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Handhelds Hardware

Handspring Shows Treo 600 Smartphone at CeBIT 193

Posted by timothy from the many-buttons dept.
securitas writes "Handspring unveiled its final product before being acquired by Palm: the Treo 600. It runs Palm OS 5.2 on a Texas Instruments ARM processor with 32MB of RAM, has a 160 x 160 color display, comes in GSM and CDMA versions, includes a digital camera plus various camera applications and supports Good Technology's Goodlink e-mail software, competition to RIM's BlackBerry. Of course it also comes with a keyboard, SMS capability, MP3 player, Web browser and Secure Digital/MMC memory-card expansion slot. Measuring 4.41 inches x 2.26 inches x 0.87 (LxWxD) and weighing about 6 ounces, analysts say that the Treo 600 is what clinched Palm's takeover of Handspring. The only problem that they forsee is a seriously crowded market for PDA/mobile phone combinations. Availability for the Treo 600 is this fall. Images at eWeek, SFGate or Reuters. Streaming movies from Handspring (QuickTime dial-up 56k| QuickTime dsl/cable 300k)." Reader Michael Ducker points out this longer article at TreoCentral as well.
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Handspring Shows Treo 600 Smartphone at CeBIT More

Handspring Shows Treo 600 Smartphone at CeBIT

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  • Getting closer ... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by jmays ( 450770 ) * on Wednesday June 18, 2003 @01:52PM (#6235746)
    I do like the idea of a threaded SMS client (IM style). Looks interesting ... a step in the right direction however, what about Bluetooth? Wi-Fi?

    • Re:Getting closer ... (Score:4, Informative)

      by stickyc ( 38756 ) on Wednesday June 18, 2003 @07:46PM (#6238672) Homepage
      from the article at TreoCentral [treocentral.com]:

      "Handspring did not include Bluetooth into this device, but because of the SDIO slot it is an option in the future. Handspring told us that they are working with 3rd party companies to extend all the powers of the Treo to the Bluetooth card. This includes not only data synchronization like most cards, but the ability to use Bluetooth headsets, or act as a Bluetooth modem for a PC or Mac. Adding a Bluetooth SD card to the Treo 600 family will cost around $100 to $150. The current Palm branded card does not work with OS 5."

  • There goes my lunchbox... (Score:4, Funny)

    by Ebony Run ( 682288 ) <rich@tallman.org> on Wednesday June 18, 2003 @01:52PM (#6235751) Homepage
    I guess I can abandon my Commodore 64 in a lunchbox now.
  • wow..this baby comes with alot should help it stand out a little bit but do people need all of this?

  • What I want: (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Skyshadow ( 508 ) on Wednesday June 18, 2003 @01:54PM (#6235774) Homepage
    I just want a phone that fits easily in the pocket of my jeans (has to coexist with my keys) and, pay attention now, gets good reception.

    End of story.

    • I have a Treo 300 and it gets great reception. Even in basements I make and recieve calls with no problems. I wouldn't expect anything less with the 600.
    • Ease of use would be good too. And if it is not asking too much, I don't want to look like a nerd holding a PDA agaionst my head like an ice pack.

    • Re:What I want: (Score:5, Insightful)

      by deadsaijinx* ( 637410 ) <animemeken@hotmail.com> on Wednesday June 18, 2003 @02:01PM (#6235836) Homepage
      wow, i've had one of those for like 3 years now. it's small, it's simple, it gets good reception. When you go to your provider, they have your standard vanilla mobile phones. This is a story about a crazy ass gadget that you are supposed to drool over and be amazed by all the functions. No one is forcing you to buy a smartphone, so get yourself a normal phone, and for a lot less.
      • Agreed. I went through eight (8!) snazzy Sprint PCS phones, spent into the thousands and they were wiz-bang titanium works of art that I couldn't make a damn call on. What I settled on? Their cheapest, the Audiovox 9155 at $99 simply *blew away* all the others for both sound quality and reception. I bought three of them in case they get discontinued for something that smells better or has some other bizzare feature totally unrelated to being a phone.

    • Re:What I want: (Score:4, Funny)

      by Xerithane ( 13482 ) <xerithane.nerdfarm@org> on Wednesday June 18, 2003 @02:13PM (#6235953) Homepage Journal
      I just want a phone that fits easily in the pocket of my jeans (has to coexist with my keys) and, pay attention now, gets good reception.

      Good for you. This story isn't for you, it's for people who want phones that double as a PDA and messaging system.

      Thank you for letting us know you don't want one though.

    • Everytime there is any story about some new cell phone, someone has to say something along the lines of "How about you just get me better reception?" or "How about one that can get and keep a connection reliably?". Then, of course, that message must be modded up as "Insightful".

      Is there some sort of Slashdot Book of Laws that dictates that these things must happen? Or does everyone just have a short-term memory loss problem?

    • As least here in the USA(TM), in New York City Verizon Wireless is just plain SWEET in regards to reception. And I here from others who travel to other states that Verizon has great coverage everywhere. Combined with the v60i phone and the extended battary, it's a small, simple, phone that will fit in your pocket, and give great battery life and reception.

      My 2 year contract with Verizon is up soon. And when i renew for another 2 years I get $100 off the new phone. And I'm simply choosing another v60i


    • I just want a phone that fits easily in the pocket of my jeans (has to coexist with my keys) and, pay attention now, gets good reception.

      It's called the Motorola StarTAC. Maybe when the Treo 600 comes out I'll sell you mine. (Yeah... right. You can have it when you pry it out of my cold dead hands!)

  • Hmmmm (Score:1)

    by adsl ( 595429 )
    Bummer: No flip phone which I vastly prefer. and Only 160/160 graphics..I thought that Sony's Cleo etc made 320 the standard for Palm based future devices.... Summary Treo is leaving the dorr wide open for Samsung. Close but no cigar....

    • No cigar? You're kidding right? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by WIAKywbfatw ( 307557 ) on Wednesday June 18, 2003 @02:11PM (#6235933) Journal
      This device has a physical keyboard as well as the 160 by 160 display in a friendly form-factor. A 320 by 320 display would have upped the cost and completely changed the form-factor from a phone-like one to a traditional PDA-like one.

      Clearly, this Treo 600 has been designed to woe consumers looking for a phone/PDA/MP3 convergence device that isn't any bigger than a traditional mobile phone.

      Close but no cigar? Hardly - you might not like it, but I'm willing to bet that the market will.

      This is the shape of the future. Watch everyone else jump on the bandwagon and watch these babies fly off the shelves as soon as they ship.
      • Woah man, I don't think you meant woe but woo.

        "Oh woe is me, I've turned into a Grammer Nazi!"
      • Clearly, this Treo 600 has been designed to woe consumers looking for a phone/PDA/MP3 convergence device that isn't any bigger than a traditional mobile phone.

        They've got a long way to go, then. If 4.4" x 2.3" x 0.87" isn't much bigger than your mobile phone, perhaps the 80s will call you and ask for their phone back.

    • I have to concur (Score:5, Interesting)

      by mrlpz ( 605212 ) on Wednesday June 18, 2003 @02:17PM (#6235990)
      You're right....so far....only it's layout impresses me.

      The caveats:

      Display: 160x160 is not only "old school", it's will eventually disappear, as more and more palm apps are writting to the 320x320 that's the standard for newer units.

      Memory: 32Mb. Why manufacturers are still shipping these tiny amounts of memory ( and then taking even some of that away for "scratch space" or "auxiliary application space" in some cases ), is beyond me. The prices of RAM have dropped incredibly, and why on a unit that's listing for $500, 32Mb sounds kinda chincy.

      Processor: Since the article didn't specify WHICH TI ARM processor, I'll make this tentative statement. Shipping a next-gen system with the OMAP processor at 144Mhz is ridiculous. The Samsung will come with a 300Mhz XScale.

      About the one thing that sets it apart feature-wise, is the built-in keyboard. Then again, the keys are so small, that they look like chiclet keys.

      I sure hope that if Palm is going to get into the SmartPhone business directly ( or indirectly through HandSpring ), that they SERIOUSLY look to compete.

      • OMAP vs XScale (Score:4, Informative)

        by HoserHead ( 599 ) on Wednesday June 18, 2003 @02:38PM (#6236204)
        As anybody who has actually used an XScale processor can tell you, it's not all fun and games. Don't let that 300 MHz clock speed fool you, unless you're very carefully optimizing for the XScale (and not any other ARM, including Intel's Strongarm SA-1100) you're going to get shit for performance. This means that not only is your ARM PalmOS 5 not going to be faster on the XScale than the OMAP, it might even be slower.

        Also, you have to consider both price and battery life. The OMAP comes with a DSP built-in, and you simply cannot beat the power usage of TI's chips. So, instead of having a bigger package (because you need two chips, both the CPU and the DSP - XScale's "DSP functionality" isn't enough), lower battery life and higher cost, you get OMAP.


        • true dat. I've done some Pocket PC development for both Strongarm and XScale processors. In our testing, the app compiled for Strongarm rather 2x slower on the 400 MHz XScale processor than on the 206 MHz Strongarm! That's 4x slower per MHz. ouch.

          Intel said you needed to "optimize for XScale". I asked how and they said to use their new XScale compiler. Unfortunately, it was not released yet! I became a beta tester for their XScale compiler. Unfortunately, even with max-speed optimizations, the XScale-only

      • Re:I have to concur (Score:2, Informative)

        by dtldl ( 644451 )

        I own a palm (m500) and would consider buying this phone/pda if the price isnt too high.

        To answer the problems above, have you ever tried to fit a 320/320 screen into a pocket you'd usually put a mobile phone in? The screen is bigger and looks clearer than my current 128/128 colour phone screen.
        If you ever use a palm you'll quickly find that unless you're trying to put videos or mp3s in the memory, then even 8mb is enough I've not managed to fill my m500s 8mb yet even with a full suite of office apps and g
      • Memory: 32Mb

        I think the small memory size is due to the fact that Palm OS footprint does not need as much as WinCE. So memory can be smaller. But with all the features that the crammed into it especially MP3, you'd figure that they would add more memory. I guessing that if Handspring/Palm thinks you need more, you can use the expansion slot.

      • The caveats:

        The reasons:

        Display: 160x160. More pixels equals more power drain. Palm OS apps will run just fine.

        Memory: 32MB. More memory equals more power drain. If you need more the SD slot is available.

        Processor: TI ARM. Faster clock speed equals more power drain. XScale does the P4 trick with clock speed anyway.

        In other words, they designed this device to have a practical balance between performance and battery life, instead of just pushing for the highest numbers they could cram into it.

        TTFN

  • Cnet has a better video (Score:3, Informative)

    by miradu2000 ( 196048 ) * on Wednesday June 18, 2003 @01:56PM (#6235796) Homepage
    I don't have a link, but news.com.com.com (Cnet) has a very nice 7 minute long video that shows the device in full - much better than the Jeff Hawkins Handspring video.

  • I'll bet it doesn't do analog (Score:4, Interesting)

    by mesocyclone ( 80188 ) on Wednesday June 18, 2003 @02:00PM (#6235831) Homepage Journal
    This comment really applies to the US market mostly:

    As a frustrated user of PDA/Phone combos, one thing that is missing from many of these is AMPS (old fashioned US analog service). This means that there are big gaps out in the sticks where no service is available. It also means that it is more difficult to roam with data service, since analog provides a universal carrier for analog cell phone modems while they don't work with digital unless you have digital data service with them.

    I live in Phoenix, AZ. We have plenty of service here, but if I drive in any direction from here for more than 30 miles, I am in nowhere land (except along the interstate highways). I don't want to lose cell service there. Furthermore, during my annual storm chasing vacation in the midwest, the situation is even worse.

    The other Treo's do not have analog service as far as I can tell. This one doesn't have enough info to tell.

    Naturally, this is also a good place to rant about US cellular service provider issues in general. Buy your Treo and you probably have to get it from a service provider. Just taking one to a compatible service provider will, if my experience is any guide, get you the answer that "we only support phones that you buy from us."

    Not "we only support the kind of phones that we sell" but "you have to buy the phone from us or screw you."

    Sigh.

    I am almost ready to give up, buy a little palm that is not a cell phone, and go with the flow and buy stupid little cell phones separately - carrying two around (as opposed to my current Kyocera 6035 Palm/CDMA cell phone).

    • Re:I'll bet it doesn't do analog (Score:5, Informative)

      by Rob Riggs ( 6418 ) on Wednesday June 18, 2003 @02:19PM (#6236010) Homepage Journal
      Buy your Treo and you probably have to get it from a service provider.

      Switch to GSM. You can buy unlocked phones, or, after a few months wait, get your provider to unlock your network-locked phone. You can then switch providers as much as you want -- and keep the same phone. All US GSM is on the same frequency band and use the same technologies. Just pop in a SIM from your new provider and go. Currently, the GSM providers that I know of in the US are T-Mobile (formerly VoiceStream), AT&T and Cingular. I use T-Mobile in the US and in Europe (same phone) and am very happy with the service.

      The real fun begins when number portability goes into affect.

      I would put AMPS on my wish list as well, but it falls well below other requirements, such as battery life, size, international use, etc.

      • If you want AMPS, GSM1900, and TDMA800/1900 in the same phone, you want the Nokia 6340 [nokiausa.com].
        • An interesting alternative, but only 500 contacts, 250 calendar entries, and 30 to-do list entries? Close, but no Cuban cigar.
          • An interesting alternative, but only 500 contacts, 250 calendar entries, and 30 to-do list entries? Close, but no Cuban cigar.

            Really? You try finding a handset that does AMPS, GSM1900, and dualband TDMA. I'll even give you a hint to Google for: GAIT. If someone wants three network types in one phone, they're probably going to have to compromise on the frills, and most people that need such a handset will want the network flexibility more than the fluff.

      • I use T-Mobile in the US and in Europe (same phone) and am very happy with the service.

        T-Mobile (on a Treo 180) works great for me in Europe, but it sucks ass in the States. I can't even get service at my own house (which is in a crowded suburban area, less than a mile from a shopping mall). Meanwhile, my CDMA StarTAC (Verizon) works fine.

        • I don't think that one can extrapolate the service at one's house to the entire US. Most areas in the US I've been in T-Mobile service is great (Denver, Chicago, New Orleans, L.A., Atlanta, Tampa). I've had real problems with service in NYC on one occasion. But my service in the Denver metro area is so much better that what I had with Sprint or Nextel. I was roaming on Sprint half the time, and Nextel would drop calls constantly.

          Reviews of T-Mobile service throughout the US can be found on Usenet [google.com].


          • I don't think that one can extrapolate the service at one's house to the entire US.

            But I don't live in the entire US, do I? I live in my house, you see. So that's where I need T-Mobile to provide good service, and they don't. It doesn't matter if they cover every square inch of the world except my house, does it?

    • Analog networks won't even be around soon, with E911 requirements kicking in. There's no way for them to triangulate the caller's position accurately enough - that requires CDMA or GSM.
      • I would think they could do it with TDOA methods. I know of surveillance systems who use that technique on analogous systems (narrow band FM radio).

        Of course, if analog networks go away, the roaming situation gets even worse! At least AMPS is a universal base-level standard in the US.
    • There are many options for you!

      1. Like you mention, get a sepearate Palm & phone. If you purchase a Tungsten T, and a bluetooth phone (dozens available for GSM, SonyEricsson T608c for Sprint soon), you'll be able to use the internet on the Palm w/o connecting a cable to the phone!

      2. Sony-Ericsson P800 Smartphone. It's bigger than most stand-alone phones you can buy today, but it seems smaller than many of the palm/phone combos you can buy today. It seems like it is not quite as powerful and f
      • I have considered these options.

        Two problems:

        1) I keep a LOT of data in my palm system. In fact, it is my central organizer of data for my life. Hence, lots of memory is needed. Most phones I have looked at hold far less than I need.

        2) Some of that data is quite confidential. I use a Palm aftermarket software (Secret! from http://linkesoft.com/secret/ [I like the software and I the company]). I don't know if I can get equivalent capabilities on non Palm OS's. It sort of like why I run (ugh) Windows as my
    • The Kyocera 7135 does analog.

      This advertisement brought to you by the friendly people at www.kyocerasmartphone.com !
      • Yeah... I know. I have a Kyocera 6035. I am, however, not at all happy with it. It does what I need (let me have my palm and phone in one box) but it has poor integration between the functions. It also crashes a lot.

        And the other thing stopping me from getting the Kyocera 7135 is that my carrier doesn't support it (grrrrrrrrrrr). I would have to switch carriers and lose my one-number automatic switcheroonie feature (when the cell phone is on, a call to my home office goes there; when it is off, the home of
        • You wanna detail the problems you've been having? I had a 6035 too. In fact mine is up for sale right now on ebay: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&cat e gory=38331&item=3029693262

          And it only crashed when the weather was really hot outside. Other than that is was as solid as a rock.

          The 7135 has crashed more often but nothing catastrophic and I chalk it up to young firmware. The 6035 had reports of issues until the firmware was upgraded a few times.

          Also I find the integration to be gr
          • The most common crash is when I start the car with the speakerphone adapter turned on. Now, I know, one shouldn't do that. But a modern device like the 6035 *should* have the ability to tolerate power spikes and brownouts... after all, the darn thing has a battery in it!

            As far as integration, I may just never have learned how to use it well enough. Also, I have a very early 6035. Is the firmware field upgradable?

  • 68k Graffiti 2? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by BlakeStone ( 539519 )
    I can't seem to find any indication of when OS 4.1.2 will be released; now that the Tungsten C, with OS 5.2 and the new Graffiti, is out, you'd think it would be soon. Does anyone know anything more?
  • Does it have a transporter? Really, though, what happened to phones that make calls (and hold them) with good reception?
  • TreoCentral has a lot of detail in their article... Too bad the camera can't take video, but it is cool the integration that Handspring gave with it. Quadband GSM is cool, along with all the other tech details that were said.

    What position does this put Handspring in now, and when will this become something that is not just vaporware?

  • what about an external keyboard (Score:3, Interesting)

    by BikeCommuter ( 180400 ) on Wednesday June 18, 2003 @02:05PM (#6235872) Homepage
    I haven't been able to determine whether or not this unit allows use of an external folding keyboard. The two reasons I haven't bought the 280 is lack of an expansion slot and inability to use the external keyboard. At least one of those problems goes away with the 600.

    With the keyboard, this unit comes very close to my ideal handheld computer. Taking notes in meetings, coding html, reading email and web browsing are what I use the computer for about 90 percent of the time. With this unit I can get rid of my Pocketmail [pocketmail.com] device that I've used to check email remotely for about 4 years. I can also ditch my cell phone.

    I just hope their release date doesn't suffer from oqoitis...
  • and I can't wait to have to site down with the wife to teach her how to use it. seriously, $600 for a glorified phone? I know, I know, it's got palmOS, but honestly, how many of you use it as little more than a toy?
  • For SMS/MMS use: keyboard, not too large, camera, PalmOS organizer. I think it... oh, rats, where is BlueTooth? What, I can't type my SMS and speak at the same time? Fo rg et it.

  • Simpsons??? (Score:5, Funny)

    by H0NGK0NGPH00EY ( 210370 ) on Wednesday June 18, 2003 @02:12PM (#6235938) Homepage
    Crips, did anyone look at how stinking tiny those buttons are? [ziffdavisinternet.com]

    I can hear it now...

    The fingers you have used to dial are too fat. To obtain a special dialing wand, please mash the keypad with the palm of your hand.. now.
  • I think they were going for a record here on number of links. Does cramming the links in there actually make it better? Should I submit a story that's a page long and all links?
    Did they actually break the record? We must know these things. Inquiring minds want to know.

  • Pics of the Treo 600 (Score:1, Redundant)

    by pen ( 7191 )
    There are some pics of the device over at treocentral [treocentral.com].
  • Hopefully this is not some sort of lame web based chat... Ya' know, the kind of thing that those geniouses over at Sprint PCS would cook up.

  • cover those keys people! (Score:4, Interesting)

    by CheechBG ( 247105 ) on Wednesday June 18, 2003 @02:25PM (#6236063) Homepage
    The one thing that i really loathe about these spiffy PDA phones with integrated keyboard is that you have all these buttons WHICH ARE TOTALLY EXPOSED. This means, as big as the unit is already, it's going to get about 1.5 times BIGGER with a leather holster case (I don't do those stupid looking soft leather / see through plastic cases that you clip on to your belt)

    Sharp had an excellent idea with their keyboard cover, even something as simple as Sony's on the SJ-33, hard plastic cover, I can hold the entire PDA in my pants without a case, and not worry about the screen.

  • Bad Compression! (Score:4, Informative)

    by benwaggoner ( 513209 ) <.ben.waggoner. .at. .microsoft.com.> on Wednesday June 18, 2003 @02:28PM (#6236089) Homepage
    Okay, it's off topic, but man does Handspring have bad compressionists!

    The file is encoded with the freeware version of the original Sorenson Video codec, and with the horribly old, bulky IMA audio codec. Video quality is terrible, expecially considering the data rate. I'm always surprised how companies with otherwise good marketing wind up doing terrible quality video. Look how blocky it gets with a transition. If they'd just used Sorenson Video 3.1 Pro with MP3 audio, they could have had a file that would play almost everywhere the current one would, with better quality, and at half the file size.

    Whatever money they saved by having someone do this as their first compression job certainly will be lost in bandwidth charges after having the link posted on Slashdot!

  • Big Glossy Picture here (Score:3, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 18, 2003 @02:28PM (#6236094)
    http://www.palminfocenter.com/ss.asp?f=img_treo600 _large.jpg [palminfocenter.com]

  • Like it! (Score:5, Interesting)

    by syphax ( 189065 ) on Wednesday June 18, 2003 @02:29PM (#6236102) Journal
    Am I the only one who likes this thing?

    I have a hand-me-down Samsung I300, which I really like. The only thing I would change would be to add a keyboard (and do something about the insanely short battery life). I really like having an integrated phone/PDA- I really don't need yet another thingy that needs synching.

    So the Treo looks great to me. Yeah, it doesn't have a lot of memory, and the 160x160 is a little weak, but it looks like a well-balanced compromise between size and functionality (and yes, I have smallish fingers).
  • The phone/PDA combos are bad compromises: too big to carry everywhere, too small a screen to be useful for much of anything.

    If you get a phone and PDA separately, you get more functionality and more flexibility. You can choose a tiny phone and change carriers without changing PDAs. Leave the PDA at home if you want something small. Leave the phone at home when you travel to Siberia. You still get wireless Internet access from your PDA through Bluetooth.

    • Better yet... (Score:3, Insightful)

      by SPYvSPY ( 166790 )
      ...do like me and get both a SonyEricsson P800 and a SE T39m. Then, when you want a PDA/phone, keep your SIM card in the P800 and get a killer Symbian-based PDA (way better than PalmOS, IMO). And if you need to go stealth, drop the SIM card into your tiny, pocket-friendly T39. All your contacts can be synchronized between the two phones via Bluetooth (esp. easy on a Mac).
    • But most of the time I do want to carry both. So why shouldn't I get something that's a all-in-one? The only issue with all-in-one devices are if they are not integrated properly.

      Next time I upgrade my PDA, a PDA/Phone will by my only choice.

  • Contrary to the comment, it is unlikely that this device will support Goodlink upon its release.

    While Good does an excellent job of hyping its product, they have yet to release a client for anything but the Good G100, the RIM 950 and 957. When they do, it will be release for the PalmOS in general, so naturally it would be supported with this device.

    There is no announced release date for this client.

    In fact, it seems just as likely that RIM will release a version of the Treo 600 with BlackBerry servic
  • Here's a link to a brighthand article on the same.

    Interesting:
    - According to this article, handspring will not ship the phone with MP3 software (though, no doubt, third party applications do/will exist)
    - The API for the D-pad in the Treo600 is not the same as the API for the D-pad in other new palm devices.

    http://www.brighthand.com/article/Handspring_Unvei ls_Treo_600 [brighthand.com]
  • Actually, the subject line is an excuse to broaden the subject a bit....

    In the US you usually have to buy your phone from your cellular provider (their attempt to reduce churn). Most won't let you just subscribe an existing phone.

    So... the question comes up, with the Treo and in my case even more general (say... Kyocera 6035/7135).

    Can these phones be hacked to replace a phone that you register? In other words, can I go to XYZ carrier, get one of their dirt cheap little phones, and then hack my fancy orga

  • The most important new feature (Score:3, Interesting)

    by vocaro ( 569257 ) <trevor@vocaro.com> on Wednesday June 18, 2003 @03:05PM (#6236471)
    After several months of using the Treo 180, I always get annoyed when I have to launch new programs. That's because the Treo makes me hold down the Control key before pressing the Home key. With all of the design skills and experience of the Handspring team, I couldn't believe that they made such a common function -- switching to the application launcher -- require two hands.

    Despite its fancy new features, I wasn't even considering upgrading to a Treo 600 until I noticed the dedicated Home key [sfgate.com] on the keyboard. This feature alone, believe it or not, might be the one reason I need to upgrade.

  • Just thought I'd ask here and see if anyone knew if there's an SSHv2 terminal availabe for the Palms/Treos? The only SSH terminal I'm aware of for the Palm is Top Gun SSH [www.ai], which is SSHv1 only.

    That being said, the Treo 600 looks like the best communicator coming in the near future. The only real disappointments are with the low-res screen, lack of built-in BT (although Handspring is committed to getting full BT (data and handset) support via the SDIO slot) and no AMPS fallback (inconvenient if you're st

  • PDA Phone Advantage (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Bronz ( 429622 )
    There is one oft-overlooked advantage to these 'big' PDA phones... the batteries. (Except for the inexplicable negative-charge the original Treo's had.)

    I've been using the Kyocera 6035 for about a year and half. It was $19 after rebates and with a service plan. Make no mistake... This thing is big. It is also tough. And -- the battery is amazing! I charge this thing maybe once week. I think it actually gets better battery life than is advertised.

    Sure, you all take your small, sexy 'portable' phon
  • This phone looks excellant and all... But how much would these wireless internet services run? Would the price be worth it to have the service? What kind of data speeds can be detected and how is development on that type of system in general?

    I am wondering because I would like a portable client to connect to my internal house network where ever I am may be.
  • What I want is a PDA which happens to have a phone in there, not a phone which also has a pda.

    Reason for this is the fact that a phone is a phone, but a PDA has to have a certain size screen to be a real pda (ie usefull as such). A PDA with a phone would be damn handy...a phone with a pda in it is half-hearted and doesn't do the pda part well, whilst a pda with a phone in it will do both fine.

    I have a IIIc. The screen is large and has colours...I can do my reading in true black and white (easy on the eyes
  • And will definately upgrade. The treo is awesome. You can do AIM/SSH/Telnet/VNC/Email and just about anything else all for unlimited internet for 10bucks a month. You can even use it as wireless modem for your laptop which runs flawlessly [sans the Spring disconnect problems].

    The only thing I wish I had was MP3 and the 600 will solve this problem along with a memory card.

    The screen is fine and from what I read, clearer and brighter. Until they make flexible screens, this is as good as it's going to ge

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