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i've had the i phone it's overrated and overpriced, cute but not a palm. dating back to the treo 270. these other smart phone companies still don't have a clue yet. side bar once you go touch screen you will never want to go back and once you go palm you will never want to leave. taking their simple straight to the point user friendly pda concept. i've also had the htc 8125 and 8525 both were horrible and not user friendly at all and i have a masters degree in mathematics. you wont even leave a room without it.
it has no learning curve. i even take mine to the bathroom. they also were one of the first to include threaded text messaging(chat style) which windows mobile still hasn't done yet. i've been a palm phone user for 6 yrs. palm was the innovator of the pda cell phone. bottom line the treo is the model t ford-in a good way tho-of today.
but the wm5 or 6 just hasn't got the intuitive part of the palm down yet with my 4gb sd card i have a bible with 6 translations, books, audio books, tons of songs, games i have over 1200 separate memos from notes i have taken. Still after all these years palm is still the best out even though they've stopped competing. the treo 680 is still the best phone out. and combining it with a touch screen phone with a qwerty keyboard that you don't have to slide open to reveal. the list really is endless.Pro's user friendly A+ multi-tasking capabilities A+++++ web browsing speed A+ using the phone to link your laptop to the internet A+++++ email send/receive B- sms (chat style) A++++++ SD card expandable up to 8gb A+ blue tooth range is an A+++++ i currently use a jawbone.Con's battery life way too short D weird trying to a hard reset D soft resets are cumbersomebtw i switched from treo 270, to 600 to 650 to htc-8125/8525 to i phone and back to treo 680 its just to bad that palm is slowing up competition and manufacturing-wise.Overall this phone will become your best friend if used properly.
In the past, Palm offered a full-sized keyboard that was physically connected with the phone and much more responsive than Bluetooth, which seems a step backward into greater and unneeded complexity. When I'm due to upgrade, I'll check out Blackberry and Apple's IPhone and will finally give up on the Palm OS that I've used all these years. The best type of external keyboard for this phone, for instance, is not compatible. Then there's the built-in camera, which has such low resolution it's not worth using.
With Bluetooth turned on, battery life is short. The headphone jack is not the same size as you have with usual MP3 players, so you have to buy an adaptor that creates an imperfect and scratchy connection or buy Palm's version of stereo headphones. For example, if you have protected yourself with a logon password, there's no way to get to your contact list when speaking on an incoming call. Finally, with AT&T's implementation, if you want e-mail access, you have to pay twice as much for that data plan with the Treo 680 as you would if you were using a less "smart" phone, like a Motorola Razr. So you need to access the event details and shut off the alarm manually every time. The title of this review reflects my dismay with design bugs that should be obvious.
Instead, you need to hang up, logon, and call back to do this. When Palm introduced this phone, it also changed the Bluetooth settings so that some devices don't work on it, and the third-party companies that try to write compatible drivers apparently aren't able to get sufficient information from Palm to accommodate the Bluetooth changes. And Palm's desktop software can surprise you with a feature that automatically deletes most of your old calendar entries. Other than these few complaints, I'm delighted with this phone. This phone has many functions, but enough are poorly executed that if I had to choose again, I would get a different smartphone. If you enter a new appointment in your calendar on the phone, it automatically sets an alarm as a default that cannot be shut off.
This purge feature cannot be shut off.
I had been a happy Palm Z22 user for about 1.5 years. Then I followed these suggested (by John from Monroe Township) preference settings:Go to Prefs > Power and:* Turn "Beam Receive" OFF* Set "Auto-off after" a 15 seconds* Set your "Screen Brightness" to a medium setting (3 or 4 clicks under MAX or even less)* Set "Dim backlight after" to 30 secondsOther settings:* Turn Bluetooth OFF if/when you are not using a wireless headset or other BT device* Go to Prefs > Date & Time > Set "Automatically set" to "Nothing" (this makes a very significant difference in power usage After making those changes, the battery life is pretty reasonable.I didn't have any trouble getting it activated (via AT&T) after it was shipped from Amazon.This is my first smart phone. My favorite Palm applications are still KeySuite (Outlook sync program) by Chapura and Ultrasoft Money (syncs with MS Money). I've had mine for about 6 days now. At first the battery drained very rapidly. So far, I'm very happy with the Treo 680.
Best of all, 90% of the Palm applications out there from years ago will work on the Treo, so anything that you liked on your Palm IIIc you can run on your Treo. Great phone, just get the screen protector & battery. The one listed on amazon is not the Seidio battery, and no I don't work for them. Windows users will have it even easier, being able to sync the pocket tunes application with Windows Media. 50% brightness settings, phone on for 4 days straight, moderate calling, email sync every 30 min, and bluetooth on 16 hrs/day and the battery lasts.
Palm OS5 is pretty stable, and I have absolutely no problems syncing it with my MacBook. The organizer/calendar/voice record features are a lifesaver for both business and personal use. 2 things make this phone the quintessential Smart device: A good screen protector (just get a protector, don't waste$ on anti-glare) and the 2400Mah extended battery from Seidio. With the OEM I'd get a day, maybe day & a half. This phone is excellent in every way EXCEPT for the battery life, which is pretty short.
I currently have a 2GB SD card in my Treo, and with TCMP (free download) I can watch itunes videos on my Palm. I went thru a generic extended before searching and finding the 2400mah w/ extended door, and couldn't be happier.
I will say the technicians were very courteous and worked to get the phone working well.So now I am satisfied and have used it trouble free for about 6 months. This didn't work well in the beginning, and AT&T could not figure out the problem. During the first month of ownership of the Palm Treo 680, I was getting to hate it and was sorry I signed up for a 2 year contract. I needed a secure e-mail service, which was provided by my employer. Also the AT&T technician didn't know that the phone access should be turned off every day for a few minutes or it will not work correctly.
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