My Treo: Nearly Extinct

Here’s my latest Treo update.  It’s been a while since I posted, but hear goes….This is the official “beginning of the end” post.

Just two days after updating my Palm Treo 700p with the latest ROM update (see post: Treo 700p for Verizon 1.11 Update, not smooth), my 700p stopped functioning as a phone, due to my headphone jack breaking.  You see, my headphone jack thinks that I have a wired headset plugged in at all times, even when there’s nothing plugged in.  The downside of it is all sound is sent to the headset (i.e rings, calls, music, voicemail).  Nothing is emitted to the handset or the speakerphone.  Oh, and since the headset jack thinks a wired headset is plugged in, calls do not get routed to a Bluetooth headset either.  Can you say, dead in the water?

So, that’s a real bummer.

Fortunately, I gave my three year old son my old Treo 650 as a game device about a year ago.  He uses it on long rides on the car, or waiting for food at restaurants.  It’s a great way to keep him occupied when there is nothing fun for him nearby.

I convinced him that I’d need to borrow the phone back from him for a short time, and he obliged.  Good kid, his parents must be doing a great job with him.  :-)  So, I reactivated my Treo 650 and deactived my 700p from Verizon.

Of course, the 650 doesn’t charge due to too many plugs/unplugs from the Athena connector.  So, when I need to recharge the battery, I need to take it out and put the battery in the 700p and recharge.  Not so much fun.  Plus, my Palm Desktop is all setup with the 700p.  So for syncing calender, tasks, and contacts, I need to sync the 700p.  Basically, I’m rocking soft-rocking a 650 and 700p at the same time.  There’s nothing quite like a brick in each pocket!  It’s not exactly the twilight days of my life with Palm and the Treo.

To take it one step further, I decided to reduce my phone plan.  I’ve dropped my minutes from 900 to 450, since I don’t use that many minutes these days.  More importantly, I completely dropped my data plan.  I figured, since I no longer use my Treo as a work device, there is really no need to pay $45 a month for personal email and crappy web browsing.

This is the first time since 2005 that I have not had email in my pocket at all times.  I feel like this guy right  now, desperately in need of a fix.

I have, at most, 3 months left as a Treo user and a Palm customer.  Many of you know that my new employer plans to pick up my business phone/data plan…as long as it’s on a BlackBerry.  So, as soon as the Bold, Thunder, and/or Storm drop, I will retire both Treo’s and forever as long as I’m forced be a RIM customer.

I guess the good of it is, once the Treo’s get retired, my son can get “his” 650 back, and my 1 year old daughter can get the 700p.  Now, they won’t have to fight over each others high-tech fake phones.

This is how it’s winding down.  I’ve got my scopes on AT&T relasing the Bold by end of month, and Verizon releasing the Storm by mid November.  Which one will I get?  Hmmm….Bold with the Treo form factor or Storm with the iPhone form factor.  That is going to be a tough choice.

Treo 700p for Verizon 1.11 Update, not smooth

Ok, so I ran the Treo 700p Updater for Verizon. You won’t be shocked to find out….I had problems. An hour is now gone, and I think hope that everything is ok. See my step-by-step details below. They are rough and quick, but just for you 700p users out there that might be updating. For everyone else, read the other posts….this is a boring one.

700p Updater Steps

1. Run backup or sync.
2. Soft reset the phone (for me, used ChatterEmail to force a soft reset).
3. Plugged in sync cable to laptop.
4. Ran Desktop updater.
5.
6. On Treo selected “English”
7. Used stylus to set screen
8. Phone radio turned on automatically.
9. Set time zone settings.
10. Phone powered off automatically.
11. Treo screen displayed “Updating Treo”.

12. Desktop Updater started Copying Files

13. Phone reset. Had to select language again.
14. Had to do stylus tap again.
15. Phone radio turned on automatically.
16. Had to set time zone settings again.
17. Phone automatically dialed my voice mail.
18. I manually hung it up, then phone turned off.
19. Treo screen displayed “Updating Treo”
20. Desktop Updater continued with Executing Update
21. My phone received a text message during the update. Why was the phone on???
22. Phone automatically rebooted. Had to select language again.
23. Had to do stylus tap again.
24. Phone radio turned on automatically.
25. Had to set time zone settings again.
26. Desktop Installer displayed “Update Complete”. (This can’t be a good sign.)

27. Phone Info screen on Treo displays correct updated version number “Treo700p-1.11-VZW”
28. Ran *228, then 1 to program phone. “Unable to program phone” message. Directed to call support from a land line.
29. Support asked me to remove battery. Done.
30. Support running Verizon “soft reset” from their side.
31. Support asked to replace battery. Done and powering on.
32. Support asked me to type #*#000000#, then hit edit. Verified settings were accurate. Then hit save.
33. Would not save due to no changes.
34. Support checking on local tower issues.
35. Tried *228, 2. It worked, phone is now provisioned, now have Verizon Wireless
36. Tried *228, 1 again. Still getting “Unable to program phone” message.
37. Support gave up, stating that since the phone is provisioned with option #2, it should be fine.

Oh Palm, curse you again! Why can’t anything be easy with your updates?

Palm OS, you are losing me

I’ll keep it quick and simple for now, and elaborate in a bit.

crappy dumbphone from Nokia (2000 – 2002) –> crappy dumbphone from LG (2002 – 2005) –> PalmOne Treo 650 (2005 – 2007) –> Palm Treo 700p (2007 – now).

I’ve grown past what I have. I’m working now to get out of my Verizon contract (without fees), so I can get the AT&T Tilt (aka HTC TyTn II). I know that everyone craps all over Windows Mobile, but it’s better than Palm OS for someone who wants it all. It’s time for me to have GPS, WiFi, and A2DP built into the device. I’m sick of waiting, and I’m going to jump ship. I looked at the Verizon XV6800, but it’s more expensive than AT&T’s Tilt and has less features.

The Treo 800w (or whatever it’s going to be called), can’t get here fast enough. Anyway, you look at it….I’m done with Palm OS…..and Windows Mobile 6 is going to get me. Now, what hardware provider will it be? HTC, Sony, or Palm? It’s looking like it will be HTC, but I will keep you posted.

ChatterEmail updated to 3.0.12

I have to say, for an application which is not longer being actively developed, the people (Mark & Josh to note) at ChatterEmail have got to be the best in the biz as far as customer support. Many of you know that ChatterEmail is the best 3rd party email app for the Palm OS. In recent weeks, Chatter was updated to now support GMails IMAP service (push email). It worked well in it’s first release, but some major battery drain and minor bugs caused the team at Chatter to go back into the app and make some additional enhancements.

As of this afternoon, ChatterMail is again upgrade to version 3.0.12, and you can get it here . For me, a GMail IMAP user, this is great news. I am now upgrading to 3.0.12 from 3.0.10, and am looking to see if the battery drain is improved at all.

Whether or not all the bugs are fixed, it really is impressive the ChatterEmail continues to evolve although the product is “officially feature complete”.

Chatter, thanks again for the amazing customer support.

More Streaming Video on Palm OS and Windows Mobile

Thanks to WMExperts.com, I just learned of a site even better than YouTube and better than MobiTV. Why is it better you ask?

1. Tons of well organized streaming video.
2. It’s free.

I just tried it on my Treo 700p, and am now watching a stream of ABC7 news. It’s not prerecorded either. It’s a live stream.

This 700p just keeps impressing me more and more every day. No 3rd party software needed. This works with the hidden embedded Kinoma player in the ROM.

Oh, you want the link to the site? Ok, here you go: http://www.channelchooser.com/mobile.php

You Tube on Treo’s!

Did you know that right out of the box a Treo 700p and 755 both play videos from You Tube? I had no idea and stumbled on it one day while reading the “Quick Tour” documentation.

As a test, I opened Blazer and went to www.youtube.com and boom….just like that I was streaming You Tube videos on my 700p. Just another under-marketed feature of the Treo that did what the iPhone does…..more than a year ago.

Anyway, it’s fun when someone with an iPhone is showing off the You Tube feature and I can say, oh that…..I had You Tube out of the box on my Treo over a year ago. “Put that in your iPhone and smoke it!”

Treo 700p 1.10 MR ROM Update for Verizon

It’s official, I finally got a Treo 700p for Verizon. Don’t worry, I got it real cheap on eBay. My main reason for getting the 700p now, versus the 755p or waiting for something else to arrive is two-fold:
* I must have my full size SD cards.
* I was using my Treo 650 every day tethered to my laptop (with PDANet) for data access on the go. The 650 is soooo slowwww, and the 700p has high-speed EVDO data connection. So much better.

Now, I beg of the My Mobile Obsession readers: “I need a copy of the Verizon Treo 700p Update 1.10″. As many of you know, Palm pulled it off their website due to customer issues.

Between you and me, all my Palm devices have/had issues….I’m used to it and will deal with it. I just NEED the update so I don’t have to reinstall all my apps again once the next update comes out.

Here’s a quick review of my experience on the 700p. So far, it’s got some wicked lag issues (I see what everyone was complaining about). I generally only see the lag when my phone/data connection is weak or dropped. Other than that, the UI is a bit refreshed with minor tweaks from the 650. My must have apps, PocketTunes 4.0.3 and Softick Audio Gateway 1.14 are running quite well. I’m now using VersaMail 3.5.1 to wirelessly sync my Calendar and Contacts. Though VersaMail has it’s issues:
1) The autosync feature never works.
2) There no option to sync Tasks. What!!?? You can do Mail, Calendar, and Contacts….but just ignore Tasks. What’s the deal with that?!

So, ChatterEmail lives on on the 700p. I will continue to use it for mail.

More updates as they come in.

For now, I may just stick with Palm Garnet OS and ride it to the end….then see what the hub-bub around the Linux-based Palm OS II is all about.

iPHone, sorry. You lost me at no keyboard.
Win Mo, I think you will lose me to Palm OS II. Let’s see when the Win Mo 6 with 320×320 Treo comes out…and then we shall talk again.

Holy Crap! Palm cancels Foleo!

Well, I have been on a blog hiatus for two months…work and family schedule has kept me away from updating My Mobile Obsession. But, I have kept up on the news.

Today’s announcement immediately forced me to postpone my hiatus. Not since the announcement that Sega was “end of lifing” the Dreamcast to focus solely on software, has something this big come along.

The Foleo is DEAD!!! WTF. Don’t get me wrong, this is good news to me (and I’m sure you too). But, holy F****** S***! On possibly the day that it was going to be released for purchase, Palm drops this email in my inbox:

(Side Note: I have lot’s of Treo 700p, Centro, Gandolph, and VersaMail news to share. But now back to the headlines).

From: Palm Inc [Palm__Inc@News.palmnewsletters.com]
Subject: Important Palm News

As many of you are aware, we are in the process of building our next generation software platform. We are very excited about how this is coming together. It has a modern, flexible UI, instant performance, and an incredibly simple and elegant development environment. We are working hard on this platform and on the first smartphones that will take advantage of it.
In the course of the past several months, it has become clear that the right path for Palm is to offer a single, consistent user experience around this new platform design and a single focus for our platform development efforts. To that end, and after careful deliberation, I have decided to cancel the Foleo mobile companion product in its current configuration and focus all our energies on delivering our next generation platform and the first smartphones that will bring this platform to market. We will, of course, continue to deliver products in partnership with Microsoft on the Windows Mobile platform, but from our internal platform development perspective, we will focus on only one.
Because we were nearly at the point of shipping Foleo, this was a very tough decision. Yet I am convinced this is the right thing to do. Foleo is based on a second platform and a separate development environment, and we need to focus our efforts on one platform. Our own evaluation and early market feedback were telling us that we still have a number of improvements to make Foleo a world-class product, and we can not afford to make those improvements on a platform that is not central to our core focus. That would not be right for our customers or for our developer community.
Jeff Hawkins and I still believe that the market category defined by Foleo has enormous potential. When we do Foleo II it will be based on our new platform, and we think it will deliver on the promise of this new category. We’re not going to speculate now on timing for a next Foleo, we just know we need to get our core platform and smartphones done first.
I would like to thank our customers for their interest in Foleo. I know there will be disappointed folks who were looking forward to carrying a Foleo for all their mobile computing needs. I am certainly one of them. I would also like to thank the developers who have supported our Foleo efforts. They have been loyal to Palm and have worked hard to deliver some compelling solutions on the Foleo platform. I know that they will understand that the right thing to do for the long run is to focus on one platform that will live for years, rather than invest energy in a one-off solution. We will make every effort to make sure we bring our developers forward to our next generation platform.
This decision will require us to take a limited charge of less than $10 million dollars to our earnings. This is a lot of money, but it is a small price relative to the costs that would be required to support two platforms going forward. This decision is in the best interest of our customers, our team, our products and our shareholders. I hope this renewed focus at Palm will allow us to deliver more compelling solutions to our core smartphone market, and it will allow us to position ourselves for the long run around one Palm experience.

Ed Colligan

President & CEO
Palm, Inc.

Palm Foleo…are you kidding me?

Well, I will be honest. I have been a full-time Palm user only since 2005, when I got a Treo 650. Prior to that, I had bought Palm Z and V models for gifts, and was fortunate enough to be “tech support” on them. I waited until a good PDA/cell phone device came out before I made the leap. Ever since getting my 650, I have been in love with the Palm OS and all that it offers. The Treo 700p came out and I really wanted it, but could see spending $300 – $600 for something out of contract, which only offered EVDO and a bit more RAM as upgrades. The 755p is out, and I love the form factor….but miniSD isn’t for me. So what’s next, maybe the new Palm devices with Linux. Ohh I can’t wait.

Then comes….

…the Palm Foleo. I learned the details late today, since I had no internet connection till late in the day. The Palm Foleo is….well, it’s…..how do I say this kindly??? It’s a for mans version of a laptop. Small and lightwieght (like the small Sony VAIO or Dell Latitude). Has WiFi and Bluetooth 2.0 like any laptop I have used in the past 3 years. Has a screen (but not touch sensitive), has a full-size keyboard. Runs a form of Linux, and some Palm specific apps. Has no CD drive, uses SD cards instead. Has a small processor and small amounts of RAM.

WHAT THE @#%$ IS GOING ON??? Where is the new device? I already connect my Treo via bluetooth to my Sony VAIO laptop. It runs wonderfully like that, and I have all the Windows apps that I’d expect running with lot’s of RAM, a huge hard drive, and all that goes with a typical laptop. Why, please tell me why would I ever want the Palm Foleo? I travel for work….a lot, and everywhere I go, I have my Treo 650 and my Sony VAIO. What value add does the Foleo bring me? Yippee, now I can carry two laptops in my backpack, not just one.

Call me naive, but I don’t get it. I really want to ‘get it’, but I don’t. I want to drool over this new Palm device, but I can’t. Someone help me answer these questions. Why did Palm really build this device? Who did they build this device for?

You know what really did make me drool today? The Microsoft Surface. Ohh….there’s no reason I’d buy one, but wow…..that’s wicked cool!

Style Tap…is there really any reason to stay with Palm OS?

You may have heard of Style Tap by now. It’s a piece of software that runs on your Windows Mobile device, but is a Palm OS emulator. That’s right, you can run your Palm OS apps on your Windows Mobile Treo (or any other Win Mob device).

So, with the impending end of the Palm OS, and the questionable future of Palm Linux…and with Microsoft (dare I say) innovating on the new Windows Mobile 6, I have to ask…
…Why would anyone want to stick with Palm OS?

If Style Tap does what it claims, I will be able to run Pocket Tunes, ChatterEmail, and Handy Finance on a Windows Mobile 6 device. My main reason for not moving to Windows Mobile 6 yet is (1) there isn’t yet a Treo that has Win Mob 6 (2) I don’t want to give up my three favorite Palm OS apps.

Style tap seems like it will solve that, and allow me to stick with an OS developer (Microsoft) with plans long-term plans to continue to innovate its OS. Not a company that just releases device after device (Treo 650, 700p, 755p) with the same ol’ stale OS .

It makes sense to me. What about you?