Comments on: Preview: Samsung's Upcoming OS 5 Smartphones

well, since Samsung has not really officially announced these models and is just "previewing" them (and they do so way in advance of availability) all the specs are not known or could change by the time these hit the streets.

-Ryan

Right on man.... I mean come on, first the treo 600 and now the samsung. Is it too phreaking hard to include Bluetooth in these phones?

I was really disappointed to know that the treo 600 didnt have BT and now got even more disappointed with this.

well we always have SDIO if you want BT or Wi-Fi, but then there is that whole OS 5 driver dilema...

At the Treo NYC launch, it was said that BT was left out because it was envisioned that the 600 would be the only device someone would carry, hence BT would be added expense and redundant.

Obviously, the people who will want to *buy* these things think differently...

...and, yes, I guess the issue of BT headsets was overlooked too.

"Lack of Bluetoothless is more of an issue in The Rest Of The World (TROTW), not in the USA. "

Bluetooth is kind of a wireless USB cable replacment. You can do more than just surfing the net by connecting a phone to a PDA by BT. I am shure EVERYONE wants it!!

Bluetooth is kind of a wireless USB cable replacment. You can do more than just surfing the net by connecting a phone to a PDA by BT. I am shure EVERYONE wants it!!

The potential of Bluetoothless unfortunately is not matched by the reality of its current implementation. Despite this, eventually a good inexpensive (less than $200) Bluetoothless headset will be released and may make it worthwhile. BT -> PDA would also actually make sense, except for that small matter that 95+ % of Palms ever sold lack built-in Bluetoothless and there are still no drivers for SD Bluetoothless cards. The CLIE UX-50 and a Sony Ericsson T610 make a very nice combo that works now, unlike so much of the vaporware floating around these days.

"I find it difficult to believe that a PDA-phone as well-conceived as the Treo 600 could have omitted Bluetoothless without having a reason. This doesn't make sense, unless they ran into packaging problems."

I remember reading somewhere (cound be right here in PIC) that they left out Bluetooth because of cost.

I believe you're partially right. The Treo 600 was apparently designed to easily accomodate a Bluetoothless chip, but the decision to leave it out may have been due to the concerns Sprint has about customers using their phones as wireless modems. I doubt Handspring would have ditched the chips primarily due to expense - the chips only cost a couple dollars when bought in bulk, and Handspring knew not having Bluetoothless would lose them a number of sales, especially in Europe where Handspring is relatively unknown. We still may see a Bluetoothless Treo 6xx soon enough, since the Sony Ericsson P900 and almost every new competitive smartphone will be doing Bluetoothless. It will become a marketing gimmick in the USA, a bit like USB was initially when no useful peripherals were yet available.

Sprint's Treo 600 rollout hasn't been very well done so far. I hope AT&T is a bit more organized and has all of the bugs out of their system by the end of November. The early adopters on Sprint have already identified a number of minor issues and are coming up with some clever solutions to a few aggravations that aren't obvious at first glance. (e.g. Yesterday someone figured out how to use an old 652 byte freeware app (Off-It) to allow users to turn off the screen backlight when using the phone. Something Handspring engineers either hadn't thought of, or decided not to implement, even though this degree of control should have been included in all shipping Treo 600s.) And every day more and more apps are being tweaked to work with the Treo. Finally, a PDA-phone worth buying...

Sometimes the truth just isn't pretty™

Sorry, but am I the only one reading this that is wondering why you are using "bluetoothless" to mean "with bluetooth". Doesn't "bluetooth-less" suggest WITHOUT bluetooth? Very, very confusing jargon.

Or did I miss something?

I thought Ska hates thumbboards.

Ska (AKA PurpleX) hates whatever piece of technology innovation the board is talking about.
I won't be surprised if you find an account of him in the PPC forums hating PPC's.

Is it a tri-band or quad-band, or does it use the frequencies that are used in Europe only?

Why do you people even care about the SGH i505? from what it looks on the SGHi500, i505 won't be here until 2010!

I have to disagree. Technology marches forward not backwards. In 3 years we will have 640x640 screens twice as bright using half the power. That being said, 320x320 will be the minimum on next year’s smart phones. The next Treo will have 320x320. I think that my Treo600 is better than both of these phones. I had a i500 and it is a bitch to do graffiti on that little 1-1/2" screen. The Treo's keyboard rocks. I was skeptical at first after using graffiti for that last 7 years, but now I am actually faster on the thumb board. You also got to like the built in MP3 player. Twice as loud and twice as clear as my TT.

Pilot 1000 -> Pilot 5000 -> Palm Pilot Professional -> TRG Pro -> Palm V -> Palm Vx -> Palm m505 -> Palm i705 Palm TT - Samsung i500 -> Treo 600

You've not seen the T|C?