PDA phone maturity - Treo 300 & 600

It's been some time, so do forgive me if my memory is off...

I bought a Treo 300 the day it arrived at a store I was working in. It
was exactly what I wanted in a phone, or so I thought. I was smart
enough to buy the coverage through the store - I figured that a $500
item that lives in my pocket was worth the minor fee (I think it was
less than 50 for three years). Two months later, it started to randomly
reset, loosing all data and speed dial entries so it was swapped for a
new one. Three months later the unit refused to charge, instead killing
the home charger and blowing the fuse in the car charger. Again, the
store swapped it out. The third had a dark screen, but worked well. I've
always opened a flip phone single handed. One day, while running for the
car, I tried to flip it open. I had my finger between the flip and the
screen, and I flipped - flipped - flipped. I looked down to see why it
wasn't opening. There was a crack on the flip, near the hinge. When the
guy at the store gave the phone a wide-eyed look before swapping the
phone nervously, I decided to take a different road. I left with an A500
and a store credit.

That was a few months ago, and I've not used a Treo since. While I like
my A500, I miss the Treo's keyboard, screen, speaker phone, and browsing
ability. I want another, but I have some pause because of some problems
I'd had previously.

On the Sprint Vision PDA site (the default home page in Blazer, IIRC)
there is a download section. From the fall of 2002 to the summer of 2003
there was a message that said that OTA downloads were coming soon. Has
this even happened? I'm shallow, in that I enjoy downloading ringers and
other nonsense. I liked chopping Double-Dutch Bus into a four second qcp
file, goshdarnnit. While there are some tools that allow you to do this
with the Treo, I seldom found them to work well.

In Blazer, getting the URL of a link is rather onerous. It's also hard
to move certain types of data into the clipboard. SMS is broken without
a third-party application. My traveling habits seldom put me in a roam
situation, but dual-band, tri-mode would be nice.

Is there a phone-as-modem option that's mature enough to use with the
Treo? Last time I tried, the only options were Mac OS 10.2 and Windows
XP only. I run XP on my home machine, but ME and OS 10.1 on my laptops.

Can I use my Belkin charge+sync cable with the Treo 600? I found it more
convenient than using the travel charger and sync cable.

Any rumors of a ReadyLink PDA?

Any favorite clients for IMAP?

How well protected is the Treo 600 screen? One of the reasons I chose
the Treo 300 is that exposed PDA screens make me nervous. I'm not
getting a Treo 300, so it's kind of important that the 600 be rugged enough.

Is there any chance of me getting a discount on a phone? I've been with
Sprint since 1999, but I know that I've had five phones on my account in
the past year, so the 18-month discount is out. I'm just wondering about
other promos.
-mike

My Treo 300 never had those troubles you mentioned. Could be that I bought
the 300 much later than you did.
I heard that you can still call HS to get a Treo 600 for $399 even though
the upgrading period is over. Based on your experience with 300, you should
wait a little longer to allow HS to fix all the bugs in the initial
revisions. I heard the latest revisions are much better. For example the
center button is higher.

"Mike" <spamtrap@zbuffer.com> wrote in message
news:braflm$91q$1@news.datasync.com...
> It's been some time, so do forgive me if my memory is off...
>
> I bought a Treo 300 the day it arrived at a store I was working in. It
> was exactly what I wanted in a phone, or so I thought. I was smart
> enough to buy the coverage through the store - I figured that a $500
> item that lives in my pocket was worth the minor fee (I think it was
> less than 50 for three years). Two months later, it started to randomly
> reset, loosing all data and speed dial entries so it was swapped for a
> new one. Three months later the unit refused to charge, instead killing
> the home charger and blowing the fuse in the car charger. Again, the
> store swapped it out. The third had a dark screen, but worked well. I've
> always opened a flip phone single handed. One day, while running for the
> car, I tried to flip it open. I had my finger between the flip and the
> screen, and I flipped - flipped - flipped. I looked down to see why it
> wasn't opening. There was a crack on the flip, near the hinge. When the
> guy at the store gave the phone a wide-eyed look before swapping the
> phone nervously, I decided to take a different road. I left with an A500
> and a store credit.
>
> That was a few months ago, and I've not used a Treo since. While I like
> my A500, I miss the Treo's keyboard, screen, speaker phone, and browsing
> ability. I want another, but I have some pause because of some problems
> I'd had previously.
>
> On the Sprint Vision PDA site (the default home page in Blazer, IIRC)
> there is a download section. From the fall of 2002 to the summer of 2003
> there was a message that said that OTA downloads were coming soon. Has
> this even happened? I'm shallow, in that I enjoy downloading ringers and
> other nonsense. I liked chopping Double-Dutch Bus into a four second qcp
> file, goshdarnnit. While there are some tools that allow you to do this
> with the Treo, I seldom found them to work well.
>
> In Blazer, getting the URL of a link is rather onerous. It's also hard
> to move certain types of data into the clipboard. SMS is broken without
> a third-party application. My traveling habits seldom put me in a roam
> situation, but dual-band, tri-mode would be nice.
>
> Is there a phone-as-modem option that's mature enough to use with the
> Treo? Last time I tried, the only options were Mac OS 10.2 and Windows
> XP only. I run XP on my home machine, but ME and OS 10.1 on my laptops.
>
> Can I use my Belkin charge+sync cable with the Treo 600? I found it more
> convenient than using the travel charger and sync cable.
>
> Any rumors of a ReadyLink PDA?
>
> Any favorite clients for IMAP?
>
> How well protected is the Treo 600 screen? One of the reasons I chose
> the Treo 300 is that exposed PDA screens make me nervous. I'm not
> getting a Treo 300, so it's kind of important that the 600 be rugged
enough.
>
> Is there any chance of me getting a discount on a phone? I've been with
> Sprint since 1999, but I know that I've had five phones on my account in
> the past year, so the 18-month discount is out. I'm just wondering about
> other promos.
> -mike
>

In article <braflm$91q$1@news.datasync.com>, spamtrap@zbuffer.com=20
says...
> It's been some time, so do forgive me if my memory is off...
>=20
> I bought a Treo 300 the day it arrived at a store I was working in. It=20
> was exactly what I wanted in a phone, or so I thought. I was smart=20
> enough to buy the coverage through the store - I figured that a $500=20
> item that lives in my pocket was worth the minor fee (I think it was=20
> less than 50 for three years). Two months later, it started to randomly=
=20
> reset, loosing all data and speed dial entries so it was swapped for a=20
> new one. Three months later the unit refused to charge, instead killing=
=20
> the home charger and blowing the fuse in the car charger. Again, the=20
> store swapped it out. The third had a dark screen, but worked well. I've=
=20
> always opened a flip phone single handed. One day, while running for the=
=20
> car, I tried to flip it open. I had my finger between the flip and the=20
> screen, and I flipped - flipped - flipped. I looked down to see why it=
=20
> wasn't opening. There was a crack on the flip, near the hinge. When the=
=20
> guy at the store gave the phone a wide-eyed look before swapping the=20
> phone nervously, I decided to take a different road. I left with an A500=
=20
> and a store credit.
>=20
> That was a few months ago, and I've not used a Treo since. While I like=
=20
> my A500, I miss the Treo's keyboard, screen, speaker phone, and browsing=
=20
> ability. I want another, but I have some pause because of some problems=
=20
> I'd had previously.

Just a couple of questions, eh?

>=20
> On the Sprint Vision PDA site (the default home page in Blazer, IIRC)=20
> there is a download section. From the fall of 2002 to the summer of 2003=
=20
> there was a message that said that OTA downloads were coming soon. Has=
=20
> this even happened? I'm shallow, in that I enjoy downloading ringers and=
=20
> other nonsense. I liked chopping Double-Dutch Bus into a four second qcp=
=20
> file, goshdarnnit. While there are some tools that allow you to do this=
=20
> with the Treo, I seldom found them to work well.

Unfortunately, the Treo 600 only accepts MIDI ringtones. No voices, and=20
I'm pretty sure that means no QCP's, either, although you might want to=20
ask at one of the download sites' forums to find more on that. They=20
won't let us even try with the one we have in the lab.

>=20
> In Blazer, getting the URL of a link is rather onerous. It's also hard=20
> to move certain types of data into the clipboard. SMS is broken without=
=20
> a third-party application. My traveling habits seldom put me in a roam=20
> situation, but dual-band, tri-mode would be nice.

The Treo 600 will support our MO-SMS system once we get it up and=20
running. Hopefully mid to late next month.

>=20
> Is there a phone-as-modem option that's mature enough to use with the=20
> Treo? Last time I tried, the only options were Mac OS 10.2 and Windows=20
> XP only. I run XP on my home machine, but ME and OS 10.1 on my laptops.
>=20
> Can I use my Belkin charge+sync cable with the Treo 600? I found it more=
=20
> convenient than using the travel charger and sync cable.

I'll leave that to people who've tried. As you've probably already seen=20
me say, we don't support this kind of usage.

>=20
> Any rumors of a ReadyLink PDA?

None so far.

>=20
> Any favorite clients for IMAP?
>=20
> How well protected is the Treo 600 screen? One of the reasons I chose=20
> the Treo 300 is that exposed PDA screens make me nervous. I'm not=20

It's pretty exposed. No real flip of which I'm aware, even as a 3rd=20
party add-on. But I know sites are claiming to sell those glass-magnet=20
screen protectors for it.


--=20
-+-
R=D8=DF
O/Siris
I work for SprintPCS
I *don't* speak for them.