Treo 650, so far, pretty good

I picked up my Treo 650 last week, it’s a company supplied device and so it’s camera is locked down and they discourage excessive loading of applications, it also has anti-virus and data encryption which slow it down a little,  but these are relatively minor issues.  First lets look at why I wanted a 650:

1. I work from home,  but that doesn’t mean I sit at my PC in my study all day long,  in fact I spend a lot of time away from my desk:
1. beach walking
2. eating out, often working at a local Cafe
3. watching the kids doing sports for or waiting for the kids
4. beach games with the kids
5. travelling to and from yoga and swimming
6. shopping
7. on the train
8. gardening
9. etc
2. In fact I only spend about 4 hours at my PC so I really wanted to be able to stay as productive as possible and easy to contact during these other periods of the day.  I also wanted to be able to spend extended periods away from my desk, for example on a long hike.
3. I have a TC1100 Tablet and although its with me most of the time, always on email and web help me decide if its worth bothering to find a place to unpack it and start it up
4. I wanted to reduce the number of times I feel I need to get dragged into my study to check email,  too often I sit down and get distracted into working when I could be doing something better for me
5. I listen to a lot of audio conferences while walking, podcasts and live, and wanted a good solution for this 

How does it fare:

1. The audio quality is not quite so good,  last week I went on a 60 minute walk and had jitter maybe 15 times.  I have since rebuilt the device (very efficient automated process my company has put together) and installed fewer of my own apps and it seems better.  This is a VERY BIG issue for me,  I can not afford to not have a great MP3 player/Phone solution – see later
2. The screen is great,  its practical to read now in the sunlight, essential for email on those beach walks, especially as the Tablet is not very effective in sunlight
3. The resolution is now good enough to read eBooks,  I managed to get a free copy of  The Daily Drucker : 366 Days of Insight and Motivation for Getting the Right Things Done and the free eBook reader eReader.  Which should keep me busy for months just filling in those odd moments when I need a diversion.
4. Bluetooth sync is excellent
5. I have a Jabra 250 which seems fine,  pretty comfortable and loud,  my only concern is that when out walking I prefer to have both ears covered, so I may continue using my Seidio headset for a while.  I have two of these, one sent by mistake – which Seidio said to keep as a spare!
6. MailPlus, the email client supplied by Extended Systems, which connects to the OneBridge push email and calendar gateway seems functional, and certainly displays the maximum number of emails in the space available.
7. Hardware usability, very slick

So what extra do I have installed:

• eReader
• eWallet – I have a huge amount of info in my eWallet,  I have a replica on my desktop, Tablet and Treo
• SiEd – Text file editor
• FileZ – file manager

Extra hardware:

I have a 1GB SD card and I listen to over an hour of podcasts of technical conferences every day and many phone calls and audio conferences,  this adds up to over a $100 a day of time.  This is VERY important to me and I need a solution that meets all of these criteria:

• Enough storage space to hold 5 or more hours of content, so I don’t have to top up every day
• Excellent quality, so I can listen for 1–2 hours in comfort
• A comfortable headset that covers both ears and that’s loud enough to hear over the wind noise
• Seamless integration between the phone and the audio player, ie the player must pause when a phone call is taken and then restart when it finishes

A Treo 650, with Pocket Tunes, Freedom, and Seidio headset comes close to meeting this requirement,  but with the following drawbacks

1. The headset is tethered, and I am always catching it
2. The tethered headset limits where I can put my Treo
3. The encryption, anti-virus and always on email etc on my Treo slows it down a little, so the quality is in question – this may have been resolved
4. The extra software seems to impact on stability,  with the very limited amount of software I currently have installed I have not had any restarts for 3 days and counting, much better than my 600 and better than the fully loaded 650 last week.

So what have I spent my money on now ….  see next post!