Over the past several months, I've been playing with a bunch of different new phones, for various reasons (got my parents a couple of new Katana II's, for example). I like the Katana II form factor, nice, slimmer-than-a-RAZR flipphone. I've been playing with the Dash, which I really like... for many things *other* than being a phone. The LG Muziq is very nice, but not a Smartphone. Most recently, I've played with a Cingular 3125 (HTC StarTrek), a RAZR-like WM5 Smart/flipphone. I think I would probably try to use the 3125 for real if it could be put on Sprint... but it can't... sigh. The Pantech PN-820 was picked up by Verizon, but not Sprint (CDMA WM5 flipphone), but I like the 3125 better (more RAZR-like, thinner, no antenna stub).

So I keep coming back to the i500. I will probably try the Vogue (CDMA Touch) when it comes out for Sprint in the next couple of months. But honestly, I can't really see wanting to use anything other than a flipphone for daily phone use, and I also can't see doing without PDA functions. And I can't see moving away from Sprint either (I am about to try to establish a SERO account for myself (having done so for several of my friends). And as there *still* doesn't seem to be any PDA flipphones on Sprint's horizon, I guess I'm still stuck with the i500...

I guess the market is just passing me by... (just like Mimi Rogers at the end of The Rapture...)

Palm is coming out with a new Sprint phone in a few months - slimmer and ?

New problem - using the Palm AOL application - for one of the screen names - the password gets rejected - after trying many times - however on other screen names - no problem. Tried typing it in again with no luck - password works on the PC - any thoughts?

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stevedrummer
"A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort."
- Herm Albright

Steve, what can you tell me about the new Sprint Palm phone?

Thanks,

BB

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That'sssssssss all folks!

I would assume you are talking about the Palm Centro (nee Gandolf). You can read about it at treocentral.com >> Your #1 resource for the Treo Smartphone. It is supposed to be a cheap PalmOS Treo-like device aimed at the younger set. Slightly thinner than a Treo, but probably not what one would call thin (ala Dash/Q/Blackjack). But it does look to be slim, with a tiny QWERTY, touch screen and the supposed $99 contract price. The photos of the device look a bit strange as it shows a small screen and small QWERTY and a lot of "dead space". My guess is that unfortunately Palm still doesn't really know how to engineer devices to be as compact as the state of the art allows, which is why Treo's are still bricks, unlike the Dash/Q, and why this Centro is still not thin and requires too much volume to house the less-than-compact stuff inside.

Still, the Centro might turn out okay for Palm -- I wish them well. But there is a lot of competition out there and I'm not convinced your average youngun is going to go for the Centro over the Q or Dash, or now, the "cheap" iPhone.

MB...we're both in the same boat!! We'll see what the Touch looks like in a couple of months. I have a lot of Palm apps that I need, hopefully StyleTap does what it's supposed to.

I like a clamshell phone with PDA functionality NOT a PDA with phone functions.

I would have tried the PN-820 if it was on Sprint. At least the Samsung SCH-i760 has hard phone buttons...another Verizon offering not coming to Sprint.

Darn...Sprint should've released the i550

Yeah, its pretty frustrating... If there was a Sprint counterpart in the GSM world, I'd probably switch in an instant as all the phones I've been playing with recently that I might consider as i500 replaces are all GSM. I will probably give the CDMA Touch a try when it comes in Nov, but I know I'll miss the flipphone part and probably the PalmOS part too. I still consider all current Treos as bricks (sorry BB) and don't see myself using anything larger/thicker than a Dash or Touch or 3125.

I really think that Palm continues to miss the boat, and that is very disappointing. Even now I think they could have made a killing coming out with a cheap iPhone-like device -- just touch screen with PalmOS selling for $100, instead of this $100 Centro or 500v which are all very ho-hum also-ran QWERTY phones. Compared with the Touch, I probably would chose a PalmOS version of the Touch, but alas Palm just isn't with-it -- its running some 18mos behind the rest of the market.

But mostly I still long for a flipphone replacement for the i500 so much that I would forego PalmOS for it, hence the 3125. But I don't think I can forego both PalmOS *and* Sprint.

Just sitting... waiting for the world to come around to my point of view , I think the iPhone will be seen to have made a very positive push in that direction... mostly because it is getting the market to think about something other than QWERTY smartphones...

just wanted to post my 2 cents on other phones i have seen in comparison to good 'ol i500. but first i think we are of a different breed. i personally need to have a fast OS in terms of calendar/phone book/to-do and Palm OS is really the best for that (but for that only). plus now that my phonebook is in Palm format, very hard to export to something else.

windows mobile just doesn't cut it for me, as well as most of the other cellphone OS'es out there (esp. for calendar) -- well, except for iPhone as you will see below. then of course the form factor.

- Moto Q: my brother-in-law has this. Not very impressed. Form factor is a little too square for my taste. Calendar sucks and is the dealbreaker for me. Nice screen though.

- 8125: bought this for my wife since she was stuck on Cingular plan. Total brick. IE browser sucks. Always sucked up tons of memory. Used Minimo instead and even that was kinda hard to navigate. Phone was not loud enough. Just not an easy OS to deal with. I choose to forget more about it than remember.

- iPhone: i must say, i might have to switch soon. This i bought for wifey to upgrade from 8125. Sure, you i500 faithfuls will say the form factor is not desirable, but i tell you what, when you can turn from portrait to landscape with a flick of the wrist, man, that's great for websites. And browsing is just great, although browser sometimes crashing is a little frustrating (could be we don't update/sync much, although we ought to). I could write an essay on how the Youtube app should open up a new world of possibilities -- i mean this is stuff that old i500 just can't do no matter what. My only qualm is that the AT&T internet network sucks, in my area, sometimes worse than Sprint's, but my friend who works at AT&T says in December new iPhone will go on 3G network.

- my i500: well, it has been many years, but as wifi becomes standard and video becomes a requirement on phones -- as i alluded with youtube which implies free entertainment solely dependent on network/wifi speed, seems iPhone will lead this charge -- looks like good 'ol i500 will become a dinosaur. I'm holding out long as i can, but as soon as iPhone gets on a faster network, gonna be hard to resist. I'll be looking for a Palm OS phonebook/calendar converter when that time comes. Also, got another buddy at Palm Inc. who says they will abandon Palm OS. Guess iPhone will carry my torch of most efficient calendar/to-do/phonebook apps. Still, i500 has given me utmost bang for the buck.

oh yeah, one other qualm about iPhone compared to i500: can't use 1 thumb to type like on i500, like quick search of phone number and hit Talk -- sometimes you just gotta make that phone call while driving, ya know! but that video and browsing is oh so hard to resist!

Try the Treo 755P even better video and browsing on a real 3G system.

BB

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That'sssssssss all folks!

my problem with the treo is the brick factor. but also what do you think of the windows mobile OS? i didn't like it on the 8125, but it could be diff. on the treo (?)...