Prediction: The first company that combines a cel-phone and a palm/organiser properly is going to make a killing, particulary if others are slow on the uptake.Myself and my geek friends are just about all carrying around Palm pilots and cel phones of various sorts. We all would like one unit that does both, preferably at a price lower than both individualy. The Treo's lack of integration of phone numbers is appalling. Have these designers not heard of a normalized database?! *All* phone numbers should go to *one* place, be they call log, quick dial, or general phone book - with a category marker that filters appropriately depending on what you are looking at. Transfering a number from one area to another is a simple toggle of one field in a record.
The interface sound like a nightmare. Common functions should require few keystrokes/pen taps. Sounds like Handspring doesn't have this simple concept down either.
As far as GPS/cel location smarts goes, knowing where your contacts are? Maybe for work where you might be in sales having 100's of contacts. Like you said, you should know where your friends live. Now, if the phone was smart enough to plug into the local yellow pages and tell me where the nearest 24 hr photocopy place is, *that* would be worth something to me. Driving instructions should come along with that too.
My current phone has text messaging - it sends me a weather forcast every day so I don't have to go find one myself. Useful for both my line of work, and personal. I assume this phone can do this. My phone can also send me less - useful stuff such as top movies, restarant reviews, horror scopes. I'd rather have the ability to punch in a movie, have the phone go out and tell me where/when the movie is playing next, and give me driving directions from my current location if I *tell it so*. Oh yeah, buy me a ticket and I'll just beam it on the way in.
Electronic cash on one of these units will revolutionize commerce, killing cash once and for all - as it would finally mount the final barrier of person - to - person money transfers. The banks, governments, and computer industry have to be onside for this one to happen though. The benefits would be huge, assuming it's done right...
Beam coupons at the cashier.
Check the status of your servers from your palm (doable right now with text messaging)
The list goes on, and on and on, for the company that does it right first...
The Pocket PC's are exploiting a niche market. Too big, too power hungry, too complex. Palm got it right with their product, now they need something as simple combined with a phone, leveraging the data communications of the phone to do things that would make the *average* person's life easier. Geeks would benefit as well!
This is the next 'Killer app' once, someone does it right, just wait and see, IMHO :)
-- Ralph Fuhrmann, February 23, 2002
There's a nice little freeware Palm OS program called HappyDays that integrates birthdays and anniversaries quite elegantly with both your calendar and your address book.
-- Bjorn Bjornson, February 24, 2002
I, too, was looking for a PDA/cell phone combination, so I purchased the QCP6035 from Kyocera. I lived with it for a few months before writing this review, which in a nutshell is: good software, but too big.
-- Mr. Nosuch, February 25, 2002
Just wait for the Smartphone (codename "Stinger") coming RSN...
-- dave mitchell, February 25, 2002
Older versions of the datebook software made the time available by clicking on the date at the top of the screen. When the added the ability to open the menus by clicking on the title bar of applications, one side effect is that you can't see the time anymore unless you go to the Application Launcher.
-- David DelGreco, March 5, 2002
Several points.On build quality:
1. My SIM card has failed several times (I've had the machine 24 hours!). This is because there is a flimsy battery type compartment housing the SIM card and there is movement of the door which is moving the card. (HELP! the tape I put on which is stopping the door moving is losing its stick!)
2. I am really scared it is going to break. It seems really frail. How tough is it, really? I wonder if there will there be a rubberised version?
Functionality:
1. I have the keyboard version. This is absolutely impossible to use at night. Why have a backlit screen if you can't see the buttons? :( Surely, backlit buttons (lightsource from the backlit screen so no extra power needed) would have been logical. Like on bog-standard mobiles costing as little as 1 Swiss Franc (with contract)
2. User interface is terrible. A real HACK job at trying to merge a Palm OS device with the convenient, logical functions of a mobile phone. I'm just so disappointed in Handspring for stuffing up something which could have been really good.
Sum-up:
Great idea (and great hype!) but for the Swiss Francs, I'm not so impressed with the product. Just oh, so quirky and the phone functions to PDA just don't happen seamlessly like one would expect. Might get better later... but for now, my SIM card is back in my trusty, rubberised, backlit-buttoned Siemens and my info is back in my aluminium Palm Vx. Have to carry two things again but that's ok. Anyone want to by a slightly used (24hours) Treo?
CNR Switzerland
-- Carl Rayner, March 6, 2002
The author of this artical has obviously not 'experimented' with the full functionality of the Treo before publishing this article. Use two of the Speed Dial "buttons" to show you the Date and Time when you press on teh Joger or open teh flip lid. In one of teh Speed Dial spaces, type "+time" (without the quotes), in the other, type "+date", (again without the quotes). Enter thes on the "Name line and the next time you open the lid, or press teh jogger, you will see the date and time diplayed.
-- Eldon McDowell, March 13, 2002
Said Philip: "You can't initiate a call while driving."And a good thing too: you can't operate a chainsaw while driving either. I'm quite happy to have a phone that's just hard enough to use that it dissuades me from calling out while driving.
-- Nick Sweeney, March 15, 2002
I believe that the PDA/Phone is a fad. They appeal to a certain class of gadget freak, the sort who keeps a PDA holstered on their belt at all times and actually enters things into it. For the rest of us, the things are expensive, bulky, and have terrible battery life. I'll keep my Nokia 8890 for now, thank you.The "SmartPhone" seems more appealing. Just enough PDA functionality to improve their utility as phones, plus Outlook sync. Small enough to keep in a front jeans pocket. For hard-core geeks, Bluetooth will allow them to be used seamlessly with PDAs for wireless data. For us light users, a SmartPhone might eliminate the need for a PDA.
BTW: Lack of 1900MHz in the US Treo shouldn't be an issue for most pond-hoppers. During my 18 months in Europe, I never noticed a difference in coverage when I switched from a Nokia 7110 (900/1900MHz) to a Nokia 8890 (900/1800MHz).
-- Bryce Yehl, March 22, 2002
In my opinion a PDA is *worthless* if you don't wear it. You won't get your money's worth. It won't be there when you need it. You won't take notes on it. You won't look things up in it.
-- Bob Wakefield, August 23, 2004
BTW, GSM can deliver an accurate time to the phone. I get time updates from AT&T all the time when I get off the plane.
-- John Kilpatrick, October 28, 2004