DennisOS2
02-12-2005, 02:24 PM
Haven't seen anyone else's report so I thought I'd give you my early experiences with mine. I bought it through TreoCentral and had my Verizon number ported.
I've been using PDAs since the HP LX series in the early 90's. Have have a Vx, N760C, NX70 and currently an NX80. This is my first smartphone and thus Treo. Received the T650 in the mail Thursday. At this point my concerns have been installing all the apps I'll want to use on it, currently which are the same ones I currently use on the NX80.
Came battery removed. Opened the box, put the battery in, it fired right up, did a soft reset, and it was ready to go. Made a call to the home number and it worked. Friend called my cell phone and received fine. Called the VM number to set up the box ......... that was ready to go. Logged onto Cingular/MediaNet, registered, set up my alerts ....... have started to receive those at the scheduled times.
Everything works, keyboard is awesome,. Form factor is perfect for the combo Palm/phone. The screen is MUCH brighter than the NX80 ...... not much crisper, I think it looks better because of the brightness.. The keyboard backlighting is a great feature. The jog dial of the NX is very useful, the 5-way being ackward only because I've used the NX's for so long. The sound from the ear piece is OK ....... not great, but no worse than the new Motorola V series the rest of the family has. I was moving from an old Motorola TimePort. Reception is a bit better ...... but that will have a lot to do with the change in carriers as well.
Software Installed
I have just about all the apps I think I need installed now. They are:
Office Professional (apps on unit, fonts, accessories on SD card), Datebook5, TealPhone, iSolo, PocketTunes, ZLauncher, Grafitti Anywhere, BugMe+, eReader, AudiblePlayer, ClipPro, the two games that came on the CD. I will Probably copy some of my other apps to the SD card (Worldmate, PocketChess, AdobeReader) to also test. Everything works......... at least they open and I have been able to make preference changes. No crashes, but I really haven't 'exercised' them yet. I have used TealPhone and DateBook5 quite a lot for work in the last two days ............ there are issues, see below.
Peaceful Co-existence
I will be using both PDAs and on two separate Windows PCs, one with Groupwise, therefore, needing Intellisync. Because of this, I experimented at home by moving the Sony directory, installing the T650 in a fresh directory, then moving the Sony directory back. As I said, I had no issues with installing apps on the Treo on the home PC. After it was all done, I exited the Treo HS Mgr, fired up the Sony HS Mgr, unplugged the Treo and plugged in the NX80. The Sony HS Mgr recognized the ID but all of my other conduits were gone. As I suspected the T650 overwrote something in the registry that will not allow both desktops to co-exist.
So, for now, till someone tells me how to make both palms co-exist (work through the same Desktop and HS Mgr), I'm trying to find work-arounds. I'm going to have the NX be the connected unit at work so I can still get my work Groupwise calendar and email. At home, the Treo will be the primary PDA. The most important is data sharing. So far beaming has worked ..... sorta worked ..........
Address Book --- Tried beaming the AddressDB from the NX to the Treo. Worked the first time. The second time it doubled the entries. Found out why. The older palms use that name (AddressDB). The T650 uses 'ContactsDB' . Tealphone (I guess) looks at both and combines. Once I had beamed the AddressDB file I HS'ed and manually made changed to the Address book and sync'ed again forcing the DT to overwrite the handheld.
Calendar --- Similar situation. The old file name is DateBookDB. The new one is 'CalendarDB'. Again, two beams of DatebookDB doubled my appointments!!! I ended up going into DateBook5 and setting up to beam ALL events in the calendar from all categoies. That worked.
With more knowledge of the file structures and how things are written to the T650, there may be much easier ways to go about keeping the two 'sync'ed'.
Oh yes, the important question: What about the RAM? With all that is installed: 4.7megs remaining. For the calendar DB file: 312 records and 191K. Address DB 697 records and 347K ........ and these are average records (name address, 2 phone numbers, email, company name), just a few with notes.
Overall Impression
In a word ......... WOW! What a powerful unit. And I haven't set-up everything for the web yet. Easy to learn, wondreful screen, great form factor. Any downside? Yes, I spoiled with the screen size of the NX80. I routinely do spreadsheets, documents, and databases. The larger screen is easier on the eyes because of the size.
Would appreciate other's reports. What you found you can't and can do and the work-arounds.
I've been using PDAs since the HP LX series in the early 90's. Have have a Vx, N760C, NX70 and currently an NX80. This is my first smartphone and thus Treo. Received the T650 in the mail Thursday. At this point my concerns have been installing all the apps I'll want to use on it, currently which are the same ones I currently use on the NX80.
Came battery removed. Opened the box, put the battery in, it fired right up, did a soft reset, and it was ready to go. Made a call to the home number and it worked. Friend called my cell phone and received fine. Called the VM number to set up the box ......... that was ready to go. Logged onto Cingular/MediaNet, registered, set up my alerts ....... have started to receive those at the scheduled times.
Everything works, keyboard is awesome,. Form factor is perfect for the combo Palm/phone. The screen is MUCH brighter than the NX80 ...... not much crisper, I think it looks better because of the brightness.. The keyboard backlighting is a great feature. The jog dial of the NX is very useful, the 5-way being ackward only because I've used the NX's for so long. The sound from the ear piece is OK ....... not great, but no worse than the new Motorola V series the rest of the family has. I was moving from an old Motorola TimePort. Reception is a bit better ...... but that will have a lot to do with the change in carriers as well.
Software Installed
I have just about all the apps I think I need installed now. They are:
Office Professional (apps on unit, fonts, accessories on SD card), Datebook5, TealPhone, iSolo, PocketTunes, ZLauncher, Grafitti Anywhere, BugMe+, eReader, AudiblePlayer, ClipPro, the two games that came on the CD. I will Probably copy some of my other apps to the SD card (Worldmate, PocketChess, AdobeReader) to also test. Everything works......... at least they open and I have been able to make preference changes. No crashes, but I really haven't 'exercised' them yet. I have used TealPhone and DateBook5 quite a lot for work in the last two days ............ there are issues, see below.
Peaceful Co-existence
I will be using both PDAs and on two separate Windows PCs, one with Groupwise, therefore, needing Intellisync. Because of this, I experimented at home by moving the Sony directory, installing the T650 in a fresh directory, then moving the Sony directory back. As I said, I had no issues with installing apps on the Treo on the home PC. After it was all done, I exited the Treo HS Mgr, fired up the Sony HS Mgr, unplugged the Treo and plugged in the NX80. The Sony HS Mgr recognized the ID but all of my other conduits were gone. As I suspected the T650 overwrote something in the registry that will not allow both desktops to co-exist.
So, for now, till someone tells me how to make both palms co-exist (work through the same Desktop and HS Mgr), I'm trying to find work-arounds. I'm going to have the NX be the connected unit at work so I can still get my work Groupwise calendar and email. At home, the Treo will be the primary PDA. The most important is data sharing. So far beaming has worked ..... sorta worked ..........
Address Book --- Tried beaming the AddressDB from the NX to the Treo. Worked the first time. The second time it doubled the entries. Found out why. The older palms use that name (AddressDB). The T650 uses 'ContactsDB' . Tealphone (I guess) looks at both and combines. Once I had beamed the AddressDB file I HS'ed and manually made changed to the Address book and sync'ed again forcing the DT to overwrite the handheld.
Calendar --- Similar situation. The old file name is DateBookDB. The new one is 'CalendarDB'. Again, two beams of DatebookDB doubled my appointments!!! I ended up going into DateBook5 and setting up to beam ALL events in the calendar from all categoies. That worked.
With more knowledge of the file structures and how things are written to the T650, there may be much easier ways to go about keeping the two 'sync'ed'.
Oh yes, the important question: What about the RAM? With all that is installed: 4.7megs remaining. For the calendar DB file: 312 records and 191K. Address DB 697 records and 347K ........ and these are average records (name address, 2 phone numbers, email, company name), just a few with notes.
Overall Impression
In a word ......... WOW! What a powerful unit. And I haven't set-up everything for the web yet. Easy to learn, wondreful screen, great form factor. Any downside? Yes, I spoiled with the screen size of the NX80. I routinely do spreadsheets, documents, and databases. The larger screen is easier on the eyes because of the size.
Would appreciate other's reports. What you found you can't and can do and the work-arounds.