Round Robin: Windows Mobile Guy On a Treo 680

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When we decided to effort this Smartphone Round Robin a couple of weeks ago, I immediately girded my loins (pictured above - just how uncomfortable "girded loins" actually are) in preparation for a total three weeks without a Windows Mobile device equally my chief brain. I knew it would be tough, simply so far I've been managing alright.

The main reason, I suppose, is that my first week in the Smartphone Round Robin brings me the Treo 680 - in other words, I'm a Windows Mobile convert "old schooling it" with the PalmOS. The Treo 680 has been my sole device for near v days now - then how am I holding upwards with this blast from my past? Read on to detect out.

(Don't forget - a annotate on this post counts equally an entry in the Round Robin Contest!)

Setup and Sync

The kickoff thing I'd need to exercise, obviously, is set up syncing for the Treo. I basically had two options:

"cheat" and only use the built-in Exchange Active Sync for PIM data and use an SD card for moving everything else manually
Practise it the way I suspect most users do, download Palm Desktop for Mac, install it, and see what happens.

I want to be fair, so I went with option two. Now, I want to exist very, very clear on this event: Palm Desktop sucks. It makes the PalmOS - which is pretty tired looking itself - look like the latest and greatest UI. I should signal out that I was doing this on a fresh Leopard install on a Mac, so there may well have been compatibility issues. Just the longer I got into the sync process, the clearer it became that information technology was, in fact, Palm Desktop that was killing me.

In all, I spent about 3 hours installing, configuring iSync, reinstalling, rebooting, hotsyncing, re-hotsyncing, and mostly wondering where the "Zen of Palm" fit into all this. I finally managed to become information technology all synced over and working, but it was painful.

Hardware Impressions

I don't take a ton to say hither, every bit I've been a Treo user for years and years - my main brain lately has usually been the nearly-identically-shaped Treo 750. So, for those unfamiliar with the Treo's form factor, let me exist cursory:

Except for a fiddling thickness, it's almost the ideal shape for a smartphone. A full QWERTY keyboard on a "candybar" form factor with a touchscreen is perfect for a smartphone, in my opinion. Sure, the iPhone has a soft keyboard and many are happy with it, simply it will never match a physical keyboard for one-handed, out-of-the-corner-of-your-centre usage. The touchscreen is also hugely important - more on that in a bit.

Otherwise build quality on this Treo 680 is pretty good. Information technology's non "this is hot, and I don't mean information technology like Paris Hilton does" of iPhone or the "You'd best take me seriously, son" business-appeal of the AT&T Tilt, merely information technology'due south pretty expert. In that location's a decent heft to it and zero actually seems to be creaking and cracking out of place. I'll say it again, too: the keyboard is top-notch. I don't know nevertheless, but I'yard willing to bet that not fifty-fifty the BlackBerry keyboard volition exist this good.

Impressions of the OS

PalmOS is snappy snappy snappy. It'southward practically a revelation for me - the screen draws quickly, apps switch quickly, auto-filtering contacts happens speedily. There are tiny pauses here and in that location during app switching (especially in and out of the Blazer broswer), merely I've still to be presented with a total-fledged freeze upward.

Maybe information technology's just that Palm never bothered to make a version of the "Spinny ball of decease" we've all seen on Windows Mobile - more likely they've never felt the demand. Bully to you, Palm, for making PalmOS correct all those years ago and not mucking it up in the acting by trying to hack on multitasking functionality in such a way that would break the matter entirely. Better to have an Os that functions quickly even if it looks a niggling (ok, a lot) outdated.

It's also nice to be dorsum on a screen with 320x30 resolution. It'southward a pity that the PalmOS doesn't make acceptable use of all those pixels with some graphical niceties. I have never been a huge fan of the font in PalmOS, readable though information technology may be. It is nice that Palm merely has a menubar at the top of the screen and non at the bottom (similar Windows Mobile) - there are never enough pixels to display everything I want to display so the less that'southward taken up by OS elements, the better.

Still, though, the PalmOS doesn't expect or experience mod at all and I really have to wonder how much work it would have taken just to clean it upwardly a bit - the fashion Palm did with the improved dialer screen on this Treo 680 of mine and also on some of their media applications. See the department on 3rd party apps, below.

There are diverse picayune touches throughout that makes the PalmOS quick and easy to use, though. I'm talking about property down the center button to see a listing of all your active alarms, holding down the habitation push for a popular-up of your recent apps. Nearly importantly, being able to assign any speed dial, SMS bulletin, or application to whatsoever push button on the QWERTY keyboard within the main phone app. This beats the pants off anything else out there as far equally "launching tasks" is concerned and information technology'south an absolute mystery to me why nobody else has copied information technology yet. I take 5 "main buttons" mapped to apps (and opt-mapped to 4 more than), sure, that sort of thing is pretty common. But I also have 26 buttons to launch nigh any activity I want. Windows Mobile can continue its lightheaded "voice command" feature until they integrate something like Nuance's software. I'll hold down "k" to text bulletin "Kelly" long before I'll spend the fourth dimension to correctly pronounce "SMS Kelly" and then bank check to see if the telephone registered it correctly.

I want to cycle back to the touchscreen event at present, a hardware and Os effect. Although I oftentimes use Smartphone-edition Windows Mobile phones, I'k never equally happy as I am with a touchscreen. I am actually one of those people who abhor the stylus and effort not to pull it out whenever possible. I am also aware that most long-term and/or hardcore PalmOS users take learned all the tips and tricks of the PalmOS that allow you to skip the stylus and use the v-mode to navigate around. Here's the thing, though, I accept forgotten most of those tricks.

And so coming to a Treo 680 "once again for the first fourth dimension," as it were, I've found the touchscreen to be a godsend. If I'm not certain how to get to the thing I want to hit with the v-fashion quickly, no problem, just tap it with my fingertip. On Smartphone-edition feature phones, on what few BlackBerries I've tried (and will try over again, later in the Round Robin), I've ofttimes found myself banging abroad at a 5-fashion or a scroll wheel trying to get the "highlight" to the thing I'grand looking for -- sometimes missing information technology and going back. With a touchscreen, though, you can skip all that nonsense and interact directly with what you want to interact with.

What I'm maxim is this: for a new user, a touchscreen makes it x times easier to collaborate with a smartphone. Learning bend: I smash you flat!

...Oh, yeah - the default email client, VersaMail, is alright, but it'southward no Pocket Outlook. I'chiliad using Churr, which I'll talk about more later this week.

3rd Party Apps

Over at Phone different, Mike put up an article about the iPhone SDK not long before it was announced - an article talking well-nigh the lack of an SDK. I mention information technology here because it contained this very interesting tidbit:

Ii-thirds of Treo owners have purchased third party apps [...]10 pct of Treo owners take purchased x or more than 3rd party apps

That number seems crazy-high to me - over 60% have purchased tertiary political party apps. The number who are using them (i.e. including the free ones) must be college. So the story of the PalmOS Treo 680 is incomplete--no, information technology's untold--unless you factor in the vast assortment of great 3rd political party applications that are bachelor for it.

Driving that bespeak home, I started upwardly a thread with some of my minor gripes about the Treo 680 - also asking nigh 3rd political party apps - over at the TreoCentral forums. The answers from the TreoCentral community have been coming in fast and furious and they all have basically the aforementioned theme - everything I want from the Treo that it's not doing can be solved with the appropriate tertiary party application.

To wit, I'll be installing the following and giving them a become:

Mundu and Gizmo for IM (will see which is meliorate)
Profile for, eh, profiles
GX5 Ultimate Telephone for Launching
I may also give 2Day a shot
and what the heck, mobileClock too.

I could go on with all the suggestions - they are legion. Fortunately installing and deleting apps on PalmOS is relatively painless, quick, and more often than not these apps get out very little "cruft" behind after they become deleted.

Rants

Thus far I've remarkably kind and gentle to a platform that I ultimately left behind. Time to stop that. Strap in, baby: what yous're about to read is totally biased, unfair, mean-spirited, and generally grouchy.

Gripe 1: Multitasking: "Got Multitask?" was the original byline of WMExperts for a reason - multitasking matters. I want to start up a file downloading, switch to email and read it, then switch back when the download finishes. I desire an Os that tin can accept apps constantly running in the groundwork so they load instantly -- not "near-instantly" or "very close to instantly" -- simply right now instantly. Maybe Windows Mobile isn't that platonic platonic of "instantly," only it's a sight closer than PalmOS.

Hang on, I'one thousand not done hither. I likewise desire apps constantly running in the background even if I'thousand not going to be switching into them on a regular footing. RSS readers, maybe. Or, more chiefly, an IM client and music and e-mail and a weather-fetcher and... well, and so on. I hear you PalmOS people grumbling now and I will grant that you can brand the PalmOS do many or most of these things on a PalmOS. But the PalmOS wasn't designed for it and information technology shows when you start piling on the hacks and tweaks that 3rd party apps must use in club to practise it.

If you lot're an average user on either PalmOS or Windows Mobile - fret not - only pick the 1 that fits you best by whatever metric y'all want. The post-obit iii paragraphs aren't for yous and at that place's no shame in that. I actually envy you a fleck.

Power users, heed up: "A modern smartphone operating arrangement manages memory and multitasks." Say that 10 times fast, because it's fun to say and worth remembering. PalmOS manages memory, but it does and so with 1990's tech and it does and so arcanely. Arcane both in that it'south hard to understand and cached abroad in hidden corners. Buried and hidden retention management is a good thing... until it's non. That state of affairs comes up for power users quite a scrap.

Windows Mobile manages retention too, just like a modern OS should. I'll grant that it oftentimes doesn't exercise information technology all that well, but Windows Mobile also has much meliorate tools for managing memory than PalmOS does and hither'southward the really important affair for us power users - retentivity management on Windows Mobile is more transparent. For example: On PalmOS, you're thinking about cabalistic dbCache block sizes and defragmentation on PalmOS. On Windows Mobile, y'all're thinking about "Stop All Programs" in your Settings.

I may get lambasted for this by hardcore PalmOS guys and I see that the comparison above isn't quite fair, but I hope that even if my detail example doesn't stand up upwards the main point here should: memory management and multitasking should be standard upshot and information technology should be easy to have an idea what'south going on with your memory if you want to. Almost don't and more power to 'em.

Gripe ane.5, annex to Gripe one: WiFi on a PalmOS Treo? Rumor, innuendo, and scuttlebutt is that information technology'south not even possible to mix a Cellular Radio with a WiFi radio on the PalmOS -- hence this is an addendum to the multitask gripe in a way. In that location are arguments that Palm keeps leaving it out for bombardment-life purposes, merely I no longer believe those arguments. Every major carrier in the US offers at least one Windows Mobile smartphone with WiFi built-in.

Gripe ii: Look and experience: Do I really need to explicate that the PalmOS looks old? I know I can peel it with tertiary party apps - only I'll admit that I'1000 loathe to do so, if simply for stability reasons. Windows Mobile is famously ugly, just it still looks amend than the PalmOS.

I could keep, but I won't, because I'm going to go ahead and become with the 3rd-party app solution.

Gripe 3: Multimedia: Getting music and movies onto the PalmOS Treo without resorting to some (really cracking, btw) 3rd party apps is a nightmare. Coming from a Windows Mobile guy is a bit of "pot calling the kettle black," apparently, but it has to be said.

Gripe 5: Desktop Syncing: Covered above. Worth saying again. Even Windows Vista's Device Center is better than Palm Desktop, and that's saying something. Fortunately, for usa Mac folk anyway, Missing Sync can come up to the rescue.

Gripe vi: Bluetooth Performance: It's always been bad with Treos. Can't understand why. Saving on parts costs, I guess.

Wrapping upwardly

Now that I've praised and damned the PalmOS, what do I really think? Well - I'thou going to have to make you lot wait until Th or Friday for the followup article - subsequently I've had some more time and have installed some more 3rd-party apps. For now, though, the takeaway is this: I'm pleasantly surprised past the speed and stability but aggravated by the look and the fact that I will demand an armory of 3rd party apps for the power I want. At least those apps be!

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