Treo Downloads, i-Mate & HTC Announcements, Palm News

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Treo Downloads, i-Mate & HTC Announcements, Palm News

Posted by webmaster on December 17, 2007 12:40 AM

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J. Edward Rutkowski (msmobiles.com), Mickey Papillon (from Cell Phone Junkie) and Tadd Rosenfeld (from mytreo.net, starting 39 minutes and 30 seconds into the recording) discuss major product announcements from Palm, HTC & i-Mate (including Verizon 755p, Shift and Ultimate availability), downloads for Windows Mobile smartphones, rate plans and a number of other topics.

Synopsis:

Data Rate Plans in the UK: Edward believes the 10 GB monthly T-Mobile UK data plan is the best deal for heavy mobile internet users. He points out that there are very few unlimited data plans in Europe.
Mickey's Treo 750: Mickey jokes he's pleased Tadd supports his choice of a Windows Mobile Treo smartphone as his personal device. Mickey doesn't believe his earlier negative experiences with the AT&T Tilt (currently Tadd's personal device) necessarily mean the device is bad. In hindsight he thinks the Tilt (aka TyTn II) has merits as well.
Twitter Social Networking: Edward recommends social Twitter, a free download, and Mickey describes how it works via text messaging. You can receive msmobiles via Twitter.
Palm's Verizon Treo 755p Announcement: Mickey expects the Palm OS Verizon Treo 755p to be released Monday, and for this to be an important release for the community. He points out that some Palm OS users feel married to the operating system because they have a substantial amount invested in third party software. He wonders if the rumored Windows Mobile Treo 800w is delayed.
Improvements needed in Windows Mobile:
- Multitasking is hard because programs can only appear across the full screen.
- When you close a program it doesn't actually close- it minimizes.
- Different builds operate differently (for example Professional versus Personal)
- Difficult to make phone calls on some devices, because stylus taps are necessary
- No threaded SMS (though it's available as a third party download)
Pamela Recording Software: Edward uses Pamela to record podcasts. Skype has implemented code to enable third party recording.
Centro Rated Favorite Device: An independent research company said the Centro is the most attractive smartphone to consumers. Mickey believes the form factor is very important. Edward expresses surprise because he finds the keyboard too small. Mickey found it highly usable. Edward is impressed that such a small device has a touchscreen, and Mickey agrees that it's become an important feature to him.
MobiPocket: Edward recommends MobiPocket (for eBooks) & Audio Notes (for recording phone calls as MP3).
E-Ten Glofish X800 Review: Edward receives demo model E-TEN Glofiish X800 and is very impressed. He says the screen resolution is fabulous, and the Sirf III GPS is highly sensitive. He is using built-in GPS mapping software but typically uses TomTom.
T-Mobile HSDPA: We're still waiting for an announcement from T-Mobile USA that HSDPA is available. We believe the announcement is imminent, however.
Zumobi released a tiles based browser that supports widgets (plug-ins).
Happy Holidays: Mickey & Edward wish everyone happy holidays. Mickey is going to take a week off from podcasting to focus on family. Tadd and Edward plan on podcasting next week, however. Mickey plugs podcasts available on TheCellPhoneJunkie.com.
New! Podcast Synopsis: Tadd mentions listener feedback last week requesting we provide more complete written explanations of each podcasts, and commits to providing them. He jokes that readers will, however, miss out on all of the mistakes, talk of "booth babes" and general circus behavior that listeners enjoy.
Palm Executives at HP: Tadd mentions briefly that he spoke with Jim Christensen, former Director of Public Relations for Palm, who left for HP. He is presently working for Todd Bradley, Palm's former CEO, who is now running a $10 billion division of HP (possibly their largest). Jim remains a user of Palm products, and a friend to the community. Tadd wishes he could share more about the call but largely their conversation was off the record. Jim has an open invitation to join any future mytreo.net/msmobiles.com podcast.
Goof Up: Tadd interrupts podcast by inadvertently hitting mute button. Edward is irritated and asks Tadd to use a knife to remove the mute button.
Palm Layoffs & Earnings Release: Palm lays off a large number of employees, and reported down sales and earnings. Articles about the layoffs appeared throughout the community and in mainstream media, such as the Wall Street Journal. Tadd expresses his view that there has been a creative vacuum in the company, but that a recent influx of fresh talent is likely to turn it around. Tadd believes Palm will be helped by an upcoming Verizon Treo 755p announcement, but that there may be more near term difficulties until they release more revolutionary devices in 2008 and 2009.
When is Next Palm Press Conference? Palm has not announced a press conference and is not investing in a booth at the CES conference in early January, which suggests we won't see a major device announcement until later. Tadd says perhaps the company will make a big announcement at CTIA in March instead. Edwards says perhaps they will make an announcement at World Congress in February. Edward says World Congress is a global event that is not to be underestimated.
Food: Edward eats sweet tangerines. Tadd is sipping some black tea.
HP Smartphone Delays: Edward says HP has had device delays, and is not competing effectively with Palm. Tadd points out that the former Palm employees at HP are focusing on laptops as well as smartphones, and so they aren't entirely competing head to head.
HTC Shift Announcement / Beautiful HTC Models: Edward publishes images of beautiful models showing off HTC's new ultra-mobile PC "Shift" on msmobiles.com, and asks Tadd his impression of the women and the device. Tadd expresses a favorable view of both. HTC's shift runs full Vista, which is a big advantage.
Weak HTC Shift Battery Life: Shift is handicapped by its weak battery life. The device can only run Windows Vista for 2 hours. However, Edward points out that you can run a limited alternative operating system, SnapVUE, just for push enabled e-mail, for days on end.
i-Mate releases two of the Windows Mobile Ultimate devices! Tadd says Edward owes i-Mate an apology for calling the devices vaporware. Edward points out that the models only have WiFi but not GPS. Tadd says this is consistent with what the company told him at CTIA in October, and that the GPS devices (most notably the 8502) would be available early in the first quarter of 2008.
Gmobile Sync is now available. It's a free sync program for Google Gmail users that allows you to see calendar events even offline. Edward says the app is nice.
Microsoft launches Windows Mobile partner program for developers. There may be big competition by platform developers for third party software developers. Google announced $10 million in rewards for applications written for its software. Tadd wonders if the new Microsoft program is being implemented to help Microsoft compete.
Google's Android Apps are Easy to Reverse Engineer, so Edward believes developers will prefer to participate in the Windows Mobile and Palm OS markets.
HTC's support of Microsoft: Will HTC continue supporting Microsoft now that they're releasing Google Android phones? Tadd expresses skepticism about Google's upcoming Android, and says he doesn't expect the first iteration to be very exciting. He thinks HTC will continue supporting Microsoft for a long time.
Recommended Downloads: Tadd recommends FlexMail (email / text messaging), Opera Browser, Pocket Express (news, sports, weather and movies), Chess Genius and Ms. Pacman. Edward recommends MobiPocket Reader.
eBooks = eye strain? Tadd and Edward talk about the difficulties and pleasures of eBooks. Tadd doesn't like them because he prefers to hold printed material. Edward enjoys always having reading material with him.