Palm has introduced a new range of quad-band Palm Treo 680 smartphones, running the tried and trusted Palm OS.
Backed by a $25 million marketing campaign – their biggest marketing campaign in half a decade – Palm is hoping that the lower priced Treos will attract customers beyond their traditional business base.
The GSM/GPRS/EDGE phones will be offered in a range of attractive colours (Graphite, Copper, Crimson and Arctic), weighing 23g lighter than the last PalmOS Treo, the 700p, and measuring up at 6mm longer and 3mm thinner.
Like the Windows-powered Treo 750w released earlier this year, the Treo 680 comes without the pocket-bulging, iconic chunky antennae, something which Palm thinks will have a positive impact on the European market.
The Treo comes with a large and bright 320×320 screen and the well regarded full QWERTY keyboard, with a raft of multimedia functions including an integrated digital camera, Bluetooth 1.2 , MP3 player, video recorder and player.
Onboard, there’s 64MB of user-available storage – nearly three times the capacity of the original Treo 650 smartphone – with expansion card support up to 2GB.
Although the Treo 680 is still lagging behind with the latest technology – there’s still no W-CDMA or Wi-Fi support – its superb user-friendly interface still puts it streets ahead of some higher spec’d phones.
Software
Like its Palm OS predecessors, the 680 displays text-messaging conversations as IM-like “threaded chats,” a fabulous feature that should be introduced by law on all phones.
The phone also lets users respond to calls by firing off a preset text message (“bog off weird stalker person”), and there’s support for three-way calling.
Along with the usual bundled applications for e-mail, Web browsing, messaging, multimedia, calendar and contacts, there’s a special version of Google Map for the Treo.
Billed by Google as,”the fastest, slickest version yet,” the application offers real-time traffic reports, detailed directions, integrated search results (search for cafes/bars etc, get addresses and call them with one click), satellite imagery and fast-downloading detailed, draggable maps with translucent pop-up balloons.
Sadly, us in Britland will have to wait for a while as the program currently only offers maps for Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the US.
Palm has also announced that it will be partnering with several media companies, including Yahoo, Google and blogging firm Six Apart, to make their products available on the new device – these will join the enormous back catalogue of commercial and free software that’s already available for the OS.
Availability
Palm head honcho Ed Colligan said he expects the new smartphone to be available around the world by the end of June, 2007, “competitively priced with comparable smartphones in the marketplace,” with the price rumoured to be around the $200 mark.
In an ideal world, waiting near the top of the new OFCOM boss Ed Richards’ in-tray, there should be a folder marked ‘Sky Monopoly’ and on it a brightly coloured post-it with the words anti competitive clearly inscribed.
The area where Sky has decided not to use DVB is for its Conditional Access encryption.
If that TV service then wants to charge the subscribers to their service they have to use that special version of Videoguard CA.
Although PDAs may be a dying breed, they clearly ain’t dead yet, with the lesser known Spanish electrics company releasing no less than two spanking new GPS-enabled PDAs.
A SD/MMC card slot takes care of expansion options, with connectivity coming in the form of a MiniUSB socket , Bluetooth 2.0 and Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g (T620 only)
Primed and ready for take off, O2’s own-brand Jet supersonic mobile boasts that it can deliver 67% more talk time than its nearest comparable rival.
The phone’s business-like styling reflects its targeted demographic, with an austere black casing and ne’er a whiff of any fun stuff to be found – this grumpy old handset hasn’t even got a camera or an MP3 player.
The O2 Jet will be ready for slipping into pin striped suit pockets from 19th October, with prices varying according to monthly tariffs. There will also be a pay-as-you-go (PAYG) version available for sixty quid.
Looking like lovechild of a bedtime romp between an iPod and a mobile phone, Samsung’s X838 phone has real “gimme!” appeal.
Because of the narrow, slimline construction, the number keys are unusually arranged in rows of two, with the usual ‘call’ and ‘end call’ buttons at the top.
There’s also an easily accessible ‘hold’ button so you don’t end up ringing your Mum when you’re rocking out to Pantera, as well as a volume up/down control on the side of the unit.
We spent some time trying to translate the text from the 
A survey released by Best of Stuff suggests that nearly a third of Brits own up to 15 gadgets.
The trusty ol’ gogglebox came in a close second with 27 per cent of the vote, and 46 per cent of those surveyed reckoned that the fabbest new innovation in the market is HDTV.
But it’s not all love-love-love in the world of gizmos, with 40 per cent of respondents declaring themselves disappointed with their gadget’s battery life, pointing the finger of blame at MP3 players, laptops and mobile phones as the worst offenders.
Router heavyweights D-Link have announced a new line of “V-CLICK” dual-mode phones that allow users to easily switch between cellular and Wi-Fi networks.
D-Link doesn’t say if the phone will work with existing VoIP providers like Skype – their press statement simply says that users will be able to configure a specific SIP profile, with multiple profiles being available “to make usage between home and office automatic.”
Pesky phone thieves may get more than they bargained for if a new anti-theft system proves a hit with punters.
Mark Whiteman, managing director of Remote XT, said: “Theft-proof phones spell disaster for the huge criminal industry that has profited from mobile theft for too long”
UK VoIP company, Coms, has just launched two WiFi VoIP handsets in advance of their service which is going live on 9 October.
While we’ve not had our hands on these particular handsets (yet – watch this space), we seen shots of them and had sight of the specs. Both work on 802.11b & g and use SIP which will allow them to work with most IP-PBX kit.
NTL, UK Cable provider, has announced a quad-play offering for £40.
Bigging the service up and attempting to create extra excitement for the future, Neil Berkett, chief operating officer of ntl Telewest, enthused: “Quadplay demonstrates the unique power of the cable-Virgin Mobile union and this is just the beginning. Our new package represents unbeatable value while meeting a wide range of consumers’ entertainment and communication needs.