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Treo 600: Love at first sight
Im in love
deep...really deep!
I had a chance to recently preview a Treo 600 in person and all I can say is
WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Every once in a great while it happens: You have an experience with something
that is well designed and very interesting and you say: WOW! It does not
necessarily mean you want one but you say, WOW! That is really cool! Examples of
this would be the new VW bug and the IMac.
I never wanted to own a new bug or iMac, but I really dig them because they are
so cool looking
eye candy if you will. They just kind of make me smile.
Sometimes though, you have an experience with something where you love the way
it looks and feels. You become intrigued, enamored and you know you have to have
itcant live without itbut the thing also has a MAGICAL aspect to it.
Magic Moments Are Made Of This
I remember the first time I saw Star Wars. I was ten years old and everybody and
their mother had already seen it. This was before video cassette recorders so
very successful movies could play in theatres for a very long time. I think Star
Wars had been in the theatre for a year before I saw it. I was probably the last
kid in the USA to see Star Wars?
To make a short story long, I lived with my Evil Stepmother who would never let
me do anything fun like see Star Wars. I remember being in third grade and
having the second coolest girl in my classher name was Gigi and Gigi was a babe
in a brunette Charlies Angels kind of wayask me if I had seen Star Wars? I
very embarrassingly said no.
She looked at me with this really sympathetic expression on her face and started
passionately telling me all about the movie. I could barely keep up with her.
She was making my head spin: &#$+%@*!!!=??????
 All I remember her saying was something about a princess and this thing called
Chewbacca the Wookie who kind of looked like a Bigfoot from outer space? Since we
humans reason by analogy, I was trying to draw a mental picture of a Bigfoot
from outer space??? The closest frame or reference I could come up with was
Planet of the Apes??? "No" Gigi said, "It is much, much better than Planet of
the Apes." I remember thinking to myself, "What could be much, much better than
Planet of the Apes?"
Then she said, "By the way. They are coming out with a new Star Wars in a couple
of years and it is rumored that Darth Vader is Luke Skywalkers dad and Princess
Lea is Luke's sister and if that is true, then that would be gross because Luke
and Lea French-kiss each other??? A Princess French-kissing her brother? A
Bigfoot from outer space? I had no idea what she was talking about??? I just
knew I had to see what everybody was talking about???
On one of those seemingly endless hot summer days of youth, I was walking down
the street and I found a dollar bill on the ground.
I knew exactly what to do with that dollar bill. I ran home and got another
Eighty-five cents I had hidden away from my Evil Stepmother and ran as fast as I
could in the sweltering heat to the movie theatre. I had just enough change left
over to buy a box of Peanut M&Ms. Boy this part of my life story is starting to
sound like Willie Wonka in the Chocolate Factory, isnt it?
So there I sit perspiring on a hot summer day...with bated breath from running
so fast...In a big, cool, dark movie theatre waiting patiently for the matinee
performance of Star Wars to begin
all by myself
flawlessly naive
10 years
young...like a puppy wagging its tail...like an empty box waiting to be
filled...like a colorful big box of crayons and a huge pad of paperready to
draw. I remember there were hardly any other people in the theatre...just me and
that big blank white screen which when it soon came alive with moving images
would inextricably alter my life in the most positive sense and take my
imagination to unimaginably higher new levels.
It was perfect. I was old enough to understand the movie but young enough to
have an imagination that was not contaminated by a jaded adult world. I was old
enough to know that Santa Claus did not exist, but I totally dug him anyway.
I remember when Star Wars started with the yellow text disappearing into outer
space, along with the thumping neo-classical music.
I sat on the edge of my seat, intensely focused with my jaw dropped to the
floor! I did not move out of that position the entire movie. It was a completely
mind-bending experience that pushed the outer envelope of my childhood
imagination!! The vividness of my imagination has never been the same ever
since, nor would I want it to be. Pure unadulterated Magic!!!
Hans Solo...Luke Skywalker...Princess Lea...Obi Won Kenobi...Darth Vader...Chewbaka
the Wookie...Storm Troopers and of course C-3P0 and R2D2. It was like nothing I
had ever seen! And how about those Light Sabers? Man I wanted one of those light
sabers. Star Wars was like Star Trek cubed and then some.
Next was John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever. After I saw that movie all I
could think about was how much I wanted one of those white three piece suits
with a black shirt and platform shoes.
I experienced the same heavenly magic as Star Wars several years later when I
first saw Raiders of the Lost Ark. Man Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones was
something else!
1984: The Year Computers Became User Friendly
 I remember the first time I ever used a Mac in 1984. A few months prior I was
skiing at Squaw Valley on the North Shore of Lake Tahoe in California. One night
after skiing I met a lady I had a conversation with who worked for Apple
Computers. She told me Apple was going to be coming out with a new computer that
would forever change the face of computers. I asked her to tell me about it, but
she said the only thing she could tell me was that it was really small and easy
to move.
The day the Mac was introduced to the public I was at a store checking it out. I
remember checking out MacPaint and MacWrite and using a mouse for the first
time. I was just blown away!!! Maximum coolness. It was pure Magic. MacPaint was
like Etch-a-Sketch on steroids.
I remember the first time I ever used a color Mac. It just so happened it was
also the first time I saw Photoshop in action. It was interesting because
someone in the computer store had scanned in Paul Simons album cover from
Rhythm of the Nations. It had this beautiful picture of Indians running
through a forest with headdresses on. I remember it had a lot of beautiful warm
tones that were somehow energizing coming through the CRT. Looking at the CRT
was like some kind of virtual reality experience. It was like looking at a
photograph that was alive but frozen.
Prior to that I had never seen how a scanner worked. The guy in the store was
showing me how you could zoom in and out of the image he had scanned into
Photoshop and it just blew me away! I remember thinking, "wow, a computer can do
that?" It was so Bladerunner. It made me feel like anything was possible.
Same feeling when I first saw the original Apple Powerbook (with a trackball).
It was just so cool. Same thing when I first saw the IBM Thinkpad 701c. C is for
color. For those of you who are not familiar, the 701 had this James Bondlike
keyboard that IBM called the butterfly keyboard, because when you lifted the lid
of the 701 two pieces in the keyboard popped out and formed one large keyboard.
It was neeeeeto.
Same thing the first time I saw a four-inch deep plasma rendering a
high-definition image. I was completely blown away. I was certain I was seeing
the future.
The Palm Pilot Changes Everything
 In the PDA world I kept seeing people with Palm Pilots. For some reason it took
me a long time to figure out what they were and how they worked. My first PDA
was a Palm3. I really liked it but despite the fact that it was small relative
to other PDAs like the Apple Newton, it seemed too big.
Next was the Palm V. I got the Palm V the first day it was available. Once
again, the Palm V gave me this magical vibe. I just couldnt get over how thin
it was?!
After a couple of months I grew kind of complacent with my passion for the PalmV
because I kept thinking it would be so much better if it were only color. Then I
got a Nokia 8290 cell phone which was tiny. I used to hold the Palm V up to my
head and think to myself, How hard could it be to combine a Palm V and a Nokia
8290 with a color screen? I would be willing to go back to the Palm 3 form
factor for that!
Then I was seduced by the Pocket PC iPaq. I remember when the iPaq first arrived
via UPS. It had a magical essence about it. It had this really bright and vivid
color screen and it made really cool noises
kind of like R2D2. The magic wore
off really fast because it was so unreliable. With the iPaq I went through
Cycles of elation and despair. It was always giving me problems from the battery
not charging, to dust under the screen.
The Microsoft Pocket PC
Definitely NOT Cool!!!
The worst thing was the ActiveSync software. It was a living hell. I tried
calling everybody to try and fix the problems. Compaq passed the buck to
Microsoft and Microsoft passed the buck back to Compaq. I had to replace it many
times and felt like a guinea pig. The iPaq was Symbolism over Substance in its
shining hour. Definitely NOT Cool!!!
After I switched over to the iPaq the novelty wore off quickly and I realized
that ALL the cool things it could do were not of much use. It was All Glitz and
no Guts. I think I spent more time showing people what the iPaq could do than I
spent enjoying it.
 Then came the Treo 180. When I saw the mistakenly leaked photos from the FCC
filing it really made me think??? Another challenge I had with the iPaq was I
would have to carry my Nokia phone with it and I felt like I was wearing
Batmans utility belt. In the final analysis I ended up not bringing either
device with me.
I was not that crazy about going backwards to a black and white screen, but with
the Treo 180 the idea of having a phone and PDA in one unit that was
significantly smaller than my iPaq was really appealing. So I got one. I really
liked the thumboard. It made text input so much faster, easier and much more
accurate. I loved my 180 but kept thinking, like the Palm V, it needed a color
screen. You guessed it! The day the 270 became available I bought one and have
loved it ever since. Also the 270 had a backlit keyboard which was sooooo much
better.
The supreme irony about going from the iPaq to the Treo is that the Treo is kind
of boringin a good way. With the iPaq I was always showing people cool stuff,
but it was seriously traumatizing me with its problems. The iPaq was complete
garbage and should not have been brought to market.
I have a tremendous amount of respect for Bill Gates, but shame on Microsoft for
pushing such a half-baked product out the door. They should really know better.
Releasing the Pocket PC before it was ready for primetime was Dumber than a bag
of hammers. As I mentioned in another thread, power is useless without control.
Supreme Irony: The Treo 270 Turned Me Into The Maytag Man
 Back to the supreme irony. Now I feel like the Maytag Man with my
Treo 270. It
never has any problems and works sooo well it is kind of boring, or undramatic.
Dont get me wrong. This lack of drama is a good thing. I am happy not to have
to waste time running around in circles like a chicken with its head cut off.
In a weird kind of way the iPaq when compared to the Treo 270 is kind of like
comparing a dramatic woman to a mellow one. I am sooo sick of overly dramatic
persnickety women. Ill take the mellow, nice, easygoing one any time.
I have always believed the reason why the Handspring Treo would beat out the
Microsoft Pocket PC in the final analysis was because Jeff Hawkins always
carried his PDA with him and relied so heavily on it. Not to mention, Jeff
Hawkins invented the original Palm Pilot.
Conversely, I have only ever seen one picture of Bill Gates with a PDA in his
hand and I think it was likely staged. I could be wrong, but I would be very
surprised.
This whole PDA thing is so weird because Microsoft has always slaughtered every
one of its competitors by their third attempt. Strangely the PDA arena has been
the exception to that rule.
For whatever it is worth, I think Palm has got Microsoft smoked. Especially with
Jeff Hawkins back in the creative drivers seat at Palm. I think the only way
Microsoft can catch Palm is if Microsoft completely overhauls everything and
basically copies the form factor of the Treo 600. Pocket PC design today is
suffering from a bankruptcy of ideas. Pocket PCs today look sooo stale. They
look like color Palm 3s
Been there, done that, got the t-shirt.
An accurate hardware analogy would be to compare touch screen remote controls to
remote controls with physical buttons. The current Pocket PCs are all screen and
few physical buttons. The Treo conversely has a screen with many buttons. A
friend of mine who works in a super-high-end Audio/Video store was showing me
these really expensive touch screen remotes with no hard buttons.
I told my pal I did not like the touch screen remotes because there was no
tactile feedback and you had to turn on the backlighting and look at the unit
every time you wanted to do anything. With a buttoned remote after you get used
to it you can use it in the dark.
(Speaking of in-the-dark. In case you never noticed, the Treo is an excellent
flashlight!)
I use the MX-500 Universal Remote from Home Theater Master. Oh my God! If you
dont have an MX-500 run out and get one! It is by far and away the best
universal remote control on earth. It is as amazing as the Treo 600. You can get
them from
http://www.bluedo.com for almost half-off the retail price.
My Mind-Bending Experience with the Treo 600
The Future of Quality Handheld
Computing...
 Speaking of the Treo 600. I had the opportunity to spend a few hours playing
with one, and all I can say is that my eyes have seen the glory of the coming of
the Treo 600!!!!!!!!!! It was love at first sight!!!!!!!!! Complete knockdown,
drag-out, mind-bending, pure undiluted love. I am almost at a loss for words,
but I will attempt my best to share my insight with you.
The svelte Treo 600 is clearly the result of deeply profound thought. I believe
it is a sea-change product that will forever change the way we utilize and
perceive portable phones. Did I say the Treo 600 was a portable phone? The
original clamshell design Treo was a PDA with a phone built into it. The Treo
600 is a Telephone with a PDA built into it.
Appearance wise, when you talk on a current Treo people look at you because the
Treo is so big and different looking. It sticks out like a sore thumb. It is so
big, distinct looking and awkward that you stand out as much as you would if you
walked around with one of those original oversized banana with an antenna on it
Motorola cell phones like the one Michael Douglas character Gordon Gekko talks
on in the beach scene in the Movie Wall Street. Ill bet you Gekko would love
the Treo 600.
Remember that cool dialog between Bud and Gekko: Bud: How much is enough,
Gordon? Gekko: It's not a question of enough, pal. It's a zero sum game,
somebody wins, somebody loses. Money itself isn't lost or gained its simply
transferred from one perception to another.
Anyway, for the most part, the Treo 600 is indistinguishable from a normal or
regular cell phone, which is kind of cool in a traveling incognito way. With
the Current Treo if you are talking on the speakerphone, you look like you are
imitating Captain Kirk, in a "Kirk to Enterprise, come in Enterprise...Three to
beam up" kind of way.
The advent of the Handspring Treo 600 is a profoundly important watershed
moment in digital history.
 The Treo 600 I saw was the darker color; dark grey, almost black. When I first
laid eyes on it my jaw dropped. I was speechless! It was the same kind of
feeling you get in a dream when you are trying to scream but your vocal cords
are completely silent.
Please bear in mind I am a designer so I tend to appreciate beautiful
aesthetics. After all, God gave us eyes so we could appreciate beauty. The Treo
600 is a superbly balanced tool which exhibits perfect spatial harmony and
flawless aesthetics.
The Treo 600 was so cool and beautiful I was almost afraid to touch it. When it
was placed in my hand it was shock and awe in the most positive sense of the
term. I was completely smitten. Bear in mind I had already seen many pictures on
the web of the 600, but actually seeing it and holding it just blew me away. I
could not get over how small and DECEPTIVELY SIMPLE it was. It felt prefect in
my hand...hand-in glove-perfect...like it was a natural extension of my
hand...like it should.
Then I got a presentation, I wont say from whom because it really does not
matter. Once again, more shock and awe. Much more!
One of the things I knew about before I saw the 600 in person was Handspring had
re-engineered all their apps, from the general to the specific, to be used
without a stylus. Holy guacamole! I cant believe how well they engineered this
solution.
The way the new navigation system works is the thing you are currently doing is
highlighted with a blue outline. So lets say I am in the Memo app and I am
typing a memo and I have five lines of type written, but I want to navigate up
and insert another word in the second line. No problem. I just hit the up arrow
on the five way directional button and move it up or down or left or right
exactly to where I want it. I add the new word and then using the five way
navigation button I move the flashing cursor back to where I had it originally
and continue typing.
Lets say I want to switch the memo from having no category to a Personal
category. You just hit the center of the five way button and it changes the
focus from the text to the category being highlighted in blue and being ready to
drop down. I realize that I am probably not explaining it well but lets just
say it is amazingly intuitive, well conceived, well implemented and it will
certainly give the Treo 600 a sharp competitive edge.
The Treo 600 is the Evolution of the Revolution in Every Way, Shape and Form
At the end of the day if a product design is not very useful it has no real
social value. The Treo 600 is extremely useful. It is so indescribably
beautiful
So Simple
So Elegant...So utterly Sheik...So Cary Grant. It has a
perfect balance of form and function. It perfectly follows the Bauhaus edict
that less is more.
In a certain sense, the Treo 600 is not only a revolutionary new piece of
hardware, but a revolutionary new OS and UI. There are context sensitive
features galore. The 600 has the skinniest stylus I have ever seen, but I would
not worry about using it any more because the new User Interface has been
completely optimized so you don't need to use a stylus with any native
Handspring applications. This is perhaps the most stunning feature of the Treo
600...the fact you can do everything one-handed...without a stylus.
With just one thumb on the Treo 600 you will be Busier than a one arm man in
a fist-fight...
 The thumboard was superb. It was PERFECTLY accurate. Whenever I am experimenting
with a keyboard to see how it types, I always type the same thing. It is two
lines from a song from the band named THE THE. I always type the same two lines
and I don't know why? I always type:
This is the day that your life will surely change. This is the day that things
will fall into place.
Out of the hundreds of times I have typed those two sentences, I don't think
they were ever more on point!
On most keyboards I goof up once or twice but on the 600 it was perfect! The new
egg/dome shape keys on the Treo 600 feel like you are typing on Tic Tacs as
apposed to the keys on my 270 which feel like typing on Mini Chicklets. The Treo
600 thumboard felt more natural and more intuitive than my flat 270 keys. The
keyboard has white backlighting but the four main buttons and the five-way
navigation button have cobalt blue backlighting. Kind of Deco, Kind of
R2D2...Nice touch.
 The screen was amazingly bright, clear and easy to read in and outdoors
even in
bright direct sunlight. I know it is a point of contention for many people in
this forum trying to decide how they feel about 160 by 160 pixels of screen
resolution. Like many in the forum I was shocked when I first heard it would be
160x160. I almost thought it was a typo.
After using the 600 I think the screen is fine. It is far better than the one on
my 270. This is just my opinion but I think in the future with Palms financial
strength and economies of scale they will introduce higher resolution screens.
Will this stop me from purchasing a Treo 600 the first second it becomes
available. Absolutely not! I will buy one immediately and if you were my brother
and you asked me if you should wait for a higher resolution screen I would say
no. It is great as is.
Professional Grade...Like A Rock
Really!!!
Many people have also voiced a strong concern about the absence of a flip lid
for protecting the main screen as well as concern for the camera lens getting
scratched. Handspring has conducted extensive durability tests to ensure the new
Treo 600 can stand up to everyday use. Apparently despite Handsprings best
efforts to scratch the screens in their real life testing they could not. Same
with the camera lens.
One of the ways Handspring tested the durability of the screens was to put the
Treo in a purse with all kinds of real life things like sharp keys and
sunglasses and shake up the purse for long periods of time. It bummed me out to
learn this, but they sacrificed two hundred Treo 600s just testing them for
sturdiness and durability which included drop testingon concrete floors!
I am not really an SMS kind of dude, but I understand SMS messaging is really
hot in England and Japan. The 600 has this really cool UI feature that groups
together all responses in a single window on the top level and then follows it
like this threaded forum. Really Keeewl.
Picture Perfect
 As many of you know the Treo 600 has a VGA Camera (640x480) onboard. It is
really cool because after you take a photo it asks you if you want to save the
image or send the photo to another computer or cell phone via MMS (Multimedia
Message Service). So lets say I was at a trade show and my assistant called me
and asked me about a certain product. I could immediately take a picture of the
product and have it show up on her Treo 600 screen in the hotel room or in an
inbox on the other side of the planet in no time.
Another example would be if I was shopping and I saw something I thought a
friend would like, I could take a picture of it and send the picture to their
email along with a note that says, If you want me to pick this up for you while
I am downtown let me know.
There are all kinds of great uses for the camera. I took some pictures with the
Treo 600 and looked at them later. They came out pretty well considering there
was no flash.
I am so happy they added the camera. I think I will use it all the time. Now if
they could only add an MP3 voice recorder that could also record telephone
conversations
I Didnt Mean to Turn You On
The way you turn on an off the PDA portion of the phone is with the app button
on the far right. Then you hit the center button on the four-way navigation
button which unlocks the keypad. It has a Keygaurd feature so that you don't hit
buttons by mistake when the Treo in your pocket or purse. There was a second way
to unlock the Keygaurd, but I can't remember it exactly. I think first you hit
the Option button then the center button on the four-way navigation wheel?
The Treo also has a customizable start page which allows you to have your own
desktop wallpaper. There is a menu which allows you to completely customize it.
You know in a weird kind of way the Treo 600 is more like a laptop than a PDA.
It kind of looks like and is laid out like a laptop which has its clamshell top
open 180 degrees. To come to think of it, it really is a mini laptop?!?
 The Treo I saw was operating on the GSM network. There has been a lot of
speculation about where the SIM card goes. Most people speculated from the
photos that they went behind the serial numbers on the back in what appeared to
be a tiny door. Not the case. There is a tiny slit on top of the phone parallel
to the SD card that has a door about the size of the SIM card. This way it will
not creak like the 270 SIM door.
As a matter of fact from what I understand, it was Handsprings objective was to
make the phone feel very, very solid. In my hands it felt almost like the whole
thing was one.
To answer a $64,000 question that has been on everybodys mind: I asked why they
did not make the 600 so that you could swap out batteries? They said it was
because it would cause the 600 to be a little thicker because there would have
to be another piece of plastic and Jeff Hawkins refuses to add any thickness to
it. This is fine with me. I am not a heavy phone user and 5-6 hours of talk time
is more than I will ever need. Also they told me that the 600 is literally jam
packed on the inside. Apparently every scintilla on the 600 is utilized and
tweaked for optimization.
Also, and thank God, they are also coming out with a high-end car kit that will
allow you to charge the Treo and use it hands free. They will also have a new
cradle for the 600.
I listened to an MP3 through headphones and it sounded great! In a weird kind of
way I think I might be happy using it as my MP3 player. With a 256MB card it can
hold about 40 high-quality MP3s. 1GB SD cards are just coming to market so you
would be able have at least 16 albums worth of music on your Treo 600.
Handspring will not be including an MP3 player because they believe it makes
better sense to let you pick your favorite one.
I watched a Matrix Reloaded trailer on the 600 as well. Really cool! There is no
doubt that in the future that you will be able to watch Tivo-like video on your
Treo. Imagine that I will be able to watch Jerry Springer wherever I go! Just
kiddingbut maybe not?
The app icons were redone for the main menu and look more 3d Apple like.
 In conclusion, I can just say I am completely blown away! The Treo 600 is not
only the best of the best but it very accurately illustrates one mans ceiling
is another mans floor. I take my hat of to Jeff Hawkins and his passionate
pursuit of excellence and design perfection. He is a brilliant visionary and
Palm is going to rock with the Treo. This is just my opinion, but I would not be
surprised if Palm bought HS because they saw the 600 and knew it was going to
forever change the face of PDAs.
Just imagine how powerful and ironic the synergy will be with Jeff Hawkins back
in the creative drivers seat at the company he founded. It is kind of like Jobs
back at Apple. Think about the infinite possibilities?!?!?!
I think that the next generation of Palms which will include Palm OS6 is going
to Be off the hook (Pun Intended). Especially with Jeff Hawkins designing the
products and the BeOS developers incorporating so much multimedia and graphics
framework from the BeOS into the new machines.
Think about what Palms are going to look like in just a few years. I'll bet if
we could see a Palm from the year 2008 it would freak us out. Sony will probably
have bought out Palm in 2004. Imagine that possibility?
On a philosophical note, it has always been ironic to me how real technology has
highly outpaced the way people thought it would be in the past. For instance, if
you compare a communicator from the original Star Trek in the 1960s to a Treo
600, the Treo 600 blows it away. I was watching Blade Runner recentlywhich
supposedly took place in something like 2018and I was kind of tripping on how
primitive the computer screens looked. They were all really small and had green
text on black screens. Still a great movie though.
For whatever it is worth, I think in the next couple of years we will see LCD
screens that are at least a 100 inches diagonally. Last month Business Week had
and article about how Samsung was setting up a factory that could make LCD
panels the size of a queen bed!!! Super UltraCoooool!!!
The Microsoft PocketPC camp must be shaking in its boots. I think a potential
weakness that is starting to be exploited against Microsoft is that MS does not
make its own hardware. I have a PC running XP which I like, but I have to say
that after seeing Steve Jobs webcast on the G5 my next computer may be a Mac!
Writing this review and reminiscing about all my experiences kind of gave me
deja vu. Neeto.
You know, there really is something to be said for passion. Especially
Passionate people on a mission like Steve Jobs and Jeff Hawkins. What a
marvelous time in history to be alive. To see so many people contributing so
much coolness to the world. We are all so fortunate!! We really are.
To sum it up the Treo has a highly "Magical" vibe. Otherworldly perhaps. I know
Speed Racer was a cartoon, but if he came to life exactly the way I remember him
from my childhood, he would have a Treo 600 sitting in the Mach 5 and he would
be talking on the high-quality hands free kit to Trixi, or maybe even weirder,
Commissioner Gordon. That's it! It is so Batman or Batcave or Batmobile. Yeah,
that's it...I can see Batman driving around in the Batmobile talking to
Commissioner Gordon? I can't quite describe it. It is just so perfect, magical
and otherworldly. I can't recall anything I have ever been so exited to own.
You know the more I think about it, the Treo 600 is very JamesBond like. I like
Pierce Brosnin a lot but could they changeup the script a little? Give Bond some
real character depth. Not the same contrived Xerox copy over and over. Sorry
about the rant. If James Bond were real, he would have a Treo 600. There; I said
it. It's Bondlike if Bond were real.
I realize I am just riffing, but in retrospect, the Pocket PC seems all
Wacky-Pack-Stickered out. Do you know what I mean???
Shock and Awe, Shock and Awe is all I can say. And just for the record. I am not
affiliated with HandSpring in any way, and I am usually very constructively
critical. I always give credit where credit is due, but I do not get this exited
very often. I am deeply in love. Now if I could only find a woman with the same
attributes ;-)
Marcus at TreoCentral.com asked me if he could post my review as an opinion
piece on the front page. Of course I said yes. Since I have this bully pulpit,
Palm could you please overhaul the Palm Desktop? Pretty Please? In my opinion
Outlook is better than Palm Desktop, but could you add basic features to Palm
Desktop like a time and date stamp in the notes field for contacts? Isnt the
point of the notes field to take notes and time and date them? Why should I have
to waste precious time typing in the time and date?
Also can you increase the number of characters that can be included in a note
field or memo? Another really cool feature would be if the Call History from the
Treo could be transferred to the Palm Desktop. I really think Palm is
overlooking the significance and importance of the Palm Desktop. I cant
emphasize this enough.
At present time on 6-29-2003 there are 38 replies in the thread and if you are
interested in learning more please read on. I would like it if this thread could
evolve into a discussion on what feature people would like to see in future Treo's and Palm's.
The only way they will hear and understand us is if we share our ideas with
them.
I hope you enjoyed reading this review as much as I enjoyed writing it!
Take Care,
Jake Ehrlich
To dicuss this article use this thread.
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