First 24 hours with the Palm Treo 750v

by Volker Weber

[continued from here]

I like the new Treo. Although in runs on Windows Mobile. Palm has done a wonderful job integrating the phone into the Today screen. Most of the stuff you want to do works as expected. I also like the device itself. Its surface gives you a much better grip than the Treo 600 and 650. And I don't really miss the aerial antenna. ;-)

Having said this, there is only two customers who will be happy with it: Customers with their own Exchange server, and those who want to have their Exchange hosted by a provider such aus Vodafone or 1&1. Everybody else, stay away. Here is why:

The Treo mail client is a dumb POP/IMAP client which cannot even do IMAP idle. You can only poll your server every so and so minutes, or check mail manually. This will hit your traffic bill badly. In order to use the Windows Mobile "push" service, you do not set up an e-mail account. You rather go to the ActiveSync application on the Treo and configure your Exchange server. Either your own, or a hosted one. Other than with BlackBerry Internet Service however, it does not make any sense to redirect your real mail address to a hosted account.

The hosted account has to be your e-mail address, it has to be the address. There is no way to set your FROM address to anything but the address Exchange gives you. In my case that is @vodafonebusiness.de. If I forward my @vowe.net address there (which I currently do), a reply will come from the @vodafonebusiness.de. I cannot even set the REPLY-TO address. The next reply passes my mailserver and goes directly to Exchange. There is no way to fix this, neither for the admin, nor the user. Of course Vodafone could be hosting Exchange for vowe.net, but then again I could do that myself.

Microsoft is as simple as the church. You cannot be a little bit Catholic.

[to be continued]

Comments

Thanks Volker - you just eliminated the Treo 750 from my list of possible next phones...

Jens-Christian Fischer, 2006-09-15

Well, you could always try FlexMail which supports IMAP Idle.

Stefan Rubner, 2006-09-15

Or BlackBerry Connect, once that is released.

Volker Weber, 2006-09-15

Do I understand this correct, that your critics actually target the Vodafone branding and integration, not the Treo itself? The old ones with PalmOS had a similar dumb mail client and anybody having a problem with that just used some third party software. Why not do the same with the 750?

Oliver Regelmann, 2006-09-15

Oliver, the Treo 650/650 have dumb mail clients as well. The new Treo has a new value proposition. It tries to compete with a BlackBerry. And I am comparing it to them. My current stance is that it can successfully do so, if you have Exchange.

Volker Weber, 2006-09-15

Well, I guess then my attitude towards the Treo is just as my being catholic. I saw the pope driving by last weekend, when he was in Munich. ;-)

Ragnar Schierholz, 2006-09-15

Ragnar, are you exercising making statements without taking a specific position? ;-)

Jens-Christian, I guess we have to put the argument into revision that reading vowe.net is expensive. =)

Philipp Sury, 2006-09-15

Philip, no, there are actually two specific positions expressed in my statement. In case they might be osbcured too much, here they are in plain text: I'm not catholic and I'm not going to buy a Treo 750v. Reasons for the first are not going to be discussed in public, reasons for the second are that I'm not using Exchange, neither self-operated nor hosted.

Ragnar Schierholz, 2006-09-18

That's not quite true, Vodafone could add your vowe email address to your account on their mail server so that messages appear to come from vowe.net, but it's just too much hassle for them which is ultimately why they don't offer it. I have several WinMo users with externally hosted email who direct it in to our systems and we present their external email on outbound smtp.

Steve Soebce, 2006-09-27

Old vowe.net archive pages

I explain difficult concepts in simple ways. For free, and for money. Clue procurement and bullshit detection.

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