tungston T5's too? by gandy909 · 2004-11-25 09:20 · Score: 2, Interesting

I didn't glean from the article if they are going to 'fix' the T5's also or not? It matters to me quite suddenly, as we just won one from a radio contest last night!

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