On Wed, 24 May 2006, Loren H. Burlingame wrote:

> I have one of the EVDO phones. I have had no problem creating a SLIP 
> connection to it via bluetooth. It is very handy to have an internet 
> connection wherever you go (within the metro area).

I have an old Treo 600, and I like it.  The new Treo 700p looks like a 
nice update.  The Treo 700w is crap - it runs Windows, but at a *lower* 
screen resolution than the older Treo 650!  It looks like the Treo 700p is 
much better than the old 600 or 650 (more info below).

The Sprint Treo 700p (just coming out in the next week or so, I think, or 
maybe it just came out) will do both EVDO and bluetooth.  I looked at 
Sprint's pages and it looks to me like EVDO is very limited to the metro 
areas of larger cities and it will probably cost $60 per month.  Right now 
with Sprint I get their unlimited internet service for my Treo 600 for 
$15/mo., and it works wherever I have Sprint coverage.  Of course it's 
only about 50 kbps, but still, should I want to pay $60/mo for EVDO? 
Does anyone know if that is really what Sprint will charge?

Linux related:  I actually run vncviewer on the Treo 600 and use it to 
connect to a Linux machine.  That can be handy.

Here is more about the new Treo 700p (I don't work for them!):

http://www.palm.com/us/products/smartphones/treo700p/
http://news.google.com/news?q=%22treo+700p%22

It has twice the resolution of the 600 in both the display and in photos 
(4 times the pixels as the Treo 600 -- 320x320 display and 1280x1024 
photos with white balance).  It can record video and do live TV, they say. 
But the best improvement, I guess, is that it does EvDO (a.k.a., EV-DO) 
and can act as a modem for a laptop. They claim that average download 
speeds exceed 400 kbps.  It also does bluetooth, but it doesn't do 
ordinary wifi.  It has tons more memory than the Treo 600.  It's supposed 
to have a Powerpoint, Word and PDF viewer and be able to display email 
attachments such as photos or documents.  It can do GMail, they say.

Details:

http://www.palm.com/us/products/smartphones/treo700p/pdf/Treo700p_ds.pdf

(Don't miss the footnotes in fine print on the lower left.)

Mike