Treo

The New Treo 600

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I finally got my new Treo 600 Tuesday night. It is really cool. I installed most of my programs onto it. My first complaints are as follows: Polyphonic ring tones, can’t they make a regular phone ringer sound also? I have 20 ring tones, and they all suck. I want a normal ring. You can’t find that on the internet, but you can find anything on the top 40. What is going on? Until I find a normal ringer sound, I am going to use really annoying rings as a statement of my dissatisfaction. Hey, I suffer through everyone else’s crappy ring tones.

The second and I think last problem with the phone is the lack of a good case. Palmone doesn’t have one, and no third party company has one either. I have a $400 phone with a crappy case. Give me a belt clip or something!!!

On the plus side, I think the internet connects faster on this Treo vs my 270 using T-Mobile. The screen is much nicer. The speakerphone is great, and of course it is SMALLER than my 270.

I just bought The Missing Sync 2.0 for the Mac. It allows me to use the internet connection on my mac to sync avantgo. It also allows me to mount my SD card on my mac and move files. It is a nice piece of software.

Now I await the IMAP version of snapper mail. Other software wish lists is the distinctive ring tone software that I had on my 270. They don’t make a 600 version of it yet.

The screen protector for the Treo is on order and I have to find a docking cradle. I am buying accessories. This device is a keeper. Until something better comes along anyway!

The Treo 600 Shipped

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I got an email a few hours ago saying my long awaited Treo 600 finally shipped out today. Fedex says that it will arrive tomorrow (Tuesday). Hopefully they are right. I hope I actually get good use of it. From what I saw when I had the AT&T Treo 600 for two days in november I think I will be happy. I will know tomorrow.

Gadget Update

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My PalmOne Treo 600 is on preorder. I hope to get it by mid march. Right around my birthday. Sooner would be nice, but I don’t have any faith in PalmOne since I have been waiting since October for this device.

Palm also announced they will not support OS X in the new version of the Palm OS. That pisses me off since they are compeeting with microsoft but only make software that works on Windows. Me having 2 Mac’s now doesn’t help matters either. I finally started using iCal & Address book. They are not so bad. I like that I can change the font and color of notes in outlook, but that is the only difference between the software that I don’t like. Thankfully a third party company says they will make sync software that will work with isync. I am going to try them out when I get the Treo 600. The software is supposed to sync with avantgo, a function Palm’s current software does not do. Unfortunatly the software from Mark / Space does not work with my current Treo 270, so I will wait a few weeks.

I am about to cancel my Verizon Wireless phone. I haven’t needed to use since December, except once. That constitutes a reason to cancel a $40 a month charge. I will take the hit on early termination fee. This will be the first time I have ever paid that fee, but I don’t want to wait until augist to cancel the phone. That will cost too much. Once done, I will have just my T-Mobile phone. Now I have to figure out how to use the Treo 600 with T-Mobile while connecting to my Powerbook so I have a dial up connection for it. No Bluetooth yet for the Treo so I will need a USB cable to do this. I am not sure if software exists to do what I want, but I will look.

Treo 600 Finally, Well Almost

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Yesterday Handspring (PalmOne) finally started taking pre orders of the Treo 600 for T-Mobile. I finally placed an order for mine. I got it for the discount price but I now have to wait at least a month until it actually ships. They won’t ship till early march. Who knows when that will be. hopefully I will have it by my birthday.

It was about time too. My Treo 270’s battery doesn’t hold a charge as long as it used to. it still lasts an entire day with usage, but since I am using the data services, I am sucking down the juice.

In the interum I got my old T-68i unlocked. I just got it in the mail today. It now works with my T-Mobile SIM. I can use that instead of my Treo until the new Treo arrives.

Tech Shake Up

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I am having problems with my iMac. it keeps crashing on me almost once a day. My Powerbook never did that on me. It started happening after I put in the Airport Extreme 802.11g WiFi card and my extra 512 megs of ram. At this point I honestly don’t know if either of them is causing this problem. I took out the Airport card. I don’t use it that much since the mac sits on a desk with a switch right on the floor. If it keeps crashing I will take out the ram. if it still is having problems I may just wipe the hard drive and configure it from scratch. I did just open up out of the box and started using it:)

I am still waiting for the Treo 600 to become available for T-Mobile. No end in sight for that. I called handspring to buy an unlocked version of the phone. They said they had unlocked Cingular branded (but it would work with T-Mobile). the only problem was that it is backordered for 2-4 weeks. No one else has them in stock either. I can get an AT&T version, but it is locked. Been there, and done that. I can also get a sprint one from anywhere, but I want a GSM version. T-Mobile has been good to me for most of the time since September 2000. I don’t count that period of 4 months after 9/11/2001 but we did have issues with service in NYC. Handspring wanted $700 for me to wait 2-4 weeks. I decided to wait a bit longer. I don’t want to order the phone and then be able to order my T-Mobile version for $399, and not be able to because I already had an order in. If/when they can ship my order same day or next day I may get it. I am not happy!!!

This entry was written while listening to Wherever You Will Go by The Calling

T-Zones

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So the cell number switch looks like it is done and working. Besides having my voice mail reset and loosing my T-Zones internet access everything worked. I had to call to have the internet setup again and then I was off and running. Lets see if my bill is screwed up because of this. I was not under contract and hope to remain that way. I like keeping my options open.

Still enjoying my Treo 270, but the battery keeps dying at night if I use it all day. Still waiting for the 600…….. and waiting, and waiting…….

This entry was written while listening to Stacies Mom from the album “Welcome Interstate Managers” by Fountains of Wayne

Number Portability Complete

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After waiting years for the rules to take affect, and 6 days from when I made my request I finally got the SMS message telling me my cell number had transfered from AT&T to T-Mobile. It actually worked. I was beginning to doubt it for a while. But it is done. I had to setup my voicemail over again, but other than that everything seems to be working fine.

I am not sure if I need to cancel AT&T service of if it is done automatically. I hope I have to call, that way I can delay for 20 days and not pay the contract cancelation fee.

Now all that is left is waiting for Handspring to release the Treo 600 for T-Mobile!!! That and letting everyone know my number changed back to the old one again. People don’t like me doing that allot!!!

This entry was written while listening to Make It Last from the album “Nasty Little Thoughts” by Stroke 9

AT&T Has To Go

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I tried. I really tried. I gave AT&T some time. I even gave them a second chance by using them again this week. Once again they have failed me. Today GPRS was up and down all day. And phone quality in my apartment sucked even when I had 4 bars of signal. I am a friggin stock holder of AT&T Wireless. Now I know why my stock is doing so bad. This company has some major issues.

I am on hold now with T-Mobile to transfer my coveted AT&T wireless phone number over to my working T-Mobile account.

Well that didn’t work. The person I spoke to said I had to goto the store for them to transfer my old number to an existing T-Mobile account. that goes against everything I heard yesterday. I am about to call back and see if I get another answer. the trick with dealing with customer service reps is call a few times and see if you get the answer you want. it actually works allot of the time. I will return the Treo 600 and wait for T-Mobile to come out with it. What good is the device if it cannot connect to get data anyway?

I know I have been preoccupied with this problem but it is an issue I have wanted to resolve for years and now that I am so close to fixing it I am getting roadblocks everywhere I turn.

Have I mentioned I dislike all telecomm companies???

This entry was written while listening to Satellite from the album “Under the table and dreaming” by Dave Matthews Band

Finally The Day Is Here

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So number portability day is here. Now that it is over, the day didn’t exactly end up the way I wanted it to. I tried to change my number from AT&T to T-Mobile like I had planned on. After an hour at the T-Mobile store with no end in sight, I bailed and went to work. Gus wanted to goto the AT&T store to check out if they had the Treo in stock. I figured they wouldn’t so I went along for the walk. Turns out they did have them. At first neither of us were going to pay the high price of the phone, but then he broke down and got one. I then played with his and broke down and got one. The only problem is that AT&T is having huge system problems right now so I cannot get my new price plan working. It is now 12 hours later and their system is still down. If I cannot get the changes done by tomorrow after work, I am returning the phone and switching to T-Mobile like I originally said I would.

The Treo 600 is awesome though. Speaker phone rocks. It feels good to talk on. It sounds good. Now I have to get AT&T to get their act together.

Treo 600 Update

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Just my luck that it is availible from everyone (Cingular, Sprint, AT&T) except the carrier I want (T-Mobile). AT&T just announced it friday. I am not happy. The good news is even after waiting for over a month since it has been released I still want to get it whenever I can. Not sure if Gus can resist buying the AT&T version of the Treo 600. He still won’t leave AT&T even after he has huge issues with their service.