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February 1, 2007

Phone stuff ()

by fluffy at 7:20 PM
I've been using my Palm more and more lately, which makes it even more aggravating to have to keep it in sync with my phone (especially for meeting reminders, which I have to deal with a heck of a lot lately).

  • Going price for Treo 650 on eBay: $200ish after shipping.
  • Size comparison between Sidekick 3, iPhone, Treo 650, and K510i: I'm surprised at how small the Treo and iPhone both are. The K510i is a really tiny phone. The Treo's about twice as heavy though (but then I could finally ditch my Zodiac and have decent web browsing again).
  • A nice Treo 650 hard shell: lets you protect the screen without obscuring it, and without adding a lot of weight or size to the phone. Plus, you could probably paint the inside to customize the color. Prevents cracked screens (which are the most common problem with Treos in a pocket, and which is why I never really considered getting one until now when I'm finally fed up with too many devices to sync and dismiss alarms on)
  • Unbranding an unlocked Treo 650: Useful, since most of the Treos on eBay are Cingular-branded.
  • Google Maps Mobile: has a native PalmOS version, which would almost certainly be better than the MIDP version on the K510i. (Especially on the 320x320 touch screen vs. 128x160 with gimpy joystick.)
  • USB charge+sync cable: it's funny how most phones are USB-syncable but not USB-chargeable. This cable fixes that for the Treo 650. (Though most likely I'd charge at home and sync via BlueTooth, and use the OEM cable at work.)
  • Palm-compatible Bluetooth GPS: Would be pretty cool for driving directions etc.
  • Interesting article about changing attitudes towards transgender health care in Seattle (has nothing to do with the above, but I figured I was linkdumping already anyway)

Comments

#8250 02/02/2007 08:46 am
Bluetooth GPS with my 700p is nifty. CotoGPS is my favorite minor-navigation app to accompany the Google Maps prc (it'll put coordinates on the clipboard). I need to get a mount or clip or something and a car charger for the palm itself which isn't an inverter--the battery drains fairly quickly (as you'd expect). The biggest annoyance is the 1min+ warmup/connection time on the GPS unit.
#8251 02/02/2007 08:51 am
Seidio makes a whole bunch of car chargers and mounts and so on. They also have some complete charger+mount+GPS bundles though I don't know how much they are. I was looking into the GPS stuff more for my manager, because he's pretty interested in the Treo too.
#8255 02/03/2007 02:11 am
$50 mounts are a bit out of my budget unfortunately, though I guess it's a load better than fooling with it in my lap and getting into some sort of accident.


Hmm maybe I can get one of those slide-off-circle belt clip Palm cases/holsters and then just attach that circle clippy bit semi-permanently to the car and using the case and a circle belt clip I already have when it is on my person... I bike *a lot* across campus though so I don't know if I trust anything not secured by fabric directly.
#8256 02/03/2007 09:41 am
Whee, I won a snipe bid on one which went for $200 after shipping. All the other ones in the same bidgroup ended up going for $170 after shipping. Could have saved $30. Oh well!

(Anyway most of the other ones were just resold returns rather than factory refurbs, so theoretically this one will be in better condition.)