Comments on: Verizon Treo 700p MR Impressions

My poor Treo 700p has been dying the slow death of a failing digitizer that constantly needs recalibration for the past few months. As soon as the Sprint version of the 700p MR was released online, I became determined to try and hold out until the Verizon version of the update was available or the Verizon version of the Treo 755p was released. I was also curious to see if there would be any incremental hardware changes in the nearly fourteen months between when I purchased my early 700p and when I received this like-new “refurbished” Treo pre-loaded with the 1.10 update.

Read on for my full overview of the Verizon 700p maintenance release update.

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Exchange ActiveSync

a_nonamiss @ 7/13/2007 3:44:25 PM # Q
Installed the update and the process itself went smoothly. The problem I'm having now is with Excahnge ActiveSync. Seeing as how it took me days to get it up and running when it came out, I'm not surprised that I'm having trouble. I'll post an update when I know more.

Everything else is pretty much covered in this article. If you're dependent on Exchange ActiveSync, and you don't have control over your Exchange server, (I do) then I'd hold off.

Arthur

Palm Pilot 1000 > Palm Pilot Professional > Palm III > Palm M100 > Sony Clié PEG-T415 > Palm T|T3 > Samsung SCH-i730 > Palm 700p

RE: Exchange ActiveSync
a_nonamiss @ 7/13/2007 6:34:54 PM # Q
Suspicion confirmed.

http://forums.palm.com/palm/board/message?board.id=activesync&thread.id=1469

It appears that the MR has broken Exchange ActiveSync really bad.

It's a good thing they spent such a long time testing.

Arthur

Palm Pilot 1000 > Palm Pilot Professional > Palm III > Palm M100 > Sony Clié PEG-T415 > Palm T|T3 > Samsung SCH-i730 > Palm 700p

RE: Exchange ActiveSync
a_nonamiss @ 7/15/2007 6:44:25 PM # Q
I came across a fix for this issue:

http://discussion.treocentral.com/showthread.php?t=147841

Arthur

Palm Pilot 1000 > Palm Pilot Professional > Palm III > Palm M100 > Sony Clié PEG-T415 > Palm T|T3 > Samsung SCH-i730 > Palm 700p

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Pictures

TBolt @ 7/13/2007 7:30:30 PM # Q
I understand that you don't like the colorization of your photos (and probably videos, too?) since the update. But, are you saying that the overall quality of the pictures improved? Thanks.

TBolt
RE: Pictures
hkklife @ 7/13/2007 10:34:25 PM # Q
Well, it's hard to say if it's a camera issue with the replacement handset I was issued or if it's some kind of tweak they made to the camera software.

Comparing my old 1.06 Treo, three colleagues' 700p's (also on Verizon & 1.06) and my new 1.10 700p, all of the cameras produce slightly different images. One unit is better than the others in low light, one has a lot of noise in its images, my new one is reddish, and my old one was yellowish and dim.

The Sprint 755p I evaluated had a better camera than any 700p I've ever used. It's still nothing spectacular but it produced the most "real world" images as far as color saturation & low-light performance. Decent dumbphones with autofocus lenses still blow away any Treo camera, of course.

But back to the 700p: I'd say that overall there is a bit less noise and better low-light performance in my new 700p but that comes at the expense of color accuracy and with a huge shift in everything towards the pink/red scale. I debated on sending the new 700p back to Verizon but decided to keep it b/c I didn't want to be Treo-less over the weekend and b/c they've stopped overnighting replacement handsets these days. It REALLY irks me that I've not been able to get a replacement 700p from any of the local stores for some time now.

FWIW, I actually think Verizon is looking to downplay smartphone and their inherent support costs/hassle and instead push loaded featurephones (like the Maxx VE and the EnV)

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

RE: Pictures
TBolt @ 7/14/2007 3:23:51 PM # Q
Ah, interesting comment about Verizon backing off of the smartphone market. After all the crap that Palm has put everyone through with the 700p, I guess I can't blame VZW from backing off a bit. We'll see what happens when the new Treo's come out, though.

I'll say this...after owning 2 smartphones, I'd NEVER consider going back to a "dumbphone" as you call 'em. :)

TBolt

Treo 700p before and after update pics have been added
Ryan @ 7/14/2007 3:46:31 PM # Q
I just added Kris' example pics from the 700p update to the article.
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Network Identifier Missing After Update

dking4 @ 7/17/2007 2:28:08 PM # Q
I just installed the update using the SD card method last night. Everything went smoothly and I'm finding the phone more responsive. However, I've noticed that the phone application does not show the "Verizon Wireless" Network ID in the upper left corner of the screen as before. It does show the "Phone Off" message when the phone is off and the "Network Search..." message when starting up the phone app but it goes blank once connected to the network. Is anyone else experiencing this or is it a fluke? I wonder if there is a way to correct this? Thanks in advance for any advice or help you may have.



RE: Network Identifier Missing After Update
hkklife @ 7/17/2007 2:32:13 PM # Q
Run *228 and power the phone off and reboot it. Then see what happens. It should clear right on up then.



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

RE: Network Identifier Missing After Update
dking4 @ 7/17/2007 2:40:44 PM # Q
Thanks. I was just coming back to the site to say that *228 solved the problem when I noticed your post. Thanks very much for the advice though.

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HELP: My Treo 700p Constantly Resets Itself!

Gekko @ 7/22/2007 4:01:45 PM # Q

I have a Sprint 700p 1.08, Hardware A. I used to have a Sprint 650 with few problems. My 700p was fine for the first few weeks and now it's gone crazy! I've added no new software and have plenty of memory left (i have only 6 simple small applications installed), but all of a sudden it's doing constant self-resets. Is anyone else having this problem?

RE: HELP: My Treo 700p Constantly Resets Itself!
hkklife @ 7/22/2007 5:00:40 PM # Q
Have you tried clearing the cache out of Blazer & Google Maps? Also do you have the Palm BT or IR keyboard drivers installed?



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

RE: HELP: My Treo 700p Constantly Resets Itself!
freakout @ 7/22/2007 5:14:32 PM # Q
I think I know the problem, Gek: you bought a 700p!


(kidding!!!)

RE: HELP: My Treo 700p Constantly Resets Itself!
Gekko @ 7/22/2007 5:37:38 PM # Q
>Have you tried clearing the cache out of Blazer & Google Maps?

No but wouldn't the reset clear cache anyway? I have cache empty at close set on Blazer and I never use Google Maps.

>Also do you have the Palm BT or IR keyboard drivers installed?

No.

this is very annoying. i don't need this aggravation. i wish we would switch to BlackBerry.

Welcome to Treo 700p HELL, Kiddo.
The_Voice_of_Reason @ 7/23/2007 2:28:32 AM # Q
1) Are you using VersaMail? If so, STOP. Hard reset (soft reset is meaningless), rename your Palm backup folder, reinstall your other apps and do not ever even open VersaMail again. If you need email, get Chatteremail. If you need VersaMail for corporate reasons try the new version available from Palm.

2) If you use Blazer set it to flush the browser cache whenever you exit the app.

3) What apps do you have installed?

P.S. Welcome to Treo 700p HELL. Population: Everyone who owns one. I would have told Sprint to replace my piece of sh!t Treo 700p with a 755p but that would trash my extended battery etc and I refuse to downgrade to losing my regular SD slot, etc. Plus the fit + finish of the 755p seems worse than my 700p. Palm should have spent the money it blew on the FOOLeo, buying back the Palm name, etc on fixing all the damn problems in the Treo lineup. iPhone and the new BlackBerries etc are going to beat the crap out of the Treo sales from now on. And Palm deserves everything the competition is going to inflict on them. Can't wait to hear "Stutterin'" Ed Colligan explain why Palm is $50 million in the red this quarter.

Too bad Samsung dumped PalmOS.


TVoR

RE: HELP: My Treo 700p Constantly Resets Itself!
freakout @ 7/23/2007 3:39:19 AM # Q
Y'know what's really criminal? Palm downgrade to a miniSD slot in the 755p in order to accomodate a bigger battery than the barely adequate 680 battery. And now Seidio put out a 680-sized battery with the same amount of power.

I s'pose the question is: if Seidio can do it, Palm, why couldn't you?

RE: HELP: My Treo 700p Constantly Resets Itself!
ChiA @ 7/23/2007 3:52:44 AM # Q
Too bad Samsung dumped PalmOS.

Yes, just imagine a Samsung Blackjack running Palm OS. Now that would have been legendary!

RE: HELP: My Treo 700p Constantly Resets Itself!
hkklife @ 7/23/2007 3:26:26 PM # Q
Palm did NOT downgrade to a miniSD slot for any particular technical reason.

They did it three reasons alone IMO :

#1 Because Palm are in cahoots with Sandisk et al. and want to see everyone fork over more $ for YANMF (yet another new memory format).

#2: 8gb fullsize SDHC cards are out now, widespread, and affordable. 16gb SDHC cards will likely be around by Christmas. Yet 4gb miniSDHC cards are rarer than hen's teeth and still not very popular. And 8gb miniSDHC cards aren't even out yet!

Palm realizes that FrankenGarnet hits the wall with 4gb volume sizes. They do NOT want to have to deal with customer support requests as to why their Treos are seeing an 8gb card as two separate volumes nor do they want to have to spend the $ to pay the codemonkeys to hack Garnet to recognize larger-sized volumes. So what's the easiest solution? REGRESS to a less capacious, pricier media format so Palm can buy them another 6-12 months of doing NOTHING. This is for the same reasons why Palm cannot even get a Vista-compliant version of Palm Desktop out and why they took over a year to release the 700p's ROM update---laziness, greed, stinginess, arrogance and complacency.

#3. Not wanting to spend any $ to make any REAL improvements to the 755p other than removing the antenna and installing a slightly higher capacity, Palm figured ANY change--even if it's a step backwards--is better than no change at all. So they go with miniSD just to have SOMETHING new to tout on the 755p's product description.

Another possible reason is that if consumers can have larg-capacity (8gb and beyond), cheap memory cards in their Treos they will clamor even harder for "yesterday's" multimedia features like 320x480 LCDs and 3.5mm stereo headphone jacks. So it's in Palm's best interests to keep customers stuck on smaller capacity memory cards in order to mitigate the Treo's hobbled multimedia capabilities, especially in light of a slew of increasingly media-savvy BlackBerry releases.

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

Replacement 700p w/ 1.10 ROM is already buggy!
hkklife @ 7/23/2007 3:33:40 PM # Q
In other 700p news, my "like new" refurb 700p has crapped out on me after just a week. It blanks the LCD and/or locks up when I exert any pressure on the battery area or side panels. The old 700p did not do this. Obviously some internal mobo or LCD ribbon issue. So back it goes to Verizon...BUT Verizon has no more 700p's in stock ANYWHERE (locally or at their main facilities where the 1-800 people pull stock from). A sign that the 755p is imminent? Naah. I still think Verizon is going to ditch Palm OS entirely and move ahead with a smaller lineup of smartpones comprised only of WinMob and BlackBerry units with feature-packed dumbphones being their main focus b/c they can brand/control things so much more easily (Get It Now, VCast etc).

According to several CS reps and store employees, the 700wx is a "much more popular" unit due to having "better software and more memory" over the 700p.

IMO, Verizon will (at best) do with the 755p like Sprint did the now-mythical T608. If you recall, the T608 was the first CDMA phone w/ Bluetooth and the FINAL CDMA phone from Sony-Ericsson. They will release a handful of units for sale only on their website and through indirect agents b/c they've probably already got a few thousand sitting in a warehouse somewhere.

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

RE: HELP: My Treo 700p Constantly Resets Itself!
palminion @ 7/23/2007 10:09:29 PM # Q
Wow, now that is a dark vision. I've been following the rumor mill closely and that is the first I've heard this.

another sucker waiting for 755p on verizon
RE: Replacement 700p w/ 1.10 ROM is already buggy!
SeldomVisitor @ 8/9/2007 9:32:58 AM # Q
RE: HELP: My Treo 700p Constantly Resets Itself!
freakout @ 8/9/2007 10:19:49 AM # Q
Some universal call-center/customer service truths: if a customer is being a pain in the butt, agree with them on everything and make placating noises. Thus, when the linked-to writer claims to have gotten a Verizon tech support person to admit that they've been inundated with support calls about update problems, there's a 90% chance said tech support guy was just saying that to shut him up and make him feel like he wasn't being an irritant.

Or it could be true. But I'm betting not.

RE: HELP: My Treo 700p Constantly Resets Itself!
SeldomVisitor @ 8/9/2007 10:41:40 AM # Q
Absolutely should take anything anywhere with a grain of salt, no doubt about that.
However, Greenberg is a well-known and well-read author who JUST wrote that AND the post above in question was a reply to hkklife's post (note Subject) pretty much noting similar problems.

RE: HELP: My Treo 700p Constantly Resets Itself!
hkklife @ 8/9/2007 2:05:33 PM # Q
I have to admit, I'm not encountering the error 3000 AS OFTEN as some other Verizon 700p 1.10 users online.

I have no idea why this could be. I most certainly "know what I am doing" but it appears infrequently when you have a freshly-hard reset device and becomes exacerbated by loading/syncing programs & data to th device (ironically, much like the 700p's original lag problem!).

Of interest is that the problem began manifesting itself MUCH more frequently once I installed VersaMail 3.5.4 AND after I Hotsync'd my 700p for the first time.

Could AddIt be the culprit? Or the VM libraries?

Regardless, I'd still rather have a 1.10 700p than the horrible 1.06 version.

After living with the 1.10 700p ROM for several weekse I still cautiously recommend it over the original 700p ROM version IF you live in an area with strong EVDO coverage. I'd probably rate the original 700p ROM as a 1.4/5 or 2/5 and the 1.10 update for Verizon as a 2.5/5 or, at best, 3/5.

If the 700p 1.10 was flawless I'd probably still prefer it over a 755p given the larger battery capacity, larger, brighter keyboard and fullsize SDHC. But as it stands now the 755p is still a more reliable device overall and I HIGHLY doubt we'll ever see another update issued for the 700p. Verizon's probably just gonna try to migrate all of the frustrated 700p users over to 700wx's or BlackBerries and be done with it.

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

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Stuck in Capitals

tombrown18977 @ 6/2/2008 4:12:54 AM # Q
HELP.... my treo 700 is permanently stuck in capitals. Ror some reason it has become reversed, and capitals has become the default. when i press shift it goes into lower case. i can double click shift to keep it in lower case, but then on a new messge it jumps straight back....

please help.

tom

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