Open the Window

By Roger Hibbert

on Thu Jan 5, 12:43 AM ET

Treo 700w

Update: Okay, my bad. In the original version of this post, I went overboard when I said Palm had "abandoned" Palm OS. Thanks to all who eviscerated me in the comments section. Here's a separate post with a hands-on comment.

~~It's official: Palm has abandoned the clunky Palm OS with the release of the~~Palm's new Treo 700w runs on Windows Mobile 5.0. Available through Verizon Wireless, the new Treo also is the first Palm phone to take advantage of Verizon's high-speed EV-DO network.

What does this mean to you? The Windows Mobile operating system is much more powerful than any existing Palm OS. You have Pocket versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint on board, and a powerful syncing and file-transfer capability through Microsoft ActiveSync. And on Verizon's EV-DO network, you can browse the web and download emails, data, and file attachments at much higher speeds.

The phone itself resembles the Treo 650. It has a handy thumb keyboard, a 240 x 240-pixel screen, and a secure digital media slot for augmenting the phone's 128MB of internal storage. What's new is a 1.3-megapixel camera for crisper shots. But will diehard Palm fans abandon their OS and go over to the Microsoft enemy? You tell me (add your comments below).

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This may work

Posted by winfrank98 on Wed, Jan 4, 2006 11:29 PM ET

Current thought on the major message boards is that the Palm OS is NOT dead and the Treo will continue to be available in both the Palm and WM versions. The camera is much improved for those that care. THis article reads like a MS press release.

Posted by bugladydi on Wed, Jan 4, 2006 11:29 PM ET

Glad to see a more functional device, the Treo 650 was not given high marks in part due to the O/S. The real challenge will be the new Blackberry, which (to my knowledge) doesn't have Excel, PP and Word, but is positively simple to use and very functional as an e-mail device and phone, as well as syncing with outlook. Of course it stores docs for later access.

Posted by mitchrusso on Thu, Jan 5, 2006 12:03 AM ET

I have baseball scoring and stats software which is only available on Palm software. What am I supposed to do??? I only have the Palm for this purpose.

Posted by bingo_long_allstars on Thu, Jan 5, 2006 12:05 AM ET

Yes, we will have a more powerful device. But what we will get? A more complex machine that has an Operating System needs you to perform more click actions than old PalmOS in same job. Windows always makes life too complex.

Posted by bartonzhang on Thu, Jan 5, 2006 12:18 AM ET

I had a Treo 650. I hated it. It constantly rebooted and the only way to synch e-mail was with Goodlink. Goodlink would hose if you ever let the battery run down. Hopefully, this next generation of Treo will have those bugs worked out.

Posted by bobbyajr on Thu, Jan 5, 2006 12:59 AM ET

Palm OS will not die you can get applications for it everywhere and you can find apps you wouldn't dream of in Windows Mobile. Palm maybe making a mistake forsaking their own OS!

Posted by computergenius_67133 on Thu, Jan 5, 2006 1:04 AM ET

This unit is Fantastic. It incorporates the one hand navigation of palm with what most pc users have ...windows. Activesnyc is easy,similar to push email, never lose data feature (at 30% battery life data is backed up) 1.3 camera and video, call feature from one touch and front screen speed dials with pics of contacts. Google on front page, I can go on and on but this treo 700w is the best unit I have come in contact with

Posted by joem1211 on Thu, Jan 5, 2006 1:21 AM ET

crap, crap, crap...I have used MS software since MS 4.x and eveything has problems, PALM OS just got the bus out of their software and crap, we are going to Windows mobile, crap, and why MS on a PALM?? Linux and Palm OS are compatible, why not use the smaller and more efficient OS platforms. Oh yeah...idiots need games for their PDA's and who has more Games than MS. Palm OS could have been great if Palm and the former Palmspring developers opened the code and allowed more WIFI and bluetooth games, the kids would start using it to. Notes, memos, PDF, music, UNIX telnet sessions, ssh, mp3 and avi are standards that PALM did not work into their presentations. All the techs use a Blackberry or Nokia phones, but the Treo was so promising, but costly, so only mgmt and senior techs had them. We were hoping for price breaks to convince the execs to start buying Treo's for us. With MS OS as the new standard, memory problems and viruses will now infest the Treo. later...

Posted by lex1367 on Thu, Jan 5, 2006 1:30 AM ET

Biggest problem is no Bluetooth

Posted by taylorc89 on Thu, Jan 5, 2006 1:33 AM ET