4 posts tagged “cingular”

clipped from www.engadgetmobile.com Here's some dirt that's sure to heat up the iPhone debates over the next 20 days. According to alleged scans from the "iPhone Sales Training Workbook," we're seeing a vast array of features that we were already fully aware of, but here's the skinny on what you may have not known until now: No one-touch dialing (two touches at a minimum) Vibrate mode is included Voice dialing is not mentioned as a feature, though it's not specifically excluded either Users can have a voice conversation whilst browsing the web "when WiFi access is available" iPhone users will not be able to conduct IM conversations with instant messaging users Emailing videos and pictures are a go, MMS is not supported MEdia Mail won't be used for ringtone and answertone downloads MEdia Net, MobiTV, and Cellular Video are (unsurprisingly) not available for the iPhone iTunes will sync iPhone with the Address Book on Macs or Outlook/Outlook Expess on PCs No GPS or TeleNav support, sorry Google hopefuls

With the increased data speeds of Cingular's EDGE network, I was burning to find a way to get podcasts on my Treo 680 without having to remove the SD card constantly. I have found it! Quick News! I have had the application for a while, but did not realize it had podcast capabilities. You can stream the podcast or download it to your SD card for playback later. If you stream it, you can even tell Quick News what audio application you want to use.

You may be wondering what exactly is Quick News other than a podcast viewer? It is a great RSS reader. There are plenty of option sot view your news and you can even configure it to save on your SD card with images. Very slick indeed!

For those that are interested. I grabbed it from the Mobility Today website. These guys do a good job of posting general tech news for the mobile professional. Enjoy!

Well, it is about time! It came today via Fed-Ex ground, but I was lazy and went to the shipment facility to pick it up. Funny, when I got there they said the drivers first stop would have been my side of town; figures.

I currently use T-Mobile and was looking for an unbranded Treo 650. Most of them that I could find were approaching $400 and that is a little too much. The Treo 650 I received is an unlocked GSM Cingular phone so it has the Cingular logo on the top left corner, has a few Cingular specific apps installed in ROM and the Cingular logo when turning on and off the phone portion of the Treo. I am a really anal person, so this is taking some getting used to. Realistically, i will more than likely switch to Cingular anyway since they get a decent selection of Treo's and T-Mobile gets none- which I find hard to understand. If sometime during the next year T-Mobile gets the Treo 680, I will probably stay where I am on my service... if not, c-ya T-Mobile!

Since I already have a Treo 600, I was used to having next to nill on the RAM side of things, but I did not realize that the Treo 650 has less usable RAM than the Treo 600! GASP! Good thing I use a killer app called 'PowerRun'. I can't recommend this app enough. The Treo 650 is everything I dreamed! I can proudly say that I have owned just about every Palm device since the Palm III.

I was out and about doing some shopping today (wasn't everyone?) and I while I was out I thought that I could use some new styli for my Treo 650 for a couple of reasons.

1. The one that came with the Treo 650 was in two pieces and I was concerned that since the stylus fit in rather snuggly that the stylus might eventually get stuck inside the case of the Treo 650 and I did not feel like dissecting it.
2. Hey, you always have to have spares!

So, I stopped into a Verizon kiosk at the mall to see if they had any styli for my Palm (actually, I went to Cingular first and asked the guy if they had any, they didn't. I then proceeded to ask if they received the Treo 680 and he promptly replied, "We are getting the Treo 750 soon... blah, blah." I kindly replied, "That is nice, but when will you be getting the Treo 680?". He totally underplayed the Treo 680 in favor of the Treo 750. I know it is a better phone, but that was just weird). Next on my Verizon Treo adventure. After some communication issues, the Verizon rep (Shannon) found the LAST styli packet and sold them to me. What is cool about these styli is that they do not come apart! That is right folks, they are a "unibody" designed stylus!

As I was checking out I was thanking Shannon for her help and was expressing my enthusiasm for the new styli. Out of no where, this guy next to me says, "I don't have to use a stylus with my phone". I paused for a moment, realized this guy came was not the most educated individual (based on his "southern" attire and presentation factors). This guys was buying a Motorola Q. I proceeded to tell this PDA/smartphone neophyte that the stylus is not need for my Treo, but rather an extension for navigation and data entry, thus resulting in a more robust user experience. He looked at me kind of funny and said, "Well, I don't like that Palm thing anyway, Windows Mobile is better."

"Really", I said, "Why is that"? He replied, "Because it is better". Frustrated by his ignorance I pressed him further and said, "OK, but what is better". He responded with what has to be the poorest argument known to man- "Because there is the most software available for Windows Mobile". I almost dropped to the floor laughing!!! I then explained to this ignorant fool that Palm has well over 15,000 developers that create applications for the Palm OS and, for the most part, those applications work on any version of the OS. I then had to explain to him that the  Motorola Q uses Windows Mobile 5 and that is a severely crippled version of WM5. I described that if he were to go buy software for it, he would have a hard to finding applications that would run on it since Microsoft has about three different versions of its OS for Smartphones and they ARE NOT all compatible, where on the Palm OS it is just the opposite. I then went on to explain that you get what you pay for and there is a reason why the Q is $99 and that you "get what you pay for".

I then described that the only real advantage WM5 has is that is can multi-task (the Palm can do it too, but I won' t get

into that here)  but even then it is sacrificed for speed because it is dog slow compared to the Palm OS. Then, out of nowhere, one of the Verizon reps peeps up and says, "I agree with him on that point". At first I felt justified, but then I thought to myself, "Just on that point? I have not exaggerated the truth at all here"?

At this point I was not going to waste my time explaining to this idiot all of the reasons why the Q sucks (I won't list them here, there are too many) and wondered home.

That concludes the Verizon adventure. I am enjoying my Treo 650 and I am looking forward to posting some mobile blogs with it!