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Enthusiast Hacks WiFi Into Treo 650

Posted by timothy on from the good-deeds-to-punish dept.

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."

10 of 242 comments (clear)

  1. Why do wireless carriers not support features? by frdmfghtr · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Somewhat OT...

    This brings up a question I want to ask T-Mobile.

    My BlackBerry 7100i can be used as a wireless GPRS modem connected to my notebook via the USB cable. It works; I *know* it works, because:

    (1) I've read the forums where people tell how they got it to work (after getting T-Mobile to unblock some ports); and

    (2) I've done it to send/receive e-mail via Outlook when I enable their t-zones service.

    Now for the question:

    When the products the carriers promote have these capabilities, why do they not support them? I would be willing to pay for the service if T-Mobile would admit that it works and support it. If a Treo 650 can handle WiFi, that's a selling point and likely to result in more sales.

    --
    Government's idea of a balanced budget: take money from the right pocket to balance...oh who am I kidding?
    1. Re:Why do wireless carriers not support features? by Col.+Klink+(retired) · · Score: 3, Interesting

      > If a Treo 650 can handle WiFi, that's a selling point and likely to result in more sales.

      But the people selling the devices are really selling cellular service. If you can use WiFi, you can use VoIP for free rather than the cellular minutes. It has been alleged that it was Sprint that explicitly asked PalmOne to not provide WiFi drivers for the Treo 650.

      --

      -- Don't Tase me, bro!

    2. Re:Why do wireless carriers not support features? by Jarnis · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Why buy subsidized crap phones?

      In Finland carriers can't subsidize phones, as by law it's illegal to tie the phone and the subscription. If you offer a phone, the price and terms of sale must be same with or without subscription to any service, so you can't tie the two.

      So phone manufacturers sell their phones. More features = more sales. They don't have to bend over for the carriers - they are not their customers. So if carrier would prefer that the phone doesn't have WiFi... well, tough, they don't have a say in it.

      And we have pretty damn cheap airtime, as the only way carriers can compete for customers is by offering a good cheap product - they can't just toss a cooler phone free, tied to some stupid package that appears cheap, but ties you to one operator for x months (or years).

      Sure, phones cost money. Shocker. Feature rich phones cost a lot of money. Double shocker. At the same time your phonebill isn't used to subsidize someone elses shiny new phone used to lure him to the crappy service that you are stuck with.

    3. Re:Why do wireless carriers not support features? by bgarcia · · Score: 3, Interesting
      Why buy subsidized crap phones?
      Why? Because they'll give me 5 brand new phones with 1 year of service, and they'll pay me for it, year after year!

      This year, I ordered 5 Sony Ericsson T610's from Amazon with T-Mobile service. I paid $50 for each phone, and there was $250 in rebates available for each phone. I put them all on a family plan for $80/mo. Then I sold the phones themselves on ebay (I kept the 5 Motorola phones that I got in a similar deal last year).

      The math works out like this:

      +$250 (5 phones @ $50 ea.)
      +$175 (5 x $35 activation fee)
      +$960 (12 mo x $80/mo for a family plan w 5 phones)
      +$228 (~$19 in taxes/fees per month, x 12)
      -$1250 ($250 in rebates per phone, x 5)
      -$500 (sell all 5 phones on ebay, make $100 on each)
      --------------------
      Total: get paid $137.

      Plus I get another year of service for 5 phones! Subsidized crap phones are the only reason why I can even afford a mobile phone.

      --
      I'm a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar.
  2. Voip by Michael+Hunt · · Score: 3, Interesting

    It would be nice, now, if somebody wrote some SIP software that could take advantage of this hack. A Treo would make a sexy as hell cordless phone, which presumably would then be able to roam onto GPRS/GSM if and when the wifi network is unavailable.

    --
    You're doing it wrong.
  3. The only 'pressure' is $$$ by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    putting pressure on Palm One to provide support and fully support the new drivers.

    I have a fully functional Handspring/VisorPhone unit. At the point where the new treos offer something more (802.11) then I will consider paying $500+ for new hardware.

    It is palm's loss. At the point where I have VOIP and 802.11 working everwhere else will I look to make a change. If Palm does not have a solution, I WILL jump to Windows CE or Sybian.

    I left the Newton to Palm....I can leave Palm.

  4. War-walking by Indy+Media+Watch · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Pressed to your ear, this would be the most innocent looking wireless sniffer yet (if someone can get it to run as one).

    --

    Indy Media Watch-Proctologist of the Internet

  5. Tones...? by kcb93x · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Some type of sound tone...either volume, or speed of tones...like a metal detector? Or maybe a system of them...one variation for quantity of signals...another variation on the sounds for quality of the signals?

    --
    There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
  6. Re:Still waiting by Wesley+Felter · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Vocera makes them, but if you have to ask, you really can't afford it.

  7. palmOne - going down the tubes by Silicon_Knight · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Palm is VERY quickly losing my respect with the way they treat their customers.

    I started out with a Handspring Visor, my girlfriend has a Palm 3 series PDA. Almost all my friends and family uses Palm PDAs. That said, my Palm T3 will most likely be the last Palm PDA that I'll buy.

    Started out with me purchasing my Nokia 6820 video phone in Asia - naively thinking that, "Hey, it's bluetooth, it'll be supported". It took almost half year after that phone's release before Palm would release drivers for it in their phone update - but, the drive only works as a modem driver. SMS and remote dialer apps for the phone isn't support. It *is* supported fully for the Palm T5 though.

    Side by side comparison the T5 really isn't that much different from the T3 - minor tweaks in OS, faster processor and more memory. But what if I were to upgrade to the T5?

    Forget it. I'd be ditching the "Collapsing PDA" feature that makes the T3 small and compact to carry, the silent, vibrating alarm for when you don't want to be obnoxious, the voice recorder functionality. I gain the ability to use the PDA as a flash drive, which I already own a few, and can add into the PDA via 3rd party software. They tossed out the Palm Universal Port which up till now most accessories use, as a standardized interface to the PDA - and for a top of the line product, the damn thing doesn't even come with a cradle.

    What the hell are they thinking?

    With the improvement of Pocket PC handhelds - and more vendors resulting in more selections - I'd have a hard time justifying purchasing another Palm PDA.

    -=- Terence