Just Arrived: Treo 700w

Wifey has just become a gadget widow (again).  I couldn’t wait to get mine set up, but once she saw how much these things were going for on eBay, she thinks she may make a few bucks and buy another one later.

Other things I like so far:

  • The OK button, which ‘clicks’ the icon in the upper right corner (either Close or OK, usually)
  • The start menu button
  • Broadband speed Internet.  Sweet!

  • The keyboard is surprisingly easy to use—the buttons are slightly domed, and very easy to hit squarely.  Hy hands are kind of large, and the Treo is kind of not, and my hand started to cramp when typing a long e-mail. 

One of the toughest challenges going to be finding replacements for the software I liked on my Axim.  Handango has a lot of software available already for Windows Mobile 5, but some of my favorites haven’t been released yet.  Fortunately, my password keeper (FlexWallet) is available for Windows Mobile 5.0, and that was a major concern.  Unfortunately, Pocket Breeze (a Today screen plug-in) hasn’t been ported yet.

Something I totally hate:

  • There’s no colon on the keyboard.  WTF?  That’s kind of useful when typing in URLs into some programs.  It’s the first choice in the Alt keys, so it’s not a total loss.  But still…

A few things I’ll miss:

  • Monet backgrounds on the Today screen
  • Pocket Breeze
  • Program Switcher, because I could close programs without navigating a menu
  • ADB Weather
  • Pocket RSS
  • Jawbreaker (addictive game)

I’m trying to get DopplerMobile to work as my RSS reader, but it keeps crashing.

Here is the Treo 700w compared to my old Axim X5.  The screen isn’t scratched—thats one of those scrren protectors that I didn’t do a great job of applying.
The Treo 700w is small in my hands.  My hand started cramping when using the little keyboard in a long e-mail.  My Axim’s thumboard was about 1/3 again as wide, and a little more comfortable to use.

 <update 2006–01–13>

The Treo ships with a game called Bubble Breaker, which is the same as Jawbreaker.  And I can get my weather information on demand with MSN Mobile or Mobile Yahoo, so I don’tneed a desktop module for that. Still looking for a good RSS reader and blogging app.

Now playing: Weezer – Beverly Hills

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