Tungsten W Available Feb 28th

Agreed - they should have gone with a 66mhz Dragonball - Sony has been using these for a year and how much more would that have cost? I bet the bigger concern was battery life. But with this unit doing so well in the battery department, they probably could afford a little extra juice for the 66mhz. I don't really see a need for an OS5 version at this point - just drives the cost and battery use up. All in all though - nice unit. Only wireless PDA to have 320x320, one of the few to have SDIO (theres the Kyocera, and i believe several PPC Phone Edition units have SD - though the Thera doesn't count because it's such a lame piece of s%@*!). Decent unit - just bring the price down by $200 and i might consider it.

Just seems goofy to me. Not to mention the fact that the Tungsten W is nothing more than a Treo 300 minus the flip cover and normal phone capability (without a handsfree kit), with a hi-res screen. Whoo friggin' hoo.

I think it's a downright shame this isn't a OS5 unit. Flame away, but I don't see any good reason it ISN'T a OS5/ARM device...

OK...

>>it's the fact that the latest & greatest Palm wireless handheld is running a 5 year old processor and an older version of their operating system.Just seems goofy to me.

Ohh - ok then. They should have gone with OS 5 because OS 4 is "goofy" to you. valid reason.

>>Not to mention the fact that the Tungsten W is nothing more than a Treo 300 minus the flip cover and normal phone capability (without a handsfree kit), with a hi-res screen.

NO. Treo uses some sub-version of OS 3.5. It also has no expansion (SDIO). And the 320 x 320 makes web pages, images (think web, MMS), and virtually every application look a hell of a lot nicer. Especially office apps (DocsToGo) - which i always found useless on 160x160 devices. With a web-centric device like this - being able to actually see more of a page as it was intended to be viewed, makes this %100 better then the treo - given the intended function.

Don't worry, HS should come out with by this summer if the rumors are correct. Furthermore, all these smartphones were in development before OS 5 was released. They took so long to come to market b/c every wireless provider puts these phones thru exaustive testing before they release on their networks. Just take for instance the lenghty delay of the Kyocera 7135 by Verizon. A bad phone can bring a network to stand still and thus smartphone development and release is far more complicated than pda's. Many OEM's, even Nokia, have had to embarrasingly withdraw mobiles from release b/c of their buggy nature on networks. Additionally, it is commonly stated that the smartphone product clycle is approximately 9 months behind the pda segment. Using that time frame, we should start seeing the 1st OS smartphones by June 2003 at the earliest if we're lucky, but then again the providers have to sign off as well...

If they can barely come up with dedicated PDAs with small enough form factor, running OS5, hi-res WITH a decent battery life, how long will it be before they can have a smartphone with all that specs?

-the harbinger-

Sheesh, don't you guys ever get tired of demanding technology that is either not available, or just too expensive for the general public? Palm could probably make what you want, but how many people want to carry an $800 phone on their belt?

Yes, the Pocket PC arena has some pretty powerful SmartPhones. Call me when they finally get a phone with more than 2-days battery life and an OS that doesn't tick me off. I will admit that Symbian is tough to beat, but there isn't much office software available for it.

Jim

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James Sorenson

Regarding a Palm-Handspring merger, with my heart, I hope it happens--I own three Visors and it would be a symbolic blow if the Palm community were to lose it's capricious step-child to neglect. With my head, I don't see what Palm would gain by gobbling up Handspring. It's technology is dated and it's pipeline is thin.

Handspring was too slow to innovate (Hi-res, POS 4 & 5, SD, Bluetooth, ... you name it) and way too ****y when it did, "You Visor users had better all buy Treos because we're abandoning the product you're carrying". In a month, Donna & Co. alineated almost their entire market base because they forgot that every Handspring customers was a Visor owner at that time. They did keep their word--the Visor line has not seen an update in 2 years. The Treo is a fine product, necessary but not sufficient.

the VisorMiser
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Where will ya be when ya get where you're goin'?

I make calls by touching the appropriate contact on my T/T. The call goes out to my t68i which communicates with my Freespeak. I hear a beep in my BT headset just before the first ring.

I can also send SMS messages from my T/T directly to my t68i, as well as update my Avantgo through the t68i via the T/T.

Whenever I want to surf the web using my T/T, I just need to make sure that my t68i is within 10 meters of my T/T. This is the most amazing set up. I've been using it now for the past 4 months and cannot imagine ever going back to an all-in-one device (who's concept I now consider "toast."

A co-worker of mine who's been carrying around a handheld windows version with Sprint saw this set up and action and immediately put his all-in-one on Ebay.

Hope this helps.

Yes, I have a data plan with AT&T that provides several meg for about $10.00 per month. I believe there is another plan that provides unlimited access for around $80.00.

The T/T has browser provided on the bonus CD that allows me to surf the web from my T/T through my T68i. Works like a champ!