World fails to end as Palm ships Treo smartphone with Wi-Fi Palm's smartphone family has finally joined the Wi-Fi era. The company last night introduced the Windows Mobile 6.1-based Treo 800w, which has EV-DO Rev. A 3G on board too. Initially shipping on US carrier Sprint's network, the 800w sports a Centro-like look, complete with a 320 x 320, 65,536-colour screen. Round the back is a …
WiFi after all these years and they put it on the Windows version.
People don't buy a Treo because they want WM, they buy it because it runs PalmOS. This phone is totally irrelevant to the average Treo buyer.
If they come out with a 800p with WiFi and GPS, that will be news.
Palm has been flogging the same antiquated hardware for years. A brand new Treo within the last year with Bluetooth 1.x? Pffft. And skip PalmOS -- it's about as unstable as your crazy aunt.
This particular model may be what turns around my impression of Palm, provided it is stable and they've been able to correct some of the more annoying Bluetooth glitches. For people who don't want a Blackberry but want the form-factor, Treos have been an attractive alternative, and it looks like now there's something to be excited about offering and supporting.
Paris, flogging antiquated hardware.
The Palm Zire had a standard mini-USB port for syncing, too. I was like "heyyy, something STANDARD from Palm??!!"
What happened? The next damn Palm went to yet another different proprietary connection. And the Bluetooth didn't work worth a damn, not even to a keyboard or a headset. And the touch screen died no fewer than 4 times.
Screw 'em. I've got a Nokia N800 now. And guess what? It has a standard mini-USB port that even supports TCP/IP network connections over it, plus Wi-Fi and Bluetooth that actually works.
I'll never buy another Palm product ever again.
Call me a bigot, but I won't buy anything for myself running any type of MS Windows unless I have no option. And I'll think long and hard about it even then.
Roll on the Linux version with a PalmOS frontend and a Dragonball or ARM emulator, but hurry, my 650 is beginning to go west.
As mentioned, this is totally redundant. Want Palm buyers want is a PalmOS phone. My 680 is my heart and soul (but ROW firmware is a must).
I recently asked my mate who also owns a 680 what we would do when they die. Our immediate response was "buy another". PalmOS isn't perfect, neither is Windows, but in my eyes its pros completely eclipse it's cons.
I've had WM4 phones and used WM5 models. For what really matters, PalmOS is the daddy.
OK, so I'm not the first, but my first reaction was "Hmm, looks like a nice combination of features", then I saw it was running Windoze. I'm the lone Palm user at work, all the rest have Windows devices - and seem to be resetting them all the time when they crash.
Oh well, the wait goes on - the Treo 650 will have to do for a bit longer.
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