Comments on: The Treo 800w Leak Parade Marches On

Engadget has posted yet another set of prerelease Treo 800w information this weekend. This time around a series of Sprint spec sheet's reportedly taken from am internal training manual have been posted. There is little new information that hasn't already been disclosed, nonetheless the slides show a few new device angles (such as the new Micro USB 2.0 connector) and a fresh screenshot of the default home screen.

The device is now all but certain to be formally announced sometime around July 13th. The Treo 800w is set to run Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional and will include a 320x320 pixel touchscreen, EVDO Rev A wireless, Wi-Fi (with a dedicated on/off button), GPS functionality, a 2MP digital camera and 128 MB of built in memory. Read on for a screen grab of the latest spec sheet and a recent rumor recap.

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Cutting Edge Audio

LiveFaith @ 6/29/2008 11:47:28 PM #

OK Palm. Could you please inform me as to how I will now listen to streaming internet radio for multiple hours while traveling and charging the device at the same time? How will I now charge the device and listen to MP3s or streams at once?

Are you telling me that I'm forced to use BT audio and the charging cable in the USB port charging the phone? Are you also telling me that the only way to keep my BT headset charged is to keep another charging cable attached to it all the while? To pull this all off, I'll look like I'm in ICU on life support.

Tungsten W w/o OS5 or BT
Tungsten C w/o stereo audio
T5 w/o WiFi, LED or vibra
Treos for 4yrs w/o WiFi
Treos w/o 3.5mm audio
A still fat Treo 800 w/o 3.5mm audio

Who on earth do you find to come up with these ingenious ideas?

Pat Horne

RE: Cutting Edge Audio

grubber @ 6/30/2008 3:10:38 AM #

"Who on earth do you find to come up with these ingenious ideas?"

HTC. Many of their popular devices (HTC Artemis, Touch, Diamond) only feature USB for charging, sync and audio. The adoption of USB for audio isn't unique to Palm, at least in the WinMob world.

RE: Cutting Edge Audio

LiveFaith @ 6/30/2008 10:26:07 AM #

Let's see. As sweider mentions below, if someone comes out with a little converter cable that has female USB micro on one end and male USB micro on the other, with a 3.5mm audio dongle hanging off the side. That would be great. If Palm would just throw one of those in the box, then I would believe again.

Oh yeah, what about the 2.5mm wired earpiece users? Let's see, we'll need just one more ... a 3.5mm-> 2.5mm converter. This is getting scary.

Pat Horne

RE: Cutting Edge Audio

sdgmcdon @ 6/30/2008 12:09:05 PM #

Actually it's NICE to see they are FINALLY using a standard mini-usb for charging etc. For earpiece personally I know a lot of people still use those ports, but lets face it, they are going away in the long run anyway so I would consider this a good thing, it's gone...

What I don't get is the wifi thing...I know a LOT of people ask for it but I don't want it. I have to have a full data plan anyway for my business and the wifi thing just serves to drain the battery faster if I leave it on or accidentally turn it on with the switch up top.

I'm just REALLY, REALLY hoping that for the first time since the 650's a Treo will actually work WELL with bluetooth headsets. I've had the 700w, 700wx, 700p & 755p and tried them all with 5 different BT headsets and all sounded like crap. When I really dug into the problem online I found Palm switched BT chip manufacturers between the 650 & 700 line and the new ones basically were crap. With the 800w being BT 2.0 instead of the previous 1.2 I'm hoping PRAYING this thing works with BT headsets cause in our business I'm quite sure my wife and I are melting our brains slowly but surely with how much we use our cell phones (we have to charge them at LEAST once a day, sometimes twice...that much!).

Anyway...2 weeks...Can't wait, I'm even switching providers to do it.

RE: Cutting Edge Audio

LiveFaith @ 6/30/2008 3:25:52 PM #

The 680 BT in the v2.11 update is much better and had more features. Stil BTv1.2, but you can tell someone put a little work in it. My Jawbone works nearly perfectly.

The 800w is at least competitive it seems in the spec area, so I've gotta give Palm one there. Better late than never. Yes, WiFi is not as important as 2-3 years ago (w/EVDO), but I wish I had it on my 680. I could use it a lot.

Pat Horne

Its weak

swieder @ 6/30/2008 12:14:35 AM #

I mount my Treo in the car now while traveling and listen to MP3 playbacks all the time. On long trips I plug the charger in at the same time. My next car will have integrated bluetooth, but for now I need wired audio and power at the same time. Maybe there will be some nice cable splitters that I can connect to my car stereo which will have power and audio.

Ho hum

palmdoc88 @ 6/30/2008 5:49:14 AM #

Another Winmob device from the HTC stable. Can we please have some leaks about the Nova powered device? We really need some buzz, Palm....

http://palmdoc.net

RE: Ho hum

SeldomVisitor @ 6/30/2008 6:39:07 AM #

> ...Can we please have some leaks about the Nova powered device? We
> really need some buzz, Palm...

Colligan mentioned JUST that:

== "...I expect, you know, relative to the developer community and
== so forth, you might start to see some buzz..."

and

== "...but I can't predict any of that..."

Uh huh.

Lol!

RE: Ho hum

AdamaDBrown @ 7/3/2008 1:09:25 PM #

I'm coming in late here, but that comment sounds really kind of disturbing to me... like it's deliberately calculated to imply that something's in the ether without actually saying ANYTHING.

RE: Ho hum

hkklife @ 7/3/2008 3:51:51 PM #

Adama;

Please clarify-you mean the comments by Colligan are disturbing? In what way?

Are you not-so-subtly insinuating that the "intentional leak parade" from Palm might continue (from the 800w/850 leaked images/specs) to Nova info to start to build some buzz? Possibly even giving some developers permission to post preliminary info pertaining to their Nova support and/or upgrade/migration policies for users of their apps' existing POS version?

Perhaps, even more insidiously, planting astroturfing Palm moles in all of the popular Palm-related online sites/forums to selectively leak tidbits of info here & there? I imagine the first thing we're likely to see is an list trotted out of what developers are onboard for Nova (ala the Fooleo pre-cancellation buzz of last year).

Pilot 1000->Pilot 5000->PalmPilot Pro->IIIe->Vx->m505->T|T->T|T2->T|C->T|T3->T|T5->Zodiac 2->TX->Verizon Treo 700P->Verizon Treo 755p

Nova-related issues I've been pondering

hkklife @ 7/3/2008 3:55:25 PM #

Nova-related questions off the top of my head:

1. Has Palm had any issues with developers burned by the Fooleo debacle that are hesitant, if not refusing outright, to develop anything for Nova? How did Palm assuage their fears?

2. Is Nova going to finally reverse the trend started in the OS5.x days of increasingly robust software bundles by going with fewer bundled apps/software in order to give developers/e-tailers a helping hand in selling new version of "critical" apps such as media players etc? Michael Mace wrote a superb piece on his blog some time back about the double-edged sword of increasingly solid software bundles on devices that are "good enough" for 99% of users and therefore hurt add-on software sales & the developer community at large.

3. Will Nova's improved stability, security, performance, and overall more robust Linux basis make users more likely to "risk" adding 3rd party software & apps to their devices?

4. Will Palm try to cozy up to the carriers by offering tweaked versions of Nova around each carriers' app & media stores and/or locking down certain functions even more so than in years past (BT/GPS/Wi-fi etc)? The Treo 500's Vodafone "carousel" launcher & the AT&T Centro's removal of PTunes Deluxe (and the hobbled VersaMail Personal on the "cheap" Verizon data plan) are probably just the tip of the iceberg for this IMO. Remember, folks, once you have an OS less hobbled/creaky than Garnet, the possibilities for MUCH more intentional crippling/carrier customizations/lockdowns are MUCH more probable.

5. Is Palm going to bother with much in the desktop component side of Nova or are they assuming that "No PDAs running Nova=100% smartphone audience=Everyone has wireless functionality=No need for Hotsyncing=No need for next-gen Palm Desktop?"

6. Will Palm's long-rumored push into subscription-based services come into play from the get-go? ie: "New in Nova OS! No need for PC Hotsyncing! Use Palm's FREE* Wireless Backup utility to securely, quickly back up your device's data anytime, anywhere!" (*=Free 30 day trial, $9.99/month MyPalm subscription required for continued usage)

7. Tied into the above...will Palm finally use Nova to make any kind of push for their long-neglected MyPalm portal concept?

8. My personal feeling is that there will be, at least in the first batch of devices, no Garnet backwards compatibility in Nova. Palm will instead say that due to the overwhelming success of the Centro, they are going to continue release Centros running Garnet as a continued hardware upgrade path for users choosing not to migrate to Nova. Sort of like Sony dropping PS2 backwards compatibility in the newest 40gb PS3, citing the availability of cheap PS2 hardware.

Pilot 1000->Pilot 5000->PalmPilot Pro->IIIe->Vx->m505->T|T->T|T2->T|C->T|T3->T|T5->Zodiac 2->TX->Verizon Treo 700P->Verizon Treo 755p

RE: Ho hum

AdamaDBrown @ 7/3/2008 4:15:44 PM #

Please clarify-you mean the comments by Colligan are disturbing? In what way?

Yes, Colligan's comments. He's suggesting that there's enough progress to generate buzz, but doing so without saying anything that's in any way commiting the company to having done anything. Think about it: he's talking about developer buzz, but NOT saying that they've released an SDK to the developers, or circulated test hardware, or things like that that would actually indicate that there's a firm timeline going on.

The reason I called it disturbing is that not only is it PR nonsense, but if they're parsing their words so carefully, it would seem to imply that they don't actually have much of anything to show around at the moment. I could be wrong, but I'd think that after all the time they've put into this, they'd want as much as possible to be out there.

There is the alternative that they're deliberately keeping all the substantial stuff out of public sight, but that would be highly counterintuitive. They've got a ton of competition coming up, so they should be trying to grab for as much mind-share as they can, and putting as many people as possible into the "undecided" camp over what smartphone platform to choose.

I'd hesitate to suggest that a company like Palm would engage in astroturfing-whether you think they're competant or not, they have at least had a history of remaining aboveboard in their marketing tactics.

But since you said that, I can't help but recall that two brand new users showed up in the same thread over on Pocket PC Thoughts today both praising the 800w and talking about how Palm's form-factor was perfect, and it was the only phone for business users. One of the posts you could tell had been composed in Microsoft Word, because the person who cut and pasted it failed to remove the Word document tags.

755/800/850 Side by side reviews?

Davida1228 @ 7/4/2008 11:05:04 AM #

Any side by side reviews/comparisons? Which is better for calander and contact features? Any sync problems with Outlook??

RE: Ho hum

SeldomVisitor @ 7/4/2008 6:51:32 PM #

> ...Yes, Colligan's comments. He's suggesting that there's enough progress to
> generate buzz, but doing so without saying anything that's in any way commiting
> the company to having done anything...

Hey!

If you haven't got anything to begin the generation of buzz then make something up!

I seem to remember a "leak" happening somewhat after Colligan mentioned buzz (as noted above) about a previously-unmentioned employee who suddenly has attained User Interface Guru status! I'm not really sure, admittedly, who proclaimed him a "guru" but, damn!, it sure do make a lot of the internet Me-Too Media sites - complete with a VERY clear photo!

Hell, he MUST be a guru - look at how much mention he got!

Good buzz.

At least for the moment.

Next!

RE: Ho hum

mikecane @ 7/8/2008 1:36:49 PM #

>>>If you haven't got anything to begin the generation of buzz then make something up!

OK then. I'm up to the challenge.

Nova = FAIL.

800W user guide URL 'leaked'

SeldomVisitor @ 7/8/2008 9:51:07 AM #

http://discussion.treocentral.com/showpost.php?p=1457698&postcount=1

400+ pages ... gack!

RE: 800W user guide URL 'leaked'

mikecane @ 7/8/2008 1:34:05 PM #

That PDF link still works as of 1:34EDST on July 8. 4.31MB. Don't know why I d/led it. Guess just because I could.

RE: 800W user guide URL 'leaked'

SeldomVisitor @ 7/8/2008 1:39:04 PM #

Yeah, I did, too - opened it (with Evince, I think on this XUbuntu box) and scanned down a few pages. Then got (real) bored and deleted it. Lol!

Life's little entertaining moments!

Next!

RE: 800W user guide URL 'leaked'

hkklife @ 7/8/2008 3:03:57 PM #

That's less a manual and more of a detailed primer on how to do EVERYTHING under WinMob. Hmmmm, I wonder if Palm/Sprint are assuming lotsa Palm OS users jumping ship to the 800w and thus including an extraordinarily detailed manual? Or perhaps Sprint feels that more documentation in the box=fewer store trips by befuddled customers/fewer CS calls=fewer support costs to incur?

I've had 2 Treos in a row on Verizon and while they do ship with an ample printed manual, it's in no ways as concise as Sprint's. Sprint users...does Sprint usually come up with such weighty manuals? Or is that some kind of MS-produced generic WM 6.x guide that is updated to include any Palm-specific changes?

Pilot 1000->Pilot 5000->PalmPilot Pro->IIIe->Vx->m505->T|T->T|T2->T|C->T|T3->T|T5->Zodiac 2->TX->Verizon Treo 700P->Verizon Treo 755p

800w Sprint = July 28th

mikecane @ 7/9/2008 10:38:16 AM #

See slide at Gear Diary:
http://www.geardiary.com/2008/07/09/sprint-roadmap-part-ii-htc-touch-diamond-on-september-2/

RE: 800w Sprint = July 27th

mikecane @ 7/9/2008 10:39:08 AM #

Damn, hit wrong key. (And, yes, I had my reading glasses on! They get in the way of seeing sometimes!)

July twenty SEVENTH

RE: 800w Sprint = July 13th

mikecane @ 7/9/2008 10:40:17 AM #

OK, that slide is frikkin confusing. It shows the 27th in BEIG LETTERS, then right above the 800w listing ,it has July 13th in SMALL letters.

Discuss.

RE: 800w Sprint = July 28th

SeldomVisitor @ 7/9/2008 11:04:53 AM #

Nah, it's not confusing; the author simply doesn't know how to proofread his/her own powerpoint's very well (looks like forgot how to "bullet" properly).