Follow-up questions to Treo 680 review on mytreo.net

[JAndrews]

If you haven't already seen it, we have an in-depth review of the Treo 680 on the mytreo.net front page: http://mytreo.net/archives/2006/11/in-depth-review-of-treo-680.html

I still have the Treo 680 evaluation unit, so if you have any follow-up questions to the article please let me know and I'll do my best to provide answers (in between working and getting ready for Thanksgiving).

So, who is going to be first?

[adrianoftyriel]

will the wifi sdio card work in the 680? i know it's going to stick out, but i'm willing for it to do that for wifi access (i'll just carry it with me and put it in when i need it)

[JAndrews]

I haven't seen anything to indicate a wifi card will work in the 680, but I don't have a wifi to actually test it with so I can't prove it doesn't work.

However, if it was supported, I'm sure it would have been listed as a new feature. But since it doesn't say anything about wifi support anywhere in the promotional material or the User Guide (I just checked) I'm nearly positive it isn't supported.

And of course there are the issues about the SD card slot already discussed here:
http://mytreo.net/forum/index.php/topic,42394.0.html

[dessa]

With the launch changes to the Contacts app, is it still possible to look up a number while in a phone call?  ["I have that number, but I can't give it to you until we hang up...."]

Nice review.  Thanks.  Did you have a 650 before your 700?  I assume you'd recommend an updated from a 650?

Can you make any comments on the stability of the 680 yet?

[JAndrews]

With the launch changes to the Contacts app, is it still possible to look up a number while in a phone call?  ["I have that number, but I can't give it to you until we hang up...."]

Nice review.  Thanks.  Did you have a 650 before your 700?  I assume you'd recommend an updated from a 650?

Can you make any comments on the stability of the 680 yet?

Yes, once you are on a call, you can press the Phone button to return to the Main screen and access the Contacts tab. Pressing the Phone button will toggle between the Phone app (the 5-tab view) and the In Process Call screen.

Yes, I had a 650 before my 700p (both Sprint) and the memory increase was a big deal for me (I was always struggling with too many apps that had to reside in the internal memory or stored information in internal memory). And with Sprint, the faster EvDO internet access was a HUGE improvement. However, since I've been told that the 650 also supports EDGE I'm not sure the 680 will be any faster.

If I already had a GSM 650 I'd probably upgrade if I could get the phone for $200. But it would be a more difficult decision if I had to pay $400. I really think the phone will be most attractive to new users that were previously on the fence due to the price of the 650/700p.

I don't have an opinion on the stability just yet. I spent most of the time so far learning and writing about the differences, but I should have more time to just play around with it now that the review is done.

[JAndrews]

Here's my response from aother thread on whether the Treo 650/700 battery will fit in a Treo 680:
http://mytreo.net/forum/index.php?topic=42392.new;topicseen#new

[nimra]

Thanks for your review; I ate it up after lunch, like a dessert 
The main point for me, is memory aswell - that's why I really would need to know if you can confirm that your 4G card works for rea; meaning, if you stuff your 4 G card up to the limit, can you really use all data and apps, that are on the card?
this would be the real test...stuff it full with data, books, mp3s, videos...what else and see if all works. Also just a look into the card app, seeing, what the app says about free and occupied space could show something.
Thanks in advance for keeping us here all informed!
Brds,
Nimra

[JAndrews]

OK, here's the testing I've done wrt 4GB SD cards:

I have a Transcend 150x 4GB card that I've been using in my Treo 700p for the last few months.

I put the same card in the Treo 680 and I ran several games from the 4GB SD card and had no problems whatsoever.

I then installed TCPMP 0.72RC1 on the 680 and played a video stored on the 4GB SD Card. No problems at all.

Ran CardInfo on the 680:
Size: 479.0 MB Free of 3950.2 MB

Ran CardInfo on the 700p:
Size: 479.3 MB Free of 3950.2 MB

I believe the difference in free space is due to email I received via Chatter (stored on the SD card) between tests. However, in both cases the total reported capacity was the same.

Next, I copied Bejeweled from the 680 to the 4GB SD Card. No errors. I then moved the 4GB SD card back to the 700p and ran Bejeweled from the SD card without any probelms.

My first impression of the speed that programs on the SD card launched seem pretty good. But just to

Here are some VFSMark numbers using the exact same Transcend 4GB SD Card
VFSMark - Treo 700p
744
850
738
748

VFSMark - Treo 680
514
512
535

VFSMark - Treo 650 w/FAT32.prc (this information has been added on 11/30/06 after the original posting)
584
588
617
576
612

One last thing I did was to run RescoExplorer v2.70 and in the ROM area found the FAT32 file requird to support SD cards larger than 2GB. And in case any one is interested, the FAT32 file is 58224b, version 549, with a creation and modification date of 06/05/06 15:57:43.

If someone else is saying that the 680 doesn't support 4GB SD cards, I can't say they are wrong because I don't know what tests they ran to conclude it didn't work. All I know is what I described above.

However, maybe Palm doesn't expclitly list support for 4GB SD cards because YMMV.

Update: I just played some MP3 files from the 4GB SD card using pTunes. No problems. No stuttering. Sounds good.

[JAndrews]

Some additional observations:

1) Button Mapping Issue with Agendus
I installed Agendus Premier v11 (which I use on my Treo 700p) and it seemed to think the Phone button was mapped to the Calendar application. Ignoring that, I mapped Agendus to the Calendar button. But I discovered that now the Phone button really was mapped to the Calendar program and so was the Calendar button. I went into the Prefs to modify the buttons and again assigned Agendus to the Calendar button. But it also said the Phone button was mapped to the Phone app and I'm not allowed to change it.

After this, the Calendar button now launched Agendus, but when I pressed the phone button it still launched the Calendar app.

Going back into Prefs for the Button assignments, it reverted the Calendar button back to Calendar instead f Agendus and I still couldn't fix the Phone button.

I deleted Agendus (and all files starting with Agendus) using the Palm Launcher , opened Prefs for the buttons, and pressed the Default button. While the Calendar button is once again mapped to Calendar, the Phone button is still mapped to Calendar and I can't change it. May need to do a hard reset, but I'll try a few other things before doing that.

2) I had also noticed some strangeness with the buttons when I was setting up ScreenShot to take screen captures for the review. One problem was that it listed the Address, ToDo and Memo buttons as possible trigger buttons while my 700p only lists Calendar and E-Mail. So I think it is clear that there are some differences in what the 680 is telling programs about the buttons vs. the 700p and that these differences may cause existing apps problems until updates are released.

3) With Screen shot, I also noticed that I had a new "Full Screen" option when running on the 680 that I didn't have with my 700p. If this is checked, it takes a shot of a larger screen (like the Palm TX) but the bottom part is blank. Again, it looks like the 680 is reporting information about the hardware differently than the 700p.

I'll report more details as I run more programs.

[dessa]

Yes, once you are on a call, you can press the Phone button to return to the Main screen and access the Contacts tab. Pressing the Phone button will toggle between the Phone app (the 5-tab view) and the In Process Call screen.

Thanks for the info.  [Compared with the 650] does it still "snap-back" to the In Progress Call screen after 10 or 15 seconds of being idle?

I have to say, that as a Treo 650 owner who is constantly battling the small amount of available memory (even with my custom ROM, 4 GB Transcend card and PowerRun... Hey! it takes a lot of memory to be an Astraware beta tester ) it looks like it would be a nice upgrade for me, especially with the $150 trade-in rebate from Palm.

[dessa]

Is the IR any stronger than the 650?  I found Novii Remote to be fairly useless on the 650, since I couldn't control anything from farther than 6 feet, and some things required being close enough to hit the buttons myself

[JAndrews]

Thanks for the info.  [Compared with the 650] does it still "snap-back" to the In Progress Call screen after 10 or 15 seconds of being idle?

It doesn't look like it snaps back to the Call In Progress screen after it is idle in Contacts...I waited for about 2 minutes and it stayed in Contacts. I then switched to Home/Launcher and waited another minute and it still didn't switch back to the Call In Progress screen.

Of course, I'm still having a problem where the Phone button  is still assigned to the Calendar app so I have to launch the Phone app using the Launcher, but that shouldn't make a difference once a call is in progress.

[JAndrews]

Is the IR any stronger than the 650? I found Novii Remote to be fairly useless on the 650, since I couldn't control anything from farther than 6 feet, and some things required being close enough to hit the buttons myself

I never really use the IR stuff so it might take me a while to test this and compare against my 650. However my guess is that it is comparable to the 650 because the built-in IR is only really intended for beaming to/from another Palm device within a couple of feet and since it is able to perform the intended purpose there would be no need for them to enhance it. I believe that's why there are third-party SDIO IR transmitters that have a stronger IR signal.

Of course, I'm not even sure one of those would work on the side SD port because is indented a few mm from the outside edge of the side.

[Alli]

Just FYI, Screenshots has always had the option of capturing more than the Treo screen so that you can capture the silkscreen if you're on a longer device. You can do it with your 650 or 700p as well.

[JAndrews]

Just FYI, Screenshots has always had the option of capturing more than the Treo screen so that you can capture the silkscreen if you're on a longer device. You can do it with your 650 or 700p as well.

That's what I expected Alli,  but the checkbox doesn't even appear when running the same version of ScreenShot on my Sprint Treo 700p.