I have an i300 that I use with Palm Desktop 4.2.1 on a MacBook
Pro Core 2 Duo. Works great but of course it's bulky and heavy, and now it needs new batteries, so I am thinking of getting a reconditioned Samsung i500 on eBay. (It's either that or a Treo, but I much prefer the clamshell.)

Three questions:

1) I read a review on Amazon that the i500 doesn't work well or maybe at all with Palm Desktop?


2) How is e-mail? I want to be able to retrieve e-mail from earthlink accounts and also my company's domain server. I also want to send, of course, which was very slow when I first got the i300 (haven't used it for e-mail in several years.)

3) Will I have any problem getting the XG23 firmware update?

Thank you,

Dialer

The i500 works just fine with Palm Desktop. No problem at all.

I used to sync email with my office's Outlook servers, but have not done so lately, so I cannot respond to that part of your question.

I expect you will have a lot of difficulty obtaining the XG23 firmware update, as it was very difficult even when the phones were brand new. Then again, I never succeeded in obtaining that update, and never found the failure to be a problem. Both the phone and the Palm functions work fine without the firmware update.

email is fine as long as you're happy with POP3 access, or Yahoo-style WAP/webmail access. Also there is BCPE that some people seem happy with. You'll need to get your i500 provisioned for Vision...

As far as XG23, I've never concluded that it is necessary at all, unless perhaps you want IR sync with a Thinkpad. Otherwise, I didn't notice anything better (or worse) after my XG23 "upgrade". Some good Sprint stores may still be able to do it (the last one I did was perhaps 18 mos ago). Also there was supposed a do-it-yourself release of XG23 which I think I saved somewhere. So there is the possibility that you could do it yourself. But frankly I wouldn't bother and risk bricking your phone when as far as I know there is no compelling reason to do the XG23.

I've had plenty of opportunities to move to a more recent phone, and I'm playing with a Dash right now (that's just it-- its play, not serious), but overall, I would and do still come back to my i500 as my "workhorse" everyday phone... So your wanting to go to an i500 makes sense to me!

Well, after a long delay I finally bought one today on eBay from cellphonebrokers.com. They are offering a SquareTrade 2-year extended warranty for $6.99. If the phone breaks, they will refund the amount I paid for it ($74.95). Otherwise, there is only a seven-day warranty from the seller.

Worth it?

Dialer

Well, for $7, I don't know that you can go wrong. The only risk is that they can't find a working unit in 2009, so you might want to verify what would happen then...

Good luck - I still think it's the best mix of features out there, even with the occasional frustrations.

I have been using Sprint's Business Connection Personal Edition for a few years now to receive my corporate e-mail. The BCPE software, installed on your corporate networked desktop, synchs Outlook e-mail and calendar with the phone wirelessly, although you need to physically synch the phone with the computer from time to time. (I believe there are other options besides Outlook) The only downside, which I think is trivial, is that BC/PE works only when your networked desktop is running. If you leave it running all the time as I do it is a good idea to reboot it frequently; any glitch in the desktop and that's it for any more e-mail. For me this phone is a business tool, so I don't miss the camera, MP3, consumer stuff. My only regret is that I have never been able to open corporate e-mail attachments, such as Word or PDF files, even when using Docs2Go, but this has never been a deal breaker. I think others have had success with this. There is a wealth of useful info for this phone on this BB. The Sprint support has also been very good (there is a separate number), but it is getting harder to find any Sprint techs who have a lot of experience with this long-discontinued phone. (My wife also uses an i500 but w/o any web stuff--just as a phone and Palm-PDA. )

__________________
Al

Never forget the 50-50-90 rule: Anytime you have a 50-50 chance of getting something right, there's a 90% probability you'll get it wrong.

I think that's what I'm going to be reduced to. The only Internet function I am really interested in is e-mail anyway. I assume I will be able to access Web mail--will I need a special e-mail program or can I use the Mail one that comes with the phone?

Dialer

To do any emailing on the i500, you must: 1) have your i500 provisioned for Vision (1xrtt Internet access), 2) get some 3rd party programs. The Mail program that is native to the i500 is the (very) old Palm Mail conduit and not a standalone email client. Furthermore the browser in the i500's ROM, Blazer, is no longer functional as the proxy has been shutdown.

Therefore, you must grab either a 3rd party email client or a 3rd party browser (or both). The Eudora for PalmOS suite (EIS) is one free email client that many i500 users use. It doesn't seem to be available direct from Qualcomm anymore (they've closed up the Eudora shop), but I'm sure one of us could give it to you. The Eudora website still has support pages for EIS.

Another good email client for the i500, but not free, is Snappermail. Both of these email clients do POP. Snappermail's more advanced version also does IMAP. Palm's own Versamail also does IMAP. But I have not (ever) tried doing IMAP on the i500.

As far as browsers, there are 3 that I know about (plus the text-only browser in EIS): nweb/webpro, Xiino and AvantGo. AvantGo is free, but I've had trouble with it (crashes). Xiino is not free and some have had a hard time recently trying to buy it, but it works pretty well. Webpro is free if you can find a copy of it, and it works okay. Nweb is a later version of Webpro and is what Palm/Sprint gave to us i500 users to replace the defunct Blazer. It was distributed free, but may be hard to find except by, again, asking for a copy here. In my experience, nweb crashes much more than Webpro, but does support more modern webpages, including better support for WAP sites (like Yahoo Mail). Incidentally, all these browsers except EIS use proxies.

Hope this helps...

So with Eudora for PalmOS (I have Eudora for Mac, so this seems like a good choice) and nWeb (which I downloaded from a link I found here somewhere), I will be able to send and receive POP e-mail from my Earthlink and business domain accounts? If so, please let me know how I could get Eudora from you or someone else here.

As far as having my i500 provisioned for Vision, how do I go about doing that? When I had the phone activated, the tech person asked me if I wanted Internet access for $15 per month and I said yes. Is that all I have to do?

By the way, I have the dreaded WK19 (PRL 10035) firmware. Having read through all the lengthy threads on this, I will try to get XG23 but I am not counting on it. I assume I will be okay for occasional e-mail when traveling?

Dialer

Eudora is a POP3 email client, so yes, it should be able to receive email from any POP3 server on the Internet of your choosing. As far as sending, remember the issues surrounding SMTP authentication. Most ISPs have closed off their SMTP servers (the protocol used to send emails) from open relaying (i.e. client/hosts coming in from the outside and sending to a 3rd party). If your ISP supports POP before SMTP, then Eudora *might* work to send via your ISP's SMTP, otherwise it is likely you will have to use Sprint's SMTP server for sending emails. You can always set the Reply-To: field back to your desired address with your ISP.

As far as Vision, the $15 plan option should do it, provided your phone was actually provisioned for Vision. You can check simply by going into Preferences>Network and observe that you are setup for Sprint PCS, including a proper user name (and password). Then hit the Connect button on the bottom left and observe that an error free sequence of logging on to Vision occurs. If this doesn't work, I believe (my memory is rusty), that you can try to initiate provisioning yourself by going into Preferences>Phone Prefs>Internet Settings and hit Update Profile. If none of this works, call Sprint CS and ask for the Data Support group.

As far as firmware, I don't really think the WK19 is "dreaded" and would not put a high priority on trying to get it updated. Rather I suggest you try all of the above and see if it works fine, which it should, and then leave well enough alone. If you have a GOOD local Sprint PCS store with a GOOD tech guy who sounds like he knows what he is doing, then fine, see if he can do the update. But there have been reports of incompetent techs bricking i500s while trying to do the update and 90% of the tech haven't a clue how to even obtain what is needed to do the update. In my view, it is a non-essential update, except perhaps for old Thinkpad owners.

Don't confuse the firmware (WK19) with the PRL (preferred roaming list). The PRL is easily updated, over the air. To date, simply call CS and ask them to queue you up for a PRL update.

Eudora has nothing to do with NWEB, which is a web browser. You can use NWEB to access some webmail servers. I think Yahoo and maybe Google work. You may wish to use the WAP versions.

As far as obtaining Eudora, check your PM in the next day or so...