PalmOne Treo 600 and 650s or other voice/data devices

Mr. Fed · Post by **Mr. Fed** » Fri Nov 05, 2004 2:38 pm

Inasmuch as nerve stapling is still not available, my firm is doing the next best thing, phasing out data-only email/pda devices (like my current GoodLink, a BlackBerry clone) and moving towards integrated phone/data devices. The firm will pay for the monthly email cost through Good and I would pick up the phone and internet charges, and they'd give me a $350 credit (the value of the current devices) if I wanted to buy a compatible phone/data device and move up.

I like the look of the soon to be released PalmOne Treo 650 (http://web.palmone.com/products/smartph ... ndex.jhtml). The 600 has gotten good reviews. I could also get a PocketPC phone, which is also compatible.

Has anyone had any experience with any of these toys, and can you give any recommendations?

gellar · Post by **gellar** » Fri Nov 05, 2004 2:42 pm

The majority of the folks in my office use Treos. They've all been pretty happy with them, and I've actually not heard a lot of complaints other than Sprint's generally shitty service. They're not that good at pulling down email though, from what I've heard. Certainly not as good as a Blackberry. My boss runs a similar device, but it's a flip-phone made by Samsung. If I was ever forced to care more about my email than I already do, I'd try to swing one of those since it's so small.

That being said, if I ever cared to receive email on a wireless, the Blackberry is far more reliable and user friendly than a Treo.

gellar

Austin · Post by **Austin** » Fri Nov 05, 2004 2:51 pm

Our IT guy we contract in here just got a Treo about a month ago. He loves it.
I know our IT guy in Canada wants one but hasn't learned the ethic of buy it and apologize for it later. No, he foolishly sought out permission first. Stupid newb.

qp · Post by qp » Fri Nov 05, 2004 2:58 pm

Yeah well if I don't have one they can't bother me with email 24/7 can they?

edit: Oh yeah, with Goodlink and our Exchange 2003 server the thing just works, it's actually quite frickin' amazing (especially since we are using a carrier that isn't officially supported yet - Bell CDMA - we installed things as Sprint CDMA I think, and to our great surprise the emails and contacts etc started pouring in)

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Fri Nov 05, 2004 3:43 pm

I have a Treo (350? 450?). Sprint internet sucks. I discontinued it. It simply wasn't worth the cash. It was slow and unrelaible and FUBAR by all the javascripting and that is common to most pages nowadays. As time goes by I am also wishing I would have gotten an M$ OS. I am pretty unimpressed with the way the Palm OS works, though I suspect it still has a lot more software. Finally, count on the phone module going bad in the Treo in a year's time. I am glad I am paying for the warranty on mine. A replacement phone from Sprint will still run $35 even with their monthly coverage.

I am more in love with the concept than I am with actual phone. I do love having a phone/planner, though. My life is in this thing. The planner is about all I use the PDA for now though. I can only imagine doing email on it. (I couldn't make webmail work and I don't want to have mail coming and going from too many locations.)

Mr. Fed · Post by **Mr. Fed** » Fri Nov 05, 2004 3:48 pm

LordMortis, what do you use for an email provider? Does it work for email well? I'm concerned by gellar's comment that they don't pull down email well.

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Fri Nov 05, 2004 3:55 pm

I was trying to use OWA off of Exchange Server 5.5 with IIS. The Plam OS can't handle being an OWA client.

I could, however, log into GG at any time and found myself posting while waiting for a dinner alone or at the movies by myself. The charm of that wears off quick at $10 a month when the browser is timing out like crazy, not reloading pages properly, and losing connection completely for 5 to 10 minutes at a time even when you are at 4 bars. I found that without OWA, the only thing I really used the Internet for was to look up and confirm trivia, use mapquest on the road (which isnt often), and letting friends use it, so "yes, they could surf porn while we are eating at restaruant or wating in line x."

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Fri Nov 05, 2004 4:01 pm

I forgot to mention. You might get better results if you are using an outlook client and hotsynching your outlook between you PDA and your desktop, but when I allow open relay off of my mail server, I find that spammers bounce mail off of it and that not only am I in violation of my agreement with my ISP when I allow this to happen I gunk up my bandwidth and the mail server.

qp · Post by qp » Fri Nov 05, 2004 4:55 pm

LordMortis wrote:I forgot to mention. You might get better results if you are using an outlook client and hotsynching your outlook between you PDA and your desktop, but when I allow open relay off of my mail server, I find that spammers bounce mail off of it and that not only am I in violation of my agreement with my ISP when I allow this to happen I gunk up my bandwidth and the mail server.

Plus it's only a matter of time before you end up on a blackhole list of some sort!

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Fri Nov 05, 2004 4:57 pm

And we did.

Mr. Fed · Post by **Mr. Fed** » Fri Nov 05, 2004 5:00 pm

LordMortis wrote:I forgot to mention. You might get better results if you are using an outlook client and hotsynching your outlook between you PDA and your desktop, but when I allow open relay off of my mail server, I find that spammers bounce mail off of it and that not only am I in violation of my agreement with my ISP when I allow this to happen I gunk up my bandwidth and the mail server.

Well, I don't have any choice on that part -- the firm uses outlook and uses Good as the service to forward emails to handheld devices --not sure whether they get forwarded from my desktop or simultaneously from the server to my desktop and to my handheld.

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Fri Nov 05, 2004 5:07 pm

I am not famiar with Good service, so I can't help you there.

geezer · Post by **geezer** » Fri Nov 05, 2004 7:04 pm

Both my partner and I use the 600. I love it. BUT it is delicate. in about a year I've had to repl;acemine once and he's had to replace his *4* times.

YMMV....

gellar · Post by **gellar** » Fri Nov 05, 2004 7:12 pm

geezer wrote:Both my partner and I use the 600. I love it. BUT it is delicate. in about a year I've had to repl;acemine once and he's had to replace his *4* times.

Actually I've noticed that too. We break a lot of the damn things.

gellar

EasilySatisfied · Post by **EasilySatisfied** » Sun Nov 07, 2004 11:23 pm

We offer several phone/data devices at work. We have some Treo's, and most recently I got a BlackBerry 7290, with bluetooth and it is quad band. Its ok. I love getting my email w/o having to log into work. The BlackBerry is the only device that has the push technology, which is what the business unit I support wanted.
Haven't used the phone yet, course the handsfree/wireless earpiece is a little too futuristic for me.