Comments on: The Treo 700w is Here!

By: Stephen H. Johnson

Stephen H. Johnson — Wed, 11 Jan 2006 20:41:17 +0000

Wow, no Blackberry users? For shame! lol.

I am a proud 7290 owner, but the 8700c is here! Just waiting for a little more price slippage.

By: Dub Dublin

Dub Dublin — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 18:53:26 +0000

La Shawn: Apparently the Treo 700W has more than a few warts, most of them just MS dain bramage: The NY Times review of the Treo 700W is fairly scathing. I've been a Palm user for enough years to know that some of these shortcomings would drive anyone batty. Palm generally does a pretty decent job with the handheld side of their software - it's the Palm Desktop app that really needs some help, especially with devices like the Treo. (Why, oh, why, in 2006, can't I just drag an MP3 file onto the Palm Desktop and have it figure out where to copy it at the next HotSync so that RealPlayer can find it? That's NOT hard!)

By: March Hare

March Hare — Mon, 09 Jan 2006 20:52:43 +0000

I have an old Handspring Visor that runs Palm OS 3.1H3. While I love new gadgets, I also tend not to replace things that are still useful and meet my needs. (Heck, I’m still using my Win98 ‘puter with Outlook 98!) DD#1 uses her cell phone (Samsung clamshell model) as a PDA.

My PDA is for personal use, however. I would probably upgrade if I used it for business. But for keeping lists of phone numbers and calendar dates for the family–and synchronizing those dates on Hubs’ Outlook, my Outlook at work, and my Outlook at home–my old Handspring works just fine!

By: RepJ

RepJ — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 22:37:01 +0000

I don’t have any use for a PDA. My new cell phone has a lot of functions that I use. It has my calling numbers and such. As a private music teacher, a PDA just isn’t very useful. Plus, my new camera makes videos and records sound if I ever want to do that.

Hmm… if you are just looking to make a blog that is smaller, you could always just use tables. Maybe take out the side columns and then use tables to make it a certain width, that sort of thing. Sounds too easy.

However, I am happy for you La Shawn! New expensive gadgets are the best.

By: Ian

Ian — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 21:10:59 +0000

WP Plugin: http://www.alexking.org/blog/2004/08/02/wp-mobile-16/

By: Mwalimu Daudi

Mwalimu Daudi — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 18:44:08 +0000

Good luck with your Treo 700W La Shawn! I have no idea what the thing is of course. To me cell phones are at best a necessary evil, and at at worst just plain evil. Pen and datebook is my PDA.

By: Patrick Lacson

Patrick Lacson — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 08:51:43 +0000

I have a Palm Vx — I use it as paperweight for my index cards. In the past it served me well as my organizer and addressbook. I ran one app on it by Olivetree called BibleReader using the NAS w/ strong’s numbers. That was my killer app at the time.

By: Dub Dublin

Dub Dublin — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 05:34:08 +0000

La Shawn: Could you tell us about the setup you use to manage/edit/etc. your blog from your Treo? I’m thinking of setting up something like this and would like to hear what works (and what doesn’t…)

I finally bought a Treo 650 a couple of months ago (my trusty and previously bulletproof Kyocera 6135 didn’t survive a 2-story fall), and I love the new capabilities, although in some ways the Treo is more awkwardly integrated than the Kyocera, and I miss its week-long battery life.

The Treos are really a great deal if you add up what you’d spend to buy even a mediocre phone, PDA, tiny “everywhere-camera”, mp3 player, game platform (you would *love* PopCap’s BookWorm) and, (with a little bit of software) a voice recorder.

My big complaint isn’t so much with the Palm software environment, which is really pretty nice – I prefer it to Microsoft, especially as a longtime Palm user unwilling to give up some killer apps, and except that Palm still declines to make Palm Desktop a powertool app with standard interfaces and hooks into other programs – why they didn’t do serious Mozilla/Firefox/TBird integration years ago is beyond me. The biggest problem is the fact that like all of its competitors today, it’s only a marginally useful network device – it takes too long to connect (why even “connect” in today’s bitstream world – if you’ve got bars, send bits!), the email is fairly limited, and the browser is a sad joke. Even so, I find that having even a bad web browser in my pocket is pretty handy.

All I really want is a good network (low latency is way more important than bandwidth), and a pocket-sized IP device with a VOIP phone app and a real browser. (A decent camera and audio hardware is nice, too.) Like many people now, I do most of my work through a browser anyway, so why don’t these mobilie device guys “get with it” and build something that really works with the only infrastructure that matters anymore – the web and IP? If I can get to real webmail, I don’t even need a half-crippled PDA mail program anyway…

To manage the blog, I just log in to it from the admin screen just like I do on a larger computer. I had to get used to the small screen, though. – Admin

By: Lisa M

Lisa M — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 04:34:48 +0000

I have the Treo 650 and love it. I tried working with the Windows Mobile based Smart Phones. However, despite being an avid user of outlook, I found the program way too clunky and not friendly enough without the stylus. So, I stuck with the 650 and Palm OS, which is so simply elegant. It’s stable and does what I want efficiently. I’m a one woman business, so I don’t suffer the usual enterprise difficulties.

I have cool programs added to my Palm – some for functionality, and some for fun. First off, I discovered Beyond Contacts last year and adore the program. It syncs more data with Outlook and takes the role of Palm’s Contact, Calendar, etc.

Second, I use a program called Silverscreen. It’s basically my favorite launcher that is stable and works wonderfully for me.

Lastly, I use a program called PDANet. It allows me to use my phone as my modem (I’m on an unlimited data plan) anyplace I have my laptop but no wi-fi. The speeds are somewhere between DSL and Dial-up and there’s no additional charge to me. It works like a charm.

There – my long winded Treo diatribe will now conclude.

By: Stephen Oliver

Stephen Oliver — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 01:56:25 +0000

I’ve been digging my Samsung Sch-i730 PocketPC Phone Edition. I can surf the Web, get my work e-mail over the air, take phone calls AND control my Sony DVD and television.
The lame thing about it, though, is that you can’t surf the Web and take phone calls at the same time.

By: Mark La Roi

Mark La Roi — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 01:39:23 +0000

At least I’ve given up my abacus! A big concern for me is my carelessness/theft. With all access at one point, I envision one industrious thief getting it all in one swoop. I know that sounds paranoid, but I’ll bet that people it has actually happened to thought it would be paranoid too. I don’t do bill paying online and my PDA (actually it would probably be considered a predecessor) stays in my- well, stays in a safe place.

I watch people with their tech stuff and it just seems that the more you have, the more has you. I used to upgrade my studio equipment the moment anything new came out just to be sure I was keeping current, then I realized that I didn’t need to because until something new came out, I was just basically tweaking what I already had.

It’s like a conversation I had last with with an audio engineer. No matter how far we’ve come with recording, there is absolutely nothing that reproduces sound as richly and truly as a properly set reel-to-reel recorder. CD, minidisc and so on are far easier to use and offer a very adequate sound, but reel to reel sounds better. (I just have a hard time putting a reel to reel in my pocket!)

Really, I’m not against this stuff to the point of dissuading (or attempting to) others, I just don’t see myself using them. (There are about a dozen things my cell phone can do that I haven’t accessed so laziness could be a roadblock too.)

Amish RULE, man…

By: 74

74 — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 00:48:21 +0000

I use my Treo 600 very heavily. T-Mobile service. Phone quality is pretty good. I use the Hblogger software for blogging with it and it works pretty well. I can embed images in the posting and upload them from the built-in camera, or photos taken with my digicam and transferred to the Treo on an SD card. I also have an infrared external keyboard I can use. I’ve used it several times for liveblogging an event.

By: Aakash

Aakash — Thu, 05 Jan 2006 23:28:37 +0000

I used to be ahead of the curve with regard to these things, but now I feel like I’m falling farther and farther behind.

So much innovation… so little time…

By: Rudy

Rudy — Thu, 05 Jan 2006 20:09:28 +0000

I had a Treo 600. It broke. I went to a t-mobile store to buy a new one. They said they don’t carry Treos anymore, something about t-mobile and handspring bickering. I need a phone today, I said. What you got? Then the young salesman whipped a gadget out of his pocket, flicked open the screen, and said, “What about this?” It was a SideKick II. It’s got a bigger keyboard than a Treo. My fat fingers can type easily on it. I can make blog posts, and surf the web with great screen resolution, something the Treo 600 didn’t have. The camera is average. I can’t transfer contacts between my Powerbook and the SideKick. But it’s a keeper. And IMHO, preferable to a Treo. I’ve got one now.

By: Mr Bob

Mr Bob — Thu, 05 Jan 2006 18:58:23 +0000

Finally Palm is getting away from PALM software. As an IT professional I hate it. It always is a pain to get working well in an enterprise environment where Windows, and Blackberry devices are a snap.