MP3 Playback

[rpungin]

I am considering buying 650, but I'd like to find out from exising users the MP3 playback features of this phone. Specifically, I have the following questions:

• Does it have a regular headphone jack (1/4") or the special cell phone one?
• Where do the MP3 files go on the expansion card?
• Are ID3 tags read by the player?
• Is there Extended Bass feature?
• How is the sound quality in general?
• What happens when a phone call comes in while you're listening to music?

Thanks,
Raphael

[chris]

I will try answer

* Does it have a regular headphone jack (1/4") or the special cell phone one?

There are stereo headphones made specially for the Treo.

Where do the MP3 files go on the expansion card?

Mine sit in an Audio folder. I have iTunes and Missing Sync. It allows me to drag and drop to my Treo.

Are ID3 tags read by the player?

PocketTunes supports ID2 tags. Not sure about the player that comes stock with the Treo 650.

Is there Extended Bass feature?

PocketTunes has an equalizer that allows for modification of bass.

How is the sound quality in general?

That would depend on your headphones.

What happens when a phone call comes in while you're listening to music?

Sorry, not sure about the answer to that. I assume you will not miss a call. Perhaps someone can confirm.

In general, the Treo is a good MP3 player but it's not an iPod. The Treo does many things well where as the iPod is a pure MP3 player.

The Treo 650 comes standard with RealPlayer. A solid PalmOS MP3 player application would be Pocket Tunes. I've just concluded a review that's available here

-Chris

[GKam]

I loaded RealPlayer on my Treo 600, installed a flash card with mp3 files. The real player shows that the song is playing, however, I can't hear if from the Treo speaker or from an earphone. Any suggestions?

[hirschr]

GKam- Can you hear the phone ring? Can you hear the clicks as you navigate on the applications page?
You might try downloading Pocket Tunes (free demo) and seeing if that plays the songs. If not, it's the unit.

[corysimek]

Am considering moving up to the 650 from my 600. Bluetooth seems great. But will I be able to play my MP3 music and listen with a bluetooth headset on a 650?

[chris]

Am considering moving up to the 650 from my 600. Bluetooth seems great. But will I be able to play my MP3 music and listen with a bluetooth headset on a 650?

No unfortunately, you cannot listen to MP3's on a Bluetooth headset.

-Chris

[corysimek]

Can you shed some light on that? Is it a software or some other limitation, is music over bluetooth something that may be coming soon or just not possible? Thanks.

[chris]

Can you shed some light on that? Is it a software or some other limitation, is music over bluetooth something that may be coming soon or just not possible? Thanks.

I believe it's a limitation of the Bluetooth implentation on Palm's part - but not 100% on that. I haven't seen anything that leads me to believe that software will resolve this issue.

-Chris

[alex_mathews]

• What happens when a phone call comes in while you're listening to music?

Pocket Tunes supports interrupting the music for the call and then automatically resuming play when the call ends. I don't know if the included RealPlayer does that.

[Jules3]

I am trying also to get my 650 to be it's best and work as an MP3 player. I see that there is a new version of Real Player 1.6.1 is it worth signing up for Real, and downloading?