New Treo PDA
- Thread starter poewood
- Start date
Both PlecoDict and Oxford E&C work quite well on the Treo 600 (I've been using one since we started development on PlecoDict) - actually there is a bug that can occasionally cause crashes when entering text, but it mostly affects the 650 and it's already been fixed for the next update.
I just switched to a 650 in the hope of getting PlecoDict running similarly well on that, but it may be rather unstable in the first beta release at least - the basic search features etc should work pretty well, but you may encounter problems with flashcards and particularly with custom dictionary entries. We're certainly planning to do what we can to fix those, though.
In general, I would not personally recommend the 650 to ANYONE at the moment (in fact I should probably update the "which Palm do I buy" page to reflect my recent experiences) - my 650 at least seems to be horribly buggy, and even without any Pleco or other third-party software installed it frequently crashes, resets itself, freezes up, etc. And when I do install software on it it just gets even worse. Hopefully palmOne will come up with a firmware update soon that will fix a lot of these problems, but for right now I really don't think the extra features are worth the aggravation.
I just switched to a 650 in the hope of getting PlecoDict running similarly well on that, but it may be rather unstable in the first beta release at least - the basic search features etc should work pretty well, but you may encounter problems with flashcards and particularly with custom dictionary entries. We're certainly planning to do what we can to fix those, though.
In general, I would not personally recommend the 650 to ANYONE at the moment (in fact I should probably update the "which Palm do I buy" page to reflect my recent experiences) - my 650 at least seems to be horribly buggy, and even without any Pleco or other third-party software installed it frequently crashes, resets itself, freezes up, etc. And when I do install software on it it just gets even worse. Hopefully palmOne will come up with a firmware update soon that will fix a lot of these problems, but for right now I really don't think the extra features are worth the aggravation.
lars-petersson
Member
Anything new on the Treo 650?
Mike,
those were harsh words on the Treo 650 in this as well as some other thread, has there been any new positive development since then? I'm interested in having a portable electronic Chinese software, and currently thinking about the combination Pleco/Treo 650. Pleco would be a prime motivator to get a PDA, so it would be a shame if it wouldn't work well. On the other hand, I like to get a PDA with a lot of bells and whistles, hoping that it wont become outdated too fast.
Your presence in the forum almost seems superhuman, responding to almost every post, it seems, but I would really like your latest assessment.
Thanks,
Lars.
Mike,
those were harsh words on the Treo 650 in this as well as some other thread, has there been any new positive development since then? I'm interested in having a portable electronic Chinese software, and currently thinking about the combination Pleco/Treo 650. Pleco would be a prime motivator to get a PDA, so it would be a shame if it wouldn't work well. On the other hand, I like to get a PDA with a lot of bells and whistles, hoping that it wont become outdated too fast.
Your presence in the forum almost seems superhuman, responding to almost every post, it seems, but I would really like your latest assessment.
Thanks,
Lars.
Hi Lars,
if you can wait another three months maybe it's worth having a look at some PPC smartphones like the I-mate JAM (= XDA II mini). PlecoDict for PPC will be out in September (counting on you Mike
and the I-mate JAM just works, looks great and got rave reviews (and has enough bells and whistles as well, I think).
mai
if you can wait another three months maybe it's worth having a look at some PPC smartphones like the I-mate JAM (= XDA II mini). PlecoDict for PPC will be out in September (counting on you Mike
and the I-mate JAM just works, looks great and got rave reviews (and has enough bells and whistles as well, I think).mai
lars-petersson: there have been a few positive developments, the new ROM update for CDMA devices seems to have fixed a lot of problems and it's supposedly coming soon for GSM ones. There's no inherent reason why PlecoDict shouldn't work well on the Treo 650, so if/when they fix the problems with the OS it should be a perfectly good system to run PlecoDict on.
I have been using Plecodict through all the various betas to the current version on an unlocked GSM Treo 650. There were minor problems with some of the betas but Mike fixed those and now I am very happy with it.
It was very stable on the original firmware. I just installed version 1.23 of the firmware for the GSM phones which is not the final version nor even an official version and it is also very stable on this firmware. The final version for GSM, 1.25, is supposed to be out very soon. There is also supposed to be a new update coming out for the CDMA phones which were updated once already.
If you use Plecodict on a Treo 650 I recommend you also install AltKey which allows you to use the Alt key to bring up the command bar with the Instant Access icon on it. This means you cannot use the Alt key to access symbols on the keypad but Alt "k" brings up a keyboard that includes them. It is much easier to find them on a keyboard than to memorize where they are on the keypad. Mike does have a DA to do this but then you have add other software to launch that.
I should add that I do not have a lot of extra software installed on my Treo 650 and you may find some instability if you install apps that conflict with Plecodict.
I think the Treo 650 is one of the nicest platforms for Plecodict available. Also, I hate carrying things so having Plecodict on my phone is nice.
It was very stable on the original firmware. I just installed version 1.23 of the firmware for the GSM phones which is not the final version nor even an official version and it is also very stable on this firmware. The final version for GSM, 1.25, is supposed to be out very soon. There is also supposed to be a new update coming out for the CDMA phones which were updated once already.
If you use Plecodict on a Treo 650 I recommend you also install AltKey which allows you to use the Alt key to bring up the command bar with the Instant Access icon on it. This means you cannot use the Alt key to access symbols on the keypad but Alt "k" brings up a keyboard that includes them. It is much easier to find them on a keyboard than to memorize where they are on the keypad. Mike does have a DA to do this but then you have add other software to launch that.
I should add that I do not have a lot of extra software installed on my Treo 650 and you may find some instability if you install apps that conflict with Plecodict.
I think the Treo 650 is one of the nicest platforms for Plecodict available. Also, I hate carrying things so having Plecodict on my phone is nice.
A
Anonymous
Guest
How about battery life - isn't using your phone for both learning Chinese and making phone calls a bit too much for the battery?