Treo

[docB]

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So I'm thinking about buying a Treo. I want to put Epocrates and Pepid on it. I'm totally addicted to my PDA in the ER now. Anyone out there using a Treo? What do you think?

 

[DrDre']

Love my treo 600. Use it for my palm, camera, phone and MP3. ONly have to carry one thing.

All devices have their +/-s but I love this one.

 

[southerndoc]

The Treo 650's don't have enough memory, so you'll need to buy an SD card.

I would honestly wait. Rumors have it that Palm might be releasing a new Treo this fall or winter. If you buy a 650, you'll have to sign a contract with your carrier for at least another year. When the new ones come out, if you want one of those, that means an extension to your contract.

 

[docB]

The Treo 650's don't have enough memory, so you'll need to buy an SD card.

I would honestly wait. Rumors have it that Palm might be releasing a new Treo this fall or winter. If you buy a 650, you'll have to sign a contract with your carrier for at least another year. When the new ones come out, if you want one of those, that means an extension to your contract.

Does the 650 have enough memory for Epocrates and Pepid? That and medcalc are all I use. I'm using about 30 meg of the 53 meg on my T3. Can you use the SD card for those? I didn't think so. Can you save your pictures to the SD card? Clearly I don't know much about these things.

 

[USAF MD '05]

Does the 650 have enough memory for Epocrates and Pepid? That and medcalc are all I use. I'm using about 30 meg of the 53 meg on my T3. Can you use the SD card for those? I didn't think so. Can you save your pictures to the SD card? Clearly I don't know much about these things.

Yes, you can use your SD card for all of the above. I am getting ready to buy a 650 myself, though I would like more info on the possible updates that are coming down the pipe. Holler if you hear anytrhing on that front!

 

[dr_almondjoy_do]

What type of program did you use for mp3?

I have a treo 600 and I use it all the time. I have the merck manual, epocrates, shots2005 and other programs. I also get emails on it from yahoogroups. I love having to charge only one device up every night.

 

[southerndoc]

The Treo 600 has 32 MB of memory, with 24 being available to the user.

The advantage of the 650 is that it uses non-volatile memory (you can switch out the battery and not lose your data). It comes with 23 MB, but on your first HotSync, it will preload about 2-3 MB of applications (Documents to Go, etc.) to the smart phone. That leaves you with about 20 MB.

Now, here's the catch with the 650. The non-volatile memory has a downside: address book entries default to 512 bytes instead of 32. So, if you have a lot of address book entries, it will quickly eat up your 650's memory. Palm has released a firmware version that fixes this, but it's only available for select carriers (I think Verizon only right now). It allows smaller address book entries to be stored more efficiently (i.e., only a phone number doesn't have to take up the full 512 bytes). This should be available for all carriers soon.

From Palm's website: Exactly how much can I transfer to my new Treo 650?

In order to ensure a smooth upgrade, you may need to move some of your third-party applications to an expansion card4. Of the 22MB-23MB memory on your Treo 650, 2MB is taken by the Documents To Go viewer, leaving 20-21MB for your previous device's data. But remember, those applications and data files may occupy more space on Treo 650's non-volatile memory than they did on your previous device.

As a general rule, add about 33 percent to the existing occupied memory on your previous device. This allows for the larger data files of your Treo 650's NVFS, including PIM application data (your Contacts, Calendar, Tasks and Memo items) that will occupy a larger space, as well as third-party applications that will probably not grow as much. Because the exact amount of data expansion depends on the number of records and how full they are, this is only a rough estimate; your experience will differ.

Hope this helps! The Treo 650 does look nice, and I still toy with the idea of getting one. I'm trying to wait until this fall/winter when the newer model comes out though.

 

[Sessamoid]

Palm has released a firmware version that fixes this, but it's only available for select carriers (I think Verizon only right now).

Not correct. Verizon was one of the last to offer the firmware upgrade, just like they were the last to offer the phone. Sprint was the first, and I think Cingular/ATT was the next. It's also available for unlocked GSM Treos as well.

I've got Epocrates, Pepid EM, and some other various applications in the phone's memory, several hundred contacts, and all my calendar entries since 2000 including all my work shifts. I still have over 6MB free remaining in main memory. I've got a ton of other crap on my 1 GB SDCard.

 

[aliraja]

I just did a little cursory searching on google and couldn't find much info about the new Treo that's supposed to be coming out in a few months. Is it the 660? 700? And does anyone know anything about whether or not it's going to have any new features that might actually be useful to us? I'm about this far (imagine my fingers really really close together) to getting a Verizon Treo 650 but would hate to buy one now and have something more useful come out in a few months.

 

[southerndoc]

Not correct. Verizon was one of the last to offer the firmware upgrade, just like they were the last to offer the phone. Sprint was the first, and I think Cingular/ATT was the next. It's also available for unlocked GSM Treos as well.

I've got Epocrates, Pepid EM, and some other various applications in the phone's memory, several hundred contacts, and all my calendar entries since 2000 including all my work shifts. I still have over 6MB free remaining in main memory. I've got a ton of other crap on my 1 GB SDCard.

I was under the impression that Cingular still hasn't released the firmware update?

Aliraja, there is no word on the numbering system of the Treo. It might be the 700 series, although nobody is for sure. Rumor has it that the new Treo will feature PalmOS 6.1 Cobalt, 128 MB of memory, and built-in WiFi. It may also have boosted Bluetooth speeds by using Bluetooth 2.0. It will have a slightly different form factor, although not drastically so.

If you're using an outdated Palm, then go ahead and buy one. No sense holding off forever. There will always be something better just a few months down the road. For me, I have a T5, and it would be a downgrade to go to the Treo 650. As cool as it looks, it still has too many unresolved issues (no WiFi, not enough memory, etc.) for me to justify spending the money for it.

 

[docB]

Thanks for all the good info. As is usually the case the more you know the tougher the decision gets. I'm probably going to hold off for now since my current phone and T3 work fine. I would just like to carry only one thing. I have found it to be true that waiting as long as you can for technology is a good thing to do. Once the new Treo comes out I can get that or get a really cheap 650. We'll see.

 

[Sessamoid]

Thanks for all the good info. As is usually the case the more you know the tougher the decision gets. I'm probably going to hold off for now since my current phone and T3 work fine. I would just like to carry only one thing. I have found it to be true that waiting as long as you can for technology is a good thing to do. Once the new Treo comes out I can get that or get a really cheap 650. We'll see.

The problem is of course that you can wait forever, and something better will always be around the corner. Some rumors are saying not to expect the new Treo until Q1 2006.

 

[southerndoc]

Personally I would like to see the Tungsten T5 in a more compact design.

On the note of smart phones, PalmOS is about to announce a "tier 1" company that is licensing its products. There is speculation that this could be Motorola, and Motorola might be developing a smartphone. Could this be so?

I wish they would make the RAZR V3 into a smartphone. How awesome would that be??? That thing is very small and compact! (Don't foresee it happening though.)

 

[docB]

The problem is of course that you can wait forever, and something better will always be around the corner. Some rumors are saying not to expect the new Treo until Q1 2006.

I'm thinking about waiting until the nuro-implantable phone, PDA, endorphine dispensor comes out. Then I'm all over it.