The Treo uses Palm OS 3.5, which lets me synchronize with Microsoft Outlook or Lotus Notes. Because I use Outlook, I can easily synch my email, calendar, contacts, to-do list, and notes. For email, I downloaded a free 2bAnywhere email client from http://www.2banywhere.com. After configuring my two POP3 accounts and my Hotmail account, I was sending and receiving email wirelessly from all three accounts. 2bAnywhere is integrated with my Outlook contacts, so all my email accounts are just a few taps away. 2bAnywhere even handles attachments, so I can wirelessly download an attached Microsoft Word document, for example, and view it on my Treo.
Several Palm-based solutions are available for accessing and synching up with Microsoft Exchange and Notes mail servers, including TreoMail and Sprint PCS Business Connection. If you're supporting a group of users, you can purchase server versions of the software that centrally manage the synchronization process. If you're trying to configure support for one device, the desktop versions require that you leave your desktop PC connected but secure, and the Treo will access your corporate email wirelessly through your desktop PC connection.
The Treo 300 also supports voice-dialing commands for an additional $5 a month. With voice dialing, you can say "Call Mark Smith at work" and the Treo will locate the Mark Smith contact record and dial the phone number stored in the work field. (This feature is not the same as programming your phone to recognize your voice.) This feature uses Sprint's computers for voice recognition, which has been 100 percent accurate regardless of who speaks the voice command. No programming is required. I'm not aware of any other companies that offer this feature.
Overall, I'm happy with my Treo 300. Yes, I lust after Wi-Fi access when I see the Wi-Fi signs at the airport. If Wi-Fi support were a must-have for me, I would use the iPAQ H5455 and Ericsson R520 Bluetooth phone combination, which would require carrying two devices. With the Treo 300, I can get my email quickly while riding in the taxi from the airport—I give up high-speed access in favor of adequate-speed access from every major city in the United States. The Treo 300 also supports international roaming, so if I'm in Europe, for example, I can receive and send phone calls to and from my own phone number. And because I'm plugging all my important data into my Treo, it would be nice to have the thumbprint security like the iPAQ H5455. The Treo 300 does have password protection, which works but isn't quite as easy to use as a thumb scan.
I'm sure something better than my pick will come out within a few months, but for now, the device I chose has given me an amazing amount of mobile freedom in a very small package. It's not perfect—but almost.
Corrections to this Article:
- In Mark Smith's Fast Forward: "(Almost) Perfect Devices" (May 2003, http://www.winnetmag
.com, InstantDoc ID 38481), the speed of Sprint's 3G Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) network was listed incorrectly. The download speed is 40 to 70 kilobits per second, not kilobytes per second.