Quickies: Visor Edge, i705, Treo

J&R Computer World has lowered their price on the Handspring Visor Edge to $200. They have it in both Silver or Blue and offer free shipping in the NY metro area. -Ravi

Palm Inc. already has the Palm.Net sign-up page for the i705 on its site, despite not having yet officially announced that model. The page includes a picture of the new wireless handheld. -Ed

A Yahoo! Group has been formed in anticipation of the release of the Palm i705 handheld. The main focus of the group will be to discuss i705-related topics, such as questions, problems, etc. -Roger

CBS Marketwatch has confirmed that Cingular Wireless will be providing service for the Handspring Treo. -Ed

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i705

I.M. Anonymous @ 1/26/2002 10:50:03 AM #
I've had the i705 since yesterday ... picked it up at CompUSA. I called Palm.Net tech support because for a while I was unable to activate the unit, and the guy I talked to was a bit confused and upset that I had an i705. All he'd say was, "If you call us back on this coming Monday, we may be able to help you ..." but I was able to eventually activate later last night.

RE: i705
volcanopele @ 1/26/2002 11:09:33 AM #
I imagine thats why they added this page before it was offically annoucned. Some retailers jumped the gun and put it out before the Jan. 28th release date. It is not your fault you have one right now. You saw it at the store, you liked what you saw, and you bought it. Palm probably saw what was going on and didn't want to make their customers angry for something that was the retailers fault, not the customers.

Jason

RE: i705
I.M. Anonymous @ 1/26/2002 11:13:52 AM #
What do you think of it? Give us a review :)

RE: i705
I.M. Anonymous @ 1/26/2002 11:31:02 AM #
Is the wireless functionality exactly that of the Palm VII (e.g. PQAs over the pager network) or is it the dual functionality of the Motient sled.

If the former, I assume you can't run browser like Blazer, but rather only PQAs.

Thanks.

RE: i705
I.M. Anonymous @ 1/26/2002 11:59:46 AM #
What made you purchase the 705 now, as opposed to waiting for the Treo in February?

RE: i705
I.M. Anonymous @ 1/26/2002 12:28:36 PM #
I can't get mine activated either. Once you got your working, was it hard to get continued coverage?

RE: i705
I.M. Anonymous @ 1/26/2002 12:52:54 PM #
I posted the original comment. In response to some of your questions:

About the unit itself ... there's no question that if Palm made a unit that was metal, color, high resolution, and looked like a m505, I'd prefer it over this. But that being said, I think that right now this is the best solution out there for email notification. It's great to be out of the office and have it vibrate when I get a new email. And for anyone using a III or VII, the physical design of the i705 is certainly a step up.

If you were to cover up the unit so all you could see was the screen, you'd be hard pressed to distinguish it from a VIIx. The wireless service is certainly no faster than it is on a VIIx. It runs 4.0, it's rechargeable, uses MultiMail Deluxe as its email client, and has a utility for turning the antenna on or off by a schedule, but that's about the only difference. The showstopper, of course, is the "Notification" menu item in MultiMail, which allows you to hear an alarm, see the LED flash, or have the unit vibrate when you receive emails. You can even set it to only notify you when you receive certain emails based on a filter you configure (I'm assuming the Blackberry can do all this, but it's all very novel to me personally).

The Treo is very cool, and it's always been a dream of me to have a PDA and GSM phone in one small unit, but it has its downsides. For me, getting realtime corporate email on the i705 is huge, and the unit is just small enough so I feel OK about carrying both the Palm and my phone in my pants.

As for coverage, there have been a few brief bouts of no service, but I think they've been flukes, because otherwise I've been consistently getting 70-90% signal strength (I'm in metro Detroit).

In summary, I'd say that if you generally love Palm and you like what the Blackberry can do for you, the i705 is your answer. If wireless data is not priority one, then maybe the Treo is the way to go. Either way, next week, play around with the unit at your local CompUSA/Circuit City/Etc. and decide for yourself.

RE: i705
I.M. Anonymous @ 1/26/2002 1:41:05 PM #
> It runs 4.0

You mean it runs 4.1

RE: i705
I.M. Anonymous @ 1/26/2002 3:36:43 PM #
do the instant messaging clients work as rumored? (aol, icq, yahoo)

RE: i705
I.M. Anonymous @ 1/26/2002 4:13:20 PM #
I haven't tried ICQ or Yahoo, but AIM works great, just like it would with a modem. Maybe the response is a touch slower, but fine otherwise.

OMG It Sucks
I.M. Anonymous @ 1/26/2002 8:45:41 PM #
Just look at it! it looks lke a childs toy, and the usual 160x160.... doesnt palm EVER innovate????????
No colour.. no hires....etc...

RE: i705
Davy @ 1/27/2002 12:23:34 AM #
Really.... get a life.

RE: i705
I.M. Anonymous @ 1/27/2002 12:30:09 AM #
Get a life? You´ve been too good to him or she...

He is a troll with no money...

RE: i705
I.M. Anonymous @ 1/27/2002 8:23:48 AM #
> doesnt palm EVER innovate

I remember reading the results of a survey asking "What's the Number One new feature you want for your handheldheld." By a wide margin, the first answer was "wireless instant access to email". Not "Hi res color screen". That wasn't even close

A better question is "Why is only Palm giving people what they want?"

Yawn...

I.M. Anonymous @ 1/26/2002 11:41:12 AM #
(yawn) what was that? A new palm, (yawn) oh no new features, what a surprise... (yawn) back to bed... wake me up when OS5 comes out... =)

RE: Yawn...
I.M. Anonymous @ 1/27/2002 12:42:25 AM #
OS 5.0 will be ready in 5-6 months, you will probably be dead with your own poison...

Build quality and looks

I.M. Anonymous @ 1/26/2002 11:50:44 AM #
Say what you want about the feature set. Somebody over there knows how to design these things. For business people, the build and appearance will be enough to sell a TON of these.

Until the TREO comes out! :)

I705 nice unit but service sux

I.M. Anonymous @ 1/26/2002 1:26:21 PM #
I picked up a i705 yesterday and am very impressed with the size and quality of the unit. I am disappointed in the service in my area (tampa fl). The unit is well made, the buttons offer nice feedback and are just the right size. The unit itself is small considering what it does. I think the design of an internal antenna is a big mistake. The highest signal strength I get is 60% no matter where I am. Oh well, back to office depot:( Hopefully the Treo fairs better.

RE: I705 nice unit but service sux
I.M. Anonymous @ 1/26/2002 2:14:17 PM #
So, what does 60% signal strength mean? I guess the question is "Is it enough to reliably get your email?" If so, perhaps one could simply use "100% Signal Strength Display Hack"

RE: I705 nice unit but service sux
twizza @ 1/26/2002 2:15:31 PM #
you say that the service suck. but technically isnt it supposed to be released on monday. so therefore u shouldnt have service at all. i am bettin that if u wait till monday that u would get better service.

RE: I705 nice unit but service sux
I.M. Anonymous @ 1/26/2002 3:05:20 PM #
You dont know much about wireless internet do you? What do you think Palm is going to turn a light switch or something. The wireless Palms use standard cell towers for service, nothing special. The 705 is the same as a viix just a different case a slightly differnet hardware.

RE: I705 nice unit but service sux
I.M. Anonymous @ 1/26/2002 3:14:16 PM #
Yeah really.

RE: I705 nice unit but service sux
I.M. Anonymous @ 1/26/2002 3:29:45 PM #
Bull****. The Palm i705 runs on a totally different network than the Palm VII. The i705 runs on Cingular's Interactive Network, while the PVIIx ran on the BellSouth Mobitex network. Two totally different networks, different data rates, different coverage. All together.

RE: I705 nice unit but service sux
I.M. Anonymous @ 1/26/2002 3:36:22 PM #
bellsouth=cingular

RE: I705 nice unit but service sux
Hed @ 1/26/2002 3:47:58 PM #
From http://www.cingular.com/about/our_technology :

>Mobitex is the defacto industry standard for
>wireless data communications with networks operating
>in 22 countries. It is a packet-switched radio
>technology that provides always on instant two-way
>messaging and data delivery. Our core network covers
>93 percent of the urban business population in the
>U.S. The Cingular Wireless Mobitex network has been
>optimized to provide the best in-building coverage
>and best device battery life available in the
>industry.

If I recall, Cingular is all of the Baby Bells' wireless services put together (BellSouth + Southwestern Bell, etc.) so Cingular's network is still based on the BellSouth Mobitex network of the Palm VII series.

RE: I705 nice unit but service sux
derekfsu @ 1/26/2002 3:58:35 PM #
I've had it since last night and also get about 60% strength here in Tallahassee, FL, but it works fine. I have had no data or connectivity problems at all.

RE: I705 nice unit but service sux
I.M. Anonymous @ 1/26/2002 6:18:51 PM #
so, how much did u guys pay 4 it?

RE: I705 nice unit but service sux
I.M. Anonymous @ 1/26/2002 7:04:18 PM #
Yes Bellsouth=Cingular here in Tampa, and their services sucks. The highest I have gotten is 60% and average is 30-40% which causes problems. I called tech support and they said they are tweaking the system still. This is BS since its the same damn system. Too bad since the unit is nice, but the service is terrible. Of course it might be better elsewhere but I think Cingular is TDMA down here which is crap for service. I can use my V60 on Alltel with my laptop anywhere and it works great.

RE: I705 nice unit but service sux
I.M. Anonymous @ 1/26/2002 7:15:15 PM #
Cingular's TDMA network is for cell phones and maybe pagers. The Mobitex network is a different animal altogether--it's data only.

RE: I705 nice unit but service sux
I.M. Anonymous @ 1/26/2002 7:34:03 PM #
Go to: http://www.mobitex.org/members/full_members.html#US

Tap the link for cingularinteractive. Watch the URL line in your browser. www.cingularinteractive.com redirects to www.bellsouthwd.com (and then back to Cingular).

Mobitex = BellSouth Wireless Data = Cingular Interactive.

RE: I705 nice unit but service sux
ssummer @ 1/26/2002 8:21:56 PM #
Heh, the dude that said the Bellsouth and Cingular networks were totally different must really be feeling like a retard right now.

Just goes to show how much B.S. spouters there are on this board. Atleast this time one of them got the online version of a b***hslap...

RE: I705 nice unit but service sux
I.M. Anonymous @ 1/26/2002 10:31:28 PM #
I work for Cingular Wirless formally Cingular Interactive formally Bellsouth Wireless Data formally Ram Mobile Data.
The new Palm (whatever the number is) uses the same network the palm 7 uses. There are over 2300 sites nationwide dedicated to make it work

I just looked it up and Tampa has about 10 sites for the city and the surrounding area (west central Fla.)Should have good coverage in some areas and not so good in others. Contrast that with over 40 in midtown NYC.

Up here in the Wash-Bost corridor coverage is good to excellant. In Metro NYC area where 16,000,000 people live the coverage is good to excellant. I have a freind who rides the trains and he is very happy with our coverage.

We are not a cell phone company, even though we are owned by one. We dont have sites every two miles like Verizone or ATT does (except NYC) and never will. Our system is simple data , all-be-it slow it is extremly *Reliable*. I know cuz Im on call 24 x 7 to keep it that way. I cant go more than two hrs from my house without notifying my boss.

BTW most of our sites are not on "cell towers". Mostly we are on the top of taller towers that the cell providers can only use on the lower levels because they must reuse their spectrum more frequently than we do. Our typical site is an 8 dB gain Omni antenna at 400 feet. Their's is a tri-sectored panel array at 150 feet. Some of our "Boomer" sites may work out past 15 miles. Rarely do theirs work past 2 or 3.

Well then...
I.M. Anonymous @ 1/27/2002 12:09:13 AM #
Hell, you can't argue with that.
That some fancy talkin'!
I'll buy that for a dollar, and the manual to go with it?

How'd that go again?

Wireless is good, but the total package is not enough......

I.M. Anonymous @ 1/27/2002 10:26:54 AM #
to get me interested. I don't care how they do it (and I think they will be able to do it in about a year's time), but they have to get the form factor down to a m505.

Add Color (at least on a 160x160) and make it usable worldwide. Then I may be interested. Otherwise I am still going to get my Sony. I'll wait for the bluetooth MS and tried that.

new owner's i705 pictures at the i705 Yahoo Group site.

I.M. Anonymous @ 1/27/2002 11:22:53 AM #
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/i705/

Check out the link above to get there!

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