Treo pro 850 software

I've been looking for a new mobile phone for a while now - from iPhone 3G to Samsung i and even the almighty HTC Touch Diamond - but whenever it came the moment to buy, I could never go through with it because of some particular shortcoming. Touch typing on the iPhone, bulky style of the i and again touch typing on the Diamond. If you're into manuals and such, I've uploaded the User Guide to Scribd so you can have a peek too.

Now if you're looking for some photos of the box and the very elegant unboxing process, you can find some on Engadget but I couldn't wait so I'll start off with the device out of the box and in my anxious little hands - which you can see fits comfortably in. It is very possible to hold and use the device on one hand but you'd run into a few awkward cramps as you try to navigate with your thumb. With two hands, there's no problems whatsoever. The rounded corners however makes it appear much sleeker and smooth curves much easier and comfortable to hold.

On the left are two buttons, one volume control and another shortcut button which defaults to camera. On the right is the infrared port and a button on top which turns on the WiFi connection on-demand. Extremely handy since the WiFi turns off automatically when the phone is inactive or in standby. On the bottom are the miniUSB and audio connectors which sits on an extrusion. Whilst you can't notice it from the front it does ruin the aesthetics a little.

A quick note about the speaker, due to the obvious deficient "hole" for the speaker, sounds appear "muffled" as if it was covered up with a hole that is not wider than a grain of rice.

Oh wait, it is. Placing the phone down on a table seems to improve the quality considerably. A quick note about the screen. Like most phones now it is a reflective screen so the colors are vivid at the cost of reflections and glare. At default brightness it is more than usable outside but less so if you tilt it ever so slightly. To be honest, all mobile keyboards are small to begin with and this is not much different so it really comes down to feel. Besides the very generous spacebar, most buttons are pretty wide but the gap between keys is not that forgiving.

If you pay attention to your fingers it's not hard to type without just a couple mistakes but say if you're trying to touch type you're going to accidentally press quite a few adjacent keys. Of course, my accuracy is improving as I use it. It assumes everything you typed is intentional. I hope at least one vendor realizes this potential adds some software magic to the QWERTY keys too, if they can do it for virtual keys than why not real keys.

Nuff said about hardware, software time. Sure I've seen and played with Windows Mobile around the place but never "owned" a Windows Mobile phone. Needless to say I was aware of the bad perception around WM but dived in anyway. As you can see for the most part this is a very standard Windows Mobile 6. If you were to ask me for a single criticism of this device it would be that Palm didn't invest nearly as much into the software experience as they did hardware.

Overall I'm rather positive about Windows Mobile because it is both an opportunity to standardize and customize the mobile platform. By standardization I mean the fact that software developers and hardware vendors can write one software that is deployable to thousands of devices without any investment in per-device compatibility - a gain for users. On the other hand WM is also extremely customizable for both users and vendors to make it a truly unique experience.

Obviously you can't deny the fact that WM is still plagued with utterly crap user interfaces both native and from third parties. There's no excuse why icons are still aliased. Besides a few slightly varied screens, Palm missed out on the exciting opportunity to offer some unique software experiences that can't be found on other Windows Mobiles. Hopefully as they become more familiar with WM they'll do something more exciting. To say Palm didn't do anything wouldn't be fair either. The device's internal memory isn't very large so MB of RAM is a precious resource not to be taken for granted.

If you make friends with the task manager and there's no real problems. A quite note about the GPS. The device by default has a link to Garmin's webpage which unfortunately at the time of writing does not have a compatible software ready.

Takes approximately 5 seconds to lock on to the position. A HTC tool called " QuickGPS " is also included which is designed to speed up the GPS initialization time by prefetching some satellite orbit data, but you have to resync at least every 7 days.

In terms of camera picture quality this is no replacement for a digital camera. Above is a comparison against a dSLR showing incorrect color balance and loss of finer detail but you can still make out most of the details which is perfectly fine for "snaps".

In addition, the camera application offers a standard range of settings and controls. Finally, a note about the resolution. On the plus side it's an advantage in terms of extra vertical space compared to the standard ?

This however isn't a road-blocker as there is simply a "gap" and won't inhibit from doing any tasks. It's a Treo feature that doesn't get enough attention.

With no configuration whatsoever, the Treo Pro gives you the ability to do the following with one hardware button. Next, add in the fact that since the original Treo you've been able to initiate a near-instantaneous contact search just by typing from the home screen Today Screen on WinMo we won't even count this. Sure, other apps have home buttons that allow you to quickly get to a list of applications, but on a Treo these shortcuts work anywhere.

Were we to count the standard Today Screen we'd get a few more shortcuts tossed in -- shortcuts that also have the added benefit of actually displaying rich and useful information while they double as shortcuts to Alarms, Calendar, SMS, etc.

Here's the crazy thing: all but a half dozen or so require little to no learning curve because their functions are clearly displayed to the user either on a button or on screen.

Every shortcut and function I enumerated above, in addition to being very discoverable and yes, configurable to new users is also one-handed. On every Treo 1 , including the Treo Pro, you can quickly access these thirty-odd functions with one hand. Even on my list of over contacts thanks for the hard-to-mange list, Google Contacts , it never takes me more than 2 seconds tops to drill down to the person I'm trying to contact.

This is something I've taken for granted as a long-time Treo user and so when I encounter a phone that doesn't do that by default it drives me bonkers. The one-handed use bits doesn't just apply to shortcuts, either. It also applies to typing. While this is also true on BlackBerrys and several other devices, it's worth pointing out that you have always been able to type with just a single thumb on a Treo. Because of the relatively high quality of Treo keyboards Treo Pro included, although it is a bit small for some , you can usually do it with a pretty high degree of accuracy too.

So it's pretty clear that a lot of thought goes into the hardware of the Treo -- everything seems to be designed with an eye towards 'getting things done' fast and efficient. However, that's obviously only half the story -- Palm prides itself on making the hardware and the software integrate very well together.

Of course, when it comes to PalmOS-based Treos, this sort of seamless integration between the software and the hardware is clear. Palm controls all of the elements here and so they are able to make sure that things happen properly. For Windows Mobile-based Treos, though, the story is a little more complicated. I'm going to set aside the Treo Pro for a moment here, because it has a unique history among Treos. Ditto the Treo Instead, I'd like to focus on the Treo wx, the Treo , and the Treo w.

When the Treo w was originally announced amidst much fanfare, I might add , one of the main things Palm focused on was the fact that they made some important modifications to Windows Mobile to make it quicker and easier to use. The most obvious was photo speed dialing on the Today Screen no longer anything special , but the most important changes were actually under the hood.

If you take the Treo wx let's not talk about the memory-anemic Treo w, kay? Part of this extra speed is merely the subjective result of the relentless focus on One Step Access, but part of it is also under-the-hood enhancements. WM Treos are generally 'stripped' of unnecessary bits, registry entries, and so on. While all WM manufacturers spend time tweaking their ROMs for performance and hardware compatibility, Palm seems to do so with a clearer focus on responsiveness.

Instead of tweaking the ROMs to make sure they have everything the carriers require though of course Palm must do that too , they seem to first tweak them for speed. The result is an implementation of Windows Mobile that decidedly lacks polish, flash, and sex appeal. What you get in exchange for all that is speed. I put it this way in my review of the Treo w:. After all that, what's my final verdict on the Treo w?

It's this: The Treo w is the best Treo ever. That shouldn't surprise anybody, it's the newest Treo and so it ought to beat out its predecessors. If you need your phone to be shiny with lots of eye candy and other tomfoolery, the iPhone or the Touch Diamond are up your alley. If you need your phone to allow you to get work done, the w should be on your short list.

It's very fast, well-integrated with the hardware, and has been bug free so far in my testing. So what does that mean? That's not to say that it experiences the kind of lag you sometimes see on HTC's slider devices You definitely don't , but it also means that there doesn't appear to be the relentless focus on responsiveness throughout. In short: previous WM Treos have overperformed relative to their specs, the Treo Pro simply performs.

That's not necessarily a big knock against the Treo Pro. The specs on the device are definitely good and so you do get much of that same Treo speed that you see on other devices. There's just a feeling that, maybe, it could stand to be a little bit faster from time to time. Palm had intended the brand 'Treo' to imply a sort of generic, all-encompassing idea of a converged smartphone device. In an ironic sense, they have succeeded in that endeavor.

You can stack a Treo up against any other smartphone out there and it will at least show up to the race and though it might finish second, it will finish. You do get the mix of simplicity and power found on Android, that mix of touchscreen and keyboard is similar.

Is the Treo Pro as good at Google as the G1? Obviously not, but the app library for now is bigger. The Treo is able to do push email out of the box, is relatively snappy, and most importantly to the BB set: features a good keyboard and set of efficient tools for getting stuff done on the go.

Is email as good at the BlackBerry email setup? For most people, no for me, though Outlook is better.