PalmOS phones questions

I like Graffiti on my old Palm. It looks like the only PalmOS phone
Sprint offers with Graffiti out of the box is the Samsung i500, but it
also looks like that kind of sucks as a phone (e.g., no real SMS).

Googling, I see that Graffiti can be added to the Treos. How well does
that work? Does not having a dedicated area reserved for Graffiti cause
problems with any applications?

Second, how are the Treos as Palm devices, as opposed to as phones?
That is, can I do with one all the usual things one does with a Palm?
That includes developing my own programs, without having to join any
expensive developer program.

Third, how well is the phone stuff integrated with the Palm stuff?
E.g., can I write Palm applications that can dial the phone or send SMS
messages or read SMS messages or stuff like that? Or is the phone stuff
off in its own separate universe?

--
--Tim Smith

---

› See More: PalmOS phones questions

"Tim Smith" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
> I like Graffiti on my old Palm. It looks like the only PalmOS phone
> Sprint offers with Graffiti out of the box is the Samsung i500, but it
> also looks like that kind of sucks as a phone (e.g., no real SMS).

You can get an app that does this for the phone> It's free also. Links
below:

> Googling, I see that Graffiti can be added to the Treos. How well does
> that work? Does not having a dedicated area reserved for Graffiti cause
> problems with any applications?

My Tungsten C can be written on the screen using G2 and only once in a blue
moon does it cause a problem, that's when I use the thumb board to type.

> Second, how are the Treos as Palm devices, as opposed to as phones?
> That is, can I do with one all the usual things one does with a Palm?
> That includes developing my own programs, without having to join any
> expensive developer program.

They are just like other Palms running OS5. My friend has one and is
basically identical in functionality to my Tungsten C other than the Treo
has a smaller screen, smaller buttons and less ram. I think you should take
a closer look at the i500. In my opinion other than it has only 16MB of ram
it's a great device. I bought it so I could leave my TC home when I ride my
motorcycle and I only load those apps I really need onto it. The phone
sounds crystal clear and it's very easy to operate. I found the Treos to be
too large for me to comforably use it as a phone. The i500 comes with a
belt-clip case, two batteries, desktop charger/cradle, two stylii and the
CDs, the Treo does not come with a desktop charger/cradle, no extra battery
because you can't change it, one stylus and I don't think my friend's came
with a belt-clip case but I think it came with some kind of sleeve... I
found that to be useless to me because you can only put it in your pocket or
hold it. I've made a lot of wall paper images for it and popped them on one
of the web sites below. If you want to see the ones I made just search for
amazon ***** or amazon_b1tch. most of the skins (as they call them) I made
are in the adult section.

> Third, how well is the phone stuff integrated with the Palm stuff?
> E.g., can I write Palm applications that can dial the phone or send SMS
> messages or read SMS messages or stuff like that? Or is the phone stuff
> off in its own separate universe?

They are combined very well and integrate nicely on both the i500 and the
Treo.

LINKS:
http://i500.nopdesign.com/
http://www.aporia.us/mambo/index.php

> --
> --Tim Smith

Tim Smith wrote:
> I like Graffiti on my old Palm. It looks like the only PalmOS phone
> Sprint offers with Graffiti out of the box is the Samsung i500, but it
> also looks like that kind of sucks as a phone (e.g., no real SMS).
>
> Googling, I see that Graffiti can be added to the Treos. How well does
> that work? Does not having a dedicated area reserved for Graffiti cause
> problems with any applications?

I use GraffitiAnywhere. I think it costs around $15. It works
reasonably well, though I sure wish I could get the original Graffiti
instead of Graffiti 2. I've mostly gotten used to Graffiti 2, but it's
not as good (but slightly easier to learn).

> Second, how are the Treos as Palm devices, as opposed to as phones?
> That is, can I do with one all the usual things one does with a Palm?
> That includes developing my own programs, without having to join any
> expensive developer program.

They're excellent palm devices. My Treo 600 works with pretty much any
Palm app I try. Plenty of horsepower, and with the SD slot, plenty of
nonvolatile memory.

> Third, how well is the phone stuff integrated with the Palm stuff?
> E.g., can I write Palm applications that can dial the phone or send SMS
> messages or read SMS messages or stuff like that? Or is the phone stuff
> off in its own separate universe?
>

Sorry, I don't know.

>I think you should take
>a closer look at the i500. In my opinion other than it has only 16MB of ram
>it's a great device.

So you really feel the i500 is a better unit than the
Treo 650?

I wouldn't know about the 650 but I like it better than my friend's 600. The
650 is still too big in my opinion and I've heard about some issues with it
but don't remember what they were. The i500 is a nice little device and
everyone that sees mine thinks so too. Even my friend with a Blackberry 7510
(with Nextel) would have switched to Sprint and bought the i500 if not for
the lack of Direct Connect. I don't get any dropped calls and they're all
very clear. I also have not been in a situation where I couldn't make a call
from lack of signal, I live in Queens, NY. Someone said that you could not
use the Palm part while on a phone call but if you have a head set, you're
in business, you can do both.

<[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> >I think you should take
> >a closer look at the i500. In my opinion other than it has only 16MB of
ram
> >it's a great device.
>
> So you really feel the i500 is a better unit than the
> Treo 650?

You will be surprised at how quickly you can become accustomed to using the
keyboard on the 650.
The 650 will run just about any Palm program. It does utilized the new NVFS
like the Tungsten 5, which handles RAM in a less efficient manner than
older Palms. A program like PowerRun or Zlauncher will let you move most
apps to the SD card and save on RAM.
Do a search on your question in the discussion section at
http://www.treocentral.com for more info.
Zane


Tim Smith wrote:

>
> I like Graffiti on my old Palm. It looks like the only PalmOS phone
> Sprint offers with Graffiti out of the box is the Samsung i500, but it
> also looks like that kind of sucks as a phone (e.g., no real SMS).
>
> Googling, I see that Graffiti can be added to the Treos. How well does
> that work? Does not having a dedicated area reserved for Graffiti cause
> problems with any applications?
>
> Second, how are the Treos as Palm devices, as opposed to as phones?
> That is, can I do with one all the usual things one does with a Palm?
> That includes developing my own programs, without having to join any
> expensive developer program.
>
> Third, how well is the phone stuff integrated with the Palm stuff?
> E.g., can I write Palm applications that can dial the phone or send SMS
> messages or read SMS messages or stuff like that? Or is the phone stuff
> off in its own separate universe?
>

>I wouldn't know about the 650 but I like it better than my friend's 600. The
>650 is still too big in my opinion and I've heard about some issues with it
>but don't remember what they were. The i500 is a nice little device and

But since the i500 has no keyboard like the Treo 650s
"thumb board"..... isn't it hard to enter text into the
i500?

Not really... as long as you get the hang of graffiti. My problem is that
the graffiti is different on the i500 than it is on the Tungsten C although
slightly different. It really isn't that hard and there's always the on
screen keyboard where you tap a small area in the writing area to being it
up, then all you have to do it tap the characters you want, just like on a
keyboard. When I started using Palms six years ago I used that method until
I got used to graffiti but it only took a few weeks. Once you have the hang
of it graffiti is faster, believe it or not.

<[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> >I wouldn't know about the 650 but I like it better than my friend's 600.
The
> >650 is still too big in my opinion and I've heard about some issues with
it
> >but don't remember what they were. The i500 is a nice little device and
>
> But since the i500 has no keyboard like the Treo 650s
> "thumb board"..... isn't it hard to enter text into the
> i500?

>You will be surprised at how quickly you can become accustomed to using the
>keyboard on the 650.

yeah I'm still leaning towards the Treo 650...even tho
it is bigger

But I will look at i500 unit

[email protected] wrote:
>> You will be surprised at how quickly you can become accustomed to using the
>> keyboard on the 650.
>
> yeah I'm still leaning towards the Treo 650...even tho
> it is bigger
>
> But I will look at i500 unit

To me the i500's 'no true SMS' is a deal breaker.

--
John Richards

>To me the i500's 'no true SMS' is a deal breaker.

what do you mean

what is "no true SMS"?

[email protected] wrote:
>> To me the i500's 'no true SMS' is a deal breaker.
>
> what do you mean
>
> what is "no true SMS"?

That means it uses an older version of text messaging, Sprint's
substitute called Short Mail. It's a cumbersome method of
retrieving text messages from a server rather than true
phone-to-phone text messaging. Sprint switched to true SMS
a little over a year ago, but many older Sprint phones can't
handle true SMS.

--
John Richards

>That means it uses an older version of text messaging, Sprint's
>substitute called Short Mail. It's a cumbersome method of
>retrieving text messages from a server rather than true
>phone-to-phone text messaging. Sprint switched to true SMS
>a little over a year ago, but many older Sprint phones can't
>handle true SMS.

I see

Yes that sound like deal breaker to me for the i500 as
well

Well, I did not have much use for Short Mail when I had a Wireless Web
phone, so I did not miss it when it and Sprint PCS mail stopped working.
Now that I have a Vision phone, I find I have not much use for SMS
either, but at least the e-mail is working again.


[email protected] wrote:
>>That means it uses an older version of text messaging, Sprint's
>>substitute called Short Mail. It's a cumbersome method of
>>retrieving text messages from a server rather than true
>>phone-to-phone text messaging. Sprint switched to true SMS
>>a little over a year ago, but many older Sprint phones can't
>>handle true SMS.
>
>
> I see
>
> Yes that sound like deal breaker to me for the i500 as
> well

In article <[email protected]>,
"John Richards" <[email protected]> wrote:
> That means it uses an older version of text messaging, Sprint's
> substitute called Short Mail. It's a cumbersome method of
> retrieving text messages from a server rather than true
> phone-to-phone text messaging. Sprint switched to true SMS
> a little over a year ago, but many older Sprint phones can't
> handle true SMS.

I don't know if all older Sprint phones are like this, but my LG 5350
seems to receive SMS messages just fine, and it did from the start, long
before Sprint finally got true SMS. It was just sending that was not
supported, requiring that horrible Short Mail.

So, if all you care about is receiving, then a non-SMS phone *might*
still be OK. But I'd strongly recommend finding someone with one and
trying it (or trying it at a Sprint store) to make sure, especially if
you think you might ever want to send messages.

--
--Tim Smith