Quickies: Canada, 16MB HandEra, FlashPro, and More

Posted By: Ed Tuesday, March 19, 2002 7:19:24 AM

The Radio Shack Canada is advertising the Handspring Treo for $1000 CDN and says that it will be shipping April 2. They appear to be partnering with Rogers/AT&T's GSM network. -David Harvey and Hani

Tony Rudenko's PalmPilotUpgrade.com has introduced an upgrade for the HandEra 330 to 16 MB of RAM. It costs $110. -Tony Rudenko

HandEra has released FlashPro 2.05, which adds support for the Palm m515. It lets users backup databases to non-volatile flash. -nXt

Palm Digital Media has released a version of Palm Reader Pro for the Pocket PC OS. -Carl Brooks

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HE 330 Upgrade

I.M. Anonymous @ 3/19/2002 9:08:43 AM #

I'd like to hear from anyone who has had this done. Comments, pros/cons, etc. are welcome.

RE: HE 330 Upgrade

I.M. Anonymous @ 3/19/2002 9:16:13 AM #

I have never used the service myself, but have seen many comments made by people who have. I have never heard anything negative about the upgrades in a general sense. I am debating upgrading my Neo to 32 MB. But I am not sure if I wnat to invest in a device I am sure I will be replacing by years end.

Anyway, back on topic, I have always 'heard' that the upgrades cause no new problems and that Tony is fast and professional.

Hope it helps.

RE: HE 330 Upgrade

I.M. Anonymous @ 3/19/2002 9:37:09 AM #

I upgraded my Visor Prism to 16MB though PalmPilotUpgrade and have not regreted it. It is nice to have some extra breathing room.

A word of caution on the 32MB upgrades. It is speculated that they do not use the same type of RAM for the 32MB upgrades as they do for the 16MB upgrades. I am not sure what the difference is but I do know that the DragonballVZ processor can only handle up to 16MB. The 32MB upgrade is not standard RAM and it is thought to drain your batteries faster. Just my 2 cents
-Scott

RE: HE 330 Upgrade

jjsoh @ 3/19/2002 10:39:16 AM #

I've upgraded the RAM in my m505 from 8MB to 16MB when it was first available through palmpilotupgrade.com (which was last November) and have not experienced one problem with my Palm (except for the known USB syncing issue. Which only happened to me once.)

Although, a word of warning that there may be an issue if you are a Palm user that runs certain hacks from the ROM to speed up programs (Jack Sprat, I believe, or something like that). So, if you run hacks, it's best to inquire via email first before you jump in. The reply time is pretty quick. Tony was always good about getting back to you in a timely fashion.

I know I could use the SD slot for memory expansion, but I'd rather save that for Bluetooth or something else (like the game pak). Besides, running apps off of internal RAM is probably faster than reading off the SD card anyway.

I was a bit nervous when I first sent it out, but when I got it back, I was glad to have received the extra ~8MB. Anyway, all in all, I'm satisfied (at least until the next Palm comes out ^_^).

Jim

Kind of ironic

I.M. Anonymous @ 3/19/2002 11:12:08 AM #

Isn't one of TRG's/Handera's first claims to fame a memory expansion for the old PalmPilot? I guess the circle is now closed...

RE: HE 330 Upgrade

I.M. Anonymous @ 3/19/2002 4:34:04 PM #

Thanks all, for the feedback. I just might go for it.

>> Isn't one of TRG's/Handera's first claims to fame a memory expansion for the old PalmPilot?

Yes. I was first introduced to TRG (now HandEra) back when I found they sold a 8 MB RAM / 2 MB Flash upgrade for my Palm IIIx. Very good product and held me over until I bought my HE 330.

Treo in Canada

big_raji @ 3/19/2002 9:23:33 AM #

Wow! That's expensive!

For the same price, I can get a full featured color palm/clie with expansion, ericsson t39 with bluetooth, and a bluetooth adapter.

I know, I know, the Treo is one device, but I thought it was going to be $399US, which is roughly $599-$649CDN.

Why the huge price jump?

---
If you sing in french while hopping on one foot, the evil birds won't come out of your bathroom mirror.

RE: Treo in Canada

crustyedgeofinnovation @ 3/19/2002 9:33:16 AM #

that is a rip off, it's the highest priced device in canada. It's higher then most Pocket pc devices...Lower the price Radio Shack!

RE: Treo in Canada

I.M. Anonymous @ 3/19/2002 10:07:58 AM #

Don't worry people.

My brother just finished his Rogers Treo training (he works for Futureshop). He told me "don't see it! You'll sell your right arm for one." He was blown away by it. Rogers is expected to start selling it for around $950, only because they've already sold 20,000 of them and they won't fill that for a while (they haven't even shipped yet). Supply and demand.

If you saturate a GPRS connection it's about $6/min with Fido, and it's not cheaper with Rogers.

If you want always on high speed wireless Internet you'll be paying through your nose, at least for a while.

RE: Treo in Canada

I.M. Anonymous @ 3/19/2002 10:11:02 AM #

It all has to do with subsidy, you notice that the price in the USA is $549-$599 w/o service agreement. Convert this to Canadian $'s and it's almost $900, which is still less expensive than what they are listing the product at. Expect a decrease soon, I would think.

RE: Treo in Canada

I.M. Anonymous @ 3/19/2002 10:11:44 AM #

I bought my Treo for $700 CAD including tax from Handspring.com with VPhone discount. I can only imagine how much the coloe unit will cost in the great white north.

RE: Treo in Canada

I.M. Anonymous @ 3/19/2002 10:23:42 AM #

Whatever, it's a rip off. Nice unit but you pay for new technology. Remember when the Visor Phone came out? Now it's free at handpsring's website. i'm happy with my Visor Edge that I picked up for $179US and my nokia cell phone. Maybe next year...

VisorPhone in Canada...

ktran @ 3/19/2002 12:40:04 PM #

Are the GSM services in Canada compatible with the VisorPhone?

K. Tran

RE: Treo in Canada

I.M. Anonymous @ 3/19/2002 1:00:57 PM #

GPRS is meadured by the amount of kbs that are tranferred, not the minutes used. FIDO charge 0.05/kb.

The VisorpHone available from Handspring.com will work in Canada on the Fido Netowork. Wont work fully on the Rogers GSM network cuz Rogers does not have regular data services..only GPRS.

RE: Treo in Canada

Palm_Otaku @ 3/19/2002 1:40:06 PM #

The Treo will certainly work on the GSM network in Canada, but note that the Treo's GPRS packet data functionality isn't ready yet and will require a firmware upgrade.

fido has a GPRS service
http://www.fido.ca/portal/en/info/Discover/InternetAccess02.shtml
and a great package on a GPRS bundle
http://www.fidobusiness.ca/index.php

Hopefully the local GSM providers will start providing the Treo with a subsidy - $1000 is very expensive!

BTW, if you're in the Vancouver area, join VanPUG, the Vancouver Palm Users Group, and come out to our next meeting on Monday, March 25 -- the feature topic is the Treo!
http://www.vanpug.com

RE: Treo in Canada

I.M. Anonymous @ 3/19/2002 4:24:38 PM #

Yes Fido charges $0.05/Kb, and if you saturate the 56Kb/sec connection, that's about $6/min..

RE: Treo in Canada

I.M. Anonymous @ 3/19/2002 8:17:44 PM #

Are there any Palm User Groups in Toronto? I know that there is a CPUG but haven't heard much about it recently.

RE: Treo in Canada

I.M. Anonymous @ 3/19/2002 10:15:23 PM #

How about in Montreal? You can email at benlavigne@hotmail.com . Thanks!

Rogers AT&T Exclusive??

Palm_Otaku @ 3/20/2002 1:33:01 PM #

Today, Wednesday Mar.20, Handspring and Rogers AT&T made an announcement that they have an exclusive agreement to distribute the Treo in Canada.

The Treo 180 series will be available this April 2002 through Rogers AT&T Wireless' authorized dealer and retail locations across Canada including RadioShack, Future Shop, Business Depot and GlenTel or by
visiting the Rogers AT&T Wireless Web site at www.rogers.com. Both Treo 180 and 180g will cost CDN $749.99 with a two-year service plan and
$849.99 with a one-year service plan.

I guess people who prefer fido are forced to purchase direct from Handspring :-( It is kinda strange, as Handspring's Treo page for service plans mentions fido/microcell but not Rogers AT&T...

http://www.handspring.com/products/treo/plans.jhtml

fido's GPRS pricing

Palm_Otaku @ 3/20/2002 4:11:57 PM #

Yes Fido charges $0.05/Kb, and if you saturate the 56Kb/sec connection, that's about $6/min..

Have a look at fido's GPRS package I noted in the above posting: C$45 includes 2MB GPRS data plus 400 anytime minutes plus free CallerID, VoiceMail etc.