The written musings of a long-time Apple //e and Macintosh tech nerd. Opinions are my own.
TreoCentral.com member Nomad2000 has posted some pictures of the GSM AT&T Centro. (The pictures, reportedly, came from Hi-PDA.com.)
Palm has recently posted that they will be attending the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) being held in Las Vegas this January. The Sprint exclusive on the Centro is coming to and end by mid-January.
Is this a cleverly disguised hoax or are Palm and AT&T getting ready to launch another Centro early in 2008?
Earlier this week Palm and Verizon launched the Treo 755p on the Verizon Wireless EVDO network and today I received Gadgets On The Go’s review unit. Like a kid on, well, Christmas Morning, I tore into the shipping carton to unbox the new Treo.
Let me start off by saying that new azure green is much better in person than it looks on the computer screen. Sitting on my desk, the new Treo looks like a dark grey or black. Early next year when the company I work for starts deploying them, I will have no hesitation deploying them to the executive team.
Today is the first time I’ve had a chance to play with the 755p. I really like the the new Treo 755p soft touch paint. The 755p’s new contours along the side along with the soft touch paint make the Treo fit comfortably in your hand. When holding the Treo 700p and 755p, one in each hand, the difference is like night and day.
I plan on using the Treo 755p as my primary device for the next few weeks and concluding my test drive with a review here on Gadgets on the Go.
For more information about the Treo 755p, check out Palm’s website.
Earlier today, Palm launched the Treo 755p smartphone on the Verizon Wireless network.
Compared to the Treo 700p which it replaces in the Verizon smartphone line up, the Treo 755p offers a sleeker body design that has previously only been available to Sprint and AT&T customers. Like other recent Treo smartphones, the Verizon Treo 755p features an internal antenna and the soft-touch paint. This version of the Treo 755p comes in azure green (a deep blue-green color if you are Pantone color chart challenged like me). Sprint offers the the 755p in burgundy and midnight blue while Alltel offers the smartphone in black.
The Treo 755p, like the 700p, features a full suite of software for both business and personal time. Documents To Go, Pocket Tunes, and VersaMail lead off a full feature list. Also included in this Treo is Verizon’s Wireless Sync software that allows customers to wireless synchronize email, contacts, calendar, and tasks from a home or business Windows PC.
The Treo 755p will sell for $400 with a new two-year service agreement and after a $50 mail in rebate. Customers who also purchase a qualified voice plan are also eligible for an additional $100 rebate. The Treo 755p will sell for $580 for customers who do not wish to extended there service plans with Verizon.
Full details on all versions of the Treo 755p can be found on the Palm website.
I don’t know how many people have seen this or not, so I wanted to mention it here. I’m a Palm OS user, and I carry a Treo 700p. That said, I try to keep up on what is going on over on the Windows Mobile side of the Palm house.
While researching the Treo 750 Updater 2.25 (the one that adds Windows Mobile 6.0) for a customer over on the Palm Community Help Forums, where I’m a moderator, I ran across the directions for using the Updater 2.25 Recover Tool.
I’m actually excited to see that Palm has packaged this tool into the upgrade kit. While I don’t have a Windows Mobile device to test this on, the tool appears to give customers a second chance to recover from a Treo that was “bricked” by a failed upgrade.
AT&T and Cingular Wireless customers can download the 2.25 Updater here. The directions for using the recovery tool can be found here.
Justin Nolan, the captain over at PDALive.com, sent me a note earlier today to let me know that PDALive.com is turning 8 years old! That is a major accomplishment, congratulations to Justin and the entire team over at PDALive.
To help celebrate, Justin is running a cool contest.
Well it has been another whole year. PDALive is turning 8 years old and to celebrate we are having a contest. We are giving away an Apple iPhone. All you need to do to enter the contest is post in this thread what you think we could do to improve PDALive. The contest is going to run through the end of the year. The contest is only open to actively participating PDALive members.
Also to celebrate we are offering 20% off all software in the PDALive Store all you need to do is enter the coupon code: pdalivewinter all one word. The discount is good through the end of the year also.
Thanks
Justin Nolan
Check out PDALive.com now…
Popular Mechanics has released their Top 10 Worst Gadgets list for 2007. Coming in at number 1 is Palm’s Foleo mobile companion.
“Sometimes, a product makes a Worst of the Year list for all the wrong reasons. Take the Foleo, Palm’s perfectly reasonable attempt to revolutionize ultra-lightweight laptops. We tested this 2.4-pound computer, which ran for up to 5 hours per charge, and despite a relentless pre-release trash-talking from the tech world (mainly from bloggers who hadn’t touched the thing) we liked it.
The 10.2-in. screen and meager flash-based storage were good enough for word processing and Web surfing. Without even realizing it, we started carrying it everywhere. Within days, the tiny machine was a fixture in our dorky lives, tucked under our arms, popping open at every meeting, and drawing as many chortles as breathless questions. Like it or pity it, the Foleo was generating a buzz.
But before a single Foleo hit the shelves, Palm killed it, claiming that they needed more time to develop the Foleo 2. The bloggers won, Palm lost, and our review unit became a bizarre unreleased prequel to a product that might never exist. It wasn’t perfect, but the Foleo deserved better. “
Just for the record, I was one of the bloggers who did touch a Foleo. And I’m waiting, not too patiently I might add, for the Foleo II running Palm OS II.
Read the full Popular Mechanics article…
[Thanks to bulls96 for the tip.]
An interesting article from today’s Wall Street Journal has appeared in a Yahoo Finance discussion forum discussing some of the changes that are taking place inside Palm. The one thing that I have learned recently about companies when private equity firms come in is that they like to run things “lean and mean.” That, I believe, is why people are in such a tailspin about the as yet confirmed global layoffs at Palm.
The Wall Street Journal article reads, in part:
“Mr. Rubinstein now faces numerous challenges at Palm. Last week, Palm warned it would miss estimates when it next reports earnings on Tuesday, sending its stock plunging. Yesterday, Palm made some reassignments and staff reductions.
Since it typically takes at least 18 months to develop new phones from scratch, it may take years for Mr. Rubinstein’s impact to show up. “With the business smart-phone market dominated by RIM and the personal smart-phone market dominated by Apple, it’s hard to say where Palm’s opportunity is,” says Andy Neff, an analyst at Bear Stearns & Co.
So far, Mr. Rubinstein — who heads all of Palm’s research, development and engineering — has kept mum about his plans. But people familiar with his thinking say he is focused on a new Linux-based software platform that would create one set of applications for all Palm products. He wants the platform, due out sometime next year, to be the basis for new phone formats, including possibly a 12-key phone.”
A Palm Community Help Forum member claiming to be an employee of Sprint has posted that the Treo 800w will be coming to Sprint in late February 2008 to replace the Treo 700wx.
Rumors of a Treo 800w, a new Treo running the Windows Mobile operating system, have been circulating on the Internet for months now with little bits of information popping up every few months.
Are these rumors of the Treo 800w real? I’ll leave that for you to decide.
Related Articles
Rumor: Treo 800w Reference Image…
Rumor: Treo 800w Coming to Verizon…
Earlier today Palm and AT&T Wireless released the Treo 680 Update 2.11 for AT&T and Cingular branded smartphones.
According to the Palm website, the update includes the following features:
This update is intended for AT&T or Cingular branded Treo 680 smartphones only. Mac OS X and Vista customers will need a blank SD card with which to perform the update with. BlackBerry Connect customers are being told to not upgrade at this time as this update is not compatible with that software. Lastly, customers who update will be eligible for a free copy of Astraware Sudoku.
Download the AT&T Treo 680 Update 2.11…
[Thanks to my anonymous tipster for sending this in.]
Astraware’s latest game, Casino, brings all the fun an excitement of a trip to the casino without the risk of losing your shirt.
Last week saw the release of yet another high-quality game for the Palm OS and Windows Mobile platforms: Astraware Casino. Astraware Casio is a collection of eight popular casino games: Texas Hold ‘Em Limit Poker, Baccarat, Video Poker, Craps, Video Keno, Slots, Roulette, and Blackjack.
I enjoy playing card games in a casual setting when friends stop by to visit, but I’ve never been one to spend much time at the casino. After downloading and installing the demo, I was happy to learn that Astraware Casino is geared for the casual gamer. When you start the game, you are given $1,200 ($1,000 in your wallet, $200 in the bank) and all the games start off in “Tourist” mode. This mode is intended for the casual casino game player and there are limits on the minimum and maximum bets. For example, the Blackjack table has a minimum bet of $1 and a maximum bet limit of $250. In the third gaming level, “Regular”, the table limits are changed with the minimum bet set to $100 and the maximum bet set to $5,000. New modes of play are unlocked based on how frequently you play and win at the games in the Astraware Casino.
Playing Astraware Casino is a breeze. As with other recent games from Astraware (Solitaire and Boardgames) you move around the game board with the 5-way navigator, or if you prefer, the stylus. The first time to select to play a game that you have not previously played, the game’s rules are displayed in a How to Play window. The directions are well written and easy to understand. You can always view the game directions by tapping the Menu button and selecting Instructions from the menu. (I am still having trouble with the Craps game. I may have to get my book of Hoyle games out and read up on game play strategies.) Moving between the different games and the bank is easily done. Just select Bank or Choose Game from the menu and you will be back to the high stakes action in no time. Adding to the fun are unlockable souvenirs that you win while playing the game. So far my favorite souvenir is the Hawaiian Shirt, with the Ace of Spades a close second.
Astraware Casino is available for both Palm OS handhelds and Treo smartphones, and Treo smartphones running Windows Mobile 5 and 6. This includes the newest Palm smartphones, the Treo 500v (Europe) and the Centro (United States). I tested the game on the Palm TX, Treo 650, and 700p and the game experience was good. Astraware has made a time limited trial available for download. That is a great way to try the game out before you buy and the make sure your hardware is supported. Astraware Casino for Palm OS and Windows Mobile is available now from the Astraware online store and sells for $19.95.
Regardless of weather you are a casual card player or an adrenaline junkie who likes to live life on the edge, with Astraware Casino loaded on your Palm you will be able to take a little piece of the Las Vegas thrill with you wherever you go.
For more information or to download the demo, visit the Astraware website.