[ This is an official Smartphone Round Robin post! Every day you reply to an official Round Robin blog post or forum thread on CrackBerry.com, you automatically gain an entry ballot for a chance to win a BlackBerry Bold, Spare Bold Battery, and Case Mate Second Skin! ]
I've been dreading this day since December 12th, 2007. That was the day we wrapped up the first-ever Smartphone Round Robin and decided we would hold the event again next year. I hate it! Sure it's entertaining and provides unique and informative content for all you smartphone enthusiasts, but come on... I'm not allowed to use a BlackBerry for a month?! And with the Storm coming out this week?! Getting shot with 100 paintballs for a new Storm looked unbearable, but I'm pretty sure I'd be willing to take 200 paintballs to the chest if it meant I didn't have to do this. But that's not an option, so here we are... Day 1 of this Second Edition of the Smartphone Round Robin. If you don't know what it's all about, be sure to visit SmartphoneRoundRobin.com for all the info: participants, devices, rules, contest prizes, schedule and all the little details!
Round 1: With my Bold now in Dieter's hands, the first "enemy" I'm sleeping with is Palm's new Treo Pro. Unlike the Treo 680 I used last year which ran on the Palm OS, the Treo Pro is running Windows Mobile 6.1. With 3G, GPS and WiFi all in one, the Pro is very much gunning after BlackBerry Bold territory. Does it succeed in that mission? You can watch the video above for this CrackBerry Addict's first impressions! I'll report back later this week with a more in-depth look and some final concluding remarks, but first I need to go bug the good folks in the TreoCentral forums for more tips and tricks! Enjoy the show, and be sure to leave a logged in comment for your chance to win!
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261 comments
The hardware may be nice, but the Operating System is the killer loss.
Change the operating system and I will attempt to change my opinion of Palm devices.
until the next OS comes out for Palm I wouldn't consider it a contender. An improvement over past devices, but not a BB.
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I was considering actually purchasing this phone. I just hate windows mobile. I played with one at an at&t meeting a while back because its coming to at&t. Its a great device, great step forward from the treo 680 and 750. If it had android on it, man oh man would it be a contender. I also do happen to agree on the stylus, I mean come on!
you need to do a rr with touch screen devices...
iphone, storm, htc hd diamond, lg, G1 android
that would be great
palms have never rubbed me the right way.
I had a palm before I switched to "crack" doesnt look like its all that diffrent, the window is the same os we have seen and if you use palm os for a day you can master it...
So you guys actually send your phones to each other? I thought you just had to put the phone away for the month
Yup, I packed up my Bold and shipped it off... sent along some of my favorite accessories too (gotta give the other guys the full experience) - spare battery, colorware battery door, charging pod and a couple of skins and cases!
Not fun to be without my Bold!
windows os is like nails on a chalkboard. I have a Q right now and i absolutely hate it. i cannot wait until friday. . .
Poor Kevin, This event couldn't have come at a worse time!
Mind you... there isn't a good time to be without your blackberry <:
ill never switch to another device my bb rocks
I cant say I like how laggy it seems to run. Like, to open calculator, I agree, it should just be BAM, and it's up. How memory-hogging can that be.
Now I did used to use WM and I also loved how it had a full file explorer in it. Made it easy to organize all my different files on the device. But at the same time, when I wanted to listen to music on it's media player, I had to naviage thru all that just to get to the music that I wanted to listen to.
The touch screen did seem very inaccurate, and I had the same issue on my old WM device. I did hate using a stylus, and you were screwed if you ever lost it. Not only did it make it hard to use your finger, it would leave a nasty empty hole in the device when they did go missing, like a bullet hole (as many more as I wanna add to those devices, lol)
Well kevin, all the best on your Windows Mobile and Palm adventure! I know I will have my eye open for all the updates!
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interesting... i agree the windows os is quite awkward.. but this palm looks pretty nifty.. of course not as fab as my beloved curve!...
Looks pretty nice to me...don't hate me
This should be interesting. My husband decided he didn't like his BlackBerry & got an LG Voyager. Personally, I don't like it. Too each his/her own. LOL
i dont like the lg voyager either, and as a blackberry replacement sucks, he`s crazy
I prefer BB....even though I have no idea what I'm talking about.
palm phones will never even come close to be direct competetion with BB
I'm curious to hear your thoughts Kevin, this was the first palm device I actually liked in a lonnggg time...
hah, stylus....
Kevin, I remember you making a comment a while back about how you like your phones to all touch or no touch. How do you feel after trying out one of the newest hybrids(touch/physical)?
"I want to stick it through my eye socket...."
hahahahaha that almost got me in trouble at work....can't stop laughing...
Palm closed today at $2.39.
RIM closed today at $42.24.
The market says Palm is a losing investment.
LOL, did you check RIMM 2 months ago?
The slide is caused in part (not wholly) of consumer/business sentiment that luxury goods such as high end handsets will not be sought after that aggressively.
But you still can't deny:
RIMM's market cap is 25.53 Billion
Palm's market cap is 242.58 Million
The market says that Palm is worth less (worthless) compared to RIMM.
WinMo makes me want to ralph. I've got the exact same phone in my hands right now (friend has one) and I've been playing with it for the last half hour and it sucks. I want my berry back but she won't let it go...go figure!
Prior to my first BB, I carried a phone and a Palm PDA. Loved the PDA and actually miss some things about it. I too would rather see this phone with a Palm OS but even with that, I don't see myself trading my Pearl for it. My calculator opens like a shot! :-)
Very cool!!
you could always get the storm on friday and pretend you are not using it.
Id have to top kevin and take 201 paintball shots to win a storm . Well worth the extra shot, although i may pass out after 1, or 2 so at least i wouldn't have to feel the rest.. haha
Well look on the bright side, at least it's not 4 years.
Also just to be clear you said "every day you reply to an official round robin blog post or forum thread on crackberry.com, you automatically gain a ballot for a chance to win". So that means a deticated person could have 30 chances to win?
Awesome!
Worst OS ever. Anything MS is aweful.
OH..
MY..
GOD..
did you have to rub the 8900 in our faces .. DID YOU ?!?!
It is interesting to see how the other side lives. It's a nice looking device but I feel like Palm is confused as to what direction they want to take their product. It's a narrow phone with a full keyboard (cramped), a stylus (outdated), a touch screen (not accurate), and running on Windows Mobile - A true Palm OS would be nice to see. I think that they have a lot of things going for them but need to be pointed in a direction where the can find their little slice of the smartphone world. It's no BlackBerry Bold for sure.
palm's future strategy is: Palm os for centro (consumer),windows for treo (enterprise hence the name treo pro) and Nova the new os for future devices in between the current centro and treo aimed at "prosumers". This was mentioned in an iterview with palm's CEO earlier this year.
Looking forward to reading/watching the entire thing for the first time.
I feel for you! Just last Friday I was doing an install and for got to charge my Bold since I just pulled a 16hr shift. I had to my Bold to the car and leave it to charge. I found myself looking at my car every couple of minutes through the window as if I had left my kid in the car while I went to pump gas! I was a mess.
I feel for you! Just last Friday I was doing an install and for got to charge my Bold since I just pulled a 16hr shift. I had to my Bold to the car and leave it to charge. I found myself looking at my car every couple of minutes through the window as if I had left my kid in the car while I went to pump gas! I was a mess.
The only smartphone I have ever had was a Crackberry and I am so happy with it that I see no reason to even think about trying something different. I have a Pearl and of course, want to get the Storm ASAP!
heck id even take the 8900
Very nice to see an excellent preview of other phones that are out there, but not quite for me since I don't really like styluses and all.
It is actually a nice looking Palm but it has that SMALL keyboard so it is another no go for me.
This has been the biggest draw back of other touch screens. As you said this touchscreen is resistance touch rather than the one the iphone uses which senses your electricity in your finger? Other phones such as the dare, lg vu, and so on suck because they are also resistance. So basically a stylus wouldn't even work on the Storm right???
After seeing the Bold today at the ATT store I was impressed with it's speed and display among other things. The Treo looks laggy and it seems to have a smaller/poorer screen. The stylus operations look like a pain and with my fat fingers I would likely loose the stylus and be out of luck! Keep us informed.
this thing is massively archaic, even the horrible touchscreen it has is worse than a voyager
I got my BB back in April, but almost went with palm. Now that I've been a part of the crackberry community and have compared to a friend's Treo, I know I made the best choice.
I do agree with you about the keyboard, as that looks like the same keyboard pretty much from the Centro. The touch screen is one of the things that I do miss from my Treo 650 which I retired when I got my Curve. Windows Mobile is typically laggy in general with any of the phones that I've used it on. And it really needs that stylus to get around. My Treo I very rarely took out the stylus to do anything with as I could use my finger for most everything, but that was Palm OS not WM. WM, even on large touch screens I would have to use that stylus and still wasn't very responsive especially when using Task Manager to close things. I feel for you man, I've used all 3 of those OS's and the BB OS has been the best. I want a Bold so bad I can taste it. It's everything I love about my Curve and more!