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Handhelds Hardware

Examining the Treo 650 Smartphone 212

Posted by michael from the sort-of-fits-in-your-pocket dept.
aws910 writes "Many sites are reporting on the upcoming PalmOne Treo 650. According to MobileMag, 'The 650 will have a 1.3MP digital camera, bluetooth, higher resolution screen, backlight keyboard and voice recording. The processor will be a speedy 312MHz with 32MB of RAM, and of course an SD memory slot for expandable storage. No timeframe or price is known.' Some of the forums at other sites are reporting around 2 months as the timeframe for release. A good summary of the new device can be found here. More gossip can be found on the forum here." Gizmodo and Endgadget have pictures as well.
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Examining the Treo 650 Smartphone More

Examining the Treo 650 Smartphone

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  • Sexy! (Score:5, Interesting)

    by ghettoboy22 ( 723339 ) * <scott.a.johnson@gmail.com> on Friday August 27, 2004 @12:57PM (#10090189) Homepage
    Of course all it needs now is the obligatory built-in Wifi and you'll be set. EvDO provider support would be a major boon as well. I think Palm should also look at a design with the camera in the front (hello mobile video conferencing!!!!!).

    Anyone remember the Smartphones from Earth Final Conflict?!

    • Re:Sexy! (Score:2, Interesting)

      by DarthBart ( 640519 )
      If you do built in Wi-Fi, I want it to be able to switch between placing calls out my voip circuit when I'm at home and out PCS when I'm not.

    • Re:Sexy! (Score:4, Funny)

      by Kenja ( 541830 ) on Friday August 27, 2004 @01:35PM (#10090571)
      Taking candid shots down the blouse of the woman next to you on the train is, unfortunately, a larger market demographic then video phones.

    • Re:Sexy! (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Buran ( 150348 )
      I've been wondering if it'll work with those new SD WiFi cards.

  • Should have expected this (Score:4, Funny)

    by DarthBart ( 640519 ) on Friday August 27, 2004 @12:57PM (#10090190)
    I just bought a Treo 600.
    • Don't worry about it, it does pretty much everything you want already except the blue tooth, but if you wait long enough there will probably be an sd expantion for it.

      There is software available that will let you record video and sound with the exsisting camera... It's called Movie Record, google for it.
      • Everything except voice activated dialing, having the phone ring in your 'ear' when using a headset (wtf is up with *that*?), and oh voice memo recording?

        Yes I did have fun stumping a Sprint Store employee who was sure it did all of this, and yes there are probably 3rd party apps for this, but older phones (Kyocera 6035) had ALL of that functionality built in. The lack of ringing in the earpiece is probably the most aggregious omission though.


        • and oh voice memo recording?

          Well the Sprint Treo 600 with the 1.20 update will do this just fine (I've got one.).

          They all had the hardware, but until the latest update, the API was not there. From what I've heard they delayed the development to get it out the door.

          What pisses me off is that it could do the other two things (voice activated dialing and ring in headset) if they would just produce another update.

          BWP

    • Re:Should have expected this (Score:4, Funny)

      by identity0 ( 77976 ) on Friday August 27, 2004 @02:17PM (#10090963) Journal
      Quick, buy a new iBook so they come out with a better model!

  • Phone as a PDA acessory (Score:5, Funny)

    by erotic_pie ( 796522 ) on Friday August 27, 2004 @12:58PM (#10090197) Homepage
    How long will it be beofre phones are touted as add ons to PDA's instead of PDA fuctions on a phone
    • How long will it be before we have the technology to pare all of the inefficiencies away and miniaturize to the point that we just have a clean, simple, powerful phone so small that it fits in your pocket, and none of us will have to carry around the extra bulk or learn to use all this other stuff ever again?!

      Oh, wait...
      • See, now, you're way wide of the mark.
        Once the integration of the PDA and the cel phone is complete, (the camera is so problematic in a lot of workplaces, I would never buy anything with a CCD embedded), and the MP3 player is everywhere, we'll need new functionality to drive upgrades.
        The next upgrade driver will be the keyboard and, (?) video system, as the portable gadget starts to target the ultra-portable market...
        Fear.
    • It already is. At least, mine is. I bought the Treo 600 because it was a Palm based PDA with great battery life and features, and even better, it can connect to the Internet from anywhere a cell phone can (basically).
    • That's how the Treo started... and my VisorPhone Prism is the example. Handspring started this all with the Springboard expansion which always was intended (hence the built in microphone) to be used as a phone. I still use my VisorPhone, but I'd like to get a Treo one of these days... or just wait for the Motorola A780, which looks like it'll be very cool too.
      -N

  • Yes that's nice but ... (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    does it tell time? and can it run Linux ?

  • So let me get this straight- (Score:3, Insightful)

    by IWantMoreSpamPlease ( 571972 ) on Friday August 27, 2004 @12:58PM (#10090208) Homepage Journal
    All these goodies (supposedly) on it, but no price or timeframe is known.... ...so now /. is a speculation site?

  • Competitive Analysis (Score:5, Informative)

    by daviddennis ( 10926 ) * <david@amazing.com> on Friday August 27, 2004 @12:59PM (#10090209) Homepage
    Okay, fans, how does this compare to the T-Mobile Sidekick or RIM Blackberry?

    I've had a Sidekick for some time, and the snap-out keyboard is a next to ideal form factor for Internet and email use, since it lets you type things with surprising speed on a screen that's actually a usable size.

    My impression is that both the Treo and Blackberry have much smaller keyboards and displays, so they'd be a lot harder to type on. Because of that, I think the Sidekick is nearly ideal, and the just-introduced Sidekick II (available in roughly the same timeframe as this Treo) matches or beats most of the features I'm reading about.

    Are there any phones out that would let you connect your laptop through WiFi? THAT would be a cool feature since you wouldn't have to worry about tiresome wires or even drivers on the laptop side.

    Thoughts?

    D

    • Re:Competitive Analysis (Score:4, Informative)

      by foxtrot ( 14140 ) on Friday August 27, 2004 @01:08PM (#10090313)
      I currently carry a 'blueberry'-- the RIM 7280. The keyboard's not that bad until you try to use the thing as your UNIX terminal and have to type characters like ~ and |. (It's still better than nothing).

      I find the 7280 makes a neat toy, a passable handheld, and a lousy phone. On the other hand, some of my cow-orkers have Treo 600s and have had what seems to be an overly large number of hardware issues. Otherwise they seem to like them.

      I like the idea of the Treo 650, and may switch when it comes out. The RIM 7280 really needs a bigger screen with more resolution.

      -JDF

      • Re:Competitive Analysis (Score:3, Informative)

        by Tal0n ( 695067 )
        What kind of hardware issues? I use (and develop for ) at Treo 600 regularly, and while I don't particularily like the device itself (ugly screen, terrible keyboard, phone a bit annoying to use), overall it's not a bad device. In the past I did have some connectivity and stabiliy issues, but the latest ROM update seemed to fix most of the problems. If your cow-workers haven't done upgraded the ROM, the might try that. It's nice to see that palm is trying to address the major week points of this device....
    • You can buy a piece of 3rd part software called pdanet - lets you have the IP stack on your laptop via the USB cable - works good - using it on a Treo 600 daily.

      Works great in those lame places that try to charge for WiFi access heh.


    • I don't know much about the Blackberry, but the Sidekick family has much less power than the Treo line. Even the Sidekick II's built-in camera is only VGA resolution, there's no Bluetooth, screen resolution is only 240x160, and almost no third-party software available for it at the moment. The CPU is I believe a 25MHz ARM model, not enough juice to even do MP3 playback. No removable storage unless you count swapping SIM cards.

      Where the Sidekick does excel is usability -- I've tried thumbing in some text
    • I had a sidekick for a year, and then a treo. I like the treo better, but it's a toss-up. Sidekick's interface is better, but it lacks sync, 4-network IM, good reception, hardware reliability, and 3rd-party applications.

      The treo has a slower browser, smaller keyboard, and difficulty multitasking (although I can get IMs while doing other things).

      Both are good. If you don't need sync and are fine with T-mobile's coverage in your area, as well as the occasional RMA (I needed 4 sidekicks in six months), th
      • You've caught the really bad problem with the Sidekick: Reception is horrible.

        I'm not sure if it's T-Mobile or the Sidekick itself. Do you have insights on that? I live in Los Angeles and service is very sporadic.

        I'm wondering if the SideKick II would improve things.

        D
        • Both suck. T-mobile's national coverage map looks like an incomplete highway map-- no coverage out of cities or off the largest roads. To top that off, the sidekick had radio problems for a long time, which makes the already-bad T-mobile coverage even worse. I don't know if they've fixed the hardware, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

    • Re:Competitive Analysis (Score:5, Informative)

      by zephiros ( 214088 ) on Friday August 27, 2004 @01:50PM (#10090710)
      I can't speak for the Blackberry or Sidekick, but I own a Treo 600, and am fairly pleased with it. Once you add enough software, it's a pretty complete device. After ferreting out the right apps, I now can:
      • Send/receive mail using POP3S/SMTP-TLS, via SnapperMail [snappermail.com].
      • SSH via Mocha Pocket Telnet [mochasoft.dk].
      • Play MP3s stored on my SD card, via pTunes [pocket-tunes.com].
      • Use it as a wireless modem for my laptop, via PdaNet [junefabrics.com].
      • Play various time-wasters from PopCap [popcap.com].
      PdaNet in particular is killer if you have a laptop handy, but no internet access. I get about 144k down via Sprint PCS, which isn't screaming, but it's adequate for browsing and downloading small files.

    • Re:Competitive Analysis (Score:2, Insightful)

      by xqcom ( 786610 )
      Okay, fans, how does this compare to the T-Mobile Sidekick or RIM Blackberry?

      My company just switched over all us to the the
      Blackberry 7750 [blackberry.com] on the Verizon network.

      The BB is an awesome device for email / calendar / contacts, but it totally totally sucks as a phone. Its lacking features that are present in even the most basic phones today. Some examples

      (a) I cannot have a custom ring-tone for a specific number. So now everytime my phone rings, I need to actually look at the phone in order to figure out

  • Old and Grumpy (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Doesn't_Comment_Code ( 692510 ) on Friday August 27, 2004 @12:59PM (#10090214)
    I feel like I'm getting really old, and I'm only in my 20s. This little palm thing, or pda (or whatever the kids are calling them these days) has way more power than my first computer.

    I remember playing games on my Apple IIgs. Man was that baby sweet! And I remember when I got a 300MHz computer and everyone thought that was the greatest thing ever! Wow, do you think they'll ever make a 400MHz cpu? Can you even imagine how fast that would be?

    • Re:Old and Grumpy (Score:5, Funny)

      by savagedome ( 742194 ) on Friday August 27, 2004 @01:03PM (#10090262)
      We need nostalgic mod points

      *tears in eyes*
    • I feel like I'm getting really old, and I'm only in my 20s.

      ... remembering playing moonlander on a Telefunken TR440 [vaxman.de] mainframe via remote teleprinter [teleprinter.net].

      Call me anabiotic.

      CC.
    • IIGS? N00b! Apple ][+ forever! ;)
      • ][E baby... Dual 5 1/4s, 80-column text card, the original color imagewriter, 300 baud Apple modem, and even an Apple mouse! After all this time the thing I'm the most impressed with is the monitor. I forget the model but it was the first I ever saw with a tilt screen. Let me word that differently. Tilt CRT. Literally. Push a button and the freakin' tube rotated in the chassis! That thing was awesome.
    • Are you sure you are in your 20s and played with an Apple ][gs. The Apple ][gs came out in about 1980.
      Which is about 23 years ago. About the time you were born.
    • Damn, you're right, I remember when Gigahertz procs first came out, and I remember thinking, "We'll never be short of processing power again".

      Whatever happened to the days of getting 3 fps in Doom on my 386/16 with 8 megs of RAM, and being totally blown away by it? Now I can get a whopping 3 fps in Doom 3 on my AthlonXP 2600+ with 512 megs, and it totally rocks my world.

      Things have changed so much since those days.

  • All very good but.... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by leathered ( 780018 ) on Friday August 27, 2004 @01:01PM (#10090236)
    ..will it survive a 40 degree cotton program with fast spin?

    Sadly no phone I've owned has passed the test.
      1. niche detected
      2. get ready for entrepreneurship
      3. profit
      CC.
    • I assume this is a clothes washing/drying reference.

      If so, my Kyocera 5135 [kyocera-wireless.com] passes that test.

      It went through the washer and dryer two weeks after I first got it. I was certain it was ruined, but pulled the battery out and let it air dry overnight. Next morning I plugged it in to charge and it worked. Still works fine a year later.
    • more to the point, I hope the screen is a lot stronger than the one on my dead zire 71... It's got an ugly craze mark where a pencil sharpener fell on it (corner first) and now the beast's dead and requires a ridiculous amount of money for a new screen. What we need now is high rez screens that are less fragile
      • I dropped a tuba (don't laugh!) on my Nokia 6120 many years ago. The LCD broke into many pieces. Fortunately I paid $2.95/month for the HW replacement on the phone. Well worth it. Another after that bit the dust. Then I was water new grass one day at a landscaping job I had; the phone got slightly wet (I mean very little water touched the damned thing). The phone went bonker immediately. Apparently I got a small amount of water on the data/headset connectors on the bottom of the phone. It was absolu
    • My Motorola T720 went through the washing machine about 8 months ago. Came out in three pieces (main body, back panel, battery). I disassembled it and air dried it. It is working at 95% of pre-wash capability. The only thing that doesn't work as well as it used to is that I have to talk louder than I used to for people to hear me.

  • Please reference true source! (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 27, 2004 @01:01PM (#10090239)
    This information and the photos were originally published on TreoCentral.com by WeeBitObessed.

    All these other site copied it, and none cited the source inline (MobileMag's source link does go to TC, but not the thread).

    Although this is AC, please mod up, as people should know where things are sourced in fair manner instead of passing themselves off as the source.

  • Optional accessories (Score:3, Funny)

    by FlimFlamboyant ( 804293 ) on Friday August 27, 2004 @01:01PM (#10090243) Homepage
    ... A 15 pound backpack, carrying a 12V battery that will allow you to use all of these wonderful features for more than 15 minutes at a time!

  • Good, but... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by StevenHenderson ( 806391 ) <stevehenderson@NOspam.gmail.com> on Friday August 27, 2004 @01:04PM (#10090273)
    Finally, a high-res color screen. This will make wireless web surfing bearable. On a low-res screen it was basically worthless.

    However, the inclusion of a camera continues to be a deterrant to some corporate customers. No matter how much I like this, I cannot have a camera or photo equipment in my office, so I could never get one. I'd imagine in this age of security, I am not the only one. I guess we'll have to wait for the non-cam model just like they did with the 600. Why don't they have a Treo 650-NC for ~$50 cheaper right off the bat?

    • Re:Good, but... (Score:3, Interesting)

      by ghettoboy22 ( 723339 ) *
      You can't have the camera in your office at ALL? My corporation has a no-camera ban as well however it also comes with a caviat that if the camera is included in another device (Cell phone, PDA) you're fine as long as you don't use the camera. Are you working in a high-security installiation?
      • there is currently a "No Camera" version of the TREO 600 available from some providers. Hopefully they will do the same for the 650. I for one am sick of camera phones.

        • Re:Good, but... (Score:4, Interesting)

          by gamgee5273 ( 410326 ) * on Friday August 27, 2004 @03:23PM (#10091478) Journal
          I will say one thing about camera phones:

          When you and your wife are rear-ended in a four-car collision on the interstate because the driver of a Jaguar wasn't paying attention the camera becomes VERY useful at that point.

          Before that happened, I agreed with you. Now that it happened, I think every phone should have a camera.

          • Are digital images even admissible in court?
            Are not the 2 other cars involved in collision witnesses thereby making the camera's worth nil?
            I do not understand.

            Are you ok? Collisions on interstates are scary things.
    • I don't know about other providers, but Sprint offers the current treo without a camera.

      http://www.wirelessmoment.com/2004/06/sprint_off er s_t.html

    • I've had my Palm Tungsten W for almost a year. It has the same resolution and colour depth as this one. Its slow processor means that it take longer to render web pages to download them.

      I suspect that the performance may to due to software because I remember my 386 33Mhz doing better then this Palm does, but the web may have been simpler back then.

    • Why don't they have a Treo 650-NC for ~$50 cheaper right off the bat?

      If they do offer one, they should charge as much as for one with a camera?

      Why? Most folks will pay the cost of teh camera phoe, but some subset will want one but can't have a camera. So for them, the choice is no Treo or a camera less one - and since they would buy one with a camera if teh could use it at work, they should be willing to pay the same amount for one without so they can have a Treo.

      If they charge less, not only will the
    • I belive the Article [treonauts.com] mentioned:

      Non-camera SKU available at launch

      see this feature list [typepad.com]
      • Yes, but such was also the plan for the 600, I had heard somewhere. It will be interesting to see if they learned from their blunder. As you see from the article, the specs on the camera are all conjecture at this point so who knows what will happen.

  • camera (Score:3, Insightful)

    by advocate_one ( 662832 ) on Friday August 27, 2004 @01:07PM (#10090302)
    rules it out for me... and very likely a heck of a lot of other corporate users, my conditions of work do not permit cameras.

    rather amusing that, as the camera will very likely make it a very usefull tool for a lot of other business users. But with bluetooth, surely there shouldn't be any need for a built in camera... just get hold of a bluetooth enabled one or else make use of the SD card slot to transfer pictures with.

  • I take it all back! (Score:5, Funny)

    by chadwbennett ( 808873 ) on Friday August 27, 2004 @01:11PM (#10090337) Homepage
    I previously said that it was about time that someone sells the whole shabang but I was wrong. This doesnt have it all.
    The whole shabang
    a cellphone with these features
    -has a digital camera (atleast 3 megapixels)
    -works as a pda
    -bluetooth
    -20 Gig hardrive (minimum) for music and other stuff
    -and wipes my booty (not required)

    this is my ultimate one, It is pretty much an IPOD made into a phone/pda/camera/toiletpaper :) If anyone has seen this one tell me about it and I will buy it.

    It's for real [wired.com]. I normally don't go for these things but...Free ipods (click here to get yours) [freeipods.com] .

    • Re:I take it all back! (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Lumpy ( 12016 ) on Friday August 27, 2004 @01:21PM (#10090453) Homepage
      -has a digital camera (atleast 3 megapixels)

      I dont care if it has a 100 megapixel camera in it. if it does not have good glass lenses and OPTICAL ZOOM it will still suck.

      i have yet to find any camera phone that can take a photo anywhere as good as my 4 year old Canon A20 2 megapixel digital camera. Most 3 megapixel cameras cant touch it.

      also a 20 gig hard drive is pretty dumb idea. make it a solid state drive to survive daily torture a phone get's. ipod's are very delicately handled compared to how phones are handled.

      If they make the device correctly with bluetooth then your bluetooth storage drive in your pocket full of music, photos and the last episode of friends that you simply love to watch over and over again on your train ride into work every morning?? THAT is a great device.

      but having a phone that will access a General pourpose storage device and play open media formats?? are you nuts??

      Cellphone companies love their "special" formats and the fact you have to use phone minutes to send your photos. (very few phones will store to a sd card)

      let's get a phone that is designed WITHOUT any of the cellular companies having their fingers in it.

  • But will it work with Linux? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by HRbnjR ( 12398 ) <chris@hubick.com> on Friday August 27, 2004 @01:11PM (#10090339) Homepage
    I just bought a Kyocera 7135 [kyocera-wireless.com] because it has recently been made to work with Linux [mail-archive.com]. Though there are still some rough edges [gnome.org] with gnome-pilot syncing (with Evolution), I easily got it working with J-Pilot [jpilot.org]. I like the 7135 because it's a more 'phone like' phone - rather than a PDA with a microphone and antennae :P

    The good thing with the Treo is that it's CPU should allow for Vorbis decoding, whereas the 7135 relies on it's built in DSP for the cycles, which only supports MP3.

    • Re:But will it work with Linux? (Score:4, Informative)

      by csnydermvpsoft ( 596111 ) on Friday August 27, 2004 @01:26PM (#10090503)
      I have a Treo 600. pTunes, which costs $30, has a plugin for Vorbis decoding. The Treo also works with Linux, both for syncing and for using as a modem.
  • This reeks of advertising to me. This thing isn't even out yet, and while it seems to have cool features, you can't buy it so what's the point? Lets see a review when the thing finally comes out, not marketing driven "gossip".

  • Don't buy it for the camera! (Score:4, Informative)

    by gbulmash ( 688770 ) * <semi_famousNO@SPAMyahoo.com> on Friday August 27, 2004 @01:18PM (#10090411) Homepage Journal
    I haven't examined the camera on the 650, but I have a 600 and the camera on that is a piece of junk. Impossible to get good pics indoors, and only so-so in sunlight. If you're buying this phone for the camera, rethink your choice. If you're buying it for all the palm apps, color screen, PDA, phone integration, mobile e-mail, etc, then if the camera works consider it a nice bonus.

    My favorite app is PDANet (separate application you can buy at junefabrics.com [junefabrics.com]), which turns it into a cellular modem for your laptop via the hotsync cable. LOVE *that*!

  • The original source is TreoCentral.com (Score:3, Informative)

    by miradu2000 ( 196048 ) on Friday August 27, 2004 @01:19PM (#10090431) Homepage
    The original source for the images, was a user who posted them on TreoCentral.com. All linked sites above reference TreoCentral.com as the orginal source.

    They were first posted here: Discuss.TreoCentral.com [treocentral.com]

    TreoCentral also was the first site with reliable information about the Treo ACE - most specifications came from an article that they had posted in July, but was quickly pulled. A mirror of that original expose can be found here. [blogspot.com]
  • The 600 only came out in what? February? That's when I got mine.

    I certainly hope they offer some sort of trade-in. It's nice that they're making advances and coming out with new models, but to obsolete a new model after only a few months is pretty shitty, especially considering the price tag on the 600.

  • Treo 600 vs. Treo 650 (Score:5, Informative)

    by sampson7 ( 536545 ) on Friday August 27, 2004 @01:24PM (#10090478)
    I've had my Treo 600 for about 8 months now... and I love it.

    My two complaints: the low resolution screen is fine, but doesn't give that "wow" factor I want in a $500 toy. The second complaint is that the camera (which I use far more than I ever imagined I would), quite frankly, sucks.

    Other really minor complaint - there's no real backlighting or Bluetooth.

    During the same time period I've also had access to an Audiovox PPC4100 and a very similar phone from Erikson (I think it was - really, it's the same as the PPC4100, just slightly older). The Treo 600 blows both of them away at every level.

    A number of people mentioned battery length - I think the battery length of the 600 is awesome. I often take three day weekends and use the phone extensively - both for games, appointment tracking and phone calling - I charge it up at work on Friday and it holds a charge until I get back to work on Tuesday just fine. Another day would be pushing it, but heavy use over a long 3 day weekend? That's fine for me. I can't imagine Palm1 would release a phone with a shorter battery length - even with the new features.

    So, they are taking a phone I love, fixing my two 'major' issues (in quotes because I consider those problems really minor), and fixing my two 'minor' issues as well..... Where do I sign up? Will it truly be worth the $$$ to upgrade? Well, honestly, probably not. But then, how do you put a price on love?

    PS - for the record, I have no financial or other stake in Palm1 - I just like the product.
    • In my experience, the Treo 600 battery life is great until you start doing heavy GPRS (GSM data network) use. I have recently been spending long days away from my desk and have had to resort to extensive Treo use. If I check my email every 20 minutes, even if I disconnect immediately from GPRS manually right afterwards, and I do some modest web browsing (including a bit of /. lite surfing), I find my battery to be at less than 20% by the end of the day. In fact, each checking of my email and disconnectin
  • I like the Treo, but let's hope the higher-megapixel camera is also higher-quality. More pixels of the world's WORST phone/pda-based camera ever created doesn't mean much.

  • Examine Phone (Score:5, Funny)

    by teamhasnoi ( 554944 ) <teamhasnoi@yahoo. c o m> on Friday August 27, 2004 @01:41PM (#10090611) Journal
    You look closely at the phone, and see it is a pinnacle of techology. This phone has a camera, a color screen, and lots of buttons. The screen is pulsing with an unholy light. You can definitely see a midlevel executive or overachieving soccer mom driving poorly while holding this.

    >Push Buttons

    You randomly push some buttons on the phone. Other than some beeps and a battery icon appearing, this has no effect.

    >Throw phone at marketing overlords

    The phone hits the marketing overlords with a satisfying thump. The marketing overlords, who were busy adding new buzzword features to the next model, fall to the floor and cry. Between the sobs, you can hear their promises to sell a phone that just makes calls, and uses fuel cells to last for weeks on end.

    Congratulations! You've won the game!

    Play again? Y/N

    >N

  • And you can fuck it and be done with all forms of interpersonal human contact altogether.

  • Beware (Score:3, Interesting)

    by hey! ( 33014 ) on Friday August 27, 2004 @03:33PM (#10091539) Homepage Journal
    Palm (now PalmOne) has had one of the best advance replacement systems for broken hardware I've ever dealth with.

    Unfortunately, it is not available for their phones, because the carriers (like Sprint) like to sell service plans -- very expensive hardware service plans. PalmOne will not service any broken phones, but instead will refer you to the carrier. Our experience is the carrier will refuse to fix a broken phone (e.g. with a cracked screen) unless you have the hardware service plan.

    Since accidents are pretty common with these things (they're your phone AND your PDA), this makes getting the hardware service plan almost mandatory. You need to add that to the price of the phone/pda when you buy it.

    Don't get me wrong, I love my Treo600, but I've been lucky so far; other guys in my company haven't. Now that I know this problem, I'd probably opt for a separate phone and PDA linked by bluetooth.
    • Sprint has just changed its Product Replacement plan. You used to be able to take your phone to a Sprint store nationwide and get a replacement, tho refurbished. I just received a mailer from some insurance company that has taken over the plan, has introduced a deductible, and promises to replace your unit with a refurbished unit within 90 days (!) if you fill out a bunch of forms (that make rebate claims seem simple). I cancelled my Sprint Product Replacement non-plan.
  • Maybe I'm a trolling here... but I don't see that many improvements to the 600.

    The keyboard is STILL too small. I've tried typing on the 600, and my fingers just do not fit on the board. Attempting to type one key will usually end up typing two to three. And I don't have fat fingers. In addition, I found the keys to be hard and uncomfortable. Rubberised keys like on the Kyocera 2235 would be more friendly to type on with less resistance.

    No analog backup. Sorry, but in the US there's still massive s
  • I prefer to have a phone, a PDA and a digital camera. I can get exactly what I want out of each without needing to compromise.

    Or am I just missing the point that it's "cool" to have all of these items in one device?

    LK

  • Like the treo, hate the keyboard (Score:3, Informative)

    by fastdecade ( 179638 ) on Friday August 27, 2004 @04:11PM (#10091851)
    I hate to be one of those "if only it had X" posters, but I feel strongly here ...

    I wish they'd bring out models without keypad, especially if they're going hi-res. I know you can use newpen or whatever, but it's almost pointless on such a small screen.

    The P900 form factor is much better for many users - it only takes an hour or two to learn jot/graffiti after all, is that really worth sacrificing all that screen space. The original handspring units did have a stylus-only option, maybe it wasn't popular, but the P800/P900 success shows there's a big market.

    So please sony or someone bring out a PalmOS phone with big screen instead of useless keypad that's too small for the adult male users who are your primary target!
    • NO WAY! The keyboard is one of the biggest advantages of going with Treo vs. the P900. I should know because I have a Treo 600 and had to decide between the two.

      You know how inconvenient it is to always have to whip out the stylus? My friend has a P800 and he looks like an absoulte geek every time he tries to do anything. Plus it's such a hassle to take the stylus out, make sure it doesn't fall, and have to use both hands to operate the thing for every little task.

  • Treo 600 bugs, hassles (Score:3, Informative)

    by mbstone ( 457308 ) on Friday August 27, 2004 @05:10PM (#10092309)
    The Treo 600 is awesome and the envy of others around you when it works. But mine has not been without problems:

    1. If you have a PalmOS 4.x app floating around your palm directory (like from my old kyocera 6035) you will totally break PalmOS 5.x when you hotsync. Took me forever to figure this one out, and Sprint support is no help. It is not immediately obvious what the incompatible apps are, and there is no known automated way of cleaning up your Treo.

    2. My Treo 600 is still somehow corrupted and is subject to occasional frustrating hangs and crashes. There are about 10-20 pixels that are permanently bright yellow, and the location of the pixels changes from day to day. I have given up trying to fix this and I have to reset the phone 1-2x/day.

    3. I lost a bunch of camera photos on the SD card when attempting to copy to/from the phone's internal memory, the SD card files are corrupted and the photos don't display. The hotsync transfers only the phone-memory photos to your PC.

    4. Airline rules for the use of the PDA inflight are inconsistent. I thought I had won this battle [slashdot.org] with the help of Slashdot readers. American Airlines has changed its policy and now prints sane PDA rules in the back of the magazine, to wit, you can use your Treo's PDA features if you are able to show the FA the displayed message, "Wireless Mode Off." However, other airlines have divergent policies:

    America West -- Treo use not allowed even with Wireless Mode Off. Strictly enforced.

    JetBlue -- Ditto.

    Southwest -- Magazine has incomprehensible, ambiguous rules that forbid "transmitting." Permission to use Treo depends on schmoozing individual FAs.
    • The pic of the Treo 650 has a display that says "Phone Off", presumably in lieu of "Wireless Mode Off". I predict that 1) the new message will be less convincing to flight attendants; and 2) PalmOne won't go to bat for its users as against the airline pinheads.

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