fredlet

Next-gen PalmOne Treo details show up on Web | The Register

>Ace is said to be scheduled for an autumn 2004 ship date.
>The next-generation device will provide Treo users with their most-requested feature, Bluetooth. (Bah.)
>Ace will contain 32MB of RAM and is driven by a “312MHz ARM processor”.

I still want wifi…

But Henry M. sent me this clever way to add MIDI ringtones to your Treo without giving money to the man…
(yay Henry!)

I thought you and your readers might like to know that you can indeed add MIDI ringtones from your SD card. It isn’t required to use the Treo internet connection.

Palm_device: Treo 600 (AT&T)

SUCH MORONS.
I can’t even tell them of my extreme displeasure.
So I’ll share it all with you.

To the folks at palmOne,

You should be ashamed of yourselves.
I can’t express the disgust and utter contempt I feel for you without resorting to words that are not what I consider language fit for civilized society.

I used to be a great fan of your hardware, I worked as an evangelist for the palm OS and all things palm related. Your response to this was to treat me like dirt.
And I’m not exaggerating. I’ve never been so rudely dealt with in my life, and I’ve been a Technical Support engineer before… I know from abuse.

So, I told myself that staying in an abusive relationship was futile and I went to the Handspring side of the world.
I could have cared less if the worst things in the world befell Palm, it was just desserts for bad customer service and a complete unwillingness to have even a remotely clear idea of what it means to focus on customer needs rather than playing at being god.
You all were clearly drunk on power…. and I abandoned you.
I had nothing to do with you.
I never recommended your hardware, I told the brutal truth of my experiences with your company and my reasons for the boycott of your services far and wide. Primarily I made it clear that any company who abused those who had been witless enough to be a fan of your distorted sense of customer care deserved all the abuse you so readily dished out.

Handspring had it right.
They appreciated their customers. The looked at market demand and responded with the addition of necessary ideas into the next generation of handhelds. If there was a problem, they didn’t backpeddle furiously or withhold updates to make something work, they did what would serve their customers and make them WANT to buy more product.

I can’t for the life of me fathom what impels you to flat out refuse something that would boost your sales of the Treo 600 like adding wifi capability. (without advertising… which of course you don’t bother to do in anything less than a half-ass sort of way.)
And trying to cram that absolute waste of parts like the Zire 71 down our throats just makes me mourn for the death of Handspring.

At this point, I am seriously regretting my purchase of my unit and am actively seeking a replacement for it.

I highly recommend that you reconsider your decision for your refusal to enable 802.11b for the Treo 600 and other units. I don’t appreciate your condescension, your arrogant and almost constant abuse of your customers and I will not tolerate this treatment AGAIN.

I will await your reply then make my decision.
Suffice it to say that my readers will know each and every part of this decision in great and excrutiating detail.
You can either have me as a fan or an enemy, there will be no in between.

fredlet
www.treogrrl.com
www.fredlet.com/palm/handspring/

Not even the good unit… the freakin’ 71.

Real SD WiFi card coming for Palm
Oh those freakin’ bastards.
You know, I had a serious beef with Palm years ago when I was a big proponent for them.. they, of course, treated me like total dirt and I abandoned them for greener pastures.
Handspring.
Well, since then, as you know, the dark side has taken over the light side and the uiniverse is in an imbalance again.
“The big catch is that it only works with a single handheld, palmOne’s Zire 71. It won’t work with any other Palm, not even with the newer version of the Zire 71, the Zire 72. Why not? Because palmOne won’t release the necessary patch that would make it possible for the WiFi card’s drivers to work in any of the other Palm handhelds that are out there.”
Frankly, I’m tired of their crap.
I’m seriously considering what kind of statement I can make about this (for instance, selling my Treo 600 and going on a shut out of all things palmOne… but I haven’t decided yet.) Most likely, I’ll write them a letter and start a very noisy (and patently fredlet) irritating campaign to keep them from *&%#$ing us again like they did before.

This is where I say all the very bad words. Very loudly.

General News: SanDisk comes through on PalmOS support

I installed a little app named CallFilter For Treo 600 1.1 (available on PalmGear.com) that allows you to set filters for people/area codes/company names etc. to do specific things, such as play an MP3 you have on your SD card or go straight to voicemail. [NOTE:Optionally plays MP3s for your Ring-Tone (requires Pocket-Tunes V2.1 or greater)but if you registered your Treo600 with Handspring, you had the option of getting this app for free... and Pocket Tunes kicks some serious hiney, go get it NOW.]
For example, I have most calls playing an archaic bell telephone sound.
Phone numbers that aren’t in my contacts play “Strange things are afoot at the Circle K” (from Bill&Ted)
And I have a special ringtones for special people… mostly ones that have their names in them, or are their voices talking to me.
Its fun.

At $29.95, its a bit steep for a palm app, and frankly the GUI could be a bit cleaner, but you aren’t a slave to da AT&T man for midi tones and MP3’s are so much more easily created.

It always kind of freaks me out when I do any sort of ROM update/upgrade. I mean, really… you are re-burning your ROM and the potential for FUBARing is serious.
So saying that, I really haven’t ever had anything go drastically wrong with a ROM update, but because I know that I don’t know how to squirm out of any errors or problems like I can with most things computer related, it bothers me.
But then again I have always been a pretty serious control freak.
So when I read all the instructions about the Treo 600 ROM update, I got a little squirmy, but sat happily, firmly in denial as I watched the bar drift across the screen of my Treo.
…and undoing this should it go wrong?

Solution ID: 25054
Reverting to the previous ROM after installing the Treo 600 Updater
You cannot do this.

It’s a one way ticket, baby.
This update does require you to have 6 M free on your device (I had to delete a few things), make sure your battery is fully charged and resist the urge to futz arund with the Treo while it is updating*.
While all this was going on, I made myself think about other things… crossed my fingers, made burnt offerings to the various Treo deities and occasionally glance casually to see what is going on.
It installed an app and sync’d my info, launched said app when hotsync was done then started the process of reburning the ROM. (this is where I wanted to touch the Treo because it said not to…). It got through the process and had me reset the device and then go through all the little clicky details of setting the digitizer and the date. Then I resync’d the data onto my Treo.

Upgrade features:(snipped from palmOne’s site)
• Improved data connectivity to browse the web, send and retrieve email and other applications.
• Improved rendering of web pages and graphics in the web browser.
• Enhanced audio-quality reliability, and reduced audio distortion.
• Ability to enable car kit echo cancellation for better audio performance.
• Ability to select a privacy mode for incoming SMS to hide the message content and sender information
• Software now reflects the new name of our company – palmOne
Casualties of war:
–>Klondike 2.2 (installed with my Treo 600 software). This was the first thing I noticed not working… I launched it and it reset the Treo. Yarg. Can’t live without Klondike.
I mailed the guy(s?) at ElectronHut and they promptly mailed me back and said:
The backup conduit has a bug in it which corrupts an application’s code segment under certain circumstances. Klondike unfortunately is affected by this bug, so when the firmware update backs up and restores your apps, it corrupts Klondike in the process.
Simply re-install Klondike from the CD that came with your Treo 600 and it will work fine. Do not install the copy of Klondike from your palm backup directory, that is the copy that was corrupted by the firmware update.
…and that worked.
Of course, after I did all of this, palmOne now has a post-update FAQ.

Treo 600 Updater
Installation FAQs
Post-Update FAQs

–>A few pictures’ names seem to have been corrupted. However, the pictures themselves are fine and I just renamed them.
So far so good.
3 days since I did the update and the Treo is humming away nicely.
I’m going to try the multimedia stuff that I remember being mentioned soon.

*This is the hardest part for me… its alarming at the compulsions I feel around things that I am told not to mess with… and I’m 34. Doesn’t this stuff ever go away?

PC Mall is one place offering a Kingston 256MB Secure Digital (SD) Card – Plus $15 Mfr Mail-In Rebate Offer ( Exp – 6/30/04 )
They also have two 32M cards for basically free after rebate (shipping is at least $10 UPS or more FedEx) but I rationalized that 33 bucks for one card that I don’t have to juggle and a lot more space was worth spending the bucks.

I also ordered the Portable Sales MBL Gear Case for palmOne Treo 600 Handhelds
The MBL Gear Case for palmOne Treo 600 Handhelds is made of 100% anodized aircraft grade aluminum. The case is designed specifically for the palmOne Treo 600 handheld and fits it “like a glove.”
Gloves don’t fit my stubby little hands very well, so I’ll keep you posted on what analogy I come up with to describe the fit of this case. =;)
Update 7/1/04: the case is still on backorder… no news yet.

Amazon.com: Books: How to Do Everything With Your Treo 600

Oh, I really need to get my hands on this book… I have a feeling I could tell you most of the sneaky tricks they have in here, but I’m sure there’s some nifty things that I don’t know about my Treo600.

Aquapac PDA Wallet Case

This is cool… I like the playthrough* capability, however, I don’t know that the Treo’s antenna would fit in this case and I only saw one size for this case. I’ll have to go down to REI and have a look-see…
Shopping; such a hardship, I know.

*Playthrough: a term I used when I used to review cases. It means that you can use the device without having to take it out of the case. This is especially handy on something that is supposed to be waterproof (also crud proof).

A while back [read the post here] they only had the updater for the Sprint (CDMA Treo 600’s), but they have now posted most of the various flavors of Treo 600 updaters on the Handspring site.
Here’s what it means for me and my Treo…
Treo 600 Updater 1.13 (AT&T Wireless)
Posted May 21, 2004
Benefits of the software update include:
• Improved data connectivity to browse the web, send and retrieve email and other applications.
• Improved rendering of web pages and graphics in the web browser.
• Enhanced audio-quality reliability, and reduced audio distortion.
• Ability to enable car kit echo cancellation for better audio performance.
• Ability to select a privacy mode for incoming SMS to hide the message content and sender information
• Software now reflects the new name of our company – palmOne.
• Note: Installer includes two HotSync operations: one to backup your data, and one to restore your data after the update process is completed.

(WARNING: these links may change over time)

AT&T Wireless
Cingular
Orange
-Switzerland
-France
-U.K.
Rogers Wireless Coming Soon
T-Mobile
-Sprint
Windows
-Macintosh

(Outside North America)
Other Carriers

Did you switch carriers?
Check this article for more information on which update is best for you.

I’ll keep you posted on how my upgrade goes…

It kinda irks me that I have to invoke the gods of mMode (AT&T) to add a ringtone to my Treo.

Here are the instructions on adding ringtones from the Handspring site:

How To: Get MIDI ringtones on your Treo smartphone

As you may know, ringtones use the MIDI format (more info). Once you’ve decided on a MIDI ringtone, here’s how to get it on your Treo smartphone.

1. Email the file to yourself
If you’ve composed a MIDI file on your desktop computer, send the file as an email attachment to yourself. Then check your email on Treo, and open the attachment. This works with the Mail application on Treo 600 GSM and may work with other attachment-handling email clients such as SnapperMail. Some Palm OS applications are not able to handle attachments; check your email documentation for more information.

2. Download from the web
If you want to download a MIDI file from the web, you can do it directly, using the built-in web browser on your Treo. The MIDI file will appear as a link. Tap on it to download.

Note: you cannot use a MIDI file greater than 64 KB as a ringtone. You’ll receive an alert if you try to download a MIDI file larger than 64 KB. You can choose to download it, but you won’t be able to play it.

3. Beaming
If a friend has a great ringtone on the same model of Treo smartphone, they can beam it to you. Launch the Preferences application, and choose Sound from the upper right corner. Choose the Tones box. At the bottom of the screen, choose Manage. Highlight a tone, and choose Send. In the Send With dialog, choose Beam.

Can I HotSync a MIDI file onto my device?
No. In order to be integrated properly into the MIDI Ring Tones database, the MIDI file must be received as an email attachment, beamed, or a downloaded from web page.

Can I save a MIDI file on an SD card and transfer it to my device?
No. Again, the MIDI file has to be properly integrated into the MIDI Ring Tones database. The only way this can happen is to download it from a web page, or receive it as an email attachment or beamed item.