I call my Palm Treo 650 a Plam because of how often I misspell it at first.
I just set up my fourth Palm Treo, this one a 700p, up in Athletics. These little wonders can do everything a road warrior needs, and I love mine. I know the other folks on campus love theirs too. Moreover, the 650 and 700p are basically compatible with everything at Allegheny that can be compatible with a mobile device.
I check and send work email via Versamail.
I keep my calendar and contacts synched with work via MeetingMaker.
I check and send personal email through the Gmail for JVM client.
If I get lost, I can check Google Maps.
I check the local radar through the web browser, which is handy for downloading anything else I need.
I synchronize our inventory of computers that we keep in Excel format on a shared folder using Documents To Go.
I store meeting agendas and how-to documents from Word (Ditto - Documents To Go).
I store pdfs, using Adobe Acrobat Reader.
I used to lug a laptop along with me on trips, but you can do FTP on this baby, which means hello any work document I could possibly want. It plays my music on a 1GB flash card, takes movies, takes pictures.
Oh, yeah, it's also a bluetooth enabled telephone, although why I'd actually use my phone for talking is beyond me.
You can make a case for each of those tasks being easier to do on some other device (phone, computer, TV, iPod, digital camera, plus finding a wi-fi hotspot somewhere), but if I want to write a novel, I'll bring my laptop. If I want a professional photographer, I'll hire my wife. If I want to do all of the above pretty well from anywhere, at anytime, I'm set.
Comments (4)
I am sold.
It is pretty clear that these personal multifunction devices are the future of computing and technology. I am interested in when the tipping point will be when these are not the tools of the road warrior but of your average Joe or Jane around campus.
I think that time is coming sooner than later as when I am out on campus I feel totally disconnected. I often find myself wanting to show someone something but don't have easy access to it and lugging my tablet around campus is not convenient because of limited wireless and startup times.
Perhaps a Treo would be the solution. I wonder if there are things that could be done to make the campus more Smart Phone friendly?
Posted by James | December 2, 2006 10:55 AM
Posted on December 2, 2006 10:55
I think we have three choices:
1. Go focused (on a preferred mobile platform like Palm), save ourselves work, but run the risk of being stuck on a legacy path. Palm is kind of the greybearded mobile platform these days...
2. Go broad, embrace all mobile platforms at a greater cost and time committment. (MeetingMaker supports Outlook and Windows Mobile will the purchase of some add-ons.)
3. Go silent - don't support mobile computing and let everyone fend for themselves. Email can be set up by the user on their own, but not synchronized calendaring, contacts, documents, etc... We save a ton of time, but definitely delay Allegheny's entrance into this world.
People ask me what they should buy and I've been steering them in the direction I went, because I know the Palm Treo (Palm OS) is the most compatible with the current Allegheny setup. But, I've set up a Blackberry for Allegheny email, and it's a pretty sweet phone.
Even if we pick one platform, a Palm Treo still takes me an hour start to finish to setup for a user. (Almost a second computer!)
Posted by Jason | December 4, 2006 8:17 AM
Posted on December 4, 2006 08:17
Jason, a few of questions.
1. How much are these phones costing? How much is the monthly fee for service? Do you pay a flat fee that includes unlimited data service?
2. How many of the users you know are over 50 yrs old? I'm wondering about how older people are finding the screen, in particular.
3. Do you think many of our students are toting these yet? Do you think that's coming? David Pogue reported in a NYT column earlier in the year that a new high school was recently built without any computer labs because the designers said student would all use Palms in the future. I have my doubts about that one - at least for the near future.
4. How's it for web browsing? My brother has one of these and over Thanksgiving he used it a lot for email, but he was limited in his web browsing. He wanted to check his airline miles on USAirways, but the site didn't work for him. (We resorted to dial-up, but that was too painful so in the end he decided he could wait until he was home!)
I'd be interested in trying one of these out to see if it would be useful, but not interested enough to pay the price for the phone and particularly for the service. I can see times it would be helpful on campus, especially since wireless internet is not fully available. It could also be helpful traveling when you're not near a hotspot - like in your car, to get directions. Other times - in a hotel, airport - I think I'd rather tote a laptop and have the bigger screen and keyboard. But I can see how younger people who grew up talking with their fingers and who still have good eyesight would go for these big time - if the price were right.
Posted by Susan | December 4, 2006 11:29 AM
Posted on December 4, 2006 11:29
1. The data service I pay for (through Sprint PCS) is an additional $10/month flat rate. It does not use my minutes, which would have been a deal breaker for me. The Palm itself was $249 when I got it. I think you can get them for as little as $199, with a 2 year agreement.
2. The Palm has a better screen size (2 3/4" diagonal) than many other smart phones. Whether or not the wide, flat Palm is the right shape for a phone is a better debate.
3. I think the recurring cost is a bit much for many students to want to pay for in general. I think it's gonna happen though. Maybe not the Palm, but something.
4. Web browsing isn't perfect, but it's getting better in my opinion. Google works and you can get Google Maps and Gmail applets installed directly on the Palm itself, which are two killer apps for me. I wouldn't want to have to rely on this for doing anything related to ecommerce (yet...), but I'll tell you, even a slightly crippled Wikipedia makes me able to say "Sure, honey. I'll wait out here while you try all ten of those on."
Palms are great in airports. Nothing like sitting between two suits with clunky old laptops while I tap away with my thumbs on email. I don't travel with my laptop unless I'm planning on connecting in to a server remotely to do work. (Even that is possible on a Palm, just not reliable enough for me to switch to it yet.)
You can borrow mine for an hour if you want. I use it so rarely as a phone, I could part with it for a bit.
Posted by Jason | December 4, 2006 2:12 PM
Posted on December 4, 2006 14:12