Treo 650

Submitted by reeses on Sat, 2006-03-25 14:17. | electronics

Despite the fact that I hated my Treo 600 after a year of ownership, I bought a Treo 650 soon after its release. My three-day opinion is that I like it more than the 600, but I've made exactly one phone call, and that lasted as long as it took to say,"Hey. I'll meet you there. See you in five minutes."

I spent much of the Saturday after opening the box building a script to receive jpeg images as attachments via email, extracting the attachments, storing them on my server, and then uploading them to Flickr. I monkeyed with exim for SMTP auth and TLS, which is in that category of enjoyable activities called "wasting my life dorking with stupid Linux."

What I like

The screen is about 4x nicer than the Treo 600. It's no longer embarrassing.
I can actually type on the keyboard with the tips of my thumbs, rather than having to use a thumbnail to carefully select each key. It's not 150wpm, but it's useful for ssh.
I hate cables so Bluetooth is a godsend.
The battery is removable in case I plan on being away from a charger for a while, or if the original just wears out.
The Calendar app now displays meeting attendees and time zone for events, which is a godsend for multi-timezone consultants.

What I don't like

Still too bulky and heavy.
The included email client, VersaMail, is less than great. Its MIME handling is pretty bad, especially when emailing pictures to save on MMS charges. ($.40/msg? Holy diamonds!)
Palm OS is still single-threaded for most purposes. This means that apps like Salling Clicker still can't make use of the phone functionality because the Treo has to initiate the connection.
The new keys require an adjustment. There's a phone button where the phone button is on the Treo 600, but it doesn't do the same thing. On the 600, it was basically a "Go to the Phone app." Now, it's the same unless it's something else, which can be surprising when you want to exit the Contacts application and end up calling the last record you were looking at. Sure, this is probably more intuitive, but only if you haven't already established the pattern. In addition, the menu button is in a different location, and there's a weird little Home key that is the equivalent of Phone-left keypad on the 600.
Just like the Treo 600 USB cable, but less obviously, the USB sync cable that comes with the Treo 650 does not charge the phone. update: it does appear to trickle charge when connected to my PowerBook's USB ports, but not my PC.
It will apparently render me sterile, which may be something the rest of you consider an advantage. I would expect much better reception for the genetic cost.

Software

pssh uses a nice font to give eye-squelching text windows with a decent terminal emulator.
Kinoma Producer and Player make it easy to shrink, encode, and play movies on the Treo. Sure, it can be done with various tools and mmplayer, but I like things that take two clicks. If you install Kinoma Player, though, remember that it must be installed on the PDA's internal memory, and not a card.
Missing Sync fixes a lot of the problems with Palm Desktop on the Mac, the first of which is a near-total lack of support.
You have no idea how much TextTwist I've played while sitting on the toilet. It has become a euphemism for visiting the bathroom.
I don't really like SnapperMail, but it sends MIME attachments correctly.