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Tue, 17 Apr 2007

Phone advice wanted

My trusty old 6310i is giving up the ghost so I need a new phone. And I might as well combine it with a PDA. Being a long-term Palm user I'm inclined to go for the Treo 680 (or whatever is the studliest Palm OS version is - not Windows because I'm not stupid).

Specific questions I'd like answers to, and which I can't find on Palm's webshite, are:

  • Can the mail client talk imap(s) and smtp, or is it crippled by being MS-ware only?
  • Can the web browser do the Google Maps dance?
  • How zoomy is the interwebnet connection?
  • Is there a decent ssh client and terminal emulator?
  • What's battery life like when (and when not) using it as a phone?
  • And of course, is it any good and where should I get it from?

Your time starts now, please use both sides of the paper.

Posted at 19:09 by David Cantrell
keywords: geeky | palm | phone
Permalink | 3 Comments

I was. am. tempted to suggest my own new toy the Nokia N95. It is very spiffy in so many way. It is one of the few phones with HSDPA for near broadband speed with a good 3G tower nearby. I have tested mine and got above and below old style ASDL @ 512k. It talks pop imap smtp. It 'sorta' does the Google maps dance (it cant move the map around with the stylus but seems to work fine otherwise - but you think AJAX is for girly homos anyway, so you'd not be bothered by that I imagine)

There isn't an SSH terminal or VNC client that I know of - tho' there may well be third party apps I've not heard of.

The bad part is battery life: at best it is average- at worst it beggars belief - with instant messaging clients, Skype, Opera browser and GPS running I once flattened the battery in 3 hours!!! though 4-ish hours for heavy use seems more normal and more if one is not overdoing it.

I am looking at a higher capacity battery and/or an 'on-the-move' supplementary battery pack.

Available now: price from free for a new contract to £150+

Posted by Geeklawyer on Tue, 17 Apr 2007 at 19:48:13


I have a 6310i that is *not* dying and I have a new phone! Wanna come visit it and make me an offer for it? ;-p

Posted by Natalie Ford on Wed, 18 Apr 2007 at 21:20:13


Hi I have answers to your specific questions I hope they are still on time. I own a Treo 680 and it works great for me. My answers as follows:
Can the mail client talk imap(s) and smtp, or is it crippled by being MS-ware only?
You can use both they work good.
Can the web browser do the Google Maps dance?
There's an special app from Google for the Treo and works really nice.
How zoomy is the interwebnet connection?
Is there a decent ssh client and terminal emulator?
I use pssh from http://www.sealiesoftware.com and works really good
What's battery life like when (and when not) using it as a phone?
The battery life really sucks you will need to buy an additional battery if you use it intensively
And of course, is it any good and where should I get it from?
I got directly from Palm becuase you can pick the color and usually they have packages that come with it, for example I got it with the Music package. Then you can just buy the chip with you preferred carrier, I think this is the ceapest method in the long run.

I hope it helps, regards,

Posted by Luis Moreno on Sun, 30 Sep 2007 at 14:21:03


Sorry, this post is too old for you to comment on it.

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