The 81-day experiment

Case study: Treo 700p from Sprint

In this case study, Thomas from New York City shares his experience with the Treo 700p from Sprint (If you would like to contribute your case study, please e-mail it in the same format as shown below to the81dayexperiment@people-onthego.com with Case Study in the subject line). Here is what Thomas has to say about his Treo 700p.

How do you rank the device and the related services in the following areas (rankings are 1 to 5, where 5 is the best)

Overall satisfaction?                              5

Features?                                             5

Usability?                                             5

Compatibility with your desktop?            5

Technical support?                                Haven’t used

Reliability?                                           5

Would you recommend this device to others who have similar needs to yours?

Yes

What specific things do you like about the device and related services?

I like the EVDO connectivity, the ease of use, and the ability to hot sync easily with my Macintosh computers

What things don't you like or that can be improved and related services?

Sometimes the processor seems like it lags a little when switching programs but it's nothing I can't live with, but a faster processor would be nicer. Sometimes I have to do a soft reset because the browser seems to get hung up once in a while.  Sprint's service is excellent wherever I have been with the phone.

Which devices have you used in the past? Please list them starting with the most recent device.

Palm Treo 650

Palm Tungsten T2

Palm IIIc

Day #9 of the 81-day experiment, the Treo 700p did a great job

Today was the 9^th and last day for the Treo 700p journey in the 81-day experiment. The Treo 700p is not going to disappear completely from our radar. It is moving to the People-OnTheGo handheld devices “lab”, where it is likely to undergo further experiments, and probably become the “star” of one of the handheld devices workshops, as well as get included in the next revision of the “BlackBerry, Treo, or Pocket PivotChart: Virtual Test Drive” workshop.

For now, the experiment will move on, and tomorrow is a new beginning for a whole new device which is likely to be the Treo 700w (Windows Mobile instead of Palm OS)--unless I get the news that the Treo 750w is around the corner. But rumors has it that it may be several months before the 750w is released in the U.S., even though it seems to be ready to be released in the U.K. in September based on recent reports.

The last 9 days in summary

The Treo 700p is a fine device and a major improvement from the earlier Treo models.

The Treo 700p is a full featured device and a strong multi-media powerhouse (camera, video camera, voice memos, music, etc.)

With the Verizon wireless broadband network, the Internet is at your fingertip. The ability to connect your laptop from almost anywhere can save you significant time and money.

Wireless Sync (the e-mail application I used) is quite efficient and push e-mail is a nice treat. However, if you want to send attachments, you need VersaMail instead (also provided).

The rest of the add-on applications that were on the installation CD were quite useful, and many more are available on the market. Documents To Go can come quite handy if you are willing to work with documents on the little screen. Keycaps and Textras give you an edge when typing on the little keyboard.

I actually got used to the little keyboard. I was even able to pass the 16-digit-accout-number test (typing the number when prompted by the voice mail system without mistakes). But don’t expect to type fast and better to look at the keys when you type and not at what you’re typing (on the screen).

Verizon’s network does a great job even in some of the toughest spots of San Francisco. So if your needs are local (U.S.) you are fine. If you need to cross the borders often, think twice.

Versizon’s technical support got “2 out of 3”. I had two excellent calls and one poor one in which, not only the Verizon support didn’t integrate well with the Palm support, but they both misdiagnosed the problem and weren’t able to fix it.

What is the catch?

I don’t think there is a real catch, but there are thing you need to be aware of and prepared for::

If you are not a Palm OS user (in other words if you are considering a Palm OS device for the first time), you need to put your hands on the device and try it out and think usability. Some users love Palm OS and other don’t. So you need to find that out for yourself. It is what I call “device-chemistry”.

Another catch is that the Treo 700p performs many functions, and this comes with a certain level of added complexity, additional time needed to set it up, probably more technical support calls, and probably more crashes along the way (the device freezing and therefore you having to reset it).

Another area that you want to be aware of is the battery life. It seems to have performed well for me, knowing that I was charging it overnight, and I had the car charger with me just in case. Knowing that this device does so many things, and if you are going to use these things heavily, plan on having the charger and car charger with you.

Finally, the device is not exactly the lightest or tiniest! I am hoping at some point in the 81-day experiment I will put my hands on such a device. The device that slips in your pocket, remain unnoticed, and yet performs all of the above. Maybe a dream but let us wait and see.

Personal Observations

At the end of the 81-day experiment, when it is time for me to pick the device that I will continue to use beyond the experiment, I will actually consider the Treo 700p. I was starting to feel quite comfortable with it and used to the voice memos and the broadband access, both of which I didn’t have in my previous device. But for now, I will say good bye to the Treo 700p, and tomorrow will be a new day and a new device.

Day #8 of the 81-day experiment, the Treo 700p attachments, messaging, and more!

Attachments? No outgoing attachments when using Wireless Sync. What I found out today is that if you want to send attachments, you need to use VersaMail instead of Wireless Sync. So it is a tradeoff between having “push” e-mail with Wireless Sync (e-mail that gets pushed to your device as soon as, or soon after, it gets to your mailbox on the server) and being able to send attachments with VersaMail on the other end.

The fact that it is not possible to send outgoing attachments using Wireless Sync may appear to be a big deal, but in reality it is not. The first question is how often will you be sending attachments on your Treo 700p.. For most users, it is much more likely that you will be receiving attachments (something the Wireless Sync does very well) than sending them. If however sending attachments happens to be a priority for you, then you do have the option of using the VersaMail which comes with the Treo 700p as well. VersaMail does not do “push” e-mail, but it can retrieve e-mail at preset intervals, the default being every 15 minutes. 15 minutes is not bad! Actually getting a 15 minute “break” without incoming e-mails may even be a good thing for our productivity.

The Memos Application

Today, and also related to attachments, I used the Memos application on the Treo 700p to take some notes, and then decided to e-mail these notes to a colleague. So I pressed the menu key, and then selected Send from the menu, and I was prompted to select one of two options: Bluetooth or Messaging (Messaging is the text messaging application that comes with the Treo). Wireless Sync wasn’t an option. In other words, I couldn’t e-mail my memo using the Wireless Sync e-mail application. This is another side effect for what I described above (the fact that Wireless Sync does not handle outgoing attachments).

So I tried to use the Messaging application to send my memo, but that didn’t work either. It indicated that “it cannot support this type of item”. So my last choice was to copy the text of the memo and paste it in an e-mail in Wireless Sync.

More about the Messaging Application

So I started the Messaging application, and entered Google’s SMS number, which is 46645, and then typed “Pizza 94301” to find some Pizza places in my old neighborhood in Palo Alto. If you haven’t come across yet these SMS services such as Google’s, you may want to explore them a bit.  Within a few seconds, I got my response back from Google, and that consisted of the Round Table Pizza on University Avenue, and the Patxi’s Chicago Pizza on Emerson (this must be a new one, and it got me curious, so I added it to my Restaurants-To-Try memo in the Treo). And as I was entering this memo, I remembered a really old movie that I have recently had a conversation about with a friend, so I added it to the Movies-To-See memo in the Treo.

You may be wondering how did I have the time for (or even thought about) creating my Restaurants-To-Try and Movies-To-See lists in the first few days of having the Treo device. Or even worse, why would I do such a thing knowing that I only have a couple more days with the Treo 700p before I switch to a new device (which is likely to be the Treo 700w by the way)? Well, the answer is called “synchronization”. These lists were already in my Outlook, and when I synchronized my data on day #2, they were all transferred to the Treo 700p. And next week, they will be on the next device. When I talk to our workshop participants, and occasionally someone argues that handheld devices aren’t really necessary, I show them some of the information that I have at my fingertips, wherever I am, and this usually gets them convinced.

Now how about some real text messaging? I sent out two text messages today, one to a colleague who is using T-Mobile, and another one to a colleague who is using Sprint. Let us see between Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint, how it will all pan out. I haven’t gotten a response yet, so I may have to report on this one tomorrow.

By the way, for those who want to do more with messaging, depending on your plan, you can also add media to your messages, including pictures and sound.

A couple of tips along the way

When you need to type several numbers, such as a phone number or a zip code, within a message (such an e-mail, a text message, or a memo), it might be easier to turn on the num-lock. This is done by pressing the Option key twice. And then when you are done, you can undo it by pressing the Option key once.

Cap-lock is also available and you can enable it by pressing the Shift key twice, and disable it by pressing the Shift key once.

Changing the button assignment is one of the nice features of the Treo which allows you to customize which application buttons will invoke which applications. This is the approach that I used:

- The Mail application button: Wireless Sync (my e-mail application in this case)

- The Calendar application button: Calendar

- The Phone application button: Phone

- The Side application button: Camera

Then for the other applications:

- Option + Mail application button: Messaging

- Option + Calendar application button: Memos

- Option + Phone application button: Web

Then I assigned a few favorites:

- Assigned the letter “V”: for Voice Memos

- Assigned the letter “D” for Digital Video Camera

For the rest of the applications, I just select the home screen (pressing the home button), and then select the desired application from there.

Crash Report

Well, there was another crash today (also known as the device locking up, i.e. freezing and not responding anymore). The technical support rep blamed it on third party applications. The good news is that resetting the Treo 700p with the stylus is easy and fast.

Battery Report

With a relatively heavy usage day, the battery is still holding well. So that is good news for those who may be concerned about the battery.

Stay tuned. Tomorrow is the last day for the Treo 700p before it gets a long break while the 81-day experiment continues!

Day #7 of the 81-day experiment, the Treo 700p attachments and usability

Today was the day of e-mail attachments. I opened an e-mail and clicked on the attachment. I got a message asking me if I want to download, it so I accepted. I thought the attachment was going to be downloaded right away, but what I learned is that it got marked for downloading. Then I tapped on the synchronize button in the Wireless Sync application to get the downloading going. Once it downloaded, it opened in Documents To Go (one of the add-on applications that came on the Treo 700p installation CD and that I installed on day #3). I had to accept the terms of the license agreement first, and a few seconds later my attachment, which was an Excel workbook, was ready for some work.

I made some changes to the Excel spreadsheet (yes, the Excel spreadsheet, on the Treo 700p screen!). I used the Zoom command to zoom to a larger font, made my changes, and then saved the edited  version of the document. The document was then listed in the Documents To Go application and I was able to open it again, view it, and edit it as necessary. When I synchronized the Treo 700p with my laptop, the document was transferred to the Documents To Go application on the laptop. Documents To Go is able to easily transfer documents back and forth between the laptop or desktop on the end, and the Treo 700p on the other end. So your documents now are truly documents to go.

When I tried to e-mail the document that I edited on the Treo 700p however, I ran into a problem. Wireless Sync didn’t allow me to add an attachment; at least it wasn’t clear on how to do that. And when I tried to e-mail it from Documents to Go (instead of starting by composing an e-mail), I was prompted to decide which transfer mechanism I would like to use. Then I was only given two choices. One was Bluetooth, and the other was messaging (i.e. text messaging which obviously didn’t support the Excel attachment type and gave me an error). It seems that this issue will require some additional research, and maybe a technical support call, to get resolved.

Usability observations:

The mute button at the top of the Treo 700p proves to be very convenient, easy to find, and easy set even when you’re not looking.

When writing e-mails, the “auto-complete” feature (you may recognize it from Microsoft Outlook or Gmail) is quite useful. Once you e-mail someone, whether they are in your Contacts list or not, the next time you start typing their e-mail address, Wireless Sync finds them and helps you complete the e-mail address.

Using the Favorites to create a speed dial that includes a calling card number, a PIN number, and an international phone number, with automatic pauses in between, was easy and quite useful.

Today I succeeded in making a call and entering a 16 digit account number (in response to the voice mail system prompt) without any typos. Unlike day #3 when I had to stop trying after making mistakes several times and having to restart every time. It could be that I am getting used to the keyboard, in addition to typing slowly and carefully when it comes to these situations.

The Treo 700p froze once so far:

In other words it locked up, and stopped responding to any keyboard input, or touch screen activities. Luckily this is easy to fix by taking the battery cover off, and then using the stylus to press the reset button to reset the device.

Verizon’s network passes my San Francisco reception test

In the neighborhood where I used to live in San Francisco, I switched service providers 3 times in order to find a provider who had good reception there. That area happens to be a “dead” spot for many of the wireless networks. Not for the Verizon network though. Having been there today, I went around the block, and made some calls, and had a good reception all around. It seems that the CDMA network has its advantages at least in the U.S. If you are an international traveler however, and will be needing your phone and e-mail outside the U.S., the CDMA network is not likely to serve you best.

Day #6 of the 81-day experiment, the Treo 700p music setup

Today was an outdoor day, so the Treo 700p got some sun at a sidewalk café (picture on the left), and an expansion card (SD card) at Fry’s electronics. In addition, it got some music loaded. If you are using a Mac, it is required to have an expansion card to listen to music on your Treo 700p. If you are using Windows, the expansion card is not required. Even though I am synchronizing the Treo 700p with a Windows computer, I decided to get the SD card anyway—more storage doesn’t hurt especially that the 1GB SD card was only $29 (less elegant but much cheaper than the $149 iPod Nano).

Loading music on the Treo 700p using the Windows Media Player wasn’t as smooth as I thought it would be, but eventually it all worked well. Windows Media Player didn’t seem to have the necessary MP3 encoder (it kept saying “a compabile MP3 encoder is not installed on your computer”) so I had to download an MP3 encoder from Cyberlink and $9 later it all went smoothly from there on.

I was able to hear the music through the speaker on the back of the Treo 700p, and through the headset that came from the device (the one that is meant to be for phone calls), but in order to use stereo headphones, I will need to buy an adapter (not included with the Treo 700p), or 2.5mm stereo headphones. Until then, I will continue using my iPod.

Another observation from today is that no charging from the car charger was necessary.  The Treo 700p seems to be work well for a whole day after having been in the charger overnight, which is the pattern that I have been following.

To be continued tomorrow! Stay tuned!

Day #5 of the 81-day experiment, the Treo 700p in sync and high speed

If you have a camera, you take pictures. If you have a device that can record voice memos, you record voice memos. If you have a Treo 700p, you do both, and more. That is exactly what I found myself doing while in the gym this morning. As you can see, the pictures where not as plausible as the voice memos (high quality pictures “in motion” are hard to get with most standard digital cameras, but one always gets interesting effects).

The voice memos capability is proving to be quite useful to me. One of the concepts I cover, in the Time Management class that we offer, is having effective “front-end capture tools” to help us quickly capture the to-do items and ideas that come through our mind throughout the day. This way we can release them from our mind, minimize the interruptions caused by them, and be able to come back to them later if and when needed. Voice memos is one of the ideal “front-end capture” tools when you are “in motion” like on an Stairmaster in the gym.

Back to where I left off yesterday, today I made a call to Verizon’s technical support, to resolve the outstanding issues (Outlook synchronization not working, and inability to use the Treo 700p as a modem for my laptop). I had an excellent technical support rep who diagnosed the Outlook synchronization problem right away (let us say her name was Sherry), and helped me through the steps quickly and easily. Sherry then proceeded to solve the modem problem, and in less than 20 minutes, things suddenly looked really good for the Treo 700p in terms of being fully ready for the rest of the experiment. Here are some details in case you run into such problems.

Apparently, Wireless Sync (one of the two e-mail applications that come with the Treo 700p from Verizon, and the one I decided to use) has a setting called “Enable other sync apps” (which you access by selecting the Wireless Sync application, then Settings, and then Connections, and then the Advanced button). This setting has to be enabled in order for the Outlook Synchronization to work; as simple as that.

Then for the modem, we had to update the driver (going to the Device Manager, and then finding the Palm Modem under modems, and right mouse clicking on it and selecting Update Driver). Then we ran the VZAccess Manager application on the laptop again, and went through the installation wizard, selecting “only WWAN devices” instead of “WIFI and WWAN”. Within minutes, my laptop was connected to the internet via the Treo 700p.

Connecting to the Internet using the Treo 700p is a significant accomplishment for someone who is on the go quite often. This means being connected from almost anywhere at high speed and cost effectively (reasonable high speed, 300K to 700K and could be more--felt as fast as the typical hotspot, and for a $15/month--from Verizon). This means being connected while waiting in a lobby, or in between meetings at clients sites, or in presentation rooms and training rooms that don’t have easy Internet access for guests (it happens more often than what you think), and not to mention, eliminating the need to find the closest Starbucks or Kinko’s, even though that is easy to do in most places.

Now with the essentials being taken care of, I can look into some of the “nice-to-have” tools that will make the next few days with the Treo 700p more efficient. So I downloaded KeyCaps650--which seem to work well on the Treo 700p. This is an add-on application that provides some nifty keyboard shortcuts such as allowing you to press a letter on the keyboard, and hold it down for an extra second or two, to capitalize it. It also allows you to “double-tap” a letter on the keyboard in order to type the symbol instead of the letter. So if you double-tap on the letter “A”, this will cause the “&” symbol to be typed instead of the letter “A”. While these seem to be minor improvements, when you are typing on a keyboard that is less than 2”x 3” or so, every little help is appreciated. By the way, these shortcuts are standard on the BlackBerry devices, so you can see how with these add-on’s the Treo 700p is again narrowing the gap. More about that later in the experiment.

Then I installed another add-on application for the Treo 700p and that is “Textras”. Yes, this is not a typo, it is called “Textras”. And Textras works like the AutoText in the BlackBerry and like AutoCorrect in Microsoft Word and other Microsoft Office applications. Basically, it allows you to create your own abbreviations, and then use them when you are composing e-mail, entering contacts and appointments, or editing documents. For instance, I could set TIA to be replaced by ”Thanks in advance”, and RP to be replaced by “Regards,

Pierre

”, and DRV to be replaced by “I am driving now, and I will get back to you when I get to my destination”.

So what is coming up tomorrow and in the next few days?

In addition to continuing to use the Treo 700p as my only device, I will also be setting up some sample data (some additional sample contacts, calendar appointments, and so on) which I will use in the next few days to run through some more in-depth scenarios. This will allow me to experiment with more advanced features such as handling e-mail attachments, editing documents, setting up security, and using more of the multi-media capabilities among others.

Tomorrow may include some car travel outside the city, which might be a good time to use the car charger, maybe get some music going on the Treo 700p, and who knows, even take some videos.

Stay tuned!

Day #4 of the 81-day experiment, the Treo 700p on the go

The Treo 700p accompanied me today to a Microsoft event in San Francisco among other places. Sitting in the presentation room, in a low lighting situation, it was an opportunity to try the camera under new conditions. You can see the picture on the left. By the way, Windows Vista and the whole 2007 product line presented today were quite intriguing.

One of today’s highlights as far as the Treo 700p is concerned--even though it was not planned or expected, was that the Voice Memos application turned out to be quite useful. Being on the go most of the day, and needing to capture some ideas and some to-do’s spontaneously, I decided to give the Voice Memos application a try. It did the job, and did it well! This was especially helpful when I was stranded (twice on the same day unfortunately) in the metro, for almost 15 minutes one way and more than 30 minutes the other way, due to some problems of some sort (no one really understood what the problems were even though they were announced on the not-so-hi-fi loud speaker a couple of times). It was difficult to try to open a laptop, or even a notebook, while standing in a large crowd of people. So recording voice memos did the trick.

Another highlight from today is the easy installation of the Bluetooth headset. As I made my first Bluetooth headset call, I accidentally touched the screen and disconnected the call. An issue that sooner or later you will encounter if you use a device with a touch screen. That was easy to resolve though, by setting the Treo 700p to disable the touch screen during phone calls. Something that is done from the Preferences applications.

Now let us get to the core stuff

Here are some observations relating to the important functions that I used today and how things went along the way.

> The fast internet connection was truly fast: Receiving and sending e-mail was almost like being at the office and connected at high speed. Browsing was very usable and quite satisfying, unlike the less satisfying experience I had browsing on handheld device browsers before.

> Push e-mail worked perfectly well: As I mentioned yesterday, now the Treo 700p offers the option of having e-mail delivered to the device automatically as it gets delivered to the server (with a few minute delay as I was told by the technical support folks). This was convenient and reassuring.

> Easy e-mail navigation and management: The Wireless Sync e-mail application, one of the two e-mail applications provided on the Treo 700p, is well designed and more efficient than previous e-mail clients.

Today, I was able to handle several urgent e-mails, and use some of the breaks to handle several more. These e-mails would have been otherwise accumulating and waiting for me at the end of a long and exhausting day.

Composing e-mail messages on the Treo 700p keyboard was actually reasonable. Unlike yesterday when I was typing while under the “pressure” of the voice mail system (to type a 16 digit account number with no mistakes), e-mail composition seemed less threatening and went well.

I wrote several e-mails. When not under the pressure of entering a 16 digit account number without mistakes, typing was quite reasonable. I see myself typing good size e-mails.

> Smooth browsing and easy Web form handling: Blazer (the Treo 700p browser) is definitely one of the highlights today. It is not only the speed that I am referring to, but the ability to display the graphics and the text smoothly, and to adjust the page layout, and make the navigation through the links relatively easy on the small screen. In addition, I was able to fill out a survey form, which may become another benchmark for comparing the devices.

> The battery life was a positive surprise today which took care of yesterday’s concern. I have used the device extensively, and the battery lasted all day. I did charge it late in the day. I will continue to monitor this issue as the experiment continues.

What didn’t go smoothly today?

> Connecting my laptop to the internet using the Treo 700p: I opened the application that was installed on my laptop (VZAccess Manager) and followed the instructions, and then connected the Treo 700p to the USB post using the cable when asked to do so, but the VZAccess Manager insisted that “A wireless phone was not found”. After reattempting to do this a couple of times, I gave up and decided to add this to take this to the technical support staff.

Technical support challenges

> I spent more than an hour on the phone with the technical support staff (from 6:27 pm to 7:35 pm) but unfortunately without a good outcome. After going through a series of voice mail options, I got to the Verizon technical support and they tried to diagnose yesterday problem but without success (not being able to synchronize with Outlook Calendar, Contacts, and Tasks).

I was then transferred to the Palm technical support. The two support systems didn’t seem to be talk to each other because I had to go through yet another series of voice mail options, in which I was asked about which device and which wireless provider I was with. When I finally reached a technical support rep at Palm, and after a long process, it was suggested that I call Verizon technical support because it was believed that the problem may be caused by the Wireless Sync application which is not a Palm application apparently.

The day summary:

Push e-mail with high speed internet access make the Treo 700p a fine e-mail device, narrowing the gap between the Treo 700p and the BlackBerry as far as the e-mail is concerned. The multi-media capabilities, referring now primarily to voice memos and secondarily to the camera, are coming in handy and proving to be more useful than I would have thought. The technical support and unresolved issues are slowing things down a bit, but if you have been dealing with technology, you know that is not unusual, so let us see where they will lead us to.

Outstanding from today:

> Two technical support issues are now outstanding: First the synchronization with Outlook (Calendar, Contacts, and Tasks) and second using the Treo 700p to connect the laptop to the internet.

> Installing the add-ons which was postponed today in order to handle the technical support issues.

> Solving the Google POP setting, which also took a backseat now.

> Recharging the Treo 700p with the car charger (no rush here).

What is tomorrow like?

Aside from the usual, and catching up on the outstanding issues about, I would like to start preparing to go through some more structured scenarios (mainly the ones that we currently cover in the Treo 650 Techniques class).

Stay tuned!

Day #3 of the 81-day experiment, the Treo 700p e-mail, voice mail, and add-on's

What do you do when you have a camera? You take pictures. As I was having my coffee at my favorite coffee shop this morning, and navigating the Treo 700p applications while doing so, it occurred to me that I have a camera in my hand (the Treo 700p camera). So I took a picture and here you have it. Actually pretty good resolution for a handheld device.

Back to my desk, the Treo 700p already found its space on my desk (with the power cord hooked to it, the sync cable and headset nearby) as if it belongs there. The little it knows (3 days down, and 6 to go, before I get the next device).

The phone is now fully working, and I am able to make and receive calls. The address list is easier to use than previous Treo models. You just type a few letters and it tries to find a match as you type. It is closer to the way the BlackBerry deals with addresses.

When calling my bank though (one of the automated voice mail systems where you have to enter your account number) and then trying to type my account number on the Treo 700p keyboard, I happened to mistype, and then mistype again, and again. So I switched to a landline. The keys of the Treo 700p, while much better than the Treo 600 which was almost not usable, may still present a challenge when you’re under the pressure of these demanding voice mail systems, and trying to type a long sequence of numbers. Let us see how the other devices will do with the same test.

Time to get e-mail going:

As I explained yesterday, the Treo 700p provides two e-mail applications, one is Wireless Sync and VersaMail. I ended up deciding to use Wireless Synch mainly because it is new and would be good to try it out, but also because we already reviewed MersaMail and used it in our Treo 650 Techniques workshop (www.people-onthego.com/treo650techL3.html).

Following the steps in the quick reference guide was easy at first, until I was left stranded at step #6 on page 36. The Treo 700p screen didn’t match what these steps were indicating to do. Several attempts to restart this process didn’t seem to do it, and hence, the first technical support call.

It was a very pleasant call however. The technical support rep, let us say Jimmy, was very helpful. It seems that step 6 and the remaining steps that are involved in setting up a POP account need to be done on the website (www.wirelesssync.vzw.com) and not on the Treo 700p device. Something that wasn’t stated in the quick reference guide.

Knowing that I had up to 3 accounts that I can setup with Wireless Sync, I first configured my main e-mail account, and then I wanted to configure a Gmail account, so I can also retrieve my Gmail messages to the Treo 700p. This obviously requires an extra step in Gmail in which I had to change the settings to enable POP. Well, in this case Gmail didn’t seem to save this setting after I enabled it. So this will have to wait and be resolved with Google support.

As soon as the e-mail account has been configured, and I did the first wireless synchronization of e-mail from the Treo 700p device, my e-mail messages started to arrive to my laptop and to my Treo 700p as well, and without having to manually retrieve e-mail on the Treo, and without much delay. That was a BIG surprise! This is the behavior that you would expect from a BlackBerry and not a Treo. It seems that the world has change again, and now the Treo 700p offers this “push” approach by default. You can still disable it and retrieve e-mail at pre-defined intervals if you want.

As my first few e-mail messages arrived, the Treo 700p made sure I was aware of their arrival. It vibrated, it beeped, and it created an alert (a little flashing icon on the top left corner). Not believing that e-mail arrival should be celebrated so intensely, I ended up disabling all three notifications.

A huge milestone has been accomplished now! Phone, calendar, contacts, tasks, and e-mail are fully working and up-to-date. They are synchronized (via the USB sync cable) to my Outlook on my laptop, and then e-mail is synchronized wirelessly as e-mail arrive to the e-mail server. The Treo 700p is fully and officially in use!

Voice mail:

Setting voice mail is probably the easiest thing we are going to do on the Treo 700p. After selecting the phone application, I can see that the voice mail by default has been configured as the top left favorite button, and with “1” being its shortcut key. So by pressing “1” and holding it, I got to the voice mail system, and I was led through the steps of setting up voice mail and creating a password. Checking voice mail was just as easy, pretty much by accessing voice mail as described above.

Installing the add-on’s:

The plan was that I install a number of add-on applications which came with the Treo 700p on the installation CD to take advantage of their added benefits. So now is the time to do so. In the Treo world, installing the add-on applications from the CD generally means that the “prc” files (which are the application files in this case), get added to the Palm Quick Install which is on the desktop, and the next time you synchronize, all the applications that has been added to the Palm Quick Install get transferred to the Treo device. Usually these application will be ready to run on the Treo device, but some may require some additional installation/configuration steps the first time you run them on the Treo device.

So here are the add-on applications I installed, and for the following reasons:

- Bejeweled: just in case some play time is needed along the way

- Handmark pocket express: Mainly for maps and directions

- Treo Voice Dialing, just to check it out and see how the voice recognition technology is developing on these devices.

- Apple Quicktime player: On the desktop to be able to play movies recorded by the Treo 700p.

- Documents to Go professional edition: To get the full functionality of editing and synchronizing Excel, Word, PowerPoint, and PDF documents on the Treo 700p

- Verizon Access Manager: To be able to use the Treo 700p to connect the laptop to the internet

- Windows Media Player: On the desktop in order to be able to manage/download mp3 files to the Treo 700p

A little problem came up:

After installing the above application from the CD to the laptop, I needed to synchronize the Treo 700p with my laptop (via the USB sync cable) in order to finish the installation process as described above. When I tried to synchronize, it seems that all the add-on applications were transferred to the Treo 700p, but there were some errors generated. Looking at the error log, I saw that Outlook Calendar, Outlook Contacts, and Outlook Tasks failed to synchronize. It seems that I am destined to talk to Jimmy, or the next customer support rep again tomorrow.

The summary of the day:

The Treo 700p is fully working now (of course more add-on’s and accessories and applications will be installed and explored, but the main functions are ready). I have already been out and about with the Treo 700p, receiving e-mails, making calls, checking calendar, looking up contacts. It is exciting to have a new handheld device, and irrelevant of what the next few days show, the device has come a long way from the Treo 600 and even the Treo 650. Verizon’s technical support today got the job done, and the service was excellent.

Today’s highlights:

> First picture

> First e-mail

> First technical support call.

Lessons learned:

> Don’t forget to take the USB sync cable with you, if you want to connect to the Internet! I was ready and looking forward for this high-speed connectivity, only to find out that the cable is missing. Now the cable is in the bag.

Open issues from today:

> Solving the synchronizing error I got when synchronizing Outlook Calendar, Contacts, and Tasks later in the day.

> The Treo 700p battery life: It was low this afternoon, which made me a little concerned about the battery life, but this is still remains to be scene over the next few days.

> Getting Gmail to work with the Treo 700p: While this is not a priority, I will see if I can get an answer on that.

What is coming up tomorrow (day #4):

Tomorrow I will be out of the office most of the day. This is going to create a great opportunity for working with the Treo 700p extensively and relying on it to take care of business. This is likely to include, in addition to the phone/e-mail/calendar functions, using it as a high-speed modem for my laptop, watching for battery life, potentially using the car recharger, installing the Bluetooth headset, browsing the internet, and more. I am also likely to look for some additional add-on applications.

Day #2 of the 81-day experiment, the Treo 700p out-of-the-box

Opening a new box--of almost anything, is a pleasure, so a new box with a Smartphone inside is extra-pleasure. The Treo 700p box included, in addition to the Treo 700p itself, the charger, the sync cable, the headset, the installation and resources CD, and the “read this first” manual, which actually opens up and become a nice chart with step by step instructions, and the quick reference guide.

Following the instructions in the “read me first” chart, I was able to make my first call in just a few minutes. After hanging up, the Treo 700p asked me if I want to add the phone number that I just called to my contacts list, giving me the option to create a new contact, or add it to an existing contact.

Then came the configuration step. This is the step that involves putting the CD in the computer drive and installing the synchronization software and other add-on applications. I could sense that the tension was rising at this point—the experiment is becoming real, with my own computer and data at stake—and my ability to find my contacts and appointments when I need them on the go. I couldn’t help it but think of  prior experiences when a CD that looked harmless at the beginning, or even quite interesting, ended up translating into hours of undoing and redoing, and not to mention the endless technical support calls.

Knowing that I am a Windows user, at least for today, I followed the Windows instructions. Mac users are given Mac instructions which seems just as easy to follow. To my dismay, the whole installation which took about 15 to 20 minutes went seamlessly. The installation program took me step by step through the process, asking only a couple of questions, one of them being whether I want to synchronize with the Palm Desktop or with Outlook, and the other being the user name I would like to assign. The automatic installation process was then able to find the information it needed from my Outlook and asked me to connect the Treo 700p to the USB port using the provided USB sync cable, and it did what it needed to do. When the process was completed, a long log file was generated, telling me things like some recurring calendar entries having been split into individual appointments, and some categories that were longer than 15 characters were truncated-minor and probably harmless details.

I quickly pressed the Calendar button on the Treo 700p and was able to verify that all my appointments were there, and then checked my contacts, and then some tasks. This signifies success and relief! And just a few minutes after I finished the above process, and yet another proof for the smooth synchronization, I heard the Treo 700p beep as a reminder popped up, and just a few seconds after that, I saw Outlook come up with the same reminder. So now I know, they are in sync.

Knowing that the installation and setup went smoothly, this gave me some time to review the e-mail capabilities of the Treo 700p, and the add-on applications that are provided on the CD, and therefore do some planning for day 3 which I outlined below  in the “What is coming up tomorrow” section.

Lessons Learned:

> There is MORE in the box: The Treo 700p seems to have undergone some significant improvement in its ability to get installed and configured easily, and to synchronize with the most popular e-mail application (Microsoft Outlook) without the need for additional 3rd party utilities. In addition it seems to provide a similar installation process for the Mac.

> Usability improvements: The Treo 700p already seems to have some usability improvements. More to be seen in the next few days, but if I remember correctly, I don’t think I was asked whether I would like to add a newly dialed phone number to the contacts list in the past.

> A quick tip that I ran into in the “read me first” guide: To view your Treo 700p phone number (may be helpful initially when you get your Treo 700p), select the phone application, press menu + I, and you will see some information about your device including phone number and software version.

What is coming up tomorrow (day #3):

> Tomorrow is the e-mail day. I will be setting up e-mail so I can receive and send my e-mails from the Treo 700p. The Treo 700p provides Wireless Sync and VersaMail as two e-mail applications that you can use (so I will be choosing one of these applications and then configuring it). This will also give me the opportunity to explore the e-mail capabilities in more detail.

> In addition, tomorrow I will install the other goodies on the installation CD. These are the ones that I chose so far:

- Bejeweled: just in case some play time is needed along the way

- Handmark pocket express: Mainly for maps and directions

- VersaMail: If I decide to use it instead of Wireless Sync

- Treo Voice Dialing, just to check it out and see how the voice recognition technology is developing on these devices.

- Apple Quicktime player: On the desktop to be able to play movies recorded by the Treo 700p.

- Documents to Go professional edition: To get the full functionality of editing and synchronizing Excel, Word, PowerPoint, and PDF documents on the Treo 700p

- Verizon Access Manager: To be able to use the Treo 700p to connect the laptop to the internet

- Windows Media Player: On the desktop in order to be able to manage/download mp3 files to the Treo 700p

> Finally, I will setup voice mail.

This seem to be quite a bit for day 3, but I am eager to get e-mail underway, which makes the device fully usable, and ready for the real-time usability part of the experiment.

Corrections/Additions from yesterday:

> Something I didn’t mention yesterday (August 14) is that when I purchased the Treo 700p and its accessories, I also got the car charger--another useful accessory for the Treo 700p and communication on the go.

Day #1 of the 81-day experiment, the Treo 700p purchase

The experiment just started as I headed down to the Verizon store in San Francisco around 10 am to get the first handheld device which I will use for the next 9 days, before I change to a new device, use it for 9 days, and do this again and again, for the next 81 days. In this 81-day experiment, I hope to capture and share with you my daily observations relating to usability, features, and service, in order to help new users, and users who are seeking to upgrade their devices, select the device that best fits their needs.

On the way, I couldn’t help it but take some pictures of the city--something I might do in the future using the actual devices. Even though they are not relevant to the experiment, I included a few pictures below just to give a feel for the location of the experiment, and the things that caught my attention along the way.

As I arrived to the store, it wasn’t too long before one of the customer service reps greeted me (let us say it was Linda) and asked for what I am looking for. Even though I knew that I would like to walk away today with the Treo 700p, as my first device in this experiment, I still asked for Linda’s recommendation. Linda asked me two important questions; first about my purpose of getting the device and second about what kind of computer I am using.

Linda proceeded to show me the Treo models, indicating that the Treo 700p would be recommended for someone who is familiar with the Palm OS, and it works well with both Windows computers and Macs. She then pointed out that the Treo 700w would be recommended for Windows users who want to have their office applications and their documents on the go, but not ideal for Macs users.

When I asked about the other brands like the BlackBerry(ies) and Motorolla Q—which were close by, I was told that the BlackBerry is ideal for users who are mostly interested in e-mail because it does e-mail very well including on-going e-mail synchronization, and the Motorolla Q, similar to the other Windows Mobile devices, had the Windows advantage for Windows users. Linda also pointed out the Versizon Pocket PC device, which in addition to being a Windows Mobile device, also provided Wi-Fi support. However she pointed out that all these devices provide broadband access, something in the 400 to 700 kbps, and therefore the Wi-Fi support and hotspot access are no longer necessary.

Now thinking about connectivity, I wanted to know whether I can use the Treo 700p to connect my laptop to the Internet. The answer was yes at a cost of $15/month. A topic to be explored further in the upcoming days.

After about half an hour of selecting plans and accessories, I ended up with a total bill of $539.44 which needs some explanation. The Treo 700p retail price was $619.99 but with the 2 year plan, it came down to $399.99. The Bluetooth headset from Motorola added another $49.99, the fancy case $30 or so, and with taxes on phones and other taxes of $59 or so, that brought the total cost to $539.44

This didn’t include the cost of the voice and data plans. The voice plan which included 450 minutes was $39/month, and the data plan was $40/month, and then adding $10/month for text messaging, and $15/month to allow the Treo 700p to act as a broadband modem for the laptop, which brought the monthly plans before taxes to be about $105/month. And don’t forget the $35 one-time-only activation fee.

One thing to note here, is something that Linda mentioned about these Smartphones (the devices there were mentioned above), which is the fact that you cannot get these with devices without committing to a one or two year contract. In other words, you cannot be on a monthly plan that you can easily discontinue. To discontinue the contract, you pay a $175 termination fee. Of course this offsets the discount you got on the device when purchasing the device with the contract. Talking about contracts, you can return the device within 15 days and get your money back. Or you can exchange it with another device also for up to 15 days. However, you can only make one exchange (so I couldn’t just keep exchanging devices every 9 days during the course of this experiment).

Another thing to note here, and this relates more to the network than to the device, is that Verizon’s network (CDMA) does not have coverage/support in most international locations. Knowing that I am not planning trips overseas until late September, I will be able to get away with the Treo 700p, and at least the next 9 days.

In conclusion and some observations:

Lessons confirmed:

> You need to be quite educated about the devices before you head to the retail stores. While the conversation with Linda was informative, it is not by any means enough to take someone through this sea of information and explore their specific needs to bring about a successful decision making process.

> Just like when you purchase a new car, don’t let the price and special offer fool you. Be prepared to spend an additional $200 or more on accessories and $80 to $100 on the monthly plan.

> Keep in mind that if you travel, and if you need to stay connected during your travel, the CDMA network may not be your best friend--something that may not come up in the conversation in the retail store—unless you ask for it.

What is coming up tomorrow (day #2):

> Opening the box—the Treo 700p box, which also means installation, setup, synchronization, and hopefully without the need to call technical support.

Disclaimer:

> Even though I am presenting information about features, plans, and prices, these are only intended to give you some ideas and are only based on one visit to one store, so please take your time to check the facts before you make your decision, and for sure before you make a purchase.

> And of course, all 3rd party brands and names are the property of their respective owners.

Some pictures from San Francisco today: