A technology blog for The Economist Group IT team
Saturday, November 01, 2003
Hooray - I've got my Treo!
If you've been reading this blog since I started it, you'll know that I've been looking for a replacement for my Handspring Visor since May. I decided some time back to wait for the appearance of the Handspring (or should that now be palmOne?) Treo 600. Well I've been using it for a couple of weeks (you can get one from Orange in the UK or Sprint and others in the US) and I guess I like it. I say I guess because there are some disappointments, but my brief was to merge my 'phone (an Ericsson T68) and my PDA whilst at work, and I've done that. I've been running on "divert" mode from my T68 for a week or so and the number transfers to Orange from next Monday permanently. I still plan to use the T68 at weekends, but that may change. The big thing I wanted was to have seamless common address book and the Treo does that.
I bought it from MobilesUK.net for �181.99 if you're interested (but it's now a bit more expensive).
Some gripes:
Because it's so new I can't get accessories for it - I really want an adapter from the 2.5mm headphone socket so I can listen to music (other than via the speaker).
I miss Grafitti (but only sometimes). The keyboard is very usable, but for small things, like adding an appointment, I would really love to have Grafitti back. Jot and others are available, but again because it's new, there are bugs.
Because it's a 'phone the Contacts view shows all numbers rather than just names and I can't sort by company name.
Because it's not just a 'phone it doesn't seem to have things like the ability to request the status or read receipt for an SMS message nor does it have call/usage counters (really useful for web use).
I'm sure that all these will be fixed in time, though, so I still recommend it. For those who ask why I didn't opt for a Windows 'phone, the answer is simple - they're overcomplicated as PDAs and expensive. No one can seriously tell me that they can actually use Excel on one (and even then you can buy Documents to Go for the Palm).
Please let me know your thoughs on Treo/Palm vs. Windows on this one via the Discuss link to the right.
If you've been reading this blog since I started it, you'll know that I've been looking for a replacement for my Handspring Visor since May. I decided some time back to wait for the appearance of the Handspring (or should that now be palmOne?) Treo 600. Well I've been using it for a couple of weeks (you can get one from Orange in the UK or Sprint and others in the US) and I guess I like it. I say I guess because there are some disappointments, but my brief was to merge my 'phone (an Ericsson T68) and my PDA whilst at work, and I've done that. I've been running on "divert" mode from my T68 for a week or so and the number transfers to Orange from next Monday permanently. I still plan to use the T68 at weekends, but that may change. The big thing I wanted was to have seamless common address book and the Treo does that.
I bought it from MobilesUK.net for �181.99 if you're interested (but it's now a bit more expensive).
Some gripes:
Because it's so new I can't get accessories for it - I really want an adapter from the 2.5mm headphone socket so I can listen to music (other than via the speaker).
I miss Grafitti (but only sometimes). The keyboard is very usable, but for small things, like adding an appointment, I would really love to have Grafitti back. Jot and others are available, but again because it's new, there are bugs.
Because it's a 'phone the Contacts view shows all numbers rather than just names and I can't sort by company name.
Because it's not just a 'phone it doesn't seem to have things like the ability to request the status or read receipt for an SMS message nor does it have call/usage counters (really useful for web use).
I'm sure that all these will be fixed in time, though, so I still recommend it. For those who ask why I didn't opt for a Windows 'phone, the answer is simple - they're overcomplicated as PDAs and expensive. No one can seriously tell me that they can actually use Excel on one (and even then you can buy Documents to Go for the Palm).
Please let me know your thoughs on Treo/Palm vs. Windows on this one via the Discuss link to the right.
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