Accessories

The Treo 755P comes with about as skimpy a supply of accessories as any device. Used to be that you at least got a charging cradle and a small case. I even remember some PDAPhones in years past that came with two batteries. The Treo does have a wide array of 3rd party accessories available for it. With various other models that are similar in size to the 755P, almost anything you would want you should be able to find. I will be looking for a screen protector and case.

One accessory that is unfortunate that Palm doesn't include is the audio adapter to allow you to use a standard set of headphones with the Treo. They don't include this, and its one of those things that costs them next to nothing, and if ordered from the right place, the shipping can run more than the adapter. Its just silly that they don't either use a standard sized adapter or include the thing with the phone. I have used the included headset briefly and the sound quality is OK, but there is no mute or volume control on the headset. Again, they are skimping in these areas that I wouldn't think they'd be skimping in.

Software

Here is where my greatest disappointment arose. Basically, Palm hasn't really updated the software in their Treos since the early days. The base PIM apps predate the Treo 600, and the overall platform isn't really any different either. The lack of multitasking raises its ugly head from time to time. But other silly things like a file manager application not being included ... to me there is no excuse for this, especially when you can download a freeware one like FileZ. In the first day of operation, I ran into this problem. I had everything working well and decided to download some MP3s for listening. I used Windows Media Player to select one CD worth of MP3s for download, and then did a sync. To my surprise, that was enough to fill the internal memory on the Treo 755P. The only way to get anything out of there is to move it to a memory card. Well since the Treo uses minSD instead of SD, I don't have a card (on order), so I was done. I had to cold start the device in order to get out fo this, because I didn't have enough space to load the file utility which would let me remove the programs. After the cold start, the first thing I loaded was FileZ.

While on the subject of resetting the Palm, I found that things had changed here. Gone is the pinhole that you stick something into. That always bothered me a bit. With the Treo 755P, you simply remove the battery and replace it to do a warm start. To do a cold start, you remove the battery and reinsert it while holding down the power button. You then hold the power button until after the orange Palm logo comes and goes, and release it after the "Powered by Access" logo appears. So no more bent paperclips to worry about with the 755P.

I find the built in PIM applications painful to use. Palm hasn't updated them at all. Microsoft hasn't either, for that matter and I dislike theirs equally. I've been a user of Pocket Informant on the 6600 and prior Pocket PC devices, but they don't have a Palm version. So, I went with Agendus as a trial. I actually used to use the precursor to Agendus, Action Names. For some reason the trial seems to have ended after only a day... not sure if that was planned or not. I'll have to spring for a copy because I am not going to want to use the internal apps.

There is a good selection of other applications included with the Treo 755P. First is Dataviz's Documents To Go Version 8, which lets you create and edit Microsoft Word, Excel, and Powerpoint files. It also includes a PDF viewer. It is not fully compatible with Office documents created using Microsoft Office 2007 or newer, so you would need to upgrade to Documents To Go Version 10 for that.



For music, Pocket Tunes is included which does a pretty decent job as an MP3 player (when you don't fill up your memory with MP3 files). It works in the background so that you can continue to do other work while MP3 files are playing. This is one of the few multitasking functions that the Treo can do. The only glitch I noticed was that when the Treo goes to sleep, you lose the ability to use the 5 way switch to control the player. You have to unlock the keyboard first. This is a bit awkward for music playback, especially since there is no volume control or mute on the included headset. There is an upgrade available to Pocket Tunes Deluxe that adds more functions.

VersaMail V3.5.4 is included for email and supports Direct Push Email with versions of Exchange Server that support it. This is a pretty decent email client and is used by many people. Blazer V4.5 is included as a web browser, and it also works pretty well. Together with EVDO, you can accomplish a lot with this little screen and Blazer. The Treo 755P has support for audio and video streaming that was introduced with the Treo 700P. In my limited testing with it, I wasn't impressed. The video clips I watched had trouble syncing audio and video.



Bells & Whistles

The Treo 755P gets the award of all the PDAPhones I've used for carrier provided Bells & Whistles designe primarily to separte you from more of your money. First up is Google Maps and Google Earth. This is actually pretty cool and as far as I can tell, it is free. It would be better if it worked with a GPS, but in a pinch it would be helpful in getting you out of being lost.

Next up is a new Instant Messaging application that supports Aim, Yahoo, MSN, etc. As I was going in to test it, there was a warning that there would be a 15 cents SMS charge per message. Unless you were on an unlimited messaging plan, this could add up. There are other solutions like Mundu IM that don't have recurring charges.

The Treo 755P is Sprint TV enabled. Again, I explored this a bit but other than a few small demo video clips, there isn't much you can get to without incurring recurring charges. The selection is limited, and the clips I watched didn't perform well. I will investigate this further to see if it is a data bandwith problem or something else. My intention is to use the Palm Slingbox player to watch all the video I want through my home system. We have two Tivo boxes that can be controlled through the Slingbox.

Sprint included a download for a trial version of Nuance Voice Control. This application allows you to initiate phone calls by voice, or to add calendar entries by voice. There are recurring charges for this one as well, but I believe only if you want to continue using it for phone calls. In my limited testing this worked pretty well. You can use it to call contacts, dial numbers, go to websites, send emails, add apointments, check weather, and check stock prices. I was able to do all of these things in my testing with minimal errors.