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September 27, 2005
All the Cool Kids are Doing it...
I realized the other day that I'm getting to the point where a PDA would be helpful again.
I've had 'em in the past - a Newton way back in '96/97, and a Palm III in '98. In both cases there was a fatal flaw. The Newton generally rocked, but unfortunately was a heavy and large as one. The Palm was less cool, but the right form factor, until I got sick of the transcription errors (and I was pretty good at graffiti) and it became yet another gadget I needed to carry around.
So I'm thinking of a smart-phone. Being an open-systems kinda guy (read: I don't do Windows) the Palm based Treo seems like a rational choice.
I had played with one of the Blackberries, and I quite like their UI (I think it's superior to the Treo, from my limited experience) but I haven't found a sync solution for Linux.
I'm a little concerned about the form-factor. It seems like the Treo will fit in my pocket, but only just. And before you suggest one of those gawdawful belt holsters, can I just go off on a rant for a moment - your phone is not a fashion accessory, people. It doesn't make you look "cool," or "connected" - it makes you look like Batman.
If Batman's the look you're going for, good on you. Not for me, thanks.
The bigger problem is that, being a cheap bastard, I'm turned off by their price tag. We have a corporate cel plan at work - they'll pay the monthlies, I buy the equipment. Unfortunately that means I can't leverage any of the "sign up for two years and we'll deep discount the phone" sorts of offers. Corporate pricing on a Treo 650 is $450.
Ouch.
So I'm scouring Ebay. If I can find one in the $250 range, I think I'll give it a go.
Posted by dberger at September 27, 2005 8:56 AM
Comments
I don't have a particular problem with "the Batman look" (don't think *one* smallish belt holster really qualifies), but mostly I don't want to dedicate a pocket to my phone - I'm paranoid about anything I put in there with it scratching the unit up. I've been pretty happy with my Treo since I got it several months ago. If you end up with one, definitely look into Xiino as an alternative to the godawfully slow built-in web browser.
Posted by: Hendel at September 27, 2005 10:13 AM
I got a Treo a few months ago in order to replace my very old phone and be able to dump the Good. The reduction in load was impressive. Plus, the Treo gets good signal from within pockets (even Levis) so for the first time, in a long time, I don't have a gadget clipped on somewhere. Just my wallet, Treo, and keys. The good part is that it integrates with the Good software nicely which means seamless sync with Exchange. The toys on it are nice too, but quite frankly, I don't really use them. Just email, calendar, and phone. The brower gets pulled up in weird situations where we could most definately wait for an answer but knowing now is amusing. I've used the camera once -- to take a picture of a frozen dinner label in the grocery store. (It was a Hungry Man dinner and I didn't think anyone would believe me when I said it had almost 100% of fat/satfat/calories/salt/etc. you can eat in a day...)
The bad is that it is buggy as hell. And palm being palm, well, they don't think they ever need to reboot. So if something goes ape, you have to yank the battery. Typing on it is a little harder than I would like, but like anything you get used to it. The unit is also quite slippery and will easily fall out of your hand. Accessories are as expensive as the phone.
If I were to do it again, I would get a CE based device. Adding good support for viewing Office docs would make it a lot more useful. (The palm based viewers aren't all that...)
-Steve
Posted by: Steve S. at September 27, 2005 11:19 PM
I have converted to the Treo and I must say, I'm never going back.
I've found it to be easy to use, with a good selection of "add on" software available, either for free or for cheap. The Tri-Band functionality meant that even in Taiwan I had very good connectivity. It has excellent audio quality, easily as good as my wireless POTS phone in my house.
I recently wrote a Blog for O'Reilly that talks about the Microbe - a software synthesizer that I run on my Treo. :)
Typing is just something you have to get used to - not as good as a regular keyboard, but far less of a learning curve than Grafitti (which I never used).
The camera is underpowered, but it does come in handy, and sharing your photos via email is a snap.
Belt holster - well, we all have our issues to deal with. I'm with Hendel on this one - I don't wear a belt holster as a fasion accessory, but I don't want to put the thing in my pocket. If I'm wearing a shirt with a shirt pocket, I'll put it there, but often I don't have that luxury. The belt holster means the phone is there when I need it. I put it on the desk when I'm sitting at my computer.
Posted by: Scott Snyder at September 28, 2005 11:29 AM