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Handhelds Communications Hardware

More Problems for the Treo 650 215

Posted by michael from the speak-up-sonny dept.
koreth writes "PalmOne's new Treo 650 smartphone is one of the season's most eagerly-anticipated gadgets. But it looks like they let it out of the gate too early. First there was the memory problem, which, to PalmOne's credit, they addressed quickly. That satisfied me and I bought one, only to find that while it's a great device in a lot of ways, as a phone it stinks. From the other end, it sounds like I'm inside a cardboard box, and lots of other people are complaining about the same thing. No word yet from PalmOne on this problem. Any other 650 owners having problems with their new units?"
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More Problems for the Treo 650 More

More Problems for the Treo 650

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  • Smokey the Bear says... (Score:4, Funny)

    by GillBates0 ( 664202 ) on Saturday December 04, 2004 @10:04PM (#10999231) Homepage Journal
    When using your Treo 650 smartphone at the campgrounds, always practice safety. Surround your Treo 650 with rocks to keep the fire from spreading. Be sure when you're done with your Treo 650 to put it out with a bucket of water and make sure it has stopped smoking before you leave the area.

    Remember what Smokey the Bear says. Only you can prevent your Treo 650 smartphone from starting a forest fire.

    • I got one over here in Austrailia for 345 AU dollars.

      345 AU dollars converts to 270$ US

      I was disappointed in the performance for it to cost that much that I returned it to the store. I was going to get it for my aunt for Christmas (but couldnt resist to try it out) and for it to cost its weight in gold it definately wasn't worth it.

      How much does it cost in American dollars? Surely cheaper? By much? Anyone know?

  • Upgraded 600? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by wing03 ( 654457 ) on Saturday December 04, 2004 @10:04PM (#10999233)
    One would think they'd take the good parts of the 600 (namely the radio/phone part) and merely add a higher resolution screen and other small improvements rather than seemingly designing it from the gound up again.

    • Re:Upgraded 600? (Score:5, Informative)

      by s.o.terica ( 155591 ) on Saturday December 04, 2004 @10:38PM (#10999383)
      One would think they'd take the good parts of the 600 (namely the radio/phone part) and merely add a higher resolution screen and other small improvements rather than seemingly designing it from the gound up again.
      Yes, you'd think. Apparently Palm traded in the 600's Sierra Wireless chipset/radio for a Qualcomm chipset/radio. No one would claim the Treo 600 had the best sound quality in the world, but it was completely passable, and it had fantastic reception. Boo, Palm.
      • No one would claim the Treo 600 had the best sound quality in the world, but it was completely passable, and it had fantastic reception.

        That's odd.

        Perhaps my experience isn't representative of Treo 600 owners in general, but my Treo gets terrible reception and sounds just as bad. My wife has a cheap nokia phone that cost nothing while the Treo cost me $400, shows full signal strength while my Treo shows 50%, and sounds like a land-line while my Treo sounds like a bad IP phone.

        I always assumed that t
      • Sometimes I wonder if Palm really secretly enjoys screwing their products up and going the complete wrong direction with them.
      • They also swapped the processor out. Went from TI to Intel.

  • And of course... (Score:5, Informative)

    by absurdist ( 758409 ) on Saturday December 04, 2004 @10:06PM (#10999251)
    ... when one actually READS TFA, one finds that a few people seem to be having this problem, and a great many more don't. And that it could be Sprint's crappy service in the first place.
    • It would seem to be an analog capture problem. Sprint's mobile connection service is all-digital, leading to different sound artifacts if there were problems.

      Now, if one is using it off-network then it could either be the fault of whoever is operating the local analogue network or the fault of a bad transmitter in the device.

    • yep (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      As was discussed previously on slashdot, cell phone makers tend to pile huge amounts of unrelated functionality, rather than produce a phone with good sound and reliable service.

      The reason is obvious. It costs a hell of a lot more to increase service reliability than it does to add tetris.

      And for some reason, the market is completely tolerant of this....

      • I'm not so convinced. I work in an industry which deals primarily with audio, as did my brother. We both find the science, being established, doesn't have the flash or 'sale-ability' of, say, downloadable games and consequently the accountants, marketing shills, Psychology major project leaders and other MBA riff-raff tend to treat it as monkey designable. Hence, we get audio products with audio designed by monkeys and the money goes into customizable backdrops and the like.

    • Re:And of course... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Trillan ( 597339 ) on Sunday December 05, 2004 @12:18AM (#10999716) Homepage Journal

      I can second this. My Ericcson(sic, probably) T68i sounded like absolute shit on the network that sold it to me. Eventually, I had enough of their billing mistakes and bad reception and moved to another network. Everyone I talked to said "Hey, you got a new phone? It sounds great!"

      WTF is with Slashdot's anti-Palm spin lately?

    • >>a few people seem to be having this problem, and a great many more don't

      Put me in the "don't" category. I had great reception on my Treo 600, and the reception if anything is better on the 650. Sound quality sounds just as good as well. The only time I've ever had any sort of sound glitch, it was attributable to the Bluetooth headset, not the phone.

      Yet another customer service molehill built into a mountain, courtesy of the internet. A few loudmouths happen to get the inevitable one or two b

  • As long as the phone is problem free before it comes over to ATT/Cingular side. I don't mind it Sprint users beta test a final product, till Palm gets it right. =)

  • Well at least... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Biomechanical ( 829805 ) on Saturday December 04, 2004 @10:07PM (#10999253) Homepage

    ...You don't sound like you're on the toilet.

    That's always awkward for the other person.

  • The fix... (Score:5, Funny)

    by bort27 ( 261557 ) on Saturday December 04, 2004 @10:09PM (#10999256)
    To solve the voice quality problem, you probably shouldn't use the phone from inside your new house [slashdot.org]. :-) Bort.

  • What is the Matrix (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    From the other end, it sounds like I'm inside a cardboard box.

    You are inside a cardboard box. Those robo-womb-battery-pods are the rosy sci-fi view of the future.

  • Just use an external mike. (Score:5, Informative)

    by RealProgrammer ( 723725 ) on Saturday December 04, 2004 @10:12PM (#10999276) Homepage Journal

    Oops, until December 10 they're backordered [palmone.com]

    I guess it's back to carrying a Treo and a real phone.

    (I know you can buy a nice third-party headset for cell phones. It's just a joke.)

  • Easy fixed (Score:3, Funny)

    by hayden ( 9724 ) on Saturday December 04, 2004 @10:14PM (#10999287)
    Just tell everybody who asks that you're calling from the dunny (toilet for those who don't speak Australian).

  • Thanks. (Score:4, Funny)

    by qualico ( 731143 ) <<worldcouchsurfer> <at> <gmail.com>> on Saturday December 04, 2004 @10:14PM (#10999290) Journal
    I was going to buy the Treo 650, however, now that I have heard this, I'll be waiting for my GPS, Camera, MP3, WiFi, TV Control, Weather Station, Glucose monitor, Range Finder, MicroDrive, FM/AM, Fuelcell driven Phone PDA.

    • Re:Thanks. (Score:3, Funny)

      by UID1000000 ( 768677 )
      you forgot to mention that it's entirely open source hardware and runs linux!!

    • Re:Thanks. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by UniverseIsADoughnut ( 170909 ) on Sunday December 05, 2004 @12:33AM (#10999766)
      I just hope this kind of thing will stop the phone integration hell that everyone is riding. Give us simple phones!

      Not everyone wants a integrated mess, some of use just want small clean simple phones that work and are dirt cheap. I don't want color screens (or need more like it), cameras, office apps, keyboards......

      I just want a very small phone, that gets good battery life, is durable, have a vibrate mode (most every phone has this now), a well thought out phone book, an alarm clock, no protruding antenna.

      All this other crap is just that, and makes a phone cost way more then it should, plus make it more buggy, and harder to use.

      Fortunately there is some growing movement against integration, there was some study a bit back showing people more and more want their simple phone back. But for now we are forced to get this train wreck of phones since phones with just the basic features are big huge dinosaurs that leave people going for the gadget filled phone just to avoid having a huge clunky phone.
      • Not everyone wants a integrated mess, some of use just want small clean simple phones that work and are dirt cheap. I don't want color screens (or need more like it), cameras, office apps, keyboards......

        If you're female, no problem, just stuff all the different devices into a purse.

        If you're male and you use a PDA and a phone, you're stuck with the Treo. There's a limited amount of space in the pockets of a pair of jeans.
        • Lol, or get a jacket with lots of pockets? Heh. I have a summer type jacket (thing is as thin as a T-shirt, so I'm not exactly baking in it) that I wear in spring and fall that has 5 big internal pockets, and 4 external pockets. For winter I have a nice leather jacket with two internal, two external pockets. Everything fits! I.e. my phone and Palm, and when I want to play more music than can fit on my MMC card - a CD mp3 player.
        • No problem really. Go for the utility belt look. Once you're past one thing on your belt, you're marked to the world as a geek. If you already have a phone and a swiss army knife, then go ahead and add the PDA pouch.

          And real geeks use bluetooth GPS.
      • I think I can picture what you're looking for...

        T-Mobile used to have the Samsung r225m phone that was free with a new contract. It's quite a simple phone, with just about everything you are talking about. The antenna sticks about 3/4" and the phone book isn't the absolute greatest, but it's simple and gets the job done.

        They don't have it anymore though, it's been replaced by the 225c. The big difference as far as I can tell so far (and I haven't looked hard at all) is that it has a color screen.

        I got
      • I just want a phone that will stay intact. I had a Nokia 6185 that I had for 5 years. It worked as well the day I lost it at the Winnipeg airport as the day I got it and I was abusive with my electonics. I got a new LG phone (I don't even know the model) and cracked the screen within 6 months. I haven't figured out what I did to break it. It was in my coat pocket. I didn't touch anything. Go figger.

  • Lesson learned. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Chess_the_cat ( 653159 ) on Saturday December 04, 2004 @10:15PM (#10999293) Homepage
    Probably a good idea to read the forums before buying the product.
    • Probably a good idea to read the forums before buying the product.

      I always read the forums before I buy a PDA, and every single one of them has problems, so I've never bought a PDA.

      Reality check: At some point you have to decide what mix of features and problems you want to live with. Which means I'll probably never buy a PDA.

    • Probably a good idea to read the forums before buying the product.

      At first I read this as reading the forums before you release the product. Not a bad idea... er, wait, nevermind.

    • Re:Lesson learned. (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Babbster ( 107076 )
      This is a good idea in theory, though in execution it is quite problematic. The majority of people who post about products in online forums are those who want to complain about something. This being the case, it's not a truly representative sampling. For example, you could play a MMORPG for months and enjoy yourself. Go to that game's message board, however, and in most cases it will appear that everyone playing the game is threatening to quit over what they consider game-breaking issues.

      The REAL less

  • A bit of advice (Score:5, Funny)

    by ElMiguel ( 117685 ) on Saturday December 04, 2004 @10:19PM (#10999320)

    First of all, check that you are not really inside a cardboard box.

    Oh well, perhaps I've been the informal help desk for my family for too long.

  • How is YOUR reception? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Psychofreak ( 17440 ) on Saturday December 04, 2004 @10:21PM (#10999325) Journal
    Or "Can you hear..." sorry, could't resist.
    On a more serious side, I used to own a Samsung cell, but have since replaced it with a Morotolla. I have spoken to several different salespeople for cell phones because I cannot get reception on the new motorola phone inside building with lots of metal...such as grocery stores (lots of steel fixtures, not to mention canned goods)or the local marine [boatus.com] equipment store. With the Samsung phone I had little to no problems at these locations.
    BUT
    There's always a but. I am told that my crapy reception phone has better sound quality on the other end than the phone I could talk on anywhere!
    At lest the Motorola does not reach Canada from Port Clinton, Ohio. [mapquest.com] Nasty roaming.
  • Is it just the built-in microphone or does this happen with a headset too?

  • From the other end, it sounds like I'm inside a cardboard box

    This makes total sense, and is even possibly by design, because after shelling out $599 for a cell phone, a cardboard box is probably going to be most Treo 650 owners new residential address.

    ~jeff

  • Default microphone setting to blame? (Score:5, Informative)

    by WIAKywbfatw ( 307557 ) on Saturday December 04, 2004 @10:45PM (#10999412) Journal
    From the forum, posted by bael (post number 18 in the thread linked to):

    First call I made I was told that it sounded choppy like y'all are describing. I turned the volume down on the phone and that seemed to help.

    So, turn the mike down a bit and problem solved. By the way, this story summary is a joke. "From the other end, it sounds like I'm inside a cardboard box"? Would it really be that much of a stretch for the editors to edit this sentence (or add one of their own) to explain that the people at the other end are experiencing choppy reception because of a microphone issue?

  • No problems here. (Score:5, Informative)

    by tealwarrior ( 534667 ) on Saturday December 04, 2004 @10:46PM (#10999418)
    I've had my 650 for about 2 weeks (on Sprint) and haven't noticed this problems. I just asked my wife who probably accounts for 1/2 my cell phone time and she hasn't noticed anything in the quality of reception. In noisy environments like my car I use the ear piece (which I think is also the law in my state) so perhaps it's the mike on the phone in noisy environments but that doesn't seem unusual. The first problem was a non-issue for me when upgrading for me and SD cards are so cheap I doubt it ever will be.

    I really like the 650. The touch screen is much easier to navigate with my finger and nail than my 300 and the increaded resolution is really nice. Browsing is also fast and quite usabe. I don't bother with the palm version of slashdot since I can read the regular one just fine.

    There are a few minor interface issues like it takes a while to move to the dialing screen which sometimes makes me think that it didn't register the click and the call logs interface high-lights the last call dialed and the cancel button but the cancel button has focus (not the last number) so I often am sometimes confused when I hit enter and it doesn't call the last number. Nothing huge though just something to get used to.

    The only reason I see to wait is if you're still deciding whether to shell out $450 for a phone. For me it was worth it.

  • My Treo (Score:5, Interesting)

    by b0lt ( 729408 ) on Saturday December 04, 2004 @10:50PM (#10999437)
    My friends (gasp!) have told me that whenever I used my Treo, it sounded like I was stutering, and they couldn't understand me most of the time. I tried my bluetooth headset, and it worked fine. Is this a microphone problem?

    -b0lt

    • Re:My Treo (Score:3, Informative)

      by UID1000000 ( 768677 )
      This is because you are using the CDMA version of the 650.

      IMHO - Sprint and cdma service is not good in comparison to GSM and GPRS data services.
      • But what about it working using a bluetooth microphone?
      • Umm CDMA is a lot clearer than TDMA any day of week.
      • This is because you are using the CDMA version of the 650.

        IMHO - Sprint and cdma service is not good in comparison to GSM and GPRS data services.

        You'd better read technical papers...

        CDMA is newer and better then GSM. BTW GPRS
        does not relate to vois\ce quality at all.

      • Re:My Treo (Score:3, Informative)

        by div_2n ( 525075 )
        Actually physics of radio frequencies allow Sprint more bandwidth as they usually operate 1900mhz and above. GSM is usually 1800mhz and often 800mhz. This means better reception due to NLOS properties.

        The summary -- Sprint allows better data transfer and potentially better voice quality at the expense of more dropped calls where GSM allows better reception without LOS yet lower voice and data quality.
        • Actually, typical GSM bands are 900, 1800, and 1900. T-Mobile provides GSM at 1900 in the US, and Cingular (as well as just acquired AT&T Wireless) use 850 in most markets to leverage their investment in their existing bandwidth. Cingular does provide 1900 in certain markets like NC and CA. There are no 900 or 1800 deployments in the US that I'm aware of.

          I'm not an RF engineer, but I think you've got it backwards. I believe the rule of thumb is _lower_ Mhz = better building penetration and NLOS.

  • Wait a minute. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by the angry liberal ( 825035 ) on Saturday December 04, 2004 @11:06PM (#10999499)
    "From the other end, it sounds like I'm inside a cardboard box, and lots of other people are complaining about the same thing. No word yet from PalmOne on this problem. Any other 650 owners having problems with their new units?"

    Okay, let me get this straight. The guy bought a phone without testing the quality first, now that he has had it a while he decides he is unsatisfied and wants the people he bought it from to do something about it?

    You, my friend, are a sucker in every aspect of the word. You bought a phone because of all the gimmicks without actually making sure it was adequate as a phone.

    Just to keep moderators off my back, imagine this:

    "Yes, I bought this Porsche and it does not accelerate fast enough, what are you going to do to fix it?"

    These two match up well with my logic. I mean, if the phones had a tendancy to explode or fail due to faulty components, that would be different. But this is a simple case of a product not being very good and will probably improve only in the next model. Really, what incentive would they have to sell you another PDA phone in two years if the one you have now works perfectly?

    --
    I'd rather see a hundred comments unmoderated than see a hundred comments moderated badly by some jerk with an axe to grind. --CmdrTaco 6/26/00

    • Re:Wait a minute. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by yog ( 19073 ) on Saturday December 04, 2004 @11:42PM (#10999614) Homepage Journal
      You, my friend, are a sucker in every aspect of the word. You bought a phone because of all the gimmicks without actually making sure it was adequate as a phone.

      Strong words there, fella. How is he a sucker merely for buying a highly recommended product and then trying to get some problems fixed?

      I'm very interested in the Treo 650 and I really appreciate users like him airing possible problems with the product and looking for solutions that will keep him from returning it.

      My guess (and hope) is that it's a software problem that can be fixed with a flash rom upgrade or some such.

      The Treo 650's not that bad a product. I haven't heard any complaints about the Treo as pda; it's got a really nice screen and all the usual Palm apps. The camera is OK, the bluetooth is nice except that Sprint disabled dial-up networking (they promise to enable it in a future software upgrade), and Palm's giving out free 128MB SD cards to its customers as a temporary fix for the memory problem.

      I'm waiting for T-Mobile and Verizon to start offering it, so I can choose between the competition for my next contract. But I'd prefer a Treo 700 that included wifi and a little more memory.

    • "Yes, I bought this Porsche and it does not accelerate fast enough, what are you going to do to fix it?"

      Well, first off, cars come with a warranty. This is not a "my Palm doesn't browse the web fast enough" this is akin to "there's a problem with the transmission and it jerks when I shift gears".

      Everyone's tastes are different and I rarely trust a reviewer for advice on anything subjective. I was told the T616 had great reception. Sure, if you're a reviewer in San Francisco or New York. It's GSM onl

    • Excuse me, and how are you the wiser?

      When you go and buy a phone you first go looking for products that have SOME expetected reputation in their brand name.

      Your comparison with a Porsche fails because you it is perfectly normal to have problems with a brand new Porsche, and guess what? You would still go to the dealer and get it fixed!

      /now I realize I was feeding a troll, oh well.

  • All these features and you want to phone? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by EmbeddedJanitor ( 597831 ) on Saturday December 04, 2004 @11:10PM (#10999505)
    How do you get enough time to use all the features if you're also going to yammer away on the phone?

    A phone should primarily be, ummm, a phone I'd think, but then mine is 6 years old and still does fine. No games, no camera. Just SMS and voice.

    • A phone should primarily be, ummm, a phone I'd think, but then mine is 6 years old and still does fine. No games, no camera. Just SMS and voice.

      It's not a phone - it's a mobile data access device. It's a bitch to admin a server with SMS.

      Now there's an idea - a server-based tool that will relay ssh commands for you via SMS. (ob: I hereby claim patent rights).

  • We moved on.... (Score:2, Informative)

    by CptTripps ( 196901 )
    I've had (in my company) 4-5 Treo 300s. They all needed replaced at least twice. (speaker problems, display problems, reset problems.) When the 600 came out, I replaced all the 300s we had. Big mistake. In the last year, we replaced EVERY ONE at LEAST 3 times. (One..my boss..6 times) They are ALL built like crap. I wasn't expecting the 650 to be anything better. So I bought everyone Blackberrys about 3mos ago. They are MUCH sturdier, and everyone likes them a lot better.

    It's just trying to be too many thin

    • Re:We moved on.... (Score:2, Insightful)

      by pipetoawk ( 455329 )
      Really???

      I've had my 600 for 6 months now and I've had zero problems with reliability. In fact, one of the things that has impressed me most about the 600 is how solid it is. Perhaps it's not that your Treos were built like crap, but that your employees treeated them like crap??
      • Nope its the Treos that were built like crap. They've gone thru several revisions on the T600 hardware. I was lucky enough to get a Rev C device which is relatively solid.
    • The thing that I was really looking forward to with the 650 is that is being physically built by another company. They (Palm) switched to the company that builds all of the HP PocketPCs as well as a lot of the other "manufacturers".

      I think at the end of the day it is likely that there will be BUGS (as it is a complete resdesign), but I think the overall QUALITY will be improved. Hopefully.
  • Any chance you've moved recently? [slashdot.org]

  • My color sidekick was better (Score:5, Interesting)

    by TheNarrator ( 200498 ) on Saturday December 04, 2004 @11:20PM (#10999546)
    I had a color sidekick. The web browser and email were great on it and rock solid stable. My only complaint was that the phone wasn't as good as some other phones.

    I got a Treo 600, paying a lot more for it than the sidekick and I was unimpressed. The internet apps were not as feature filled and a lot more buggy and the O.S was not a real multitasking os. The terminal app sucked compared to the sidekick and there was no instant messaging included. That and the keyboard wasn't that great. It felt like I was using the old mac os on the thing with applications ocassionaly freezing or not being able to do things in the background. Then the thing broke. When you pay as much as I did for a treo 600 the phone better work. It was even more poorly made than the old sidekicks!.

    I was so dissapointed that I canceled the contract and got myself a sidekick 2(now available for free with rebates on amazon). The thing has a decent camera, certainly better than the treo's and has yahoo messenger,etc built in. The phone is made by Sanyo so it's a lot sturdier than the old model and the radio is supposed to be much improved. ANyway, I'm looking forward to it. Any other sidekick II users care to comment?
    • Treo: "The internet apps were not as feature filled and a lot more buggy and the O.S was not a real multitasking os. The terminal app sucked compared to the sidekick and there was no instant messaging included."

      Sidekick: "has yahoo messenger,etc built in"

      Hardware aside (although good hardware is important) the difference between the Treo and the Sidekick is that if the included terminal app sucks or there's no IM program, you can get new software [freshmeat.net].

      That's not an option with the Sidekick, T-Mobile mistakenl

  • Voice dialling (Score:3, Interesting)

    by ErikTheRed ( 162431 ) on Saturday December 04, 2004 @11:20PM (#10999548) Homepage
    Personally, I'm so addicted to wireless headsets I would probably never use the phone without one, so a bad mic is a non-issue to me.

    I am, however, wondering if anyone has found a good voice-dialling solution for the Treos (even if it's not free). That's the main thing holding me back from purchasing a 650 (well, once the GSM models are available).

    FWIW (add salt accordingly) I've also heard from a moderately reliable inside source that the 700 will be out in around 6 months, possibly running PalmOS 6.
    • I've also heard from a moderately reliable inside source that the 700 will be out in around 6 months, possibly running PalmOS 6.

      Ah, so that's when Verizon will start carrying the 650. (bangs head against nearest wall)

  • Treo 600 works fine (Score:3, Informative)

    by $exyNerdie ( 683214 ) on Saturday December 04, 2004 @11:30PM (#10999571) Homepage Journal

    Never heard of those problems on handspring Treo 600. I heard that Palm had used a different manufacturer for 650...
    • The Treo 600 is notorious for having bad sound quality. It's not as bad as the 650. I had a client call me tonite from one of the 650s and the author is right.. they sounded horrible. I don't get as many complaints with my 600 but it's still substandard as far as other cell phone quality.
  • "From the other end, it sounds like I'm inside a cardboard box, and lots of other people are complaining about the same thing. No word yet from PalmOne on this problem. Any other 650 owners having problems with their new units?"

    Sounds like you answered your own question in the writeup. What are you hoping to gain by raising the issue with Slashdot?

    • PalmSource/PalmOne (and palm specific sites) seem to have attracted either a very busy troll, or a well coordinated group of them - See the current state of PalmInfocenter.com, the near-total destruction of several other sites, and the conversion/widening (Usually at the vehement request of a few exceptionally vocal users) of others...

      Now, I'm not going to point to a certain competitor of theirs who is famous for launching faux 'vox populi' movements(See: Astroturfing [artrocity.com]), and has spent a LOT of money trying
      • Neat -- now I'm a "troll" for wanting my new and very expensive device to perform its basic functions adequately. Thank you for enlightening me. Life truly is a nonstop journey of self-discovery.

        You are not too far wrong in your subject line, even if everything after that is bogus. By posting about this to Slashdot I did have the thought in mind that more publicity would light a fire under PalmOne to offer up a good solution to the problem. It has worked once with this product already on the memory issue.

        • What, have you been burying PalmInfoCenter in posts accusing other posters of being pedophiles?

          If not, lighten up a little - I wasn't necessarily talking about you specifically. If so, well, as you say - Life really is a journey of self-discovery. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

          OTOH - Maybe if you spent more time on the phone with Palm, and less time trying to incite widespread bad publicity, maybe they would FIX it - I'm sure that having to re-re-re-re-re-replace your unit (DHLing them from Texas)
    • Lots [slashdot.org] of [slashdot.org] Slashdot [slashdot.org] articles [slashdot.org] end [slashdot.org] with [slashdot.org] questions [slashdot.org] to [slashdot.org] spur [slashdot.org] discussion [slashdot.org].
  • Moving quickly to stem the tide of further disillusionment with their products, a representative for PalmOne explained that as a gesture of goodwill, all future Treo 650 models would ship with an additional backup cellular phone (choices to be confirmed, but expected to feature the Motorola V60x or MPx200, the LG Electronics C1300 or the Sprint SPH-N200).
  • This is clearly not a universal problem; even with low signal strengths, I haven't had this problem.
  • Before that I used a Motorola T22, which I still own. Both are equally good, the siemens having a better form factor and a modem built in, the Motorola having a regular 3,5 mm earpiece/mic connector, lit keys and volumecontrols that can be opereated whilst phoning.
    Both have experienced extreme mistreatment over the years. Dropping, bounching, scratching, various liquids and so forth. They both have required a batterypack removal at some point (unrelated to anything that happend to the phone physically) in o

  • My 650 Troubles (Score:2, Informative)

    by cschieke ( 308178 )
    I'm having a number of issues with my 650:

    1. Memory issue like everyone else. I called Palm and requested the "free" 128Meg SD card but they can't even say that they'll be shipping it to me automagicaly.

    2. Phone sucks. I'm having issues with the BT 250 like everyone else. When I called Jabra, they said it's is a BT 1.0 (on the headset) and BT 1.1 (on the phone) issue, but when I called PalmOne they said it's the individual headset and are shipping out another one.

    3. Sync issues with my desktop. Calendar

  • Crystal saturation? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by mrmeval ( 662166 ) <.moc.oohay. .ta. .lavemcj.> on Sunday December 05, 2004 @12:35PM (#11001541) Journal
    It sounds like the crystal itself is getting overwhelmed and doing the cancelling. This is a problem with some of the smaller microphones that are IMHO crap. It's also used as a feature on noise cancelling hearing protectors as it cuts way down on needed electronics. Police headsets [policeone.com]

  • Treo 600 - 650 (Score:3, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 05, 2004 @12:36PM (#11001543)
    I was eager to upgrade from a Treo 600 to a Treo 650, because my 600 has been buggy as hell. Permanent orange pixels, daily crashes, dropped calls, you name it. So I bit for the Sprint/Treo Introductory offer that promised a free Bluetooth headset. I ordered two units at $599 (one for my SO). The shipment came, there was one unit in the box and a packing slip stating two had been shipped. I filled out the support web form (there is no PalmOne customer service phone number or email address) and I eventually spoke to a rep who said he would file a claim with Fedex for the missing phone. I tried, unsuccessfully, to explain to this idiot that there was only one phone in the box and the whipment was not damaged in any way. A few days later my CC was recredited for the price of two phones. So as of today (about two weeks later) I have one Treo 650, for which I have so far paid $0, no free Bluetooth headset, no second phone.


    Now for the review. The phone works great and there are no sound problems as reported. Palm has finally decided to address the problem of noncompatible Palm OS apps, of which there are apparently many. The installer quarantined some of my existing Palm OS apps including Eudora. After installing my Palm OS apps and syncing, many of the apps did not work (reset the unit). There is no way to tell which apps are breaking the OS, so one must delete apps willy-nilly in the hope of finding the correct ones. As of today I have managed to get Eudora to work, but not AvantGo or the included VersaMail. I have no problems whatsoever with the phone, nor with crashes or orange pixels. The unit shows 20M of 23M is used and I can't figure out why this is nor does the Delete/Info menu list any files that consume this much memory. But so far this has not been a problem. MIDI ringtones downloaded from the net render way better than they did on the 600. Ebooks (e.g. Gutenberg) can be more easily saved and read in MemoPad than before, although this still needs work. An alarm clock is now included. The camera now has 2x zoom and video recording (but try to send a video and you will get a prompt asking if you want to pay Sprint $5/mo for Video Email). Battery life is slightly worse than the 600, the keyboard stays lit longer. To sum up, PalmOne still needs to better address data corruption/incompatible app issues but they have made some progress. Thanks for the free unit!

  • Reboot Issues (Score:2, Informative)

    by ChaosCaptain ( 835036 )
    I have had no sound quality problems, maybe only some of the devices have bad microphones. I have had, however, a lot of issues with VersaMail rebooting the device. When it happened, it happened the same time on the same event, like "Empty Trash"... once it started rebooting on that action, it would everytime, making it so I could not do that action. I would have to remove my VersaMail files with "Filez" (which drops all the data, starts the program over again). It's happened on different actions about
    • Re: the Mapopolis problem, I don't have a 650, but on my hi-res Sony Clie, I had the same problem until I switched it into compatibility mode. There should be a preference page for apps called something like "HiRes". Try turning off the HiRes assistance feature for Mapopolis.

      Anyway, I'm guessing it's not the Treo, but the app.

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