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Treo 90 gets Bluetooth support and more
Mon Sep 16, 2002 - 3:49 PM EDT - By Michael Ducker



When the Treo 90 was first released, one of my major complaints about it was the lack of SD I/O support. SD I/O is a standard that enables the addition of new functionality such as Bluetooth, 802.11, GPS, presentation display or digital imaging to a host device like the Treo 90. Handspring has now addressed the lack of SD I/O, with a software upgrade for the Treo 90.

"The Treo 90 is already a popular product for people looking for the smallest, lightest Palm OS organizer with a keyboard. We're making it even more powerful with this upgrade, which supports great new wireless and multimedia options without compromising the size or weight," said Joe Sipher, vice president of product marketing for Handspring.

As of today, all new Treo 90's should have Palm OS version 4.1H2 preinstalled on them. If yours does not, you can download the updater here.

This update flashes the Flash ROM of the Treo, and will stay on the device even after a hard reset. As with the Treo GPRS update this update will erase all the data in your device, so you will need to hotsync to restore. Due to these changes our review for the Treo 90 has been updated, and we are pleased to announce that the Treo 90 earns an award of excellence (5 stars).

Changes in Updater 1.0:

  • Adds support for SD I/O expansion cards
  • Adds support for Bluetooth SD/MMC expansion cards
  • Eliminates the SanDisk 128MB SD formatting issue
  • Avoids issues that arise when you hold down a button for more than 4 seconds in the Applications launcher
  • Adds other behind-the-scenes improvements, typo corrections and edits

There are currently two expansion cards that can take advantage of Treo 90's SD I/O capabilities. One is MARGI System's Presenter-to-Go, which connects the Treo 90 directly to digital LCD projectors or other VGA devices to show business presentations stored on Treo in full color. This solution includes software that allows for slide presentation from any printable Windows application including PowerPoint, Word and HTML. Presenter-to-Go is available on the MARGI Systems Web site at www.margi.com.

"By offering Handspring Treo 90 users access to MARGI Presenter-to-Go SD, customers can leave their laptops behind, walk into a room, plug their Treo 90 into a projector and immediately begin presenting," said Phil Underwood, vice president of sales and marketing at MARGI Systems.

The other expansion card currently available is the Palm Bluetooth Card. This card lets people wirelessly link a Treo 90 to any other Bluetooth-enabled device within a 30-foot radius. For example, a customer could use the Treo 90 with a Bluetooth-enabled mobile phone to access the Internet, email and messages wirelessly.

Handspring has told us that they have internally tested both the Palm Bluetooth card and Margi Presenter-to-Go.

We here at TreoCentral are excited about this upgrade and will have reviews of SDIO cards for the Treo 90 soon including a look at Bluetooth syncing using iSync. (Well James really really hopes to ;))

This upgrade is available for both Mac and Windows users, though the question is still up in the air about Mac OS X support.




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