Smartphone update
by Volker Weber
I am developing a love/hate relationship with the Treo 750. The major downside is battery life. It just so makes it through the day. And it has been a while since I had a phone which did not run for a week. The minor downside is Windows Mobile. Just like Windows, it works most of the time. Which is not all of the time. Palm knows what I am saying, and I may find a Treo 680 in my mail this week. It does not have the same silky feel and it does not have a 3G radio, but at least it runs on Palm OS instead of Windows Mobile.
If you ever get the chance to have both devices, upload 4000 contacts. This will slow down the 750 to a crawl while the 680 will be completely unfazed.
In related news, I was looking forward to switching back to a Pearl. A nice person at RIM had located a device and put it in the mail two days ago. Due to a public holiday yesterday the device arrived today. A quick test showed the dreaded "Network Access Denied" message. This time it was not the USIM problem, but a T-Mobile complication. The device had been manufactured for T-Mobile, who in their infinite wisdom had decided to differentiate between "Prosumer" and "Enterprise" devices. While "Enterprise" devices connect via the normal blackberry.net APN, "Prosumer" devices talk to the mail.t-mobile.net APN. Since only one of my test-SIMs is provisioned for this APN, the Pearl was all but a boat anchor. As Pete has explained so nicely, this isn't entirely RIM's fault. I was just reminded today that BlackBerrys are much more complicated to handle than a run-of-the-mill GSM phone. A SIM with data plan isn't good enough. You also need "BlackBerry service" which is marketing speech for access to the appropriate APN on your SIM. You cannot travel to a foreign county, buy a local SIM and drop it in to enjoy local calling rates. Yes, you can place and receive phone calls, but you cannot access your mailbox. You are stuck with your own SIM and the roaming charges for data traffic and phone calls.
A little birdie tells me that T-Mobile is stopping this nonsense with two different devices when they introduce the BlackBerry 8300 in May. As always, RIM does not say anything when I ask them for confirmation. So you may want to take this information with a grain of salt.
No, the Nokia E61i is not forgotten, but it needs to be procured and then sent from Finland first.
Comments
I'll step back from the idea to buy a "smart phone".
Good luck loading 4000 contacts into a dumb phone. Or checking your email. Let alone replying to it.
I am wondering about not having seen the new BB on vowe.net. Looks nice: Blackberry Curve
What is stylus use ratio on the 680 compared to the 750?
I´m still waiting for the Treo 700P to come to Europe, since then I will stuck on my Treo 650. Hopefully it will not broke till then.
Mother, you are probably right. :-) According to my MacBook's address book I only know 168 people... Caused by my autism, I guess.
Anyway to extend the crap battery life of 750?
When do you get get e61i, will that be a better smartphone?
Paul
Paul, battery life is better if you switch off Direct Push. You can also buy more batteries.
The E61i will be different in many ways. I expect it to have excellent battery life. It will be much slower, and somewhat bigger.
I guess you could wait for the Treo 755 which runs on the Palm OS. Of course that's still just a rumour ;)
Sprint runs a CDMA2000/EV-DO network. Devices for Sprint only work in the US. Why would I want one?
