Jeff Hawkins Discusses his Treo Usage Habits

Posted By: Kris Keilhack Thursday, March 15, 2007 9:19:14 AM

Jeff Hawkins has done a short interview with PalmAddicts regarding his own personal Palm device usage habits. In the chat, the recently-quite-talkative Hawkins confesses that his personal daily device is in fact a Sprint Treo 700p. Jeff goes on to list some of his favorite apps, including Palm's very own VersaMail software for e-mail reading. He claims to use the web often on his Treo but does not mention his web browser of choice. Other surprising choices is the now-defunct TCPMP instead of the new commercial iteration of the product, Coreplayer, and AcidImage over Palm's own Photo app. Hawkins does keep Palm bundled software flag flying high by choosing PocketTunes for his audio needs.

In the article's hardware-related surprises, Hawkins mentions that he uses a 4gb SD card. As many astute readers know, 4gb SD cards are not officially part of the SD 1.1 standard and not offficially recognized by Palm or the major flash card makers. I was expecting a pitch for an overpriced Palm-branded 2gb SD card! Also, Hawkins confesses to requiring reading glasses to view movies on the Treo's relatively small screen.

Given Hawkins' surprisingly media-heavy usage habits outlined in the interview, a larger-screened Treo with "gigs" of onboard storage, integrated GPS, an SDHC slot, and a standard 3.5mm stereo headset jack would be an ideal companion for the father of the Palm platform. Hawkins' list of favorite Treo activities magnifies every current Treo technical shortcoming, making the fact that Hawkins cites his usage habits as being "typical" even odder.

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Hawkins has a 700p. Wonder if his Spanish lessons skip...

freakout @ 3/15/2007 5:34:12 AM #

From PalmAddicts:

Sammy, I have a Treo 700p on Sprint. My usage is probably typical. Major applications for me are Palm email via Palm’s VersaMail and push EAS, Numenta email via Snapper Mail IMAP, of course I use our SMS app constantly, and I am a big web user on my Treo. I browse everywhere but check news (Yahoo, BBC, and International Herald Tribute mobile which is pretty much the New York Times) and Google often.

Some less typical apps are TomTom navigator while driving, Acid Image for image viewer, TideTool a very cool app for tides and currents (I sail), Google Maps, On Demand for weather, Leonard Maltin Movie Guide, Klondike solitaire, TPCMP for movies, pTunes for audio Spanish lessons, plus a few other apps.

My typical day starts in bed checking my calendar, a quick scan of email to see if something important needs attention, and quick read of news.

Throughout the day I use my Treo for email, voice calling, sms, and other miscellaneous things. I often watch movies on my Treo while traveling on a plane. I have a 4G SD card which can hold 6 full length movies. With a stereo headset and a pair of reading glasses it is quite good. My family often take pictures and we email them to each other as a way to stay in touch. As you might expect, I use my Treo all the time.

Tim
I apologise for any and all emoticons that appear in my posts. You may shoot them on sight.
Treo 270 ---> Treo 650 ---> Crimson Treo 680

RE: Hawkins has a 700p. Wonder if his Spanish lessons skip...

SeldomVisitor @ 3/15/2007 7:56:41 AM #

That is to say, Hawkins apparently uses his "smartphone" ==exactly== as studies have shown the general population uses their phones that are only slightly more capable than the dumbest of phones - email, messaging, calendar, media, web-browsing.

Gee...WHOWOULDATHOUGHT!?

And doesn;t this...you know...suggest a target?

RE: Hawkins has a 700p. Wonder if his Spanish lessons skip...

mikecane @ 3/15/2007 8:24:20 AM #

The bit that didn't make it into print.
http://mikecane.wordpress.com/2007/03/15/jeff-hawkins-qa-the-cut-bit/

RE: Hawkins has a 700p. Wonder if his Spanish lessons skip...

sbono13 @ 3/15/2007 7:50:55 PM #

"That is to say, Hawkins apparently uses his "smartphone" ==exactly== as studies have shown the general population uses their phones that are only slightly more capable than the dumbest of phones - email, messaging, calendar, media, web-browsing."

I believe you are misrepresenting those "studies." Palm's presentations often include a slide that shows what percentage of people use the advanced capabilities of their phones, eg, what percentage of people with music-capable phones ever listen to music on their phones, what percentage of people with email capable phones ever access email on their phones, etc. In nearly all use cases, the percentage is fairly low. In contrast, in those situations, the usage percentage is dramatically higher among Treo users. So while there are tons of music-capable phones out there, very few of their owners (like 15%) actually use those phones for music, whereas 80% of Treo users listen to music on their Treos.

Now how does that jibe with your contention that smartphone owners use their phones exactly like dumbphone owners?

RE: Hawkins has a 700p. Wonder if his Spanish lessons skip...

hkklife @ 3/15/2007 8:07:00 PM #

MANY more (this user included) Treo users would listen to music on their devices IF Palm were to make something as archaicly simple as a stereo 3.5mm headphone jack standard. Forget BT A2DP etc for the time being...I want on my Treo what was on the first Sony Walkman ~30 years ago...and on nearly every Palm Inc. handheld released since the Tungsten T!

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

RE: Hawkins has a 700p. Wonder if his Spanish lessons skip...

freakout @ 3/15/2007 10:44:41 PM #

^^ Too right, hkk, too right. With BT headsets so prevalent nowadays, the "we need 2.5mm for wired headset compatibility" argument holds no water anymore. A 3.5mm jack would hopefully be a bit more durable too - unlike the 2.5mm jack that broke on my 680 after a month of usage. (yep, it was broken. it started working again which made me think it was some kind of bizarre bug, but after another month it was apparent the jack was well and truly stuffed. sent it back for repairs a couple of weeks ago... i'm going crazy waiting to get it back!!! Once i do get it back, I'm switching to Seidio's Athena-audio-out adapter instead. No way do i ever want to go through this again!)

Tim
I apologise for any and all emoticons that appear in my posts. You may shoot them on sight.
Treo 270 ---> Treo 650 ---> Crimson Treo 680

RE: Hawkins has a 700p. Wonder if his Spanish lessons skip...

SeldomVisitor @ 3/16/2007 8:53:01 AM #

> ...misrepresenting...

Huh?

Everything you just posted discusses what TREO owners do with their phones.

Who's talking about ==TREO== owners!?

RE: Hawkins has a 700p. Wonder if his Spanish lessons skip...

sbono13 @ 3/16/2007 11:36:50 AM #

> Everything you just posted discusses what TREO owners do with their phones.

Huh? No, what I posted ==also== discusses what non-Treo users do with their phones. More specifically, what non-Treo users ==DON'T== do with their phones: most of them DON'T listen to music, DON'T access their email, DON'T surf the web, DON'T access their calendar. Hawkins does all those things, like most treo users, which means his usage patterns are NOT ==exactly== like most non-Treo users, who do NOT do those things. Is that clear to you?