Handspring Treo Now Available 207
miradu2000 writes: "Handspring's Treo, the revolutionary new communicator is now shipping. This has been anticipated since October. See the scoop here! This could change the world..." My guess is no, it won't change the world. But it could reduce by one the number of gadgets a lot of people carry around.
wow (Score:1, Insightful)
Color palm pilot = 200 bucks.
Ghetto cell phone = 80 bucks.
Re:wow (Score:2)
Re:wow (Score:2)
I'd love it...if I could afford it... (Score:3, Insightful)
Amigori
For those who want the scoop... (Score:5, Interesting)
The formats supported are RealPlayer, Windows Media Player, and QuickTime. It's available in 56k, 100k, and 300k flavors.
I just watched it and thought it was kind of neat.
http://www.handspring.com/products/treo/choose_sp
For those who dont know. (Score:2, Informative)
Handspring vs Palm - missing the boat again (Score:1)
1. Where is the color screen?
2. Way to expensive - 549 US dollars "without service activation" I kind of like my current Cellular provider.
Re:Handspring vs Palm - missing the boat again (Score:2)
Re:Handspring vs Palm - missing the boat again (Score:2)
VisorPhone experience (Score:5, Informative)
I really like the VisorPhone, although its not without drawbacks. Its a little large; well actually the combined unit is a little large. It defintely looks a little geeky, and I think the Treo will be worse - Captain Kirk anyone? I'm using the Cingular service here in San Francisco and the reception is not great. I sometimes find I am struggling to get a signal when other cell phone users aren't.
All that being said I like the VisorPhone lots and will probably upgrade to a Treo Real Soon Now. The main advantages are having only one unit to carry around (I'd have a Palm device anyway); having everything always synched up (again I'd be synching my Palm anyway, this way my phone book gets updated as well); good software integration into the standard PalmOS apps; and I can play DopeWars on my phone.
Just don't drop it. I've had to replace the screen 3 times. One of the biggest features of the Treo for me is that flip up screen cover...
Re:VisorPhone experience (Score:2)
It's interesting to see that Cellnet (or mmO2 as they're now inexplicably called) are going to be providing service to the Treo in the UK - one hopes that they'll look into GPRS sooner rather than later as GSM is still way too expensive for this sort of machine. Having said, if they do a deal for Visorphone owners in the UK I'll probably try and stop finding ways of trying to gaffa my Nokia 8120 to my Palm Vx...
Re:VisorPhone experience (Score:4, Informative)
From the FAQ:
Q. Will your product be upgradeable to GPRS?
A. Yes. When the GPRS networks are commercially available and carriers are offering GPRS service plans, Treo communicators will be upgradeable via a software patch from Handspring.
Q. What version of GPRS is the Treo communicator going to use?
A. The Treo communicator will support GPRS class 2, which will provide two channels down and one up (otherwise known as "2+1") for throughput up to 28.8Kbps.
Re:VisorPhone experience (Score:2)
Re:VisorPhone experience (Score:2, Informative)
The sound quality on my unit is pretty bad. I can hear the person I'm talking to just fine, but everyone says my voice is accompanied by loud buzzing noises. It sounds like interferance, and the weaker the signal is, the louder the interferance, as if it gets worse when the phone has to jack up its output to compensate.
It is nice to only carry one device, although I have to admit that carrying a small cellphone and separate visor wouldn't be much bigger. The phone battery really adds a lot of bulk to the visor. And then there's the fairly-rare but oh-so inconvenient times when the palm crashes hard and has to be reset, and I've lost all my settings and phone data until I can manage to re-synch to my computer.
My favorite things about it are the geek appeal: I can browse the web and check my email with the visor display instead of some crappy cellphone. The data connection is slow, but the interface is quite usable.
My overall opinion is that it's a great toy for geeks, but the more mainstream people probably wouldn't want to put up with its quirkiness.
That's Cingulars fault (Score:2)
Just a consumer information apropos.
Re:VisorPhone experience (Score:2)
Since you have a VisorPhone attachment can you use both your VisorPhone and your regular cell phone? I'm sure you cannot use the services concurrently, but can you say turn off your cell phone and then use your VisorPhone or vice versa? I'm interested in using the VisorPhone on occasion, but I'm in no rush to replace my cell phone since its form factor is much smaller. Thanks for any help.
JOhn
Re:VisorPhone experience (Score:2)
Since you have a VisorPhone attachment can you use both your VisorPhone and your regular cell phone? I'm sure you cannot use the services concurrently, but can you say turn off your cell phone and then use your VisorPhone or vice versa? I'm interested in using the VisorPhone on occasion, but I'm in no rush to replace my cell phone since its form factor is much smaller. Thanks for any help.
I don't have a cell phone, I just have my VisorPhone. I would guess that you can't do what you are describing since most cellular services are tied to the SMID card in your cell phone. As you phone and VisorPhone have separate SMID cards the network would see them as different devices and require you to have two accounts. The only way around this is that the VisorPhone does use an SMID card, so you could swap the card between the devices. This would be a monumental pain in the butt, though.
Re:VisorPhone experience (Score:2)
IPAQ and Nokia Card Phone does the same thing ... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:IPAQ and Nokia Card Phone does the same thing . (Score:1)
Not great [time.com]
Re:IPAQ and Nokia Card Phone does the same thing . (Score:2)
Re:IPAQ and Nokia Card Phone does the same thing . (Score:3, Interesting)
I'd say this is about right. My VisorPhone requires recharging once a day if I'm using it to make calls, it will last nearly 3 days on a full charge on standby. I'd guess the power drain of the Treo is similar to a Handspring+VisorPhone.
Oh Boy (Score:1)
This is insane. My Nokia 6210 survives over a week on standby and on average four days with normal calling patterns.
The Palm Vx survives a couple weeks easy without charging, provided that it's not accidentally turned on while in the bag or so.
A cell phone requiring daily recharge is simply inacceptable in this day and age.
Re:Oh Boy (Score:2)
I've discovered in this economy it's actually: a human being requiring daily recharge is simply inacceptable in this day and age.
Kyocera?? (Score:3, Insightful)
What does the Treo offer over that?
Re:Kyocera?? (Score:2, Informative)
The Treo appears to be engineered more effectively, in terms of the
upcoming color unit,
keyboard option,
smaller form factor,
removal of buttons from cover/flip portion.
For those who publicly admit to using M$ products, Kyocera's Chapura interface for Outleak manages to lock the contacts list if accessed via the jog dial.
You can dial someone from the contacts list once, but then you have to do a soft reset before it will synchronize.
Does anyone know of a site that summarizes the cel standards and their areas of implementation, along with providers? Sure would be nice to buy a phone/PDA that is useful both here and abroad.
Re:Kyocera?? (Score:2)
If you are staying some time in a country, it's worth getting a local GSM SIM card (subscriber card) that's pre-paid - means you pay for local calls at the normal rate, though your number changes.
Re:Kyocera?? (Score:1)
Re:Kyocera?? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Kyocera?? (Score:1)
Not GPRS (Score:1)
no gprs no triband no bluetooth (Score:1, Interesting)
so you can just use it for wap and email.
the absence of a proper internet connection
make this product half-baked.
For faster speed you can use the nokia communicator, but neither the nokia, the palm
or the handspring has triband, so you can not use
them everywhere.
Also none has bluethooth; so even with the nokia
if you want to browse the internet on a laptop
via one of those devices, you are screwed.
Better wait for the next generation or if you
do not mind the weight, get a cheaper palmtop and
a phone with gprs, triband and bluetooth.
Lets see..... (Score:1)
$400? (Score:1)
Honestly, while I'm always in favour of new geek toys, this one holds no interest at all. Frankly, I'd be more interested in a lower cost version of something like the Edge or Deluxe (Yes, I know the deluxe is available for $100 if you get it refurbished... that doesn't change the fact that it's still $200 for the cheapest of the new Visors). As a college student, most of my money is going to textbooks and bills, not buying new cell-phone/PDAs.
-Carik
Re:$400? (Score:1)
They made this thing totally for the businessman, plain and simple. I work for a relatively small computer consulting company. All of our consultants are considering buying one of these just to make their lives a little more simple.
They know the price is high for college students, pre-schoolers, and bums on the street. But this is not a product for them, its a product for proffesionals.
SWGS
Re:$400? (Score:1)
Treo Schmeo (Score:1)
Ugly (Score:2, Interesting)
Why is this better than the old Visor Phone? (Score:1, Interesting)
If the Treo breaks I'm hosed for either a lot of $$ or time cause I'll have to send it somewhere for repairs. Sorry but I'll keep my old stuff.
Just too big for me (Score:3, Insightful)
Great phone for those that wear cargo pants.
Then you're smoking something good. (Score:2, Informative)
If you take a look at the Treo website, they have a few size comparison pictures to help out (including one against a credit card where the Treo does pretty well).
I have a Nokia 83xx phone right now, and the Treo looks to be a little wider (and have an external antenna) but is otherwise quite comparable in size.
I don't use a palm often enough unless it's in my pocket. This lets me use a regular wallet again.
Regards,
Ross
Not at all (Score:2)
Need more GSM coverage (Score:1)
Re:Need more GSM coverage (Score:1)
Too little too late? (Score:2, Interesting)
The only problem I have with my cellphone/visor is that the cell phone, visor and it's cable... are bulky when taken all together.. not exactly what you want on the beach, or during a hike on 2000 ft. cliffs (not to mention that I've already lost the cable twice). I thought the new device would be great... all-in-one, etc.
But I'm less and less impressed. First... they did not include the Handspring port - citing some bull about wanting to have two distinct product lines... this is a major down point for me because if I want to *replace* my visor, I can't without also losing all the modules I purchased. Secondly... other companies beat them to the punch and already offer cell phones married to full functioning PDA's.
So as far as I can tell... too little, too late.
I like my Treo (Score:5, Informative)
Good points: ironically, the SMS facility is very well organised and makes it much easier to keep tabs on who sent what, and your replies. The keyboard is good too.
Particularly good point: answering a call in real Star Trek fashion by flipping open the screen shield. Cool.
Bad points: the sound quality when using the phone through the shield headset rather than the plug-in ear piece, not good. And the battery life is indeed not good, although it does have a good battery life indicator: a light starting at green and slowly fading to bright red.
Particularly bad point: no cradle, making the recharging/hot synching less convenient.
Otherwise, it's a good size, and feels robust. And (not that it really matters) it's got a "wow!" factor, but that's just a new gadget syndrome. Um, overall, a bit pricey I'd say: you know that in a year's time there'll be plenty of these at a better price.
Re:I like my Treo (Score:3, Informative)
Do you know how many GPRS slots you get with the version you have, up and down? Failing that, do you know what data rates you get?
One key reason to get an integrated device is that the Palm to Phone link will always work - getting separate devices to work is a bit of a nightmare, even though I have IRDA working.
GPRS throughput calculations for Treo (Score:2)
According to http://www.compaq.com/products/quickspecs/10903_n
Anyway, YMMV depending on number and activity of other GPRS and GSM-voice users in the cell - if they're busy you won't get the full 4 slots. Also, as the radio conditions worsen you'll drop down to CS-1, which has more error correction but maxes out at 4 x 9.05 = 36.2 Kbps downstream for a 4+2 device.
Fortunately, if you are using an efficient protocol, such as WAP or perhaps a custom protocol on top of IP (like some of the compressing/transcoding proxy setups), you can get pretty good response times out of a GPRS device, but it's not really meant for big downloads. On some tariffs, it's cheaper to use HSCSD (two GSM phone calls at once) for downloads, but ultimately GPRS will become a commodity and should end up being cheaper, with HSCSD the high-end service for those who can afford it.
At present, you may actually find WAP over a GSM call is a bit faster (I did a side by side test with Ericsson T68 vs Nokia 7110 on the same Orange UK WAP site) - but GPRS is much more convenient particularly for quickly checking a website on your Treo, or for sending an email without firing up your PC or making a data call on your phone. In the longer term, there'll be higher-spec phones, up to 8 slots downstream for 115 Kbps, but there'll be a price in battery life and perhaps overheating.
I don't think the country matters - GPRS works the same way regardless of frequency, so the US/Canada's GPRS at 1900 MHz will have the same data rates IMO as the UK's 1800 and 900 MHz (subject to radio conditions of course).
For a technical intro to GPRS, have a look at http://ww1.comsoc.org/pubs/surveys/3q99issue/pdf/
Re:I like my Treo (Score:2)
Bolting them together eliminates choice of service at a reasonable price.
A very nice design though, except for the fact it has no expansion/radio slot. IMHO
LoB
Re:I like my Treo (Score:2)
It would have been good to include Bluetooth instead of a Springboard slot - at least then you could network through to a different device, e.g. your laptop to get onto a wireless LAN. There may even be a market for wireless routers that talk Bluetooth on one side and CDMA/GSM/UMTS wireless on the other - that way you can decouple your user interface device (web pad, PDA, toaster) from the wireless standards.
Color display versus Battery Life (Score:1, Interesting)
I used to have a handheld with a color display though and frankly the battery life of that thing sucked. If they make a Treo with color display, I sure hope that battery life will still be acceptable (showing off to my collegues for 1 hour per battery-loading seems sufficient for me).
Re:Color display versus Battery Life (Score:3, Interesting)
Until Organic LED displays make it, you get color and no real battery life unless you bolt a large battery on (ala iPaq).
So you'll have to decide if you want to spend your money to show how cool you are or spend your money to get a useful/convenient product.
LoB
Still doesn't seem to offer more than the Nokia (Score:2, Insightful)
Presumably being PalmOS based that means you can get ssh for it. However the keyboard doesn't look up to much and it doesn't look hi-res enough to do 80x24. I don't think this will replace the Nokia 9[12]10 for remote Unix administration, and to be honest that and checking Railtrack for alternate train times when the train companies fsck up *again* mid-journey are the only things I tend to use portable dial-up for.
But will there be a Stowaway keyboard? (Score:1)
No DCS1800 (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:No DCS1800 (Score:2)
Re:No DCS1800 (Score:2)
You must walk before you can fly (Score:3, Insightful)
Many people, including myself, believe that the next frontier of technology is small, portable devices that communicate with each other wirelessly, though each device has a specialized function.
In order to make that happen, we need to start with devices such as handhelds - which can be easily specialized through software, and which have readily available wireless capability.
Its true that its "Just another handheld," similar to all of the other handhelds, but its more functional. Its not like another model car, which is exactly like the previous model, except that its "new and improved" (i.e. new and the current fashion); this is another piece of the puzzle.
And it does matter that its slightly more functional. The advent of the 386 chipset allowed a whole new class of problems to be solvable that where previously too slow to do research - I know that this is the case for my field, which is computer vision. As time progresses, even more problems are being researched.
I'm looking forward to using technology such as this -perhaps even this model - in the near future (when it becomes pretty inexpensive - perhaps two or three years from now) as a module for home automation - it would be just about perfect for the purpose.
iPAQ/GSM or T68+cheapPDA (Score:1)
a color iPAQ with GSM-jacket or a palm-pilot with blue tooth and Ericssons T68 (color display, bluetooth aso).
A the price is approx the same...
Yet another palm phone....So what? (Score:5, Informative)
Treo is smaller...so what, the Kyocera is almost too small as it is. They also made the Treo smaller by using a smaller screen then the Kyocera, so enjoy your scrolling.
No car kits from handspring...they are going to leave that to 3-rd parties, which means don't expect them for a while. Kyocera makes their own.
Treo: no voice dialing
Kyocera: voice dialling in the phone ( 99 names )
Treo claims 2.5hrs talk/ 60 hours standby. This is about half the Kyocera's capacity.
Treo says you may need to activate dial up access, and also get an ISP?!?! Both included in Kyocera service. And to make it worse, the Treo's modem is 9600 vs 14.4 in the Kyocera.
The keyboard is not that interesting to me, because I have used a palm long enough to get proficent with the software keyboard and graphitti. Plus my fingers are too fat to use buttons that small with any degree of accuracy...:^)
About the only think that is mildly amusing about this phone is that it is GSM, which doesn't help me where I live. I think I'll stay with my tried and true smartPhone.
Re:Yet another palm phone....So what? (Score:3, Interesting)
I have voice dialling in my Ericsson phone and I never use it, but then being a Euroid living in LondonI don't drive as much as some people
As for having to activate dialup and get an ISP - that's a feature of the service, not the phone. The 9600 bps connection may also be a service issue, it depends on the GSM network I think.
GSM may not be useful where you live, but it works well around the rest of the world. I'll wait for the GPRS-enabled version (although one UK poster on this thread says he has been using that version for 2 weeks) so I can get always-on and about 40-50 Kbits/sec. Does anybody know how many GPRS slots the GPRS version has, up and down?
Really it's horses for courses - if you prefer CDMA service for where you live/travel, go for the Kyocera (though I think Handspring have a deal with Qualcomm to do a CDMA product in the future). If you prefer GSM, go for the Treo.
Re:Yet another palm phone..? keyboard/graffiti (Score:2)
Something is up. IMHO.
LoB
Too bad... (Score:2, Insightful)
"Oh yeah Jim, um, what's-his-name wanted me to tell you, uh, hangon a sec." *flip, beep, poke poke poke, scroll, read, fumble, flip* "Ok Jim, yeah it was so and so, and if I remember correctly he said blah blah blah."
Perhaps I'm missing something obvious, but how might you take notes, lookup information, or otherwise use the PDA part of your "phone" while you talk on it?
Re:Too bad... (Score:2)
And you have the benefit of not microwaving your brain
Re:Too bad... (Score:2)
james
Re:Too bad... (Score:1)
...actually, it would be more like,
"Oh yeah Jim, um, what's-his-name" (taps speakerphone button, navigates to note as he continues speaking without interruption) "wanted me to tell you so and so, it was Bob. And he said... I'll email you the details as soon as we end the call."
Now if they could fix that last part, that would be cool!
Re:Too bad... (Score:2)
If I have to interact with other humans, I'm most productive when I'm at my office with my headset on, and my email and IM programs open. It's like having three channels open at once, and it's amazing how well it works. Any phone that would let me talk or email, but not both at the same time, would eventually be frustrating. Maybe not much and maybe not often, but frustrating anyway.
Re:Too bad... (Score:1)
Perhaps I'm missing something obvious, but how might you take notes, lookup information, or otherwise use the PDA part of your "phone" while you talk on it?
By acivating the built-in speakerphone during the call and switching to another program while you're still talking.
Re:Too bad... (Score:3, Insightful)
It's called a headset. It comes with it for free. ALSO, the Treo seems to have some sort of "personal speaker phone" capabilities which means that as you're using the phone you can hear your caller and continue talking to them.
How about READING the freakin' article? It's not like I knew this before or had to search for it, it's in the second paragraph down.
-Russ
iPod (Score:1, Funny)
Oh, and I won't pay more than $150 for it.
That'd be cool! ;-)
Revolutionary? Try retread. (Score:1, Interesting)
Oh, and until PDAs have good handwriting recognition software again, they can all go straight to the steaming pits of Hell. Or my crotch. Same diff.
Revolutionary??? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Revolutionary??? (Score:1)
Great screen - its so bright, i made the mistake of opening it in a dark jazz club the other night and got the attention of the whole room.
its the best phone i have used on the sprint network as far as reception and voice quality.
by various benchmarks it is currently the fastest palm machine out there.
for more info see samsung's page [samsungusa.com] or a great message board about the phone, including some nacent hacking projects [sphi300.com]
So since I have a Kyocera 2255 ... (Score:2)
As any old hi-fi fan knows, "components are better."
____
Better yet. (Score:2)
I wouldn't buy one... (Score:2, Insightful)
They tend to do everything they do pretty badly. For example: Nokia 5550 (Phone and MP3 player. MP3 player sucks, and phone sucks too), midi/mini HIFI systems (sound generally sucks compared to a nice seperates system), Webmin (sucks compared to a set of targetted, specific config tools), etc etc etc.
You get the idea.
Also, in my humble experience, I've found a worrying number of 'combined' gadgets such as this to fail in single areas -- and be almost impossible to fix due to their advanced miniturisation.
So... Nice gadget, but I'll stick with discrete tools -- my Sony Vaio C1, Nokia 7110 and Handspring Visor Edge do their specific jobs excellently.
Integration may suck, but let's not be hypocrites. (Score:2)
Sure, mini-stereos suck compared to a decent component system. They also cost about... what, as much as one, maybe two pieces of that system, tops?
Personally, I also will not buy a Treo - until they tell me that in addition to being a cell phone and a PDA, it can play MP3's. I've been waiting for a couple years for all three functions to be consolidated in a base unit without add-ons. Give me stereo headphones with a mike on the cord for the mp3 playback, and a device smart enough to pause the mp3's when a call comes in, and I'm happy.
-Dan
Too bad the service stinks... (Score:1)
Maybe those other carriers work for you, but for those of us who live in the northeast - especially around new york, the other carriers can;t live up to Verizon's service level.
Granted, I'm no Verizon-fan by any means - I'd drop them in a second if I could, but unfortunately that's the only carrier up here (NY Metro Area) that is worth anything.
Other cell+PDA combos (Score:3, Interesting)
More?
Re:Other cell+PDA combos (Score:2)
I'm using the Motorola 008 now, and it is actually quite useful, if a little klunky. Though the Treo does have the advantage of running PalmOS (MDIP JAVA support just doesn't quite cut the mustard IMHO).
j.
Re:Other cell+PDA combos (Score:1)
Nokia 7650 [nokia.com].
Super nifty, but lacks key input features.
Nokia - disconnecting people
Always on? (Score:2)
A system for reading e-mail needs to be "always on" to use a phrase from the competition (RIM). As far as I can tell with Treo if you are waiting for an e-mail you would have press receive every five minutes until the e-mail arrived.
Re:Always on? (Score:2)
Even without this extra software, checking email over GPRS is easily done - my Ericsson T68 phone can check every 5 minutes without making phone calls.
ALMOST there... (Score:1, Interesting)
Add voice recognition capability!
How many people have phones now that you can add voice tags to people's numbers? This should actually be rather easy to implement in the Treo, I'd imagine. (I didn't see it explicitly stated in the review.) Imagine just saying someone's name, and their business card comes up and it asks you if you want to dial their number. Sounds like a winning deal to me.
Other than that, add some Bluetooth or 802.11b capability in there. Then I can use this as an uplink for my laptop. Or I can beam business cards with RF instead of IR. Or imagine being able to zap someone your business card through SMS. That's another cool feature.
These devices are almost there. We're almost to convergence, and I think I'll wait a generation or two and take another serious look at it.
VoiceStrean's iStream/GPRS gives 56kbps but ... (Score:1)
Direct Connect would be nice. (Score:1)
competition (Score:1)
but, as for the palm m705... it actually has a graffiti pad, and an antenna that seems like it would have a longer life span. i think i'll just stick with that one!
been there done that - it sucks (Score:2)
Nice try Handspring, but qualicomm learned the hard way that unless you can give major advantages that outweigh the horrible design flaws it will die a nasty ugly death.
Still too big (Score:2)
1. It's still to big. Having handled one in person (I live in singapore and it's been out for half a month or so now) it's still too big. It hasn't reached that crtical *lack* of mass that'll make it replace my tiny Nokia phone as yet.
2. No GPRS.
What this stupid thing protuding on the top? (Score:1)
Is it here only to tear pockets, or to be geeky?
or perhaps is it the extractible pen?
My favorite is still... (Score:3, Interesting)
My dream PDA... (Score:2)
...is not anything very advanced, but it has a set of features that I cannot find combined in a single PDA. It has:
The closest to what I want is the Handera (ex TRG) PDA, that has the compact flash slot, but it has no color screen. The Clie and Palm use those Memory Stick and SD/MMC respectively. And then, of course, there are the Casios and Compaqs who don't have PalmOS. Why can't they build such a simple handheld? In the meantime, I will wait to replace my old Palm III.
Re:My dream PDA... (Score:2)
Re:My dream PDA... (Score:2)
why did they cripple it? (Score:3, Informative)
After waiting quite a while for the Treo to come out, they finally announced they are avaialble, so I run over to the site, put in my zip (Los Angeles), and start the process where they let you pick a plan and what area you are in.
Then I saw something that made me want to cry: "Cingular Data (required for web and email access) $4.95/mo. plus 15/minute"
I can't believe this thing is not setup to use Cingular's internal network for web browsing. (which costs you $5 a month, plus airtime (basically, 'free' on nights and weekends). Instead, they are using the old Cingular data-connect, which is $4.95 and $0.15 A MINUTE. You can't use your included minutes, it's $0.15 a minute, always.
Not only that, but you have to have an ISP to make that data call into! If you use a cable modem or DSL, you'll have to pay a 3rd party ISP like Earthlink $19.95 a month just to use your data features.
Cingular has been setup, and has been selling phones that use their own 'wireless web' network for at least a year now. This is so sad.
Paying by the minute for data when you have a bucket of free minutes, as well as the requirement that you have a 3rd party ISP, is simply not acceptable in this day and age when other providers (Sprint, Verizon, Voicestream) are giving it away.
Incredibly dumb.
Analog support (Score:2, Interesting)
Still not buying one (Score:2)
What about those of us who are cheap? (Score:2)
I, for one, am considering a PDA to work as a simple organizer. Phone numbers, addresses, maybe some information about local take-out and delivery restaurants. Is everyone aiming for the high-end PDA market? When will we see the "Celeron" of PDAs gain more improvements?
Re:Linux would be useless. So would anything else. (Score:2)
Reverse Engineering. (Score:1)
Hence, I disassembled most of the phone's code and reversed engineered a dialer and figured out how to remove the soft grafitti area.
More information is in the http://www.sphi300.com [sphi300.com] developer's board if you're interested.
Whats cool is that my reverse-engineered dialer is in use by some commercial vendors. I received word from Iambic that they found the dialer code helpful in supporting the dialing in Action Names.
I'd love to reverse engieer the Treo, but I don't see myself buying one anytime soon. I like the i300 form factor better and its already color (though the screen isn't as good as some other color palm devices).
Anyone want to send me a freebie? Didn't think so.