Treo 650 Multimedia News Release

[Joel]

Check out video in Windows Media (56/150k, 300k) and Real Player (56/150k, 300k) formats, a hires pic, and more details about the Treo 650 [details (http://www.1src.com/?m=show&id=599)]

[iboar]

I really don't get this whole Smartphone philosophy. Smartphones are a great idea, but why do they keep releasing them with last year's technology. Geez, this thing only has 23 mb of user available memory, a 312 mhz processor, a 320x320 display, and runs OS 5.4. It is much better than the Treo 600, but it is lagging (1 1/2+ years) behind in PDA technology. Not only Palm smartphones lag behind in PDA technology as PocketPC smartphones do as well. If the manufacturers really want us to convert to smartphones then why are they releasing antiquated, hardware lagging devices?

[OcellNuri]

I imagine a good deal of the "tech-lag" is due to the size constraints. Look at the new T5 and how much area the unit takes up. Adding a full featured phone ontop of the T5 would make the unit quite bulky. I feel that this is where most PPC-Smartphones seem to fail. You have a powerful unit, but it's very very large.

Also, I feel like any true "poweruser" would buy a top of the line Bluetooth PDA and a top of the line Bluetooth phone. Not everyone (including you from your comments) are ready to converge.

[jmg_NX21]

It's a PALM... it isn't bloatware yet and HOPEFULLY the concessions you cite are for battery consideration... it has everything most of us wanted in the original Treo... (I hope no one wants wifi =/ esp with it being a phone and with BT)


Seems a tad anti-climatic no? Since everything we ALREADY knew?
It's a NEAT device... but I am not so sure I could ever go back to Hi-Res from Hi-res+

[iboar]

Actually, I would prefer an all in one device if they would create one that had specs equivalent to the current PDAs. People complain about bulkiness, yet carrying a PDA and a cellular phone combination is much bulkier than any smartphone I've seen. I could probably live with the 320x320 screen, but I won't buy anything that doesn't have at least 64 mb of memory and a 400 mhz processor. Since the problem seems to be battery life, I will definately wait until they develop better battery technology befor considerng a smartphone. Afterall, I am spoiled by the longevity of cellular phone batteries!

[Ardy]

iboar, the answer is marketing marketing marketing.

As long as they're corporate users (meaning companies pay for the device not the individual employees) and people who don't mind paying $600 for a smartphone, we will be faced with brand new devices that are alredy obsolete when they hit the shelves. Look at this site we're all drooling over the Treo 650 and yet we all know it doesn't have everthing available out there (ie:WiFi, faster processor, more RAM etc...) but we will gladly buy it in a flash and then wait for a newer version to come out and so on.
c'est la vie...
:eek:

[PatrickS]

I think expectations for batteries go along the lines of memory and CPU speed, but that just isn't reality. It has proven to be much, much harder to devise devices which hold more and more energy in a small package than it has been for RAM densities or CPU clockrates to go up. More and more, I predict we'll see devices designed around the battery technology, because it will be the limiting factor for years to come.

[Tixx]

I really don't get this whole Smartphone philosophy. Smartphones are a great idea, but why do they keep releasing them with last year's technology. Geez, this thing only has 23 mb of user available memory, a 312 mhz processor, a 320x320 display, and runs OS 5.4. It is much better than the Treo 600, but it is lagging (1 1/2+ years) behind in PDA technology. Not only Palm smartphones lag behind in PDA technology as PocketPC smartphones do as well. If the manufacturers really want us to convert to smartphones then why are they releasing antiquated, hardware lagging devices?


I was actually just thinking of that after I read this (http://www.rohdesign.com/weblog/) article. This lag in technology needs to be addressed if they want people to adopt these devices. A one time full on update to set the standard adding more RAM to this device, WiFi... Then we all know it is about milking the damn technology here.

The questions is how many people are having to downgrade 2 devices (phone & PDA) to take on one of these? How many new customers have actually downgraded their current combo to use an integrated device vs. those being new customers of the whole cell phone pda market? And how many are not willing to do so, but continue to upgrade their separate devices, never to adopt one of these integrated devices for having to downgrade? Maybe they should be researching that.

[Zork]

This one really kills all the MS smartphones out there. 320 * 320 screen !!!! Perfect design, Bluetooth included and a SD card slot. And XScale 312 MHz CPU is one of the fastest around for Smartphones. No wonder that the PalmOne CEO made jokes bout the MS smartphone failure cause with the Treo 650 they are simply out of business. This is the smartphone every Palm user waited for. Hoping that this one will be out soon in europe too.

[Zork]

And iBoar, this is a Palm. You wont need 64 MB RAM, cause with the Palm it will fit perfeclty within the 24 MB RAM. And if it wont ... put it on your SD card. Perfectly integrated into the Desktop (remeber, this is not the usual PPC chaos :) ).