20 matchs for treo+600:
Every time I get fed up with still having a crappy phone from the 18th century and prepare to hold my nose and just buy something better, even though nothing perfect is out right now, I will run across some rumor about a perfect phone that is about to be released. And thus the wait continues. It's really been a long time now since the Treo 600 died.
But wait I must, because some day one of these rumors is going to come true. Like maybe this one: Treo 800p out on March 15?
Current features in the 800p will include 128MB RAM, a WiFi option, SD card, BT 2, EVDO of course, enhanced 320x320 screen, slimmer form factor and antenna, will use the same accessories as the 650, 3.2 MP camera.Shazam. That is the one. Nice nice nice. Praying this is true. And hopefully they don't mean 3/15/2007!
I have been eagerly awaiting the debut of the Treo 650 cellphone. It has been officially announced, but isn't on sale yet. The big disappointment with the specs is that the camera did not increase in resolution. It's still just a VGA (about 1/3 of a megapixel.) When I first heard this I thought it was a deal breaker and I started to look for other possible phones (more on that later,) but now I am not so sure. It may turn out that the sheer number of pixels the camera can resolve is not the only factor.
Palm (who makes the Treo,) said they had planned to include a 1+ megapixel sensor, but could not find one that operated well in low light conditions. As the owner of a Treo 600, I can say that this was that cameras greatest failing. It is basically useless when not in bright sunlight. So Palm stuck with the VGA sensor, but they say it is different, and that the second generation VGA sensors, combined with a new lens, and new software, make for a better camera than the first generation 1 megapixel sensors that are out now.
Here are some side by side comparisons of pictures from the 600 and 650. It really does seem much improved. And the 650 shoots very small videos as well.
Now I am back to undecided. Certainly seems very usable.
Treocentral has collected over $3500 from it's readers to offer as a reward to the first person who writes a driver to make a bluetooth SD card work on the Treo 600.
This is interesting. I can't imagine that it is possible, or someone would have done it already. But at the same time, I can't imagine how it could be impossible. Truly a mystery. But if anything can get to the bottom of it, it's cash money.
I was sitting outside two days ago drinking a coffee and waiting for a friend. A young lady sat down next to me. And then a moment later a very confused looking family ("you're not from around here, are you?") dragging lots of luggage stopped in front of us asking if we knew where the 4 points Sheraton Hotel was located. I just shook my head, but the woman next to me offered to call and find out. Who says New Yorkers aren't helpful?
Anyway, she calls information, gets connected, but the number is busy. At this point I'm still doubtful, but I click to the browser on my Treo 600, point it at google, and go. About 10 seconds later I have the address (luckily I got the address right on the google results page without having to click through.) And I got it *before* she was able to get her voice call through!
After they left she looked at my phone and asked, "Is that the Treo? Mine is on order, but it's taking forever to get here."
:-)
Interesting beta app for the Treo 600 (download link in first post) which gives you lots more control over the camera (can increase the factor set quality level from 65 to 99) plus it sort of deals with the low light blue dot problem. With a small amount of testing I can say that the pictures do look a little better.
My Treo 600 has been out geeked. Okay, this isn't a phone, so it's not really a fair comparison. But Sharp's new Zaurus SL-6000L is the new definitive high end wireless (802.11b) PDA for people who get excited by remote terminal session and reg ex. Slide out thumbboard. Big screen. Runs linux. Case closed.
Well, assuming you can drop $699 on a PDA and you don't mind getting laughed at by all the cool kids with their iPods...
I've mentioned these before, but here's a picture of a virtual laser keyboard projected from a prototype Siemens phone.
I'm a little skeptical, but willing to give anything a shot. The keyboard problem is an increasingly problematic one as our devices shrink well past the size where you can include a real keyboard on the device. (I guess the Treo 600 form factor is about as small as you can go with a "real" keyboard - and it's even a little too small.) (via engadget)
Very early stage software that allows (sort of, so far) the Treo 600 to record video clips. Woohoo.
Download. TreoCentral discussion.
Sandisk's explanation of delays in development of SD slot 802.11b expansion cards for Palm devices. Apparently they will ship in the first quarter of '04. But it's unclear to me if it will work in the Treo 600:
The company blamed delays in the Palm 5.x drivers for the SD Wi-Fi card on proprietary changes to the OS that product makers can introduce (SanDisk will have to make device specific changes); electrical issues on some devices that couldn't handle the SD Wi-Fi card (the Treo 600 is mentioned specifically); and the legal issues with developing for Palm OS mentioned above.
WiFi Blackberry in the works. Supposedly you will be able to roam between cellular and 802.11x WiFi networks. And make voice over IP (VOIP) calls when connected to the internet. They don't give dates, but do say "not before the spring."
802.11x wireless networking is the only thing missing from the Treo 600. (Well, okay, I'd take a 2 megapixel camera and a higher resolution screen.) We are definitely getting there. Next year is going to be fun.
PIctures from my new Treo 600 moved to inside the comment thread...
Just got my Treo 600. It's charging now. I tried to make this post using it but it ate two consecutive attempts because I kept pressing a wrong key. I'll have to unlearn and relearn a lot of keyboard muscle memory. What I know as the comma key now means, apparently, go back to the main menu and don't bother remembering the current content of this textarea posting box.
This thing is significantly more sophisticated than my last mobile device. I think it lacks a bit of design elegance that the hiptop had (both in terms of the device itself, and the software interface,) but it more than compensates, as far as I'm concerned, by being much more like a small computer than like a phone. I can SSH into my server from it! Wow wow wow wow wow. It's not perfect, but you can see it from here.
Many more, possibly too many more, comments to come.
I am going absolutely crazy not being able to buy a Treo 600. Can someone clue me in as to how I can obtain one. Obviously some people are getting them. Yet the guy at the Sprint store in Manhattan told me their store had only gotten 2 units for sale!
Kevin Werbach's positive comments after two days with a Treo 600.
There is a very large lack of information coming out of Sprint concerning the availability of the Treo 600. It's not in stores, but may be available for ordering (or not depending on who you talk to at Sprint.) It shouldn't be this hard. Either it's out or it's not out. Right?
I *am* trying to be patient.
I've been doing more research on cellular data plans. A friend bought the Sony Ericsson T616 for the AT&T network, and the plans are very confusing. And expensive. The phone, which I've mentioned before, is beautiful. The camera is okay, but not quite as good as hoped. I still recommend looking at this phone (for non text use especially,) but I simply can't recommend AT&T for mobile data usage.
Sprint seems like the way to go for data. T-Mobile, which I have been using, is okay too. At least they have an all you can eat flat rate like Sprint. But Sprint has much faster data speeds. And a much larger coverage area.
The downside is that Sprint uses CDMA, not GSM, so there is no chance of taking your Sprint phone outside the country and having it work (well, maybe Iraq, but don't get me started on that boondoogle.) But the reality is that you wouldn't want to roam in Europe with your U.S. based GSM phone plan anyway because the rates would be orders of magnitude higher than just picking up a pre paid GSM phone while you are over there and tossing it when you are done.
The other interesting thing I've learned is that incoming phone calls don't come through when your phone is sending or receiving data. This explains why so many calls go right into my voice mail without ringing. I can't believe I never realized why this was happening. But this seems true across carriers and technology, so what are you going to do?
Email is the other big differentiator. It can be either push or pull. The blackberry and the hiptop (which is the T-Mobile sidekick) both have push email. This means you don't check for new messages, they are automatically pushed right to your device which notifies you *immediately* when a new message has arrived. Pull email is like what you have on your computer. You have to check and see if there is something new. Sure, software lets you set up automatic checking (polling,) so maybe you don't actually have to check yourself, but it is still pull, there is still a polling interval, and on some mobile services the minimum time between polls is quite large. Obviously push is what you want.
But none of the phone carriers have this (again, excepting the blackberry and hiptop, which are phones, but have their roots in the two-way market.) As I understand it some people have gotten around this by using SMS as a new email notification system, but I'm a little fuzzy on the details of such a set up (seems like it might work though.) This is definitely an area I will be investigating, as I have gotten quite spoiled by the excellent email on the sidekick.
In any case, I think I am going with Sprint. Rumors are putting the Handspring Treo 600 on sale in NYC on either the 5th, 6th, or 7th of October. Here's a flash demo by the European carrier Orange (so it shows the GSM version of the Treo 600 which is almost identical to the CDMA version I want.) It is an almost perfect device for me.
Biggest complaint? No bluetooth. It does have an SD expansion slot, and there are SD bluetooth cards - but it's a Palm OS 5 device, and there are no drivers for bluetooth SD cards for OS 5! I had thought this was just a matter of time, but apparently Palm has said they have no plans to develop the drivers. Opinions differ on how difficult it would be to write the drivers, but it seems clear, at least, that it's not particularly easy. Hagiwara says they are developing such drivers, but apparently they have been saying this for some time without showing anything. Charges of vaporware are rather strong (you'd be surprised how passionate people are about such things.) So possibly the Treo 600 will never have bluetooth.
Why would I want bluetooth? (Bluetooth is a short range, low power, wireless technology.) For one thing it means that my contacts (and calendar, etc...) are always synced between my phone and my computer. And this syncing happens in the background whenever my phone is in range of my computer. I don't have to put it in a cradle. I don't even have to take the phone out of my bag or pocket. That's pretty cool. But it gets even better. Because I run Mac OS X, a bluetooth wireless device can completely control any program (well, any applescriptable program, but that's basically every program.) So my phone, camera, PDA, mobile email device also becomes an uber remote for my computer. And since my computer is at the heart of my audio/video setup, this is quite cool. In fact, a remote is about the only thing I was missing.
But back to the complaints - I'd also like the camera to be higher resolution. It does take 640 x 480 pictures, which is as good as it gets right now in the U.S. camera phone market, but I know that 1 megapixel camera phones are right around the corner. Still, these pictures will be good for the web, and you can't really do better at the moment. I guess the question is how long does a moment last? Into the first quarter of next year I'd say. At least.
The WSJ's Walt Mossberg loves the Treo 600.
The Handspring Treo 600 (previous mentions,) which is probably my next phone / pda / camera combo device, goes on sale through Orange in Europe next week. This is sooner than I expected. No word on when it will hit these shores, but you'd think it wouldn't be too much longer. Right? Right?
Sony-Ericsson P800 vs. Danger HipTop. I too thought the P800 was much bigger. It's actually a very nice size. Seems like a great device, but I'm stubbornly attached to the thumb keyboard for text entry so this one is out for me. But as a straight phone (and PDA, and camera, and web browser, and email reader) the P800 is the best you can do right now. Very cool device.
The P800 vs. Treo 600 will be a better fight. Although by the time the Treo hits the P800 may be replaced by the slightly sexier (or so it seems) P810. So no matter what you buy you'll be out of date quickly. But that's a good thing.
Convergence. That's the dream. I only want to carry one computer device, so it has to do everything. The perfect product does not yet exist, but we are quickly closing in on it.
I've had the T-Mobile Sidekick (which is the rebranded Danger Hiptop) since it's introduction on October 1, 2002. I have been wildly happy with this device. It is a mobile phone, with a qwerty thumb board for entering text. It does email, AOL instant messenger, and basic web surfing. For me email is king, and I use it constantly. It also comes with a plug in camera attachment, but the photos are so small as to be basically unusable.
A new color (screen) version has just come out. And with a much better camera, although it sill lags seriously behind other camera phones on the market.
I might upgrade to the new version, but I think I will probably end up with the soon to be released Handspring Treo 600 instead. I liked the original Treo (pictured for comparison on that page,) but it was just a little too big. The 600 solves that problem. It has the thumb board which I like (over stylus entry like a palm pilot, or like the Sony Ericsson P800 uber phone.) I guess this is personal, but I've got to have the keyboard. And it has a built in camera which will hopefully have decent resolution.
But this is still just an approximation at best. But getting closer. Hopefully it will be out by October first.