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Enthusiast Hacks WiFi Into Treo 650
Sammy at PalmAddict writes "Shadowmite, a Palm enthusiast has managed to hack his Palm One Treo 650 smartphone, enabling it to work with the Palm One WiFi card, despite Palm admitting the Treo was never designed to use WiFi technology. Shadowmite managed to get his hands on the Pa1m One WiFi card and modify it so that his Treo 650 could use it. The experiment was a success, and is causing quite a stir -- putting pressure on Palm One to provide support and fully support the new drivers."
You know, don't you hate it when cell phone companies disable some features of your cellphone and then add somre more "features" that allow you to do absolutely nothing?
It is not you, http://treocentral.com/ is a much better website and has way more information.
See this thread for more information about WiFi drivers on the 650.
Also this thread has some useful information on a patch that was obtained by someone that fixes problems with the sound quality of the Treo 650 microphone.
Sure, Gamecube isn't doing nearly as well as Playstation, but they've got their niche. Palm, on the other hand, is losing marketshare rapidly to Windows Palm PCs, which means Palm is vulnerable, and will latch onto good PR and do more to avoid bad PR.
This was my biggest complaint with my Treo 600. Not only was there no WiFi built in, but no aftermarket support of any kind was available. That's just nuts.
I'd happily give up my Treo's pitiful dialup connection (which works like crap), for even a substandard WiFi link. The initial connect delay and the approx 10 kilobit connection makes the Treo a dog when moving packets. Maybe WiFi could fix that.
Trust a hacker to do what a major corporation won't...
Randy
the pocket pc is the most unstable POS I've ever seen in a handheld.
;(
feh.
I have an ipaq that I use for wireless web control of devices. it works - but if you look at it the wrong way, you must soft reset.
its not a 3finger salute, but it needs to be done just as often
--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
http://www.uneasysilence.com/index.php?p=1719 Skip the digging and get it now...
Here's the link to the original discussion posting on TreoCentral.com.
"The objective of securing the safety of Americans from crime and terror has been achieved." -- John Ashcroft
Sprint doesn't want the Treo 650 to have the WiFi features since they want you to subscribe to the $15/mo Vision (CDMA 1xRTT) service. It might cost more per month for PDA phones.
Sprint especially doesn't want people to connect their phones to a PC or laptop through a USB cable or Bluetooth, because they want you to pay $80/mo for the unlimited wireless internet (Vision) through a PCMCIA card.
Verizon is even worse since they cripple their phones a lot more. But I still switched to Verizon from Sprint since it gets better reception for me (GSM is horrible over here). But at least Verizon's wireless internet is much more stable than Sprint's was for me. I use USB cables to connect my phone to my laptop to get free wireless internet using my minutes on off-peak hours.
We've been discussing this hack over at treocentral for quite a while now. Shadowmite's most impressive accomplishments are the custom roms he developed, stripping much of the crap out and adding a few critical apps (like notepad and DUN support- so you can use the treo as a modem). It's no secret the 650 has some major memory issues and by flashing his bare bones roms you can get rid of buggy apps like versamail and realplayer and instead run 3rd party apps like snapper mail on your sd card. Shadowmite deserves alot of credit for helping make the treo650 a decent product. -BT
What do you expect when the carriers subsidize the cost of your phone?
Perhaps if we had the option to pay less just for the services we want, without giving up our ability to choose any carrier we want, it would balance the slight increases to the cost of the handsets? We'd have more choice, more competition, and more innovation.
There is no gravity...the earth just sucks.
That "Other Cell Provider" would be Sprint PCS.
I happen to work for a Sprint PCS Affiliate and we are looking to install WiFi in our Corporate locations for exactly the scenario you propose.
The idea is that you can save on PCS equipment in high-usage areas and improve reception/call quality. You look at it from the wrong direction.
Sprint: You mean users won't have to be on our network but we still get to charge them minutes? And we get more bang out of our Network buck and better coverage in buildings with no work on our part? Yeah, that sounds like a pretty good deal, let's do that.
More likely, Palm said (?!?!?!?) nah, let's not include that for XXXXX reason.
If you are out to describe the truth, leave elegance to the tailor - Albert Einstein