VersaMail 3.5 Available for Purchase

Posted By: Kris Keilhack on Monday, July 10, 2006 9:31:15 AM

Palm has discretely released a stand-alone version of VersaMail 3.5 for all OS 5 Palm devices. Both Windows and Mac OS installers are now available for download from PalmGear.

Note that VersaMail 3.5 is indended for use and installation with the Palm Treo 650 smartphone, TX handheld, and LifeDrive mobile manager only. No other Palm devices are supported. VersaMail 3.5.1 currently ships with the new Treo 700p.

An overview of Versamail's features can be found here. Aside from being capable of ActiveSync with Microsoft Exchange servers, Palm has not announced a list of bugfixes or upgrades from previous versions of VersaMail.

The cost for the update is $9.99 and is dated July 6th 2006. Users low on available memory should note that VersaMail installs to RAM instead of being a ROM updater.

Rumor:
Uncomfirmed rumors hint at VersaMail 3.5 being an installed component of the BlackBerry Connect service supposedly coming soon to US Treo users.

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Interesting move

cervezas @ 7/10/2006 3:00:21 PM #

Good catch, Kris.

So this means that Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync has effectively enabled any Palm OS 5 device to sync with an Exchange 2003 server. Am I alone in thinking this is an unusual (but happy) move for a company that gets its revenue from selling new hardware?

David Beers
Pikesoft Mobile Computing
Software Everywhere blog
www.pikesoft.com/blog

RE: Interesting move

cervezas @ 7/10/2006 3:07:38 PM #

Sorry, I didn't read far enough:

VersaMail 3.5 is for use with the Palm Treo 650 Smartphone; Palm T|X handheld, and Palm LifeDrive mobile manager ONLY. There is NO support for other Palm devices.

So I guess Palm's thinking might be that this would help them clear out inventories of these three devices. Makes sense.

David Beers
Pikesoft Mobile Computing
Software Everywhere blog
www.pikesoft.com/blog

That's some footprint!

cervezas @ 7/10/2006 3:12:21 PM #

VersaMail seems to have been bulking up since I last used it. PalmGear says it "uses 15000KB of RAM". Perhaps they mean 15Mb is the recommended amount of free RAM to keep it from crashing your device when you run it!

David Beers
Pikesoft Mobile Computing
Software Everywhere blog
www.pikesoft.com/blog

Great news!!!

joad @ 7/10/2006 10:49:03 PM #

Excellent - now can I legally yank out the one they polluted my ROM with and sell it on Ebay?

Seriously, at one point Multimail (Versamail's child) was the best Palm mail product out there. They've since been eclipsed (I favor Snappermail), but aren't the worst on the block. Still: why-oh-why does Palm still feel the need to stick bloatware like Versamail into the ROM?

1) You can't update except via firmware releases, or by installing newer versions into the RAM anyhow.

2) Whether you use it or not - it creates lots of niggly little databases that fill up your RAM, and a bunch of entries in your preferences that contribute toward slowup and conflicts.

3) Whether you use it or not - you have to navigate around their stupid icon(s) every time you use your launcher.

Case in point: the Treo 700p was released about 5 weeks ago - Documents to Go 8.001 was jammed into the ROM. *BIG* footprint, and there's no doubt that updates will be coming. Right now (and I think even at release) Documents to Go is now at version 8.003.... so this means I have version 8.001 filling up my ROM (absolutely useless), and 8.003 installed into RAM. If someone never uses the program, the 8.001 would still create databases and preferences to degrade performance. Add to this: standard Pockettunes, "Get Good," Downloads, On Demand, SprintTV, and one of the worst offenders: "Software" (A.K.A. "Add It" - which automatically creates 15 or more unwanted databases in RAM on a reset). That's a *lot* of clutter many people don't want or will need to update in RAM anyhow. It's like buying a trash bag with a few empty milk cartons already inside!

And while Palm continues to force outdated and unwanted junk into the ROM instead of optional via CD, we have *NO* decent included filemanager, backup program, launcher (that displays card and Palm apps concurrently)... I could use one of them a lot more than a permanent shortcut to

Palm *finally* addressed the RAM problem in the Treos - now it's time to put a lot more intelligent design into what they put into the ROM.

RE: Great news!!!

hkklife @ 7/11/2006 12:27:32 AM #

Joad;

Very, very good point and something I've mentioned several times in the past. So DTG 8.01 came in the ROM of my 700P but I've already upgraded to 8.03 (which is what I was previously using on my TX for several months)--WHY didn't Palm ship the 700P with .03 in ROM at least.

Then add to that 1mb+ RAM-gobbling installation the additional ~1mb required by PocketTunes Deluxe.

Normsoft, Dataviz and Palm all need to get their collective acts together and offer ROM updater executables of their POS applications. That would save valuable RAM space for everyone.

P.S. Don't you mean that VersaMail is the red headed stepchild of MultiMail? VM in its 3.5.1 guise isn't a bad app at all. I am trying to figure out if VM is hobbled by the 700P's handful of memory management flaws OR if VM is still buggy. Nothing will EVER top the original crash happy version of VM that shipped on the LD back in '05.

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

RE: Great news!!!

hkklife @ 7/11/2006 12:39:57 AM #

P.S. At least the Verizon 700P isn't cluttered with AS MUCH stuff as Sprint's version is. But we don't even get VM in ROM-we have to install it off of the Palm Desktop CD, so more precious RAM gets lost to that.

DTG 8.03, PTunes Deluxe, VersaMail 3.5.1-all of those should be in my 700P's ROM, not its precious RAM.

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

RE: Great news!!!

LiveFaith @ 7/11/2006 8:32:47 PM #

Uhhhhh, but what will happen when 8.006 is released next month as DataViz tracks down it's eternally manifesting bugs and glitches? Would we then have a thread that moaned about 8.0006 not being in ROM? Same prob.

One pain is that D2G has some sacary bugs that manifest in version after version after version. Been using it since v3.0 and it still does things like destroying files, losing them, syncing haphazardly etc etc. I wish they would chill on this show-me-the-money-again ... add-another-feature ... do-a-major-upgrade-number. Just make the thing bulletproof so that when I'm on the road I KNOW that I'll have my documents safe and secure.

My $.02

Pat Horne

RE: Great news!!!

cervezas @ 7/11/2006 9:17:57 PM #

I agree. I used DTG for a while a couple years ago, lost one really important document during sync, and dropped it like a hot potato. Preserving my data is job #1. If you can't do that you're outta here no matter what other features you've got.

David Beers
Pikesoft Mobile Computing
Software Everywhere blog
www.pikesoft.com/blog

RE: Great news!!!

freakout @ 7/12/2006 5:10:18 AM #

Perhaps the solution to all this would be to take everything except the bare essentials (contacts, calendar, memos, clock etc) from ROM and simply include all the software on the installation CD instead, to be installed to RAM on first sync? (of course, Palm would have to compensate for this by including more RAM in their devices... and I think we all know what their policy is on that by now ;) )

I'd be happy with that solution. If it meant I no longer had to keep crap like Realplayer installed on my Treo...

Tim
I apologise for any and all emoticons that appear in my posts. You may shoot them on sight.
Treo 270 ---> Treo 650

Upgraded Palm TX to 3.5

thomasgraf @ 7/11/2006 8:09:32 AM #

Hi,

Like many others I had some problems and things I didn't like about VersaMail, but overall was happy about it, and got curious when I saw that there is an update available.

There aren't any informations out which are the differences between the built in version 3.1c and the new 3.5. I installed it a few hours ago and played around with it. I like to share what I found out so far.

First of all what I didn't like about the 3.1c version:

- crashes sometimes when I switch from another application to VersaMail
- hangs from time to time a few seconds when I display HTML messages
- sometimes the inbox get not updated (IMAP) when I sync via USB (always reproduceable when VersaMail is the forground application)
- built-In picture viewer doesn't support landscape 320x480 mode
- IMAP subfolders are not supported
- Japanese enviroment (JOS, ATOK) is not supported

After the installation of VersaMail 3.5...

I have about 2MB less memory. It seems in general a bug fix release to me. The HTML display hangers, the IMAP sync (via USB) problems, and the crashes are gone so far. The application seems much more responsive and faster to me. Besides the updated windows conduit which supports now all settings which are possible, I don't see any new features. That's all for now.

Well it's a bit to early to come to a conclusion. But I would say if the is still so stable and fast after a week of usage, then the upgrade was worth the money. Of course it would have been better for Palm to give this "Bugfix Release" out for free, but well it can't be helped.

It would be interesting to hear other experiences from LD and TX users.

Thomas

So which is it?

Wollombi @ 7/12/2006 12:53:15 AM #

>>" Palm has discretely released a stand-alone version of VersaMail 3.5 for all OS 5 Palm devices...

Note that VersaMail 3.5 is indended for use and installation with the Palm Treo 650 smartphone, TX handheld, and LifeDrive mobile manager only. No other Palm devices are supported."<<

Hmm...so is it for ALL PalmOS 5 devices, or just the Treo 650, TX and LD?

Or maybe they just mean all currently shipping OS5 devices?

_________________
Sean

There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.

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