I have been a Palm user since the Palm V back in 2000. When my Palm V screen decided to give out on me, I moved to a Palm m515. My m515 still works great. But when I broke my cell phone, I decided maybe it was time to go smartphone. After months of weighting the factors, I bought a Cingular PalmOne Treo 650, with an unlimited data plan. The following are my thoughts on the device, given my four weeks of experience with it.

First off. It isn’t the most stable device compared to the other Palm devices I’ve owned. The Blazer web browser is very unstable, and the device sometimes will reset when it suddenly loses signal when connected to a data service. I don’t like that I can’t remove the built in ROM applications or use the ROM (I’m a long time user of JackFlash), and I don’t like that an update hasn’t been released to fix the 512K size problem that is eating my internal memory (they released it for Sprint, how about us GSM users?).

Lets talk applications. While I love using, hacking and releasing open source software, I don’t mind buying software that is worth the price. Why reinvent the wheel? For email, I purchased SnapperMail Enterprise Edition. Worth every penny. For a launcher, I went with ZLauncher. The software works well. For very clean, polished and free themes for ZLauncher check Darrin’s Den. The Blazer web browser works okay in a pinch but probably is the most unstable application I’ve ever continued using. I dislike it so much, I’m actively considered attempting to port Minimo Mozilla to Palm, which as I understand it would be a miracle to make work.

Lets talk open source. I’m using TCPMP for playing back video and audio. I haven’t had any problem with it what so ever (I tested it by converting an episode of Ed and running MP3’s through it), but it still is early in development. Otherwise, I’m not running many open source applications as of yet; BigClock seems to have issues, and I see lots of freeware but no code to hack.

Lets talk hacking. When I heard that Palm was charging $10 for a 2.5mm to 3.5mm stereo jack, it gave me an idea. I went and bought a similar converter for $4 at Radio Shack. I then purchased a $20 iPod 3.5mm to car cassette player that allows music to be pumped into your car stereo via tape deck (yes, my car has both a CD/tape deck which most cars don’t any more). Sure enough, I was using TCPMP to play MP3’s via MMC/SD card in my car in no time flat. I then decided to add a car mount, but again, my options looked unappealing. Enter ProClipUSA. These nice people have just about every type of mount made specific to your device, as well as your car. I purchased a Treo 650 tilt swivel and the appropriate car mounting plate for my car, and it simply works like a dream. A little pricey, but worth every penny.

Overall thoughts. I love the Treo 650, even with the stability issues with the web browser. The email alone is worth it when I’m on the road and don’t have or can’t get to my laptop. It keeps in contact with work a lot better then I thought it would to tell you the truth. I’ve only scratched the surface of this device, but I’m certain that I will come to find more uses and hacks.