San Diego Palm User Group

Update: Treo 700p Merges Palm OS with EVDO

By James Alan Miller
May 15, 2006

 
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Confirming months of speculation, Palm, Inc. early this morning introduced
the Treo 700p, essentially a Palm OS version of the Treo 700w, the company's
first windows Mobile smartphone, offered by Verizon Wireless since January.
The 700p is Palm's first Palm platform Treo in ages - 3 million Palm-based
Treos have shipped since the roll out of the evergreen Treo 650.
Unfortunately for customers of GSM carriers like Cingular Wireless and in
most other markets around the world, the 700p - like the 700w - will only be
available in a CDMA edition (at least for now). The 700p is, however, Palm's
first Treo to support EVDO (Evolution Data Optimized) 3G networking for data
transfer rates averaging 400 to 700 kilobits per second (Kbps).

Palm CEO Ed Colligan said, "This flagship product the second new smartphone
Palm will introduce this calendar year—offers our world-class usability
combined with a smarter phone, wireless email, built-in browser, and rich
media capabilities all at blazing speeds on the EvDO network."

It is said Palm plans to release at least two more smartphones before the
end of 2006. We’re not clear as to whether that includes GSM/UMTS broadband
editions of the 700p and 700w at this point or other rumored new models.

Sprint and Verizon are the carriers slated to deliver the 700p. While Palm
hasn't said exactly when or for how much that'll be, rumors indicate at
least one of these operators may ship the 700p later this month.

Update: Sprint just announced the Treo 700P will be available at the end of
May at Sprint Stores, Sprint business channels and online for $399.99 after
discounts and promotions.

Broadband
"EVDO support becomes an enabler," Palm senior product manager Steve
Sinclair said to PDAStreet during a hands on demonstration, "delivering all
the great things a big data pipe can; faster Web browsing; streaming video;
or just being able to access and download large documents while you are away
from your desk."

He said the data feeds Palm’s getting on this product are comparable to DSL
– in the promised 400 to 600 Kbps range. And, unlike previous CDMA Treos,
the EVDO-enabled 700p allows incoming calls to come through when you're
browsing the Web or downloading e-mail rather than sending said call to
voice mail.

The 700p supports dial-up networking (DUN), which allows users to leverage
the smartphone as a means to access the Internet or corporate network from a
laptop via a Bluetooth or USB connection. With Macs, however, Palm explained
to PDAStreet DUN support is available via Bluetooth only.

Wi-Fi is still MIA in the Treo series. But to Palm, it really shouldn’t be
missed.

"No more looking for a Wi-Fi hot spot, let alone paying for a Wi-Fi hot
spot," Sinclair asserted. There's a simplicity and convenience in knowing
you can get broadband access wherever you are, and you pay your carrier a
nominal fee to have this feature on your regular cellular bill, he added.

In the past some carriers disabled DUN from their Treos. Sinclair
acknowledged "that has happened. With this product we're working with the
carriers to support this service."

To better take advantage of high-speed broadband, he told PDAStreet Palm
updated the Blazer browser to version 4.5. Sinclair said it delivers content
faster with improved rendering through better JavaScript handling, caching,
a new - optional - mode to remove all pictures, as well as better audio and
video streaming.

We asked about banking and commerce site support. Sinclair said they do
support SSL encryption, so many of them are compatible, but he wouldn't go
so far as to all are supported.

Specifications
The 700p includes a 312MHz Intel XScale processor, Palm OS 5.4.9, and 128 MB
of non-volatile memory (60 MB available to the user), which will survive a
complete power drain like all recent Palm devices; a vast improvement on the
650's mere 23 MB of memory.

It also has a Secure Digital (SD) card slot, with support for up to 2 GB or
storage. Sinclair said Palm is already testing 4 GB cards, and the 700p
should even support larger-sized cards eventually.

"Suddenly you've got a product with 4 GB of memory available, it becomes a
place for anything you want," Sinclair said during our demonstration.

The smartphone measures 2.3 x 4.4 x 0.9 inches and weighs 6.4 ounces. It has
the familiar QWERTY thumb-keyboard, a speakerphone, infrared port,
ringer/silent switch, four application keys, and a 5-way navigator.

It looks more like the 700w than the 650.

Treo 700p's camera (for picture and video) - a 1.3 megapixel type with a
self portrait mirror - while still far lower resolution-wise than many other
smartphone models from other vendors, is much improved over the 650's VGA
model.

Since the 700p is a Palm device, and not a Pocket PC phone, like the 700w,
Palm was able to bump the resolution of the display to 320 x 320 pixels,
compared to the Windows Mobile model's 240 x 240 pixel screen. Microsoft's
square resolutions are limited to that resolution or the higher 480 x 480,
which no vendor has chosen to go to yet.

Sinclair said the 700p is the first Treo you can trickle charge (up to 500
milliamps) via the standard cable out of the box. It comes with a removable
Lithium Ion battery.

Enhancements
Palm has brought many enhancements to the Palm OS since its split with
PalmSource. This is especially important now that the platform is aging and
PalmSource is leaving the Palm OS - as it is - behind to pursue Linux. The
same holds true for the company's foray into Windows mobile with the 700w,
where we were told it had far more freedom to make tweaks than other handset
manufactures.

Sinclair emphasized Palm wouldn't have had it any other way even. And
indicated to us, the company wouldn’t have gone in that direction were they
not given free reign to customize the platform for the 700w.

Jim Christenson, Palm's Director of PR, said to PDAStreet, "When we
announced the 700w, we talked about the secret sauce or the secret
ingredient that Palm put into it. That was all centered around customer
usability. And that has really been the mantra as we've really gone
forward."

Palm extended some of the 700w's enhancements to the 700p.

They've brought the ignore with text feature to the new model, for example.
So when a call comes in and you don't want to take it, you can send a quick
SMS message to let the person on the other end know you’re in a meeting or
indisposed.

Also, the ringer switch now vibrates, you can personalize ringtones, and -
to the satisfaction of many users, no doubt - the screen only dims rather
goes dark during a call to conserve battery life.

Palm added a voice memo application to the device as well: You can take a
voice memo and convert it to a ring tone, or shoot it off via MMS or e-mail
even.

You can also create a slideshow with audio on your 700p. The slideshow can
use music or you can choose to annotate it with voice notes and even text.
The music part is enabled by Pocket Tunes; which allows you to transfer
audio from your PC to a PC card.

"And, of course, with Pocket Tunes, you always have the option to upgrade to
the Deluxe version," Sinclair said, so you can access digitally protected
content like Naptster to go or Rhapsody. "What we wanted to do was open this
up to users of the Palm OS,” he added.

To demonstrate video capability, Sinclair accessed Netflix from the 700p and
we watched a trailer for a movie in a Windows Media Video format via an
applet Palm built for the Blazer browser. It streamed to the device, with
nothing downloading to the 700p, as would have happened with past Treos.

Messaging
As far as messaging, Palm focused on making it easier to address or compose
MMS or SMS messages. So, for example, "We've added smart addressing that
takes the same type of concept of first letter last name short cuts that you
use in dialing a phone number, you can now do that in SMS, MMS and in
e-mail," said Sinclair.

You can also add voice messages to MMS messages or add voice memos you've
already recorded.

The 700p ships with the latest edition, 3.5, of Palm's longtime e-mail
application VersaMail. The application remembers recently used e-mail
addresses; there's a new sort button on the main inbox page; AutoSync can
now be scheduled for any combination of mail, calendar, or contacts; and
there's improved scrolling.

VersaMail also supports up to 8 e-mail accounts and it is compatible with
Exchange ActiveSync out of the box for small to medium size businesses.

We asked about BlackBerry Connnect - RIM's program to deliver push e-mail
and data services to non-BlackBerry handhelds. Sinclair said Palm is working
with RIM and is in the certification process in a more general sense. As for
more specific products (the 700p, for example), Sinclair added, "It is up to
the carrier to decide whether or not the BlackBerry Connect service is
released on product. I can't speak to that on this product today."

In the ROM is DataViz Documents To Go 8.0 to enable users to view and edit
native World, Excel and PowerPoint files and attachments on the Treo 700p.
Since the release of the 650, DataViz added support for PDF files to
Documents To Go.

"You can either carry it with you, you can download it over the air, and
you've got the right application to either view it or use it," said
Sinclair.

For more on the Treo 700p, see Palm's product page for the smartphone.

Treos Place
Today, Treos account for 30 percent of the U.S. smartphone pike, with Palm
growing shipments by 111 percent over last year to 564,000 last quarter
alone. While it has the largest share in the fledgling North America
smartphone market, Palm barely registers in most European and Asian regions
today.

It is devices built on the Symbian platform that dominates smartphones
worldwide with 69 percent share, according to Canalys—with 54 percent of all
smartphones shipped coming from giant Nokia—and then those built on
Microsoft's Windows Mobile in second place with 12 percent.

And yet, Palm’s Treo handsets has other smartphone models beat when it comes
to brand loyalty, according to research firm Brandimensions, which measures
consumer sentiment for specific devices, including the Treo, RIM's
BlackBerry handhelds and HP's iPAQ Pocket PC Phones.

Back in March, Brandimensions released a report where it said it searched
over 150 million Internet sites and analyzed relevant consumer comments
posted online between April 2005 and February 2006. The results concluded
that while BlackBerry has the largest market share in this segment, it
lacked a strong brand loyalty among its customers.

Overall, consumers felt that Treo line - which generated far more discussion
than BlackBerry or HP's iPAQ phones- is perceived as a superior device;
citing greater functionality, including camera and video playback.

Rumor: Treo 700p Due Date Leaked

By James Alan Miller
March 19, 2006

Palm's upcoming Treo 700p, the company's first new Palm Os smartphone in a long time, will be released on May 28th by Sprint, according to a poster on the TreoCentral message board reports PalmInfocenter.

The rumor confirms earlier speculation about the possible due date of the eagerly anticipated communicator. Evidence cited includes and internal Sprint store document, which the forum member photocopied and posted (see image).

As many have pointed out, it is strange that the due date, May 28th, falls on a Saturday; but that could simply be a general time frame not meant to serve as a specific date.

The 700p should run on the ever increasingly long-in-the-tooth Palm OS Garnet (version 5.4.9), which Palm finesses with its own interface and under-the-hood tweaks-While platform developer PalmSource continues to support the Palm OS, it will no longer release upgrades, concentrating on the ACCESS Linux Platform (ALP) moving forward.

With 700p, there should be high-speed EV-DO (400 to 700 kbps) networking, a must for Palm fans itching for Treo functionality but dreading the move to Windows Mobile and the 700w. Additional supposed features include a 312 MHz Intel XScale processor, a 320 x 320 pixel high resolution display, Bluetooth (with dial up networking modem support), about 63 MB of free memory (128 MB total), and a 1.3 megapixel camera.

Palm should deliver FAT32 driver support with this device, a "fast mode" in the blazer Web browser, and a NVFS dbCache size of 18,431 kb; a first for the company. NVFS is what allows data to survive in the event of a complete power drain.