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Treo 300
Mon Oct 14, 2002 - 2:39 AM EDT - By Michael Ducker , Dieter Bohn
Table of Contents
Introduction Overview Vision > SMS and Email Voicemail Sprint Services Accessories, Battery... Conclusion
SMS and Email Michael: I gave up trying to figure out what in the world was going on with SMS. Sprints CDMA network doesnt technically support SMS, so Sprint developed something called shortmail. Shortmail is sent to you in an interface that is identical to SMS, except that it is just a link to a WAP page in blazer. I never once got this to work properly. For example: Sending an SMS to my email gateway ([email protected] ) gave me a message immediately. But any message sent from another phone was never received. The SMS implementation is the biggest weak point in the Treo 300. When I had the Treo 180 I became addicted to SMS, and the almost Instant Messaging like part of it. I was disappointed to work with the Treo 300 version of this.
And one last thing, did I forget to tell that the Treo 300s SMS is one-way? There is a third party application that makes the Treo 300 SMS two way, and messages that I sent through it got to my recipient just fine. However, I still wasnt able to receive any messages. Handspring is working on an updated SMS app, and that will be available soon.
Dieter: The sooner the better. There are third party apps out there that help alleviate this a bit, but I place the blame on the SMS insanity squarely on Sprint. I have a feeling that Handspring is jumping through some hoops of fire to get SMS to work. Sprints CDMA network is very advanced, very cool, very fast, and very closed. Boo.
Email
Dieter: Unlike SMS, however, email on the 300 is a joy and a pleasure. I did find the need to do a little extra work to get SMTP to work; but I seemed to be the only one with that problem. We were unable to look at Sprint PCS Business Connection email software, but it is supposed to be able to sync with Lotus or Outlook. From what we are told, it works much like TreoMail does. It also apparently can get calendaring or contact info from your corporate exchange server.
At any rate, you have more email retrieval options on the Treo 300 than you do with any other Palm OS device (the i705 possibly excluded.). It works with any client you want, quickly and easily.
Michael: Email was a dream on the Treo 300. Unlike Dieter, I had no trouble setting up my SMTP server in SnapperMail. After that it was a smooth road to fast email. However there is no push solution for the Palm OS yet (The RIM Blackberry is an example of push email). However, Treo Mails automatic downloading worked fine except for one caveat; randomly the Treo did not deactivate Vision after downloading mail, leaving the radio constantly sending and receiving and draining my battery quickly. Next Page: Voicemail >>
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Details
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Name Treo 300
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Company Handspring
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Battery Life 2.5 hrs talk, 150 hrs standby
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Other Features Jog rocker, Ringer switch with vibrate option, Headset jack, Personal speakerphone, Protective flip lid, Microphone, Backlit keyboard
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OS Palm OS 3.5.2H
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Screen Color (12-bit)
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Memory 16 MB
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Weight 5.7 oz
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Size 4.4" x 2.8" x .82"
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Color Silver
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