I'm pondering upgrading from the Treo 650 to the Treo 700p (that's the PalmOS version), just to get the supposedly-way-faster EVDO network, to speed up email and web browsing. Pretty much everything else about the two models is identical (more RAM, higher res camera. Eh.)
Most of the reviews I've seen were written on the day the thing was released, and so are not very in-depth; I haven't seen any that say anything bad about the 700p as compared to the 650. Does that mean I can expect equal-or-lesser levels of flakiness? And how is the Sprint EVDO coverage in San Francisco?
Screw the Treo. The HTC Wizard runs circles around the Treo :p
You must be new here. I will go back to smoke signals before I buy anything that has a Microsoft OS in it.
The Palm OS crashes at the drop of a dime. Windows Mobile is far more stable, and has more developer support than the Palm OS.
I understand why you have a dislike for Microsoft, but it's an emotional reaction to say you would never buy a device due to who makes the OS for the device rather than looking at the device based upon its merits alone.
Look, they killed my company and I hold a personal grudge. I don't care what you think about my reasons, but you're one message from bannination, so I advise you to stop this line of discussion. Or not. Either way works for me.
Bannination is a fine word.
A San Francisco question, from way out east here in Austin: does http://www.workingassets.com get on the radar as a decent wireless company? Like, any reputation for decent coverage, or non-crappy service department, or other worthy mention?
They seem less corporate-evil than most carriers, but I wonder if that's just wishful thinking.
Never heard of them. But that's not surprising, as I just sell beer and don't care even a little bit about such things.
thanks!
Working Assets wireless is just reselling Sprint's service, so you'll have the same coverage that you would with Sprint.
I've been using PalmOS since 1999 or so, and have a Treo 650 today. I really don't see crashes. Once in a while, but not regularly and I've never had any major problems with my IIIx, Visor, Clie, or Treo. In all those years I think I lost data once, but the newer devices, like the Treo, are less sensitive because of the switch to NVRAM. I even use ChatterEmail which keeps my GPRS link nailed up to Exchange at work to give me push email, and runs in the background 24/7. Which is more use than most Treo's get.
I've used Windows Mobile - I test drove the Treo 700p, and we have some new Motorola Qs at work. I find Windows Mobile to be poorly designed and more frustrating to use than PalmOS. The current version is lightyears better than the old WinCE from years past, but it still feels too much like a desktop OS crammed into a handheld and beat into a one-hand interface. PalmOS just works better. I admit the Q is sexy - but the lack of a touch screen bugs me, and the Windows OS just feels too clunky to use regularly.
It isn't religious or a grudge or anything, I do periodically try the Windows devices to see how it is going. And then I go buy the next Palm because the Windows devices are never quite there. I'd probably sooner buy a SymbianOS device. Our CEO is a Nokia 9300 which is kind of nice. (As Director of IT I end up playing with all the new toys as they come in.) Symbian seems to have a better design.
I used to do tech support for data devices on mobile networks and by far the biggest complaints we got were from people who's Palm devices were crashing. They would just reboot themselves at random. It was a horrible job and I am permanently emotionally scarred from being screamed at by pissed off Treo owners.
I currently develop on both platforms, and am even more permanently emotionally scarred by having to live in the RISC Win32 API CE port world where all the documentation anywhere on the web for any keywords I'm trying to search for refers to the Wintel Win32 API, which is mostly the same but always slightly different enough to make me waste weeks on the most trivial matters.
So many HTML form functions just aren't implemented on any WinCE browser, even Opera? Palm's basic browser does more.
The OSs don't intrinsically crash out of the box, but both are vulnerable to misbehaving software, and it's pretty easy to get them both to crash.
As much as I hate to say it.. they were ass. They took way too damn long to get to market, were already underpowered when they did finally make it (Verizon delays or not) and man did those things crash a lot.
My treo 650 on the other hand.. maybe 2 crashes in almost 2 years.
I know people high up above me at work that even got freebie windows based phones and eventually switched back to palm (at their expense) because the windows ones were that bad. That was just last summer.
I have had ...3 7135s. I didn't pay for any of them, and so far I've gotten my money's worth. The 7135 is a bulky, slow, battery-sucking POS. I have been anticipating the 700p as a replacement for six months now. I briefly considered the LG VX9800 because it has a much more finger-friendly keyboard than the Treo, but I'm reluctant to give up PalmOS. I am curious how the 700p will pan out.
How do you even use WindowsCE, or for that matter PalmOS, without a touch screen? I'm not a heavy PDA user, but I can't imagine even trying to navigate one without it. I can see why it bugged you.
Lots of clicks on the 5-way to get to things.
The most frustrating aspect was that a number of things in the UI look like 'buttons' and just beg to be 'clicked on' - and years of using a PDA instinctively make me want to tap them to just get on with it. But no, you have to go down, down, down, down, etc, until the right thing is high lighted. You *can* use a Treo that way, and for some things I do - but often I tap the screen to speed things up.
Think of it this way - use a graphical web browser, but only by using the keyboard shortcuts.
Yikes!
Okay. Glad I read this thread. The Q was starting to look nice, but not without a touch sensitive screen.
Definitely agreed. I was looking at the Q as a new phone for me (I'm starting to look at the PDA/phone market to replace my aging Moto 720). No touch screen? Yikes!
I just set up a Motorola Q today at work for wireless synching with our Exchange server. It has a stylus and a touch screen.
Out of the wireless handhelds, so far I like the Motorola Q the best, setting aside the OS discussion. I thought it was much easier to use thena the Blackberry or Treo keyboard/menu interfaces.
Motorola could have done a PocketPC version of the Q and it would have been much better, IMO. In fact, slim down the HP 6515 and that's pretty much what you've got.
Microsoft PDAs have touch-screens.
The Smartphone flavor of the OS is specifically targetted at one-handed operation, like any other phone. All the apps and menus are designed with that as a high-pri goal.
It's true that some things are still buried too deeply in the menus. It's hard to pack email, calendar, etc. into a phone.
The new Moto Q is a odd duck; it has a QWERTY keypad and huge display, but runs the Smartphone OS. I think a touch-screen would've been great on this device.
Sounds like you never had a Treo 180 or 600. The 650 is definitely better.
The 700p sounds like no big deal - I don't think we have EVDO in London. I'll wait 'till they announce a PalmOS Cobalt based phone.
Nope I went IIIx, Visor Deluce, Clie NZ-90, Treo 650.
I was waiting for the Kyocera 7135 to replace the Visor but my Verizon sales rep kept lying to my face about the date. Always putting me off a week or two, until I get fed up. The NZ-90 was new and I decided to get that, switch to a carrier who supported BlueTooth (at the time Verizon had *0* phones that did - unless you got dongles to hang off the phone), and went that route. After the hi-res screen of the Clie I couldn't bring myself to go back to 160x160 on the Treo 600. The 650 was just what I was looking for though.
I'll wait 'till they announce a PalmOS Cobalt based phone.
You're going to be waiting a long time. Cobalt is dead like General Franco. The best case scenario is that we see some kind of linux-based "PalmOS 7" from Access/PalmSource sometime next year, but I wouldn't hold your breath.
Speaking as the owner of, among other things, an HTC Universal,you jest if you think Windows Mobile 2005 is any more stable than PalmOS.
Honest.
PalmOS at least has the decency to crash and do a warm reset while PocketPC 2005 just sits there spinning its little wheely-disk cursor at you contemptuously for fifteen minutes until the battery runs down. Cooperative multi-tasking my ass.
Maybe Windows users are just well trained to accept the pain, and PalmOS users are aware that software shouldn't suck?
I have owned some model of Palm-based phone for at least 5 years (back when you had to insert the "phone cartridge" into the Handspring Visor.) Do you know how many times they have crashed? 8. (Not counting the dozens of times I have crashed it myself, in learning to write software for it.) The culprits have mostly been games or system hacks, and can be identified and removed. That's a little more often than once a year, so that's gotta be one hell of a ginormous dime.
By contrast, I have a handful of friends who have handheld Windows devices (phones or otherwise.) How often do those crash? Being generous, I'd say about once a week (but it's probably closer to once a day.)
Yes, but emotional decisions are quite powerful. For instance, there are plenty of people out there who will not purchase a [Ford/Toyota/Saturn/insert company] vehicle because of an emotional reaction. Sometimes, it is from a bad experience, sometimes it is because the company did something morally or ethically bad. They then make an informed technical decision based on the products remaining on the playing field. Even though Gilette makes some of the best razors out there, I don't buy from them because they used to test on animals until recently. I don't buy products from Microsoft because they test their products on end users. Fortunately, the market supports alternatives, and I choose those, whether or not they are "the best" all-around solution.
well done sir. :)
Actually, from what I just looked up, it has a lower-res screen (320x240 vs 320x320), it is GRPS/EDGE - no EV-DO or UMTS/HSDPA for high speed, about the same memory - and it runs Windows Mobile. So for the upgrade reasons given, it wouldn't be a god choice.
Well of course it doesn't have EVDO. It's for GSM networks, not CDMA. The updated version of the Wizard (HTC Hermes) has UMTS, and should be available in the states shortly.
That's why I said "EV-DO or UMTS/HSDPA". <lj user="jwz"> is looking at upgrading just for the high speed. So anything that doesn't have high-speed of some stripe today isn't worth upgrading too. The GSM world's equal to EV-DO is really HSDPA (and then HSUPA). The initial UMTS is generally noricably slower than EV-DO deployments.
I'm a GSM person myself - I ditched Verizon years ago when they were dragging their feet on getting phones that did BlueTooth as well as picking up any (then) newer smartphones like the Kyocera 7135. I jumped to AT&T Wireless, and stuck with them through the change to Cingular. If an HSDPA Treo 700p is released I may upgrade, but I'll see what pricing is. I may just wait for the 750/800/whatever and give the network more time to grow. Part of me would like to see CDMA die out just to have another format war over with. And it is slowly fading - Nokia just said they're getting out of CDMA, and CDMA phone sales worldwide have been falling while GSM is growing.
The Kyocera 7135 was a nightmare. I think there may have even been a class action lawsuit about that one. It got so bad that Verizon would actually upgare someone to a Treo or WinCE device for no cost if you called in with problems on the 7135.
upgrade not upgare
Although this is no help to jwz, I'll just point out that there is a EVDO version of the HTC Wizard. Verizon sell it under their own name; the Verizon Wireless XV6700. This is the CDMA version of the Wizard. Sprint have the PPC6700. Anyway, jwz won't buy a Windows OS phone, so it's all irrelevant :-)
"Actually, from what I just looked up, it has a lower-res screen (320x240 vs 320x320), it is GRPS/EDGE - no EV-DO or UMTS/HSDPA for high speed, about the same memory - and it runs Windows Mobile."
Hello? You're quoting the failed 700w's specs!. 700w - the w stands for Windows Mobile (WinMob).
JWZ actually referred to the 700p wich runs PalmOS and has the same high-res screen as the 650!
FC
Hello yourself. Did you follow the link? Those were NOT the specs for the 700w, they're the specs for the HTC Wizard which was suggested by the commentor I was replying too. If you know the specs it is obvious, since the 700w is 240x240 - not 320x240, it is CDMA, and it does have EV-DO.
Palm Infocenter has a more in-depth review
It is mostly positive, with some knocks for the keyboard changes - like moving the menu button to the lower right, making it harder to use.
There is no way that you won't notice the larger memory. You can also get a FAT32 4GB SD card, in case you need a local copy of wikipedia or somthing. Plus there's audiovisual recording, which works great. The SD data trasfer rate must be a lot faster, too.
I am up too late at night.
I read that as "there's audiovisceral recording.." and went "whoa!!"
Per a friend's recommendation, I finally upgraded my 650's firmware last night since I'd done the double backup fuckup last attempt (and because it now works from Macs, not requiring Windows), and I must say it's zippier and I haven't had to reboot it yet, whereas prior was ~2-3 times per day.
If you don't have 1.20, check it out.
Mine's actually been 100% stable since I uninstalled Verichat, so I'm gonna go with "if it ain't broke don't fix it". (Unless I get faster uplink out of the deal, that is.)
And since the new Missing Sync has a "delete photos from phone after copying to computer" option, I never even have to hit the SD card either. As long as I delete my downloaded mail every couple of days, everything fits in RAM.
Did you find a suitable VeriChat replacement? I toyed with the likes of Chatopus, which was all right, but the Jabber/AIM/ICQ gateways were a bit spotty, as was support for them, so for the meantime I'm stuck with Verichat.
I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE the 700p. I told myself I was going to wait until the next big release of Palm OS (that's the only downside to upgrading, IMO -- it's almost entirely a hardware refresh), but I didn't last long. I'm in the Chicago area, so I can't speak for EVDO coverage where you are, but there is a definite difference. Obviously there's only so much you can expect out of this handheld, but as a techno-geek would-rather-buy-gadgets-than-eat kind of dude, I'm pleased with the expensive (and admittedly completely un-necessary) upgrade.
Of course this time around I got hit with damn near the full retail price. There's a trade-in program running by Palm right now where you get like $50 or $100 back if you send them your 650...
I just don't use AIM from the phone any more, I use SMS instead. This has turned out to not be a problem at all.
If someone AIMs to "jwzphone", I get a text message (via AOL's AIM-to-SMS gateway feature) but I think that's only ever gotten used, like, twice. (This is not an invitation for "ha ha third post" messages, please.)
lol... i'm sorry you'd have to issue that type of warning.
eh, with sprint I have no text messaging plan, so I guess I'll stick with Verichat, but keep that in mind if my more annoying and importance-inflated friends keep running my bill up ten cents at a time with their useless messages.
Dude, a Treo without unlimited text messaging is like a Mac without a mouse. I don't think I've made a voice call in more than a month, I use text almost exclusively.
So ... I know I'm tempting fate here ... but ...
You're basically saying that it's not that you want to upgrade your phone, but that you want to upgrade your Portable Telegraph Device?
Ha ha, that totally made it worthwhile to read past all the microsoft-girl-shilling posts.
I want to upgrade my Portable Wireless Global Computer Network Terminal, but yeah, basically. My Portable Wireless Telegraph Device works fine, and I don't use the Portable Tele-Phone.
I would buy an IP-only portable device in a minute if any carriers actually wanted to sell that.
The Ogo was such a thing... too bad it's mostly just faded away. Seems that most people didn't want that.
But wait, isn't that what a blackberry is? Except that now they added the phone.
If the Treo were available without voice, I'd buy one right now! But alas, I'm looking to do the same upgrade jwz is doing, but this time I get to buy the phone instead of having it provided by my employer.
The 1.20 unlocked roms are what I am using, and they have been completely stable.
I've been using a phone w/ EVDO in SF without any problems - the coverage pretty much extends for the whole bay area.
Tethering the laptop to EVDO is a good thing to use on the public transit, as well (if your using SprintPCS it counts as regular minutes)
I concur, the Sprint EV-DO network on my Samsung A900 is pretty good when tethered to my Powerbook via bluetooth. I'd probably get even more speed if I used the USB cable. Latency isn't too bad either, perhaps 100ms. Good for IRC on the go.
I can't comment on specifics as I just got my 700p last week, but I'm pretty pleased with it. EVDO is pretty damn speedy. I downloaded a 200k ringtone in less than one or two seconds. And the camera is nice, and actually pretty decent for a phone cam.
I'm stuck on EDGE with t-mobile, but my cowroker got a verizon 700p a few weeks ago.
I held the phones up next to each other and the menu button looks obnoxious. The rest is probably fine.
He lives in SF and hasn't complained about the speed, and he's IRC'ed all the way down to SJC on 280, so the coverage must be okay. I don't even get coverage all the way up or down 280. The speed is pretty killer.
I've had mine for about a week and a half now, and so far I don't have any complaints. The UI is very responsive, no crashes, and EVDO is smokin' fast compared to 1xRTT.
Using the phone as a modem via bluetooth is pretty slick too; on average the speeds are probably around 25-30k/sec, with bursts upwards of 50k. (Portland area)
(wow... a zillion comments and only the last page were by someone with an actual 700p as the original post requested!)
I have had a 700p for a few weeks and I like it. I can't compare it to the 600 ot 650 because I didn't have them. However, I haven't had any crashes except when I was running someone's pre-alpha code. The EVDO is good and I've seen some apps that take advantage of it.
Most of the apps are in ROM, so the free RAM you have is significantly more than with the 650.
I use Verizonwireless, so I can't help you with the coverage question directly. However, I use it in the NJ and NY trains as a modem for my laptop and it works pretty good. I get cut off if I do any kind of bandwidth test (like, opening 15 web pages in tabs all at once). I think that may be Verizon trying to defeat people from using it for VOIP.
I have the unlimited data plan and rarely use SMS.
i have a 650 and i'm pretty happy about the "unlimited data for $15/month" thing. in fact its why i switched from verizon to sprint. i've been thinking of upgrading to the 700p also, for the EVDO and the better camera.
what i've heard so far is that if you plan to use data straight from the 700p (chatter, blazer, etc.) that you still get unlimited data for the cost of power vision (is it still $15/month?) but if you do bluetooth DUN or USB tethered data (i never got this to work with my powerbook, has anyone?) it will cost you more per month... is this correct?
I just signed up for a 700p through sprint's Employee referral offer. Google for 700p SERO, and you'll see lots of forum-talk about it. The plan ends at the end of this month, I think.
You go to http://sprint.com/sero, and you enter a sprint employee email address, (of your 'friend' - all sales droids are my 'friend'). If you don't know a sprint sales droid, it's okay - just go to a store and they will be more than happy to give you a business card. All enrollments for SERO have to be over the web, so it's not even worth talking to the droid about it. They don't need to do anything, you just need the email address.
It doesn't save you money on the phone, but it got me a 500-minute plan with unlimited data for $30/mon, whereas it would normally be $60/mon. And I didn't have to talk to any sales droids.
Didn't get the phone yet, it's backordered, but it seems like none of the bay area stores have it either - they are getting 'one or two a week'.
I've had my 700p for almost three weeks now, having upgraded from one of the original Handspring Treo 600s. The EVDO speed increase is truly fantastic, and on Sprint, the cheapest Power Vision plan is $15, which is a bargain compared to other carriers. (The more expensive plans give you truly pathetic TV-like experiences. These are free for the first month, and the offerings will make you laugh.) EVDO coverage seems excellent, but then I mostly lurk in the eastern bits of the City and the nearer reaches of Oakland and Berkeley.
The device has only needed to be reset by me once in the three weeks I've had it -- and that was due to some flaky third-party software. I never had a 650 myself, but a couple of friends do, and it already seems that my device is more stable than theirs. I guess I'm saying I'd heartily recommend the upgrade. Hope this helps.
I used to have a Sprint wireless PC card (not a Treo) though.Coverage in SF was fine.
What was *not* good about Sprint's service was latency. I saw ping times of 500ms on the good days, and over 1000ms on the bad ones. Forget using ssh -- typing on the command line i..s.. l..i..k..e.. t..h..i..s..
By comparison, Verizon's wireless coverage is wonderful. Always < 200ms latency and higher bandwidth, too.
I have a Treo 650 and got my wife a Tungsten TX. She didn't need the phone or the keyboard, and the bigger screen is great for watching tv shows. What's curious is occasionally I use it for web browsing (pop out that bluetooth keyboard), and the web browser itself is not that much faster than the treo and loading and displaying pages. And that's with a 11Mbit connection (wifi).
If you're going to link your phone up to a laptop, then evdo will probably be great. For looking things up on the handset, you're still going to be wishing for tabbed browsing and firefox while you stare at the screen.
I know you hate stuff like this. But what do you expect when you ask the internet a question?
Get a sidekick 3.
Hi jwz,
I share your views with regards to the Evil Empire of Redmondia.
I'd rater switch back to a 800 Mhz analog cell phone rather than touch WinMob (aka Windows Mobile).
The Treo 700p combines the best aspects of the succesful Treo 650 (high-res screen, PalmOS Garnet aka 5.4.9), with the best hardware aspects of the failed Treo 700w running WinMob (EVDO high speed data, 1+MP digital camera), sans the ugly Windows OS.
Here are some of my articles for you to peruse...
How Palm Inc.'s CEO shot himself in the foot
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=27591
NOV 10, 2005
NY Times and WSJ blast Windows-powered Treo 700w
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=28776
JAN 6, 2006
Treo 700p: Palm in PalmOS comeback, claim
Like a 650 and 700w put into a blender, WinMob-free
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=29519
PalmOS revived with Treo 700p release
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=31706
MAY 15, 2006
And finally, here's the PalmOS smartphone that's a hidden gem but which I've purchased a few weeks ago and I'm currently in love with: the Xplore M98 from Hong Kong company GroupSense PDA (GSPDA).
It's being sold in the USA by Amazon.com and retailer MobilePlanet.
For $250 I can't complain: Micro-SD slot for SD card (I'm using it with a 1GB Sandisk micro-sd card holding all my favourite MP3 files). Best features:
1. Clamshell format (sorry, I hate the treo's "Candybar" design. If it isn't a flip-phone, I don't like it).
2. 1.3 MP digital camera. It made me drop my Samsung digicam from the holder pouch. Now, I only have to take my cellphone with me and I already have a good quality digicam for the average "on the spot" street pics.
3. Plays back mp3s.
4. "Picture Caller ID". It has a display in the back, so you can see who's calling when the phone is closed.
5. Latest PalmOS Garnet (5.4.9) runs thousands of PalmOS color apps.
6. IR port for seamless "beaming"
7. Can recharge itself when plugged to a PC's USB port.
8. Two batteries included in the box. Nice!
9. Mail and Wap browser included. You can install an html browser like Blazer, or third party email apps as well.
10. Records movies
11. Supports MMS
12. Voice recorder mode
13. Great selection of PalmOS games included
14. Did I mention it looks cool?. For some reason, the orange version I bought costs $250, while the white or silver versions run arund $320. But hey, I can live with a cool orange metallic looking phone.
The bad:
1.Printed manual in chinese. It includes a CD with the english language manual, in PDF format. (It should be noted that all the software is in english).
2. It's GSM, not CDMA, this could piss off some people but it's of not effect for me, since I live down in South America and down here (like in Europe) GSM rules and CDMA is being phased out.
See pictures here:
http://the13thfloor.org/xplore/
^there are pictures I collected from the Net before actually buying my unit
And find the phone for sale in Amazon.com, over here:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?link_code=ur2&tag=showitem06-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&path=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fgp%2Foffer-listing%2FB000FNEIKK%2F
Hope this helps.
A guy from Atlanta, USA contacted me saying he's using the GSM Xplore M98 with no problem whatsoever in the T-Mobile network, which apparently is the only carrier with a nationwide GSM network.
One tip if you end up buying the Xplore M98: I spent a couple days trying to figure why the pics came out blurred... it turns out the unit ships with a piece of protective plastic on top of the lens that must be REMOVED to allow it to focus!.
Hope this helps. Kudos from down under.
FC
PS: I lost my VHS tape of Code Rush. Isn't anything you can do to have the movie out on DVD?. Sheesh!
Oh did I mention it manages to play back mp3s in the background while you continue using other PalmOS software?. It can even play back mp3s in the background (and quite loud I must say, even without using the headphones) while you use the phone in "camera mode".
Oh yes, I think it's the best $250 I've spent lately...
FC