I’ve been turning into a bit of a
hypermiler,
which, for those of you not familiar with the term, is driving using strategies
that maximize fuel efficiency.
For example, when I’m heading
West
on Hwy 5 in Eden Prairie, Minnesota on the way to work, I can put my car in
neutral at the spot marked in green and coast the last 1/2 mile or so to the off
ramp and make it up through the clover to the stop light (marked in red).
This particularly strategy doesn’t take any additional time on my part, since I
tend to end up at a red light at the end of the off-ramp no matter how I get
there.
Unfortunately, some people have problems with this technique, including Ben, who
happened to be following me to work the other day.
He gave me a call to let me know his thoughts on this while we waited at the
light. Apparently, he wanted to get to the light faster so he could wait longer.
This brings me to a theory a friend of mine has had for a while now about road
rage: he thinks it could be solved by making everyone’s license plate their cell
phone number. That way, if you saw someone driving erratically, you could give
them a quick ring to offer some constructive criticism of their driving
techniques.
What could possibly go wrong with that plan?
I’ve been turning into a bit of a
hypermiler,
which, for those of you not familiar with the term, is driving using strategies
that maximize fuel efficiency.
For example, when I’m heading
West
on Hwy 5 in Eden Prairie, Minnesota on the way to work, I can put my car in
neutral at the spot marked in green and coast the last 1/2 mile or so to the off
ramp and make it up through the clover to the stop light (marked in red).
This particularly strategy doesn’t take any additional time on my part, since I
tend to end up at a red light at the end of the off-ramp no matter how I get
there.
Unfortunately, some people have problems with this technique, including Ben, who
happened to be following me to work the other day.
He gave me a call to let me know his thoughts on this while we waited at the
light. Apparently, he wanted to get to the light faster so he could wait longer.
This brings me to a theory a friend of mine has had for a while now about road
rage: he thinks it could be solved by making everyone’s license plate their cell
phone number. That way, if you saw someone driving erratically, you could give
them a quick ring to offer some constructive criticism of their driving
techniques.
What could possibly go wrong with that plan?
I’ve been turning into a bit of a
hypermiler,
which, for those of you not familiar with the term, is driving using strategies
that maximize fuel efficiency.
For example, when I’m heading
West
on Hwy 5 in Eden Prairie, Minnesota on the way to work, I can put my car in
neutral at the spot marked in green and coast the last 1/2 mile or so to the off
ramp and make it up through the clover to the stop light (marked in red).
This particularly strategy doesn’t take any additional time on my part, since I
tend to end up at a red light at the end of the off-ramp no matter how I get
there.
Unfortunately, some people have problems with this technique, including Ben, who
happened to be following me to work the other day.
He gave me a call to let me know his thoughts on this while we waited at the
light. Apparently, he wanted to get to the light faster so he could wait longer.
This brings me to a theory a friend of mine has had for a while now about road
rage: he thinks it could be solved by making everyone’s license plate their cell
phone number. That way, if you saw someone driving erratically, you could give
them a quick ring to offer some constructive criticism of their driving
techniques.
What could possibly go wrong with that plan?
One downside of being a cell phone only household (no land line) is losing your phone means you have no phone. And, unlike cordless phones, there is no docking station you can press a button on to locate the darn thing when you lose it.
This problem is fresh in my mind after losing my cell phone at home this morning. Surprisingly, no one was calling or texting me for once, so my phone maintained quietly hidden somewhere in the house. When my wife is home in situations like this, we simply call each other to get our phones to out themselves in their hiding spots, but that wasn’t an option today.
Skype to the rescue: I simply clicked “Call Ordinary Phones” dialed my cell phone’s number, then listened intently for the buzz of my phone in its hiding place. Sure enough, it worked.
And where was it? It was . . . um . . . well . . . on the table . . . behind my laptop’s monitor.
This new phone from Samsung is similar in dimensions to an iPod Nano when closed, but pivots open to a more usable phone size.
If size is your number one consideration for a phone, this may be one worth checking out. It’s probably not the right choice for people who are rough on their equipment. The pivot may not hold up very well to hard use.
Oliver over at MobileCrunch has posted a glowing review of a new custom voicemail service called YouMail that allows cell phone customers to create unique voicemail greetings based on caller ID, so a person could have a unique greeting for significant others, business calls, ex’s, family, etc.:
I see lots and lots of mobile applications. Some very clever, some less so, but few which I think will have the broad appeal and viral growth of YouMail a new application/company that has been incubated by Orange County, California based Zeacom.
It sounds like a fun service, but I question the potential. I wonder what the uptake of similar phone features like unique ringtones by caller ID, attaching photos to contacts in an address book that will show up when someone calls, etc. is? I have a feeling it’s pretty low at this point and they’re both pretty easy (and free) services. Does that give us any guidance about the potential for this service?
Of course, I could be wrong. This is somewhat different from personalizing your own phone’s address book and ringtone since customized voicemails for friends as as much for them as they are for yourself. Will this lead to a viral uptake of the feature?
Dieter Bohn of TreoCentral has posted a brilliant comment on what’s missing from today’s bluetooth headset configurations:
“a thought has occurred to me lately that I can’t get out of my head. I’ve found myself scouring my apartment for my bluetooth headset when I answer a call - the Treo transfers the call to the headset whenever it’s in range. What I realized is that when I answer the call by hitting the button on the phone, I want to talk on the darn phone!
Here’s what I propose: Instead of coming up with an entirely new short-range wireless standard, let’s keep improving the one we already have. Make it so that the phone only transfers the call to the headset when you hit the answer button on the headset. When you hit the answer button on the phone, the call stays on the phone.“
Makes sense. Just the other day, I watched a friend of mine answer his Treo 650 using the phone while his Bluetooth headset was tucked into his jacket. He scrambled for the headset while the caller wondered where he was. Simply taking the call on the phone in his hand would have been more elegant.
Simply put, if the phone answers the phone and the headset answers the headset, problem solved.
As soon as the Treo 700p came out - actually, even before it came out - I knew it would be my next phone after the 600 model I’ve used the couple years. While Treo’s 650 model had a few key upgrades, including Bluetooth, it didn’t add up to a must-have upgrade for me unlike my previously obvious upgrade from the Handspring Treo 300 to the 600.
What made the 700p upgrade appealing? Primarily EVDO Internet access. I’ve found that I use the web and email as much, is not more, than the phone as a phone, so faster data access was impossible to resist.
Could I have upgraded earlier to the Treo 700w or PPC-6700 for the EVDO access? Of course. But I wasn’t a fan of the ergonomics of the 6700, and the 700w - while built on the same hardware layout as the Palm devices - simply wasn’t as easy to navigate.
Has my 700p upgrade been worth it? Absolutely.
The EVDO access is extraordinarily fast compared to the speed of the previous Treo models. Mobile optimized sites like Bloglines Mobile pop onto the screen, and previously painfully slow sites like blogs with looong homepages and lots of stuff in the left margin are suddenly accessible again. The 700p also has a more mature version of the Blazer web browser, making some JavaScript dependent pages usable once again.
The 700p’s camera is far superior to the 600’s, and that together with the improved screen resolution makes showing pictures to friends enjoyable rather than a conversation like, “It’s hard to tell, but the Yeti is to the left of the tree.” And lower light indoor photos of Yetis are now feasible, given the opportunity.
Bluetooth capability is by no means new to cell phones today, but it’s new to me. I primarily use it to transfer images and video from my phone to my laptop so I can upload or email them. It’s also more convenient for sharing my vcard with people across a table than beaming.
BTW, Ben’s Treo 700p / Mac / Google Calendar sync works great.
One other thing: I have heard reports about problems with the 700p, including random resets. In fact, I’ve watched this happen when SMS messages are received on a friend’s 700p. I haven’t experienced and technical problems like this, and for those who have run into problems like this, an upcoming firmware upgrade is supposed to solve the problem. Rumor has it that the firmware upgrade is a pain, so it may be worth holding off on your 700p until the firmware issue is resolved. It could still be significantly better, as Ben explains here.
We have covered the basics of why I like the Treo 700p but now it’s time to tell you what I don’t like about it. No digital device is perfect, and while the Treo line is the best of the best, I still have a few items I wish Palm would include:
1 - A faster processor. Now that we have EVDO the bottleneck seems to be the ability for the device to render and paint the pages on the screen, not the data connection. Since the processor is so slow (312MHz) it almost seems silly to ask for WiFi.
2 - WiFi. Not really required until they improve the processor, but WiFi would be nice for when I want lower latency Internet
3 - A hard drive. 128MB RAM is great and all, but why not include a 4GB micro drive in the thing? Even better yet, 20GB. This is my digital assistant, my buddy, my pal… It would be fantastic if I had enough room for all of my TomTom maps, some music, e-mail and documents without having to buy a bunch of SD cards. Hey, the iPod Nano is smaller than the Treo and all Palm needs to do is find room for the storage itself.
4 - Built in GPS. Maybe I can do this with the tower based GPS (have not looked very hard yet) but rather than having a bluetooth GPS mouse I would love to have that all built in.
5 - Internal antennae. Seriously, why do we need that silly thing sticking out like that? Can’t they find a way to build that in? If Palm can’t, maybe they should go ask Apple’s engineers, I’m sure they would be able to find a way to get the antennae inside the device while having it heat up to 200 degrees.
6 - 1/8″ headphone jack. The 2.5mm jack is just not cutting it for everyday stuff. I know it’s the standard for headsets, but most Treo owners I know use a Bluetooth headset over wired anyhow.
7 - Include accessories with the phone. I remember the good ‘ol days with the Treo 300 where I got a dock, car changer, wall charger and a basic case if I remember correctly. With each phone Palm seems to keep taking accessories out and now with the 700p we have the phone, a sync/charge cable, and… uh… I think they give you a stylus. This is a $650.00 phone, I think Palm can afford to give us $20.00 in plastics to make the experience better.
8 - A NEW OPERATING SYSTEM!!! I’m not a big fan of Windows Mobile 5 (had high hopes, but they were crushed). Palm OS 5 is not much better. What ever happened to these next generation Palm operating systems? Where is the payoff on that acquisition of BeOS? Come on Palm, I know you can do better. While Windows Mobile has not caught up yet they are certainly nipping at your heels!
I was trying to come up with a list of 10 items, but I really could not think much past 8. While I may have forgotten something this is still a pretty good testament to the quality of the device. All in all the Treo 700p is good, but a faster processor and more memory would have made it GREAT!
I am not a huge fan of the Palm OS. I think its multitasking is pitiful, the GUI is not sexy, and in general it feels like its stuck in the late 90s. I have been waiting for a Windows Mobile or some other device to dethrone my Treo 650. There are two devices that caught my eye, the Audiovox/HTC PPC 6700 and the Treo 700w. While I could compare features and specs side by side, that’s boring. Instead I’ll talk about both devices being used in the real world.
Everyone’s needs for a portable device are different. My needs are as a phone first and then as an E-mail/SMS client second. PDA functionality is nice, but basically I need to be able to be in constant communication with my business team via any medium possible no matter where I am. At times E-mail and SMS can be more important than the phone since I need to be able to get real-time status updates from the servers that I run. If the CPU on one of my web servers spikes, I need to know about it as fast as possible. This means that good SMS integration along with push E-mail is a must for me. Your needs may be different, but this article is based on what I need the device to do which is communicate first then be a PDA second.
Since I am a heavy E-mail user the thumbboard is required. Typing to peck out letters using a stylus to write a letter is just too time consuming. I was excited to see the way the PPC 6700 utilized a side keyboard. Logically it makes sense to rotate the device 90 degrees to get a 320×240 display for typing, just like a smaller version of a computer. Unfortunately the way the system integrates it means I really need to use two hands plus a stylus to operate the device. While this does not sound like a big deal, the way the Treo 700w allows me to type using one hand is far better. With the 6700 I am constantly going for the stylus, but with the Treo 700w I am able to do most tasks with the 5-way navigation and the thumbboard. I also thought that having a 240×320/320×240 screen (depends on if the keyboard is out) on the 6700 would be better for web sites. I found that web sites suck equally on the 6700 and the Treo 700w. I incorrectly assumed that IE Mobile would be better at rendering web sites on a smaller screen than Blazer browser or Xiino for Palm OS. Instead I find that Windows Mobile 5 developers are trying to hack IE Mobile to act more like Blazer, the Palm browser. I can say that I think all browsers on mobile devices have a long way to go. They all are terrible and barely usable. The 6700 offers little to no advantage on their side-sliding keyboard, and in fact it takes away from the device. Whenever I want to type a message I have to rotate the unit, hold it in both hands and hope that I can get typing fast. With the way the keys are laid out it’s hard to touch type whereas on the Treo 700w it’s very easy to feel if I’m on or off a key. I usually say that keyboard are all personal preference and there’s no right or wrong answer, but in this case the Treo 700w keyboard is very clearly light years better than the 6700.
The 6700 has WiFi built in whereas the Treo 700w requires an optional WiFi SD card if you would like to have 802.11b access. Enabling WiFi on the 6700 drains the battery at a phenomenal rate. Using the standard battery the 6700 barely lasted a full business day, and that’s with WiFi off. With WiFi on that time was cut by a third. This cut in battery life would be OK if it offered substantial speed gains, but I found for some odd reason that WiFi was not much faster than the EVDO access, and in some cases slower for browsing the web. I figured that the Treo battery must be better since the Treo 700w has a slower processor, smaller screen and no WiFi options. Those items typically translate to less power draw which means longer battery life. Oddly enough the Treo 700w only lasts about one business day before I have to recharge. So from a battery standpoint they are the same, but the 6700 has a better screen, faster processor and more connection options. While the WiFi was disappointing, the EVDO access was a welcomed improvement over my Treo 650’s 1xRTT access. It’s still a lot slower than I would like, but at the very least I could have an EVDO connection open and still get a phone call on both the 6700 and the Treo 700w. The data connection would pause during the call, but at least the call could make it through. On my older Treo 650 when I have a data connection open for downloading E-mail or browsing the web all calls get routed to voicemail. This is apparently a problem with CDMA networks and does not plague GSM Treo 650’s, but I’m on Sprint, so I have to deal with it.
There were a couple of odd things with the 6700 that did not present themselves on the Treo 700w. The Treo 700w kept the keylock on all the time. I don’t think I had one mis-placed phone call. The 6700 kept unlocking the keys whenever I had the system auto-check for e-mail. If the 6700 was in my pocket and pressed against something, it would make a phone call. I can’t tell you how many mis-placed calls I had on the 6700.
Finally there’s the integration of the operating system. The 6700 is almost a pure WM5 install with hardly any custom software. The Treo 700w has heavily modded the Today screen and added a lot of their own dialing features. I am very disappointed in the way WM5 handles phone operations and that shows with the 6700. In fact I would say that the 6700 is a PDA first with some phone functionality. The Treo 700w is actually also a PDA first, but its phone is muuuuuuuch better than the 6700. The picon based dialing along with the better speed dial is a welcome improvement. Unfortunately the phone part of both devices is quite a bit behind the Treo 650. I have had more issues with the phone on both devices than I ever did with the Treo 650. Calls placed to me were dropped completely, voicemail notifications were delayed over an hour, and messaging notifications may or may not come in. I believe this is more of a WM5 fault than a device problem as it happens on both the 6700 and the Treo 700w. With the 650 even if I missed a call the device always gave me an audible alert. With the 6700 and Treo 700w that alert only happens about 50% of the time.
Alas, I don’t think either the 6700 or the Treo 700w are ready to replace my Treo 650, which is a huge bummer. There are items that I miss such as my mobile SlingBox, LogMeIn mobile account and the kick-butt WM5 today screen. Until the WM5 operating system does a better job of phone integration and has a better notification system for SMS and E-mail I don’t think these devices are ready for prime time. Already I have missed 2 very important phone calls and many, many important E-mail messages were delayed due to the WM5 notification problem.
Maybe my experiences are not the norm. How has your 6700 or Treo 700w worked for you? Did you take the leap from a Treo 650 to a 6700 or Treo 700w? Let us know in the comments.
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