Comments on: Live Pic of the Treo 800w Spotted

Surur

How interesting - those were my thoughts exactly (but I didn't want to post first! Ha ha ha!)

But...hey!...it's a prototype, right?

I had expected the screen to be more flush with the device myself given that was pointed out in the Palm Drucker slide leak. Perhaps that is indeed a separate device after all.

Judging from the pic the width looks about the same as a 750/755p due to the keyboard size, but the real question is how thin or thick the device remains.

Surur

However, I wouldn't go so far as to call it the 750 to the 700w/wx, though. More like the Palm III to the Palm Pilot. Same basic size, just slightly sleeker and more modern looking.

I do not expect there to be any performance hardware differences (screen, RAM etc) between the two other than the casing, flush LCD, and GSM vs. CDMA radios. Of course, knowing Sprint & Verizon, the GPS and/or wi-fi of the CDMA version might be crippled in some capacity.

Since we're in a speculative mood, I figure on the IR port being jettisoned alongside the Athena connector. I also would LOVE to see the 2.5mm headset jack replaced by a 3.5mm stereo headphone jack but, knowing Palm, they'll probably just go entirely Bluetooth. We might as well get used to this formfactor, as I recknon the first Nova device to use this exact FF or a slightly modified version of it.

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

Looking at the picture closely, you can see ceiling A/C vents and those square tiles that every office uses for ceilings.

Note to self - start looking for reflections of Nova prototypes in screen reflections from leaked product pics.

No!!!!?

You don't think PALM would PURPOSEFULLY leak this, do ya!?

Sheesh.

There's a stenographic message in that photo:

"Pleez. Sum1 help uz. Colligan iz crazee!"

Nah - he showed up in August or so. Though there doesn't appear to be anything excitingly new in this device, the lead time requirements STILL are more than the time he's been with PALM.

I don't like those thumbboards. Nosiree. Give me graffiti & a stylus any day.

I suspect that folks who think like me represent such a small portion of the marketplace that this opinion will have no weight at all with PDA and Smartphone developers.

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PalmPilot Pro (1997) -> III (1998) -> Vx (1999) -> m500 (2001) -> m515 (2002) -> Tx (2007)

The CDMA version of the 800w might be able to get by on specs, formfactor & price....especially with weaker competition in the Sprint/Verizon/Alltel world (at least for the first 3-4 months until the new BBs start to arrive).

GSM is gonna be another story. Palm MUST come in high style or be super-aggressive on pricing. Here's hoping for the 800w GSM/Drucker (I wouldn't be surprised if they call it the Treo 850, actually) to be along the lines of the recent slew of monolithic, shiny, fingerprint-prone black slab-esque handsets being releaed or heading to market. Not really my cup of tea personally, but it appears that's what the market wants to see nowadays.

P.S. I haven't been keeping up.....anyone know if WM 6.1 Pro still supports "block character" input a.k.a. Classic Graffiti 1?

Wouldn't that be just tragic? To have to buy a WM-powered smartphone just to get the G1 functionality offered by classic Palm OS PDAs!

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

I can see lots of Palm first's on this product, but those features are already available on the market for a long while already. Palm is really too late in bringing products to the market.

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With great power comes great responsiblity.

They probably don't even start building them without some sort of carrier commitment. Given pricing elsewhere (e.g., the Blackberry Bold getting priced out at $200-ish), PALM's margins might take ANOTHER hit, but they probably have sold a few already.

Probably.

But it WOULD be interesting if they pulled a Fooleo on us, huh?

OR they could be non-functional dummy models/shells/mockups.

More curious is that we haven't seen the back panel, left side, top or bottom of the device.

It's like they are intentionally trying to cover up some missing/still-present feature--but what could it be--Athena connector instead of microUSB, 3.5mm headphone jack, no wi-fi switch, no ring/vibrate switch????

P.S. I'm glad to see IR still in there. Sure, most people don't use it but it doesn't bring any drawbacks to the table with its inclusion and it's THERE if you DO want to use/need it (IR sync to an old laptop, use as a TV remote control etc). And the 800w's memory card door looks to be considerably easier to access than the Centro's.

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

IMHO, too.

Giggle.

Also looks like the 800w is somewhere in the ~.6" range for thickness. The upstage above it is .37, while the PPC-6800 is .7" inches.

== "What are we going to see with this new OS
== at the end of the calendar year?"

and he answered:

== "I didn't say you were going to see the
== new OS, I said it would be ready."

No kidding.

[I don't know when an archived recording will be available for this conference but encourage all to listen to it themselves http://tinyurl.com/3u4s25 ]

I will likely get tarred & feathered for this but it's MY suspicion that TreoCentrl/WMExperts are in cahoots with the boys in Sunnyvale as Palm's new guerilla marketing team and are carefully leaking/filtering info/specs/screenshots.

To date, you'll recall we have:

1. The mysterious disappearing 800w size/appearance/battery capacity posts from a few weeks ago (you & I discussed it here and you mentioned it on the Yahoo boards as well). Normally the forums would be in an uproar over that kind of stuff being posted and immediately deleted

2. The posting of rather detailed specs (800w's chipset, the heretofore unseen wi-fi switch) without photographic proof or a link to the source of this "info". I know you just called this more "me too" media reporting but by all counts, this info is ORIGINATING from within TC's forums!

3. The long-running "Rumortastic Giveaway" contest for an "800w + extras" on TreoCentral/WMExperts. They created an official 800w forum MONTHS ago (December, in fact) and stated "We are confident, *very confident*, that the Treo 800w is coming in the next few months. And we are confident, *mega confident*, that it's going to be a super cool device. Confident enough that we're going to run out and buy one the very day they are available, whenever that day may be. A Windows Mobile 6 Pro device with 320x320 resolution, WiFi, (probably) GPS... *and* you can use the sucker one-handed easily. That mops the floor with Treo 700wx and even makes the Mogul a little nervous.
And we don't even use Sprint! So - we're going to **give the Treo 800w away**. Yes, folks, we're running a contest to give away a rumored device that hasn't been released yet. It's future-iffically rumortastic!"

(the emphasis above is theirs, not mine)

Anyway, I always thought the wording and utmost confidence in the 800w's release was a bit odd and events 1 & 2 mentioned above only make it more so. I do not recall TC jumping up & down so early to support the launches of the 755p, Centro, 680, 700p etc. Now, a lot of the excitement could be from the fact that this is the first Treo with all of the must-have features (GPS, wi-fi, WM 6.1, EVDO Rev.A etc) or it could be something else...

Let me go on record that I have NO problems with anyone cooperating officially with Palm, especially for cool contests & giveaways but I would hope that any site's journalistic integrity would be maintained by fully disclosing any and all official Palm sponsorships/partnerships/forum monitoring etc. And the rest of the TC forums are pretty much status quo, so the only funny stuff seems to be occuring within the 800w forums. The Palm community is rapidly dwindling and PIC and TC are really the only major Palm-related communities left standing and I'd hate to see the TC forum traffic start to dry up and/or become overly censored due to too much influence from The Man.

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

Not sure it means TreoCentral is finally Palm's but...ya never know! Their name has been Palm's for quite some time:

== "...TREO and TreoCentral are trademarks or registered trademarks
== of palm, Inc. in the United States and other countries; the TreoCentral
== mark and domain name are used under license from palm, Inc..."

IIRC, VisorCentral became TreoCentral PRIOR to Palm purchasing the dying embers of Handspring & the Treo, so that likely played a role in Palm permitting the site to carry on with the same name. Either way, while it IS an interesting tidbit, I wouldn't read TOO much into that little bit of legalese.

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

At least it's blurry.