What to do??

[gearhead]

Hello world,

I got this little FAQ off of www.pdaphonehome.com. Great site and was looking for a little help from all you active users of the Treo 650.

1. What PDA and/or mobile phone do you use today? None. I have a Motorola 60s cell. I'm looking for a PDA/Phone.

2. Are you locked into a mobile carrier (i.e. Verizon Wireless, Sprint PCS, etc.), or do you prefer a particular carrier? Do you know if one carrier has better coverage in places that you need to be? (PLEASE SEE THE CARRIER NOTE BELOW) My Verizon contract ends in March.

3. Where are you based? Do you stay in one place or travel a lot? Do you travel internationally... how much and where? Do you intend to use your pdaPhone there? I live in the DC area and don't need to travel for my job. Only vacation 5 weeks out of the year and that really ends up staying in the US.

4. Do have a preference of Palm, Pocket PC, Symbian, Smartphone OS, Blackberry, etc.? ?? This is my first PDA?Phone, so any help would be great

5. Are you likely to run it the way it came out of the box, or do you intend to load a whole lot of extra applications and stuff on it? Do you know of anything now that you will need to run? I guess I would until I got my way around the new toy.

6. How important is wireless data access, and for what would you use it? (i.e. Web browsing, VPN, Remote termnial Access, Instant messaging, etc)?
I don't need to have access to my email while away from work, so I probably don't need a data plan.

7. Will you need to view Microsoft Office documents on the pdaPhone? Will you need to edit them? Yes, this would be a nice option.

8. Will you need access to an email system? I'd like to sync all my contact info with a USB or whatever the standard is. We are on Lotus now, but will be cutting over to Exchange in about a year.
a)Is it corporate (Exchange, Groupwise,Lotus, Other?) What Version? Do you want email wirelessly or do you want to do it in the office with a sync cable/cradle? Can you get your Corporate email configured for mobile access or do you need to run a desktop redirector?
b)Is it Pop3/Imap? Who is the service provider?

9. Do you do SMS messaging a lot (telephone to telephone messaging)? None here...yet.

10. Do you want to use a GPS with the pdaPhone for mapping and navigation? Not important

11. What is your size preference.. very close to the smallest cellphone, or you don’t care.. function over size? Any

12. How will you carry it... pocket, belt, purse, etc.? Belt

13. Do you prefer a particular form factor… flip-phone, candy bar, etc? Any will do.

14. Do you prefer a QWERTY keyboard, numeric dial-pad, or stylus? This is my first, so not really sure whats good and not so good,

15. Do you want to play a lot of video games on the pdaPhone? What kinds - puzzles, strategy, action adventure, etc.? Will it play DOOM 3 or HL 2?

16. Do you want to listen to music on the pdaPhone? What kind... mp3, streamed, etc.? Mp3 would be nice, but I alredy have an Ipod

17. Do you want a camera on the pdaPhone? Yes

18. Do you have any other hardware you intend to use with the pdaPhone? Do you intend to use any Bluetooth devices? What types of devices? I like the ear piece for the BT.


19. What kind of battery life do you need?(Always near a charger, battery life is not an issue or Need the battery to last several days) How many hours do you expect to spend talking on the phone? How many hours of data?(Web browsing, push email, VPN, IM etc) I'lkl always have a car chager and whatever comes with it.

20. What are your budget limits (pdaPhones range in price from below $100 for older used models to nearly $1000 for high end models without a carrier subisidy)? Let's just say that I'm open.


Thanks in advance for all your help.

[Stillrockin]

1. What PDA and/or mobile phone do you use today?
2. Are you locked into a mobile carrier (i.e. Verizon Wireless, Sprint PCS, etc.), or do you prefer a particular carrier? Do you know if one carrier has better coverage in places that you need to be? (PLEASE SEE THE CARRIER NOTE BELOW)
3. Where are you based? Do you stay in one place or travel a lot? Do you travel internationally... how much and where? Do you intend to use your pdaPhone there?
4. Do have a preference of Palm, Pocket PC, Symbian, Smartphone OS, Blackberry, etc.? ??
5. Are you likely to run it the way it came out of the box, or do you intend to load a whole lot of extra applications and stuff on it? Do you know of anything now that you will need to run?
6. How important is wireless data access, and for what would you use it? (i.e. Web browsing, VPN, Remote termnial Access, Instant messaging, etc)?
7. Will you need to view Microsoft Office documents on the pdaPhone? Will you need to edit them? 8. Will you need access to an email system? I'd like to sync all my contact info with a USB or whatever the standard is. We are on Lotus now, but will be cutting over to Exchange in about a year.
a)Is it corporate (Exchange, Groupwise,Lotus, Other?) What Version? Do you want email wirelessly or do you want to do it in the office with a sync cable/cradle? Can you get your Corporate email configured for mobile access or do you need to run a desktop redirector?
b)Is it Pop3/Imap? Who is the service provider?
9. Do you do SMS messaging a lot (telephone to telephone messaging)?
10. Do you want to use a GPS with the pdaPhone for mapping and navigation?
11. What is your size preference.. very close to the smallest cellphone, or you don’t care.. function over size?
12. How will you carry it... pocket, belt, purse, etc.?
13. Do you prefer a particular form factor… flip-phone, candy bar, etc?
14. Do you prefer a QWERTY keyboard, numeric dial-pad, or stylus?
15. Do you want to play a lot of video games on the pdaPhone? What kinds - puzzles, strategy, action adventure, etc.?
16. Do you want to listen to music on the pdaPhone? What kind... mp3, streamed, etc.?
17. Do you want a camera on the pdaPhone?
18. Do you have any other hardware you intend to use with the pdaPhone? Do you intend to use any Bluetooth devices? What types of devices?
19. What kind of battery life do you need?(Always near a charger, battery life is not an issue or Need the battery to last several days) How many hours do you expect to spend talking on the phone? How many hours of data?(Web browsing, push email, VPN, IM etc)
20. What are your budget limits (pdaPhones range in price from below $100 for older used models to nearly $1000 for high end models without a carrier subisidy)?

Thanks in advance for all your help.

OK, I will try my best to offer my take on these items . . These are simply my opinions and I certainly don't know it all. Let me stress, that currently I don't even own a palm, however I have in the past . .

For what its worth . . . .

1. Two main camps! Windows mobile and Palm (to a lesser degree symbian and Blackberry) All have their strong points and weak points. This is something that I can't answer for you. You need to figure out which one is right for you. Neither are perfect, and sometimes neither are stable. Blackberry rocks if you need email over everything else. Never owned a Blackberry, so I am speaking from what I have heard instead of my own experience.

2. Verizon should be getting the Palm 700W about the time that your contract runs out. Palm device with WM05 OS. Lots of buzz about this phone. But no one really knows if this is truly a step forward or back-wards yet.

3. CHMDA carriers (Verizon/Sprint) activate your phone through a Chip built into the phone. GSM phones (Tmobile/Cingular) are activated through a Sim chip that can be removed and dropped into other GSM phones. For this reason, many people prefer this style of phone. Some argue that if you are traveling out of the country, this is more compatible with overseas carriers. you say you are not traveling outside of the states, but still its nice to be able to pop out the Sim and drop it in another phone from time to time. In my opinion this is a large plus for GSM, but if you don't need this, and never travel, . . . . .

4.Well, as stated earlier, Blackberry is great email but weak on other 3rd party apps. Palm has several 3rd party apps, but sometimes they make the OS unstable. Some are proven and considered necessaries. Lots of options here. WM05 is a very new OS. Most apps designed for WM03 are not compatible with WM05. WM05 is probably more media friendly if that is important to you. It looks/operates similar to Windows. As far as Office apps go, there are great third party apps for the Palm to allow the viewing/editing of Office Apps. Of course WM05 comes with pocket versions to be able to do this also . .

5. If you don't want to add little goodies and expand it, you probably don't really want or even need a PDA. . . . . . . Part of the appeal is being able to add things to make the device work for you . . .

6.If you need wireless, then WM05 devices might suit you better. Palm does have the ability to do this now through an add on device that adds quite a bit of bulk to the device. In my opinion, wireless is less of an issue now that Carriers are starting to offer very high data streams. Currently with Palm/Edge Technology is a little weak. EV-DO is probably more data speed than most cell phones really need, but I have not tried it, so what do I know! But from what I am reading, A Palm Running on EV-DO would make a person question, why they even need Wireless.

7. I believe I have already mentioned this above. Palm and WM05 all have the ability to view/do simple edits either out of the box or with 3rd party apps.

8.Probably in a year's time, all of these units will have "Push" email capability. Currently Blackberry is the best at this . . . By the way, that is Push Email with Exchange servers . . . I am not an expert by any means on this, and only know what I have read . . .

9. Palm and WM05 have this ability . . .

10. I know the ability is there for Palm/WM05, but have never played with it

11. Size is getting similar, and all of these units are pretty small considering what all they do . . . To me smaller is always better and I wouldn't mind seeing these things get somewhat smaller. I am really partial to the Currently Treo Form factor however . . It too big to stick in your tight jeans pocket, but it certainly isn't an overwhelming device

12. See number 11.

13.Not many choices for PDA/Flip Phones. You better really like Candybars style phones

14. Well, for typing notes, and SMS its hard to beat a Qwerty.

15.I can't speak for specific games out there, but WM05 and Palm OS both offer 3rd party Games . .

16. Both will do music. Blackberry won't I don't believe. WM05 would get my vote on this one, simply because it comes with Media Player. Also, WM05 is going to offer a new Bluetooth Stack (I believe its called A2DP) that will allow Stereo Bluetooth transmittal. I expect to see Bluetooth headphones very soon to support this . .

17. Blackberry does not offer nor do I ever expect them to offer one. WM05 units and Palm both offer a Gratuitous camera. Neither are stellar, but Palm's make the WM05 device cameras look like junk. Most of the WM05 units offer a flash where Palm currently doesn't, but the flash is worthless past about 4 feet. It might be cool to have a camera, but if you really want to take pictures, carry a camera.

18. Bluetooth Headsets appear to be weak in Both WM05 and Palm Devices. Some work better than others, but none work perfectly in all conditions. I am not sure what Blackberry offers in the way of Bluetooth.

19. The current offerings from Palm are a little better than WM05 when it comes to Battery life. But understand that using functions such as WiFi and Bluetooth (these are tiny radios in your phone) work into Battery life for any device.

20. Well, there are currently WM05 devices hitting the market this month for as low as $299 with a two year dataplan. Some other things to consider however, might be some sort of Warranty. Buying something from overseas and getting it for cheap, and then having problems with no support is not exactly saving money in my book. One good thing about buying from Palm/or direct from a carrier is that if you have problems, (and chances are high you will) you have someone to turn to . . . .

One other thing. I have talked a lot about WM05 Devices and Palm Devices. But Palms and WM05's are currently made in the same factory. The company is called High Tech Computer, or HTC. About every smart phone/PDA on the Market today is built by this company . . Again, let me stress, that these are only my opinions and someone else might have differing information that is much more accurate than what I have laid out here. Just trying to give you a feel for these questions and what my take was on them. Now I am going to give my fingers a well deserved rest

[kevinmg]

#18 - The BB 71xx, 7290, and 8700 offer Bluetooth support...I had a 7100t, and the BT was ...the volume from the device in general - bluetooth or headset - was so low, that talking in a car was almost impossible. Not sure how well the Treo does in this area, as I'm still on the BB platform for another couple months (contract), but I can't imagine it's any worse...hahah

[gearhead]

stillrockin/kevinmg,

Thanks for the quick reply. stillrockin extra thanks for such a well writen detail. I really need a device that will help in the organization department of my life and a phone/pda would really help in that department. I'm a little frighten of losing one piece of hardware and out two devices, but I'm grown and live in a perfect world where nothing like that will happen to me....right?

So, would a Treo 650 work for me or should I wait on the 700w? I really like the WM OS over the Palm OS. I guess I'm more of a Windows guy.

Thanks a lot for everyones ideas!

[Stillrockin]

Honestly, I can't answer that question . . . I can tell you that the Palm OS is far from perfect, and its flaky also. That said, I like the OS. But many of the WM05 units are suffering from similar problems within its OS as the Palm OS. Not to write another book, but to look specifically at 650pVs.700W
Display = 650
Memory=700W
WiFi=700W
Available today=650:tongue:
Software available = 650 but there are many developers out there for WM05 and lots are coming
Signal Strength=650, but the 700 might be just as good or better; again, no one knows . . .
I have had a hard time making up my own mind as to which direction to go, thus my ability to address that last note . . .
Weigh the pluses and minuses and figure out what is really important and what isn't to you, and go for it!
Let me know what you decide!!!

[gearhead]

I'm really not to worried aout the WiFi as I'm more and likely not going to use it (do you think that voids the whol epoint of getting the 650 or 700w?). I guess I'll hang on till the 700w comes out, but it looks like I'll save some $$ when they release the 700w. My contracy is up with VZW in March, although I got a call from a cus svc rep that I could do an early upgrade on my account. I don't ever plan on leaving them. I've been very happy with VZW and my company gives me a discount on their service.

[Stillrockin]

I know in 06, there are going to be lots of new phones coming out. Motorola Q, Cingular 8125, 700W and hopefully 700P, and others! A couple of them, have built in FM radios. Not for me, but handy for several I am sure . . .
Best of Luck!