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The Treo 650 has been officially released and may be
purchased at the following locations :
10/3/2005 - LibertyControl - A NEW way to use your Treo650
 Regular visitors of this page may have noticed that there has been a gap in news and information on this page for Treo 650. Not to make excuses, but we do have a good one: We (WAGWARE Systems, Inc. and GX-5, LLC) have been creating a totally new way you can use your Treo 650 to control your PC and it's called LibertyControl! So what could we have possibly
developed that you haven't already seen?
LibertyControl allows you to use your Treo 650 to control the following wirelessly on your PC (using BlueTooth):
PowerPoint Presentations - The focus for LibertyControl was to allow anyone to remotely control a PowerPoint (Or Macromedia Flash) presentation using their Treo 650. You can make available a list of presentations that can be started from the PDA, load a specific presentation, start/stop/forward/back, +More! One really cool feature is that there is a companion application which allows you to import your PowerPoint Slide notes, update them, set timer warnings for each slide (to alert you if you are spending too much time on it). Once the notes
have been defined, the Treo can now display the slide notes right on the device! We are not aware of any stand-alone PowerPoint hardware devices that deliver this type of functionality at ANY price point. Can you imagine the impact on your audience using your Treo 650 to control on your next presentation? Internet Explorer - Another nice feature of LibertyControl is that it allows you to control IE right from the Treo 650. You can easily launch IE, enter a URL, click links (using the 5-way Nav. as a mouse) or use most of the common browsing functions such as: Forward, Backward, Home, Stop, etc. This application also includes a built-in history of your most entered links, QuickText (to quickly enter common .com, http://, etc.) Desktop Control - the Desktop control allows you to use your thumb to move the mouse cursor on the Desktop, click mouse buttons (left, right and left+hold) or use the on-screen Virtual Keyboard. Windows Media Controller - The Windows Media Control integrates to WMP 7-10 and allows you to load playlists that you have defined in the 'MyPlaylist' section of WMP. From there, you can control the sound tracks by selecting Forward, Back, Play/Pause, Mute, Stop, Vol +/-, Shuffle, Repeat or Refresh the WMP Play lists all from the Treo 650!
Whether you are a die-hard Treo fan or a newcomer, LibertyControl is for you. Ok so you are wondering where you can download the current limited beta, right? Well, as long as you keep in mind that it's still in beta and you will report any issues that you find to support@wagware.com, you can download the current beta from here.
We anticipate a high demand for this product and are accepting orders for the current beta! If you want to purchase LibertyControl before the official release at the introductory beta price of only *$34.95, click here using our secured order page.
Check the pricing of similar hardware-only solutions. Other solutions cost $70+ and won't include the ability to view your presentation notes on the device.
* We reserve the right to change the price at anytime.
5/25/2005 - The Treo 650 is now available from Verizon and Great Prices! After nearly four months, Verizon Wireless has officially made available the Treo 650 on their network. In addition, you can purchase the Treo 650 at the WireFly for some outstanding prices (good luck finding these prices at any stores!) Click the carrier link below to check prices and details :
* Click the Carrier link above for the carrier you are interested in. Then enter your Zip code and select 'Phones' and 'Treo 650' to see the current rates.
4/4/2005 - Verizon Treo 650 around the corner?
A teaser page has been setup on the Verizon website indicating the Treo 650 will soon be certified on the Verizon network. No release date is mentioned, presently. Based on the disclaimer at the bottom of the page, not all BlueTooth profiles will be enabled.
3/4/2005 - Initial Treo 650 experiences
I was a Kyocera 7135 owner for almost two years. It is a fantastic device, it did most everything I wanted it to. However, I'm a software developer and keeping up with the latest innovations is important. After all, in order to develop software for the latest hardware I really do need an updated device to test my software on (well, that is how I justify the expense).
I went to a near by Cinglular store and met up with a good friend of mine who is also a Kyocera 7135 power-user. The immediate reaction from both of us when we held the Treo 650 was how impressive the screen was and the responsiveness of the unit (our 7135's run on a 33Mhz Dragonball processor, not the speedy 312Mhz processor found on the Treo 650). While talking with the sales person, I was busy popping in my 1GB Lexar SD card from the 7135 into the T650 checking out various programs. Almost immediately I began seeing the unit soft-reset. I was really concerned about
this, after all, I hadn't even sync'd to my desktop and there were no fewer than 3 spontaneous resets on the Treo 650 while in the store! I wound up biting the bullet and purchasing the unit even though it appeared to be a risky move.
As it turned out, I spent the next day trying to determine what was causing the resets. 60% of the time I would insert the SD card into the T650, it would reset. Interestingly, it was not every time. The trick to fixing this issue was to remove all apps. from my "\Palm\Launcher" folder on the SD card and add them one at a time until I found the problem. Eventually, the problem was resolved and was related to a non-visible library (.prc) that was installed to the SD Card but one I didn't need. This one file was causing the resets. It didn't matter that I
wasn't loading a specific program, just having the file in the Launcher directory is all it took to cause the Treo 650 to reset. I found this very unusual.
With that one issue resolved, I installed the new Desktop software included with the Treo 650 and Hotsycn'd the unit to my laptop. This went better. I then began adding my old programs one at a time to the device. Nearly 30% of the apps. I was running on the Kyocera 7135 needed to be either updated or totally removed from the Treo 650 due to instability or crashes immediately after launching the app. Even the included copy of Documents To Go was causing problems. Each time I would exit one of my Word/Excel documents, the Treo 650 would reset. This was very
frustrating but fixed by going back to the Office Suite I was using on my 7135, Quick Office (I did go to the DataVis website and attempted the instructions from their support page without success).
Knowing that the T650 is not exactly a stable device (I do frequent Treocentral), one of the first apps. I went searching for is a Backup utility. I decided to go with BackupBuddy VFS. This application seemed to work ok, though there are a few issues with it. During a restore operation, it does not restore the Voice Dial software (3rd party app. by VoiceSignal) and does show a few out of memory errors at times. However, I did test hard-resetting and restoring a few times. For the most part, it did the job. In my opinion, the issues seem related to the Treo
650's NVFS (Non-Volatile File System). Though I could be wrong about that.
A few days after starting to use BackupBuddyVFS, I wound up purchasing a BlueTooth USB adapter for my laptop to allow a wireless Hotsync. This seemed to go well until I tried it from the living room (about 40 feet away). I know the limitations of BlueTooth (30ft.), but thought I would try it anyway. The Treo 650 did connect and performed a Hotsync successfully, although quite slowly. I thought things went well until I then tried to do a cabled-Hotsync to my laptop. In the middle of the Hotsync, the Treo 650 performed a reset and then entered a startup-loop.
The only way out of it was a system reset (it's described in the manual). After doing this, somehow I was able to get the unit Hotsync'ing again. I think during the long-distance Hotsync, one (or more) files had gotten corrupted. It's hard to tell on this machine what really caused the startup-loop.
All of the above transpired during the first week of owning the unit. Luckily, things have gotten much better. It has taken quite a bit of time but now I have most all the applications I used on the 7135 running successfully on the Treo 650. The resets are now an uncommon event and I'm really starting to enjoy the machine. I do have some issues with it, something anyone considering a Treo 650 should keep in mind:
The ear-piece audio volume, even on it's highest setting is unacceptable to me. I did return my first Treo 650 to see if it was the unit itself, it wasn't. I will be looking into a BlueTooth headset to remedy this situation in the short-term. In the RealPlayer application (MP3 player included in the Treo 650 ROM), if I tap the 'Preferences' menu option, the Treo 650 immediately resets. The phone tends to power itself on automatically whenever it feels like it. No apparent reason.
I called palmOne concerning the above issues and they were UNABLE to help me resolve a single one of them. The Tech simply said they are "Logging all issues and reporting them to Engineering". Not exactly the most helpful response. I then lectured him on how I've been a long-time palmOne customer and I'm rather amazed that palmOne would release such an unstable product. He didn't say much. I also said I would imagine a good 60% of your support calls are related to Treo 650 issues, he indicated that is a pretty
close estimate. The #1 issue reported was related to Hotsync problems according to the Tech I spoke with. I hope some of the above information will be helpful. I do think the Treo 650 is a nice device, even with the many issues that it has currently. I also believe that palmOne will eventually pull-through with an update for the Treo 650 that will make this the device what it should have been from the beginning. It's that little bit of hope that has kept me from returning it. Now that I am a Treo 650 owner, this page will change focus to
providing you with useful information regarding the use and operation of the Treo 650. I hope you find it informative. If you want to help support this page, please consider trying one of the applications on this site. All were written by me and I welcome your comments and recommendations for improvement.
2/1/2005 - Cingular Treo 650 available Feb. 3rd? The wait for some is almost over (me included)! The Cingular Treo 650 is stated as being available for pre-order now from younevercall.com with expected availability on Feb 3rd. Click here to read more information.
1/15/2005 - Rumor: Cingular Treo coming soon?
TreoCentral is reporting that a newsletter from palmOne sent to subscribers of their 'Health Care Solutions' featured the Cingular Treo 650. The event is scheduled for Jan. 27th. No pricing is currently available.
12/3/2004 - Treo 650 Sound Quality: can you hear me
now?
According to numerous Treo 650 users on
TreoCentral,
the audio quality of the internal microphone may have some issues. Many
are reporting that the person being talked from the Treo 650 "couldn't hear well
what I was saying". Other statements from this thread include "my voice
sounded more digitized", "sounded like bad digital reception", "sounded hollow
and 'echo-y', like I was on speakerphone". Still, other users have not
noticed any issues.
Some users who have contacted palmOne about the issue
received replacement phones which sound much better. This may have been a
quality issue from early batches of Treo 650's.
12/1/2004 - Treo 650 at
CompUSA
While visiting the
CompUSA in Huntsville, AL
today I spotted at least three Treo 650 boxes (Sprint Version) in the cabinet.
Looks like retail stores are now beginning to receive Treo 650 inventories.
At present, the phones do not appear on the CompUSA Website.
12/1/2004 - palmOne Acknowledges Treo
650 Flash Memory Problems
palmOne has posted a
knowledge base article that fully describes the Treo 650 memory issue
mentioned on 11/19/2004. The article includes information on what to do if
you run into issues during migration from a Treo 600 (or other device) to the
Treo 650 and how to deal with it. It also gives you a ball-park figure on
how inefficient the Treo 650 memory really is. In my
opinion, it is amazing that palmOne would allow a device with such minimal
amount of NV RAM and inefficient use of storage to make it out the door.
It's a shame too, it has allot going for it otherwise.
11/19/2004 - New Treo 650 Users
Reporting problems
Within the past 24 hours, some customers who
purchased their Treo 650's directly from Sprint have received them. Some
of those users are reporting an unusual number of crashes during the Hotsync process. Even worse, the memory
allocation used on the Treo 650 is apparently
much less as efficient as that on the Treo 600. As an example, a
database file that is 130k on the Treo 600 would consume approximately 850k on
the Treo 650. This is due to the difference in how files are stored within
the non-volatile memory. No matter how small a file actually is, it will
consume a 512 byte chunk. This problem is most apparent with databases
that contain a large number of records, the contact database, for instance.
Honestly,
I'm very worried for palmOne. I write software for PalmOS devices and I
understand how much palmOne is banking on the success of the Treo 650.
Apparently, they have done little in the way of QA / Beta Testing of this unit.
It's a shame, a decent handful of software developers could have saved them this
major embarrassment that is now brewing. I only hope that palmOne responds publicly
with a workable solution. At this time,
there have been no official statements from palmOne confirming this issue (Update:
palmOne has acknowledged the issue, see 12/1/2004 post for more info).
Archive of Old Treo 650 News
If you would like to read old news regarding the Treo 650 just prior to it's official release. please click here. |
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