Palm Removes the Sprint 700p MR Update

The geeks were getting boisterous and the release shut them up.

This does not sound like a company capable of developing/supporting a new OS. Windows Mobile + StyleTap Platform would have made a lot more sense for Palm to focus on as its mobile OS.

TVoR

I really REALLY hate to have to agree with TVOR... I really cant stress that fact enough but he is right here. WTF Palm? What monkeys do you employ that test these things? Seriously, I cant imagine what idiocy goes on with your QC people, in this and many other instances like it.

I tried to flash my m505 under a Win2k machine at work but the updater crappped out halfway through. I had to hunt down a friend with an old Win 98 box and do the whole process on his machine. Of course, unlike the 700p, the m500/505 didn't DESPERATELY need the OS 4.1 update.

http://www.palm.com/us/support/downloads/palmos41.html

Of course, the T3 SD card frying bug was quite bad, as was the initial ROM or two of the Treo 650, the initial T5 release and, of course, the wacky T|T launch where the device's OS AND hardware were buggy and OS5 broke compatibility with a slew of recent OS4 apps.

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

You mean like The Fooleo!

Battery life no picnic, but manageable as long as I have a charger or old 1800mAh battery somewhere near (works w/o the battery cover).

MiniSD absolutely sucks. Need to jam it in and out of the slot with the stylus - afraid it will soon break. Can't use my 4GB SD, waiting for 4GB+ MiniSDs to come down in price.

No friggin reset hole(!!!). Palm's answer: "just" pull off your case, then the battery cover, then hold the side button and yank the battery. I guess putting a reset hole beside the MiniSD slot (as on the 750) was just too difficult for the engineers. My prediction is that Palm won't be selling many of their "crystal cases" that encapsulate the 755... as it's no pleasure yanking that thing off every time the device freezes up.

Speaking of freezes: Although a few things like Crashpro created problems and were quickly eliminated, for a Treo release the 755 seems fairly compatible with much that worked on the 700p. After a week I have an occasional reset but few lockups. (knock on wood).

Hardware Buttons: Once again, Palm couldn't leave well enough alone. We still have no direct control over the #1 and #4 hardware buttons, and although LudusP seems ok on the 755 and will give *some* hacked control, other things like LauncherX have lost the ability to override the "default launcher" button on their own.

Build quality seems tighter and more durable. Screen seems brighter and of better quality. The back battery cover no longer squeaks - but they redesigned the removal latch to make it more difficult to remove (a brilliant move when you are REQUIRED to remove it every time you need to reset).

All in all, I'd prefer a patched and functioning 700p over the 755. But I've given up hope that Palm will ever use anything but Unicorns and monkeys to test their devices and patches before releasing them upon the general public. I buy the latest device with perpetual hope that somehow Palm will accidentally fix problems which were obvious in the last (few) devices. ...But I ain't happy about it.

hehe thats too funny, unicorns, monkeys and accidental fixes. rotfl
Wait til the new Apple guys get a load of Palm.

Given today's news, probably a good thing.

http://www.apple.com/iphone/ads/

Are you implying extensive testing was NOT the reason the pulled-update took so long to be released!?

No!?

I don't think lengthy testing was the reason.

A lot of time could have been spent in something else, such as useless meetings, idle waiting, business negotiations, political issues, non-motivated...etc

What other excuses can Palm come up this time?

--
With great power comes great responsiblity.

Apple is only delaying Leopard because of iPhone. Leopard is a un-released product, so it is up to Apple to re-prioritize their product schedules. Apple never delay any security updates or fixing critical issues on existing products, because of iPhone.

On the other hand, if Palm delays fixes on Treo 700p, because of Foleo or Treo 755p, that simply means they do NOT provide a good support on existing products. Does that mean they no longer concern about old customers (such as PDA or Treo)? I hope they are NOT only interested in potential Foleo customers, which aren't so well-defined yet...

--
With great power comes great responsiblity.

When have they really ever been recently?

Blazer in the LifeDrive is a piece of crap. Crashes within minutes of my using it, taking the whole LD with it!

That is - it is more likely that one would be fine than that one would have problems.

-------------

Of COURSE 30-ish percent failure rate is HORRENDOUS! But that's NOT what this reply is about! Giggle...

[I still have a couple Amigas - "signed" 1000 and a 500 - fantastic machine]

Because no one sober would think such a thing.

> ...Palm at least made an apology and acknowledged that this
> has been a circus ride....

Oh yeah, sure they did! Here's what they said:

== "...We have received isolated reports of an installation issue..."

and here's what someone accurately replied with:

== "Isolated reports huh? That is not how it appears on every
== message board relating to the 700p that I have seen. I would
== say there are isolated reports of success..."

Maybe because RIMM can afford market surveys and the market surveys unambiguously told them (and all the other Huge Guys without touchscreen devices) that touchscreens wouldn't sell them any more popsie-poopsies than non-touchscreens?

Why would this be? Because they made their customer's wait even longer than they already have? Just because the patch for Sprint wasn't perfect for everyone doesn't mean that Verizon is smart for waiting. From my understanding, the phones are different enough between the two carries that even if bugs are worked out on the Sprint patch and then Verizon releases theirs doesn't mean that it will be perfect. At least Sprint is trying to get things resolved (755p and the first to patch). Looks like Verizon is relying on their "reliable network" to keep their customers happy - not a working Treo.

This will be my third and probably my last 700p.

Regarding #4:
Palm IS a beta program.

More than a year to release a patch that breaks the phone. This probably wouldn't have been the case if Palm had spend more than a year on the initial development instead of taking a Windows phone and shoving a Palm OS into it.

Oh, well, what do I know? I'm just a customer.

TVoR

Have YOU risked your Sprint 700p yet to the ROM update? If so, what was your personal experience like while flashing it? Any crashes, hiccups,new bugs etc?

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

Have YOU risked your Sprint 700p yet to the ROM update? If so, what was your personal experience like while flashing it? Any crashes, hiccups,new bugs etc?

No way in He11 am I going to beta test yet another buggy bugfix from Palm. I believe my device is now out of warranty, so if this "bugfix" ended up bricking my Treo 700p, no doubt I'd be screwed. Based on my experience with Sprint, it wouldn't be worth the hassle to try to get them to replace the phone. Once Palm has finally issued a stable update, I might take my phone into a Sprint store and have them reflash it. That way, if they brick it themselves, then those Sprint biotches can't claim it was due to something I did. I wouldn't consider switching to the Treo 755p, due to its lack of a regular SD card and also its crappy battery life.

At this point, the only things I use my Treo 700p for are to work as a wireless modem for my ThinkPad (thank you June Fabrics for PdaNet!), for e-mail using ChatterEmail (a superb application), and for the occasional SMS with Palm's brilliant little threaded SMS application. I gave up using it as a real phone soon after I bought it + experienced numerous random OS crashes when answering calls. Most people I spoke to also told me the voice quality on their end was horrible. Given the way I use my Treo 700p, I would happily dump it as soon as someone comes out with a small Sprint smartphone (any OS!) that lets me do email and functions as an EVDO modem. For my "real" phone I continue to use my Samsung i500 - which has the best voice quality of ANY cellphone I've ever used. I loaded up on backup Samsung i500 when Sprint was blowing them out at half price ($300) a couple of years ago, so I really don't plan on switching primary phones any time soon.

I'm glad that I stocked up on European TH55 (Bluetooth + WiFi), CLIE UX50 (Bluetooth + WiFi), CLIE VZ90 (WiFi) and Samsung i500 when they were still available. These were the last good PalmOS devices that we'll ever see and they'll be as useful in 10 years as they are today. Now I know how Apple Newton fans feel...

I feel vindicated in that people are now finally seeing that everything I had warned people about re: Palm's ineptitude was true. Devices like the (embarassing) FOOLeo and the Treo 600.3 Treo 755p prove that a decade of fleecing customers with its policy of incremental upgrades has left Palm incapable of designing truely innovative devices. Emperor Hawkins has no clothes and unfortunately for him, his long-abused, starving, downtrodden Palm-faithful subjects are no longer blind. And the kingdoms next door are offering free land, housing and lower taxes. Buh-Bye, Jeffy! Palm can take their "revolutionary" 4-years-2-late-2-matter FOOLeo and shove it up their a$$es, Yankowski-style.

TVoR

Your 700p cannot be out of warranty. I got my 700p about a year ago this week (I think it was June 2nd or somthing of '06) and it was a good two months after my purchase that you got yours despite my warnings (you got a killer deal from Sprint SERO IIRC).

And WILL SPrint techs flash it for you? I know Verizon won't. In fact, the VZW techs during the 650 days used to say to just leave it stock so as not to risk anything.

Believe it or not, in preliminary testing, the 755p lasted longer on standby than my 700p does (with or without the Seidio extended batteries).

In fact, if your 700p gets toasted from the update, the chances that you can biotch at Sprint for a replacement 755p seem reasonably high. A shame about the miniSD on the 755p, as otherwise it's EVERYTHING the 700p should have been (at least from a performance standpoint). I still vastly prefer the 680's phone app, however, and not having a stereo 3.5mm headphone jack in this day & age on smartphone of the Treo's price is basically criminal.

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