Palm Treo 700p - it’s real!

Palm say they are “Demonstrating [their] commitment to providing mobile professionals with a choice of smartphone operating systems“. I say “they are demonstrating their commitment to the endangered Palm OS“. But then I’m a born cynic. Anyway, since November there have been rumours about a Palm OS based Treo being launched after the new Windows version this month. Many rumours followed, and people even created software so that their Palm applications would work on the dreaded Windows version of the best selling Treo. And after all that, Palm have launched a 5.4.9 based device.

So was it worth all the fuss and stress and gossip? Well first a quick recap for those of you not faithfully following the saga: Palm announced the launch of the Treo 700w (w for windows), a Windows OS based Palm product (gasp!). There was outcry among the dedicated Palm-ites and whoops of joy from those who love the Treo for it’s functionality but loathe its lack of versatility in this Microsoft dominated universe. Then rumours floated out about a Treo 700p (p for palm) to be released at the same time! Then it wasn’t…but now it’s here, well in America. So there you go, anyway, what’s so special about this shiny new Smartphone from Palm?

Well, according to the press release, faster connection speeds (EvDO), dial up networking, more memory, and a built in streaming program for live TV, movie clips, radio etc. It also has a 1.3 megapixel camera and video recorder combined with new software to make it easier to create slideshows and edit your photos. The phone quality has been improved apparently, and there is now better support for Microsoft Outlook and for Good Link and other Push email programs.

So, high spec, rich multimedia, faster, bigger - what more could you ask for? Answers on a post card (or just leave a comment below).

For the full press release from Palm click here.

To read all the previous Treo articles click here.