The Smartphone Refined: Palm’s Centro

This post is about my new cell phone. Although a bit removed from the usual topics of this blog, my previous posts about Sprint mobile phones have proved popular so I thought I would weigh in on my latest purchase, a Palm Centro. As gadget purchases go, this one was unusual. Usually I upgrade phones in order to get a phone with flashy new features or take advantage of a leap forward in technology. While the Centro is certainly more advanced than my previous Treo 650, I’ve found it to be a sophisticated refinement of the Treo line, not a revolutionary leap forward.

When he pulled up my account, the Sprint employee laughed when he saw that my the Treo 650 was three years old. I had kept the device for what is an eternity in the cell phone world precisely because it was such a good device. The standard software made sending text messages a breeze, pulling up my Gmail on the browser was convenient (despite the somewhat slow data service), and I’ve long used the intuitive Palm calendar software to keep track of my schedule on the fly. I upgraded mostly because the device was showing signs of wear. After years of regular use, the “talk” button had started sticking, preventing the phone from turning on without a reset. Occasionally when making calls no sound would come from the earpiece. The connector for the PC cable had become corroded, requiring I back up my data using the slow Bluetooth connection. Finally, I was anxious for a phone with faster data service, a better camera, and a look that didn’t resemble a Star Trek Communicator.

The Centro delivered on those counts, and more. At $99 after rebates and a 2-year contract, the device was much less expensive than others in its class. Instead of the bulging, rounded aesthetic of Treo, the Centro is a sleek, compact device that comes in black or red. Palm retained the extremely convenient external switch to toggle between a silent vibrate and normal ring modes. The QUERTY keyboard is necessarily more compact than the Treo’s, slowing down typing, perhaps the only drawback to the device.

Inside, the software remains largely the same with a host of refinements and improvements. The phone now ships with a chat client (compatible with Yahoo, MSN and AIM but not Jabber), software that allows you to create and view Word, Excel, Powerpoint, PDFs, and text files, the Pocket Tunes audio and video player, Blazer browser, and the slick Google Maps for Palm application. I easily installed Solitaire and Tetris from my old Treo with the built-in Sudoku and Solitaire applications. While I’ve only dabbled with a few, it’s nice to know the device would run a wide variety of existing Palm applications. Migrating my data was simple. To avoid problems, I exported the calendar, contacts, and memo data from my old Treo profile in the Palm Desktop application, set up a new profile for the Centro, and imported the data. (Mac users who have made the mistake of installing iSync should uninstall it and reinstate the old conduits in the Library folder)

I’ve discovered a host of small improvements. The screen is brighter and crisper. The vibrate ring is quieter. The brightness of the screen can be set, and the ringer can “escalate” in volume. The tight integration of the device’s functions continues to be a major strength: as before the device favorites menu is fully customizable and can launch any application, website, or phone number, incoming calls now contain a button to “dismiss with text message,” mobile numbers in the contacts and call log trigger a “message” button to send a text message. Look up anyone with a full address in your contacts and a “map” button pops up that maps the address in Google Maps. Web browsing on Sprint’s network is brisk, although navigating conventional websites remains a bit unwieldy.

Interestingly, I never had trouble with battery life with my old Treo 650, a usual complaint with old cell phones. Despite a large backlit screen, fast processor, and frequent recharging, the phone continued to hold enough charge for over two hours of talk time and 2-3 days of standby. While I haven’t tested it extensively, the Centro’s battery is sufficient but noticeably less than the old Treo. (It has a 1150 mAh battery versus the Treo’s 1800 mAh)

While the iPhone’s potential to merge my phone and iPod into one device is appealing, I’m not sold on the idea of tapping on the screen to type short messages and can’t afford the $400 price tag. Plus, I’m steps from a full-sized computer most times I need it. Compact, refined, and affordable, the Centro seems destined to be a top seller.

See CNet review, official site, Treonauts comparison matrix

The Smartphone World’s ‘Killer Ap’?

Readers of this blog will know I’ve been a happy owner of a Treo 650 since December 2005. The device handles email, simple web browsing, text messaging and Palm Pilot functions well on top of having a great sounding phone with long battery life. Although the software could be better, the device is compact and versatile and works well once set up. Ultimately, the only major drawbacks I found with the device was the somewhat slow speed of the Sprint data network, the low quality of the cameraphone, and quirks in getting some Palm software. The device also doesn’t support email “pushing,” requring you to manually check email.

Readers will also know I was selected to participate in a testing program by Sprint to try out one of their latest phones (The Samsung MM-A920) with high speed data, live TV, and 1.3 megapixel camera, among other features. While impressive on paper, this phone never really excited me. The music store keeps malfunctioning and stops me from being able to download from their library. (And the phone’s earphones are too loud for me - even at the lowest setting) The cameraphone’s software was slow and the images didn’t look as good as the Treo’s despite the higher resolution. And the TV, while a neat party trick, was too small for anything but occasional use. While grateful for the free phone, I’ve generally been using it as a music player only.

Given my preferences and experience, you might assume my “dream device” would be a combination of the best features of both of these phones: a Treo somehow super-powered with broadband data speeds, a better camera, and better multimedia capabilities. It turns out just this week Sprint and Palm announced the Treo 700p, a device that does exactly that. While not a revolutionary device, in my opinion it’s the closest thing to the ideal phone/computing device available.

The only catch? Somehow I’ll have to come up with $650 before the end of May, unless the cell phone fairy visits me again …

>> See Treonauts’ comprehensive 700p coverage

How Fast Is Sprint’s EV-DO?

After I asked about the service, Sprint has activated the phone-as-modem feature of the new Sprint Power Vision phone they sent me to test. The phone takes advantage of Sprint’s high-speed data network (EV-DO) to allow you to watch live and on-demand audio and video, and download and listen to music from their music store. The modem feature lets you use the phone to connect a computer to the web via a USB cable. For more about the cell phone company’s competing data networks, see this PC Magazine article from their February edition.

I had a bit of trouble getting the service to work, due I think to a driver conflict. I’ve installed various programs and drivers to back up data from several Sprint phones and in order to use a slower first-generation card modem last summer, so I think something in the mix was causing my computer to not recognize my Samsung a920. However, once I had uninstalled all of this stuff and re-installed Sprint’s “Connection Manager” software the service worked fine: I plugged it in, and clicked “connect.”

Some casual browsing convinced me the speed was dramatically better from their earlier data network I had used last summer. Wanting to know exactly how fast, I concocted a little experiment. I decided I would run CNet’s Bandwidth meter four times on both the cell phone and my usual Comcast cable modem internet service. The cell phone performed well, rating square in the middle of CNet’s cable modem/DSL range each time, ranging from 482.7 kbps to 761.5 kbps. The Comcast modem performed slightly better, ranging from 614 kbps to 1052.9 kbps. The phone’s average was 644.48 kbps and Comcast’s was 808.85 kbps.

I only have a couple notes on the technology. First, something that irritated me with the earlier service was that their network automatically compressed image files, and a technician told me that while earlier versions of their connection software let you turn it off, the option had been eliminated. While certainly a good idea for mobile devices, their compression technology made some images come out weird colors and made it hard to grab images from the web to manipulate. I’d prefer to turn it off and wait a bit longer. While some webpages I have loaded with the new service appear uncompressed, others show compressed graphics, even though I have the compression turned off in the connection manager software. Second, the USB cord uses the same jack as the power cord, so the phone can’t be running of AC power while you are connected. (I’m assuming it’s not drawing power from the USB cable.)

Sprint is currently charging $80 a month for unlimited data plans, compared to Verizon’s $60, however they currently have a sale making the unlimited data $60 if you already have a Sprint voice line. According to PC Magazine, although the two companies use the same technology Sprint’s network was slightly faster in some places. It strikes me that we are quickly approaching the point where these wireless data services are approaching the cost and speed of DSL or Cable Modems, and when that point is reached I imagine quite a bit could change.

Correction: I’ve been told the phone-as-modem plans are cheaper than the data card plan: “Just a note, our unlimited plans for the Phone As Modem product normally run
for $49.99/mo, with a offer running now for $39.99/mo. Our 40 MB Data Usage plan runs at $39.99/mo with additional data beyond that at $0.001 per KB. I think your pricing was referring to our Connection Cards.”

My New Sprint Phone: First Impressions

Readers of this blog will know that I was recently sent a free cell phone from Sprint to use for 6 months as part of an “ambassadors” program which seems to be both a mechanism to collect feedback about their service, and also promote their new “Power Vision” technology. Basically, the Power Vision network is their new high-speed data network and phones which allows you to watch live and on-demand TV, listen to streaming radio, and download music on-demand. The phone they sent me, the MM-A920, is both a phone and also plays MP3s and streaming content. I am fairly sure they are trying to run a blog payola gig where they give me free stuff with the hopes I’ll write about it, but I decided because I have been gadget obsessed for many years an blogged about my Sprint phones in the past, I didn’t face too much of an ethical quandary about assessing the new phone.

In the world of consumer electronics, I think there’s essentially three categories of applications of new technology. The first is the device rushed to market to be the first with the new technology. Not elegant or easy to use, these devices are for the gadget obsessed and technically minded. The second is a successful application. For the most part it works consistently, and is easy enough to use to develop a wide following. The last is the revolutionary application, so well designed it breaks through into the mass market.

Sprint’s Power Vision Network as I have experienced on the Samsung MM-A920 is definitely in the second category. The technology works, and works well and consistently enough to warrant praise. I can watch TV live or on demand, search for and download high quality music, and access other data services. Yet the complex nature of Sprint’s technology means this product will never rival the mass market enjoyed by truly revolutionary products like Apple’s iPod.

What do I mean?

To start, every Sprint customer has three passwords: their Sprint account web login, their Sprint PCS mail password, and their Vision (data) password. Furthermore, every phone has at least two email addresses: the automatically assigned Sprint PCS mail account, as well as the email address of the device (5555551212@messaging.sprintpcs.com, for example). It is my impression the complexity of the company’s services is due to the unique characteristics of their network. They spent a lot of money early on to build a digital network which means they can offer seamless digital coverage in most urban areas, however because the network is slightly older they have added a number of new systems on top of existing technology to offer new services.

As an example of this patchwork effect, in my phone’s messaging menu I can send an SMS text message, a “Picture Mail,” a voice SMS, an IM, or an email. Although I know these are separated for technical reasons, to the user they mostly function the same way. Thus efforts to fuse them — such as Google’s merging to IM and email into one application — are successful. The same pattern occurs on the multimedia front. My phone contains two places to access music – a music application connected to the “Sprint music store” and also another media application where I can listen to media clips I’ve added to my player. These duplicities in the technology are tolerable to the engineer’s mind, but deal-breakers for the general public.

Complexity aside the phone’s designers have built in too many technical restrictions to the phone for my liking. The phone has Bluetooth, but it cannot be used to send files (like images or music). It has a USB cord, but the cord can only be used to use the phone as a modem, not to back up (or in my case, populate) the address book, synch the calendar, or copy music and images. In order to add music to the MP3 player I have to remove a tiny “transflash” memory chip, insert it into an “adapter” which makes it fit a standard SD card reader, and they connect that to my computer. And although I have plenty of technology laying around, it turns out I don’t have an SD card reader. If you are confused, it is for good reason: I would assume very few people would go thorough such a hassle to listen to music they already have on their computer. The rest will simply stick to their idiot-proof, plug-it-in-and-it-works iPod. That’s why this phone will never be a revolutionary device despite its impressive technical features.

The considerations above aside, the core functions of the phone seem to work quite well. As for the phone audio quality, I think my Treo 650 sounds better, but the quality on this phone I think is pretty standard for a Sprint flip phone. Although I haven’t watched it a whole lot, the streaming video looks to work well, if it a low quality and very small image size on the screen. I noticed both CSPAN, CSPAN2, and the Weather Channel are included in the basic channel package. I thought these could have interesting mobile applications: DC folks could track votes on the hill from anywhere, and people could monitor extreme weather, as long as the cell coverage held up. I have also enjoyed the ability to find and download MP3s directly to my phone, although I have found their music store’s library is much smaller than Apple’s iTunes store. I could only find one song by The Shins and one by The Killers, but those with a taste to mainstream corporate radio music will find quite a bit to keep themselves occupied. I also found the normal $2-$2.50 price for each song quite steep, compared to iTune’s going rate of $.99 per song.

While the phone is fun to play with, I have decided given the choice I would prefer my Treo 650 although the Treo has more limited functionality. Although it contains its own quirks, the Palm OS is much more flexible than Sprint’s rigid software, the although the camera is much lower quality I think it works better, and the device can be used to play music just like the fancy Samsung. Luckily for me there’s talk of a new, Palm-based Treo, that will support Sprint’s fast data network with more of the multimedia bells and whistles.

Calling all Power Vision Ambassadors

I’ve created a Google Group for participants of Sprint’s Power Vision Ambassador program. To join just click the link and tell me the name of your blog, or point me to where you blogged about joining. What do you think Sprint is trying to do with the program? How did they find your blog? I’m not really sure where this is heading, but it thought it would be interesting to hook up with some other participants.

I figure after a number of people join I may put together a directory of participants.

The Cell Phone Fairy Cometh

Those who know me well know I have had something of a complex relationship with Sprint. They’re the cell phone company everyone loves to hate, and in my nearly four years with them I have had my share of customer service problems and billing irregularities. I also paid far more than my fair share of huge phone bills when I went over my minutes. Yet, I never switched because when I investigated options competitor’s plans didn’t seem that much better, and Sprint kept me locked in 2-year service plans (with the $200 penalty to quit) as a result of my habit of modifying my plan. Also, their service for the places I lived in Ann Arbor, Maine, and Washington, D.C. was generally pretty good. As a result, I bought their fanciest phones and stuck with them.

This weekend, I got an unusual email from something called the “Sprint Ambassador Program,” which I think is some kind of sophisticated marketing project. (More on that later.) They said that they are testing their new high-speed data network (I am assuming EV-DO), and wanted to know if I would like a phone with:

six months of all-access service (at no charge). You’’ll have access to the Sprint Music Store(SM) live TV broadcasts, gaming and more. Yes, you will also have unlimited free calling and data service.

After scouring the terms and conditions it appears the offer is without any strings — I can send them as much feedback as I like, and get to keep the phone after the 6 months are up. Yes folks, this was cell phone nirvana. And I didn’t even have to send my bank account number to a middle man in Nigeria. Of course I signed up, and am awaiting for my new Samsung MM-A920 to come in the mail. This is one of Sprint’s newest phones and retails for $300. It comes with a 1.3 megapixel digital camera and all the latest bells and whistles: high speed web browsing, gaming, live TV, and the ability to download and listen to music.

The email they sent me says I was identified through this website, which has left me wondering exactly how they found it. Perhaps they were just looking for some blogs in the D.C. area to test the network, or perhaps they stumbled across one of the few times I wrote about Sprint phones. I also stumbled across this tidbit about how Sprint is testing another high speed data network in D.C., so perhaps I’m not even an EV-DO tester.

After doing some further googling, it seems Sprint has sent phones to at least a hundred (possibly a lot more) bloggers recently. I imagine this is all part of a “viral marketing” campaign of some sort as they don’t seem too interested in the feedback part. Buzzmachine speculates it’s an advertising campaign, pearsonified thinks it shows great marketing saavy, this blogger spins the experience into a odd story, another blogger wonders why they chose him and his non-A-list blog, Gawker’s Consumerist is in the program, and one blogger has even posted some photos they’ve taken with their free phone to Flickr. And here I am, blogging away about Sprint.

I must say, if the brave new world of viral marketing means more free stuff for me, I’m all for it.

Gadgets, Get Yer Gadgets

Today I broke down and purchased a Treo 650. Before I wasn’t exactly in the technological dark ages, but using a slightly obscure smartphone manufactured by Samsung called the i500 (all the way on the left). The phone worked fine and had a solid OS, but like many older phones didn’t support SMS messaging. To paraphrase a friend, it had enough features for anyone but me. In addition to sporting beautiful SMS software, the Treo has a digital camera, supports bluetooth, has greatly enhanced email functionality, and an expansion slot for an SD memory card which allows you to convert it into a MP3 player.

In an effort to help fund my purchase I have put a variety of phones I had lying around up for sale on eBay, my first attempt at selling. I am selling two Samsung i500s, one Sanyo 6400 (middle) with a cracked screen but with tons of batteries and parts, and a barely-used Sprint Connection Card for a laptop that lets you surf the web anywhere on their network.

Care to bid? With no reserves, how can you resist …