Former Treo Users - What do you miss?

[algee650]

I've had my Pre for about 2 weeks (on unit #2) and I think I'm gonna stick with it. At first I wasn't sure, so I kept my Treo 755p just in case.

Well today I started gathering all-things Treo to put together my ebay/CL package.I fired up the Treo (probably for the last time ) and noticed how much I have grown accustomed to things...things I will sorely miss and know will never see on the Pre.

1) The rocker - Being able to navigate with one hand is priceless. And knowing when you select something (middle button), it's going to be selected.

2) The keyboard - Considering it's size and crampness, the Pre's keyboard is pretty decent. But I used to be able to haul freakin a** on my Treo's keyboard. I mean it got to the point where I wasn't even looking anymore..haha...The big buttons and spacing were perfect!

3) Expandable storage - For obvious reasons. I know WebOS is supposed to revolutionize how we treat our phones; not so much a storage device, but a device that can easily grab our content stored on the web seamlessly...I'd still like to have that option to store more than 8gb on my device.

[irateb]

#1 and #3 are the two things I missed the most. I think I'll get used to the keyboard, it's just a tad bit smaller IMO. Once I get some equivalent of keycaps and Good Messaging, then I'll be able to stop thinking about my 700P.

[whitesmoke]

#1 notification alerts (esp with butler)
#2 notification alerts (esp with butler)
#3 notification alerts (esp with butler)

[TreoRock]

I miss my Treo apps. Soo many I love and now they are all gone! I refuse to pay for classic at a beta stage. It is too expensive for what it is right now.

[btuchten]

From my 700p I miss:

1. The list of quick texts from sms
2. A real sudoku game
3. More sound customization
4. Definitely the rocker.

[scuba_steve]

5-way d-pad & SD cards...yep I agree. I can live with the keyboard since it gives me a screen larger than the Treo's in a form factor smaller than a G1.



Other items that I miss from my 700P:

- Copy text in *any* app
- Browser: page optimization, download images and files from the web
- Email app: Select all, mark all as read, delete all, empty trash, auto delete old files from trash, and time windows for email polling (and when not to)
- Homes screens...like those provided by TakePhone, DialByPhoto, etc.
- Notification light...with Butler
- Filez
- Real global search for local data
- A decent MP3 player
- A decent video player
- Tank-like build
- Huge battery


That said, the non-standard headphone jack sucked, the phone was a heavy brick, the screen was tiny, it crashed all of the time, and the OS was incredibly stale and tired. For everything I miss, there are 2 or 3 WebOS features that I love...and I am hopeful that new software will address almost all of my concerns...except for that D-pad and the SD card slot. I will always miss those.

[algee650]

Originally Posted by scuba_steve

5-way d-pad & SD cards...yep I agree. I can live with the keyboard since it gives me a screen larger than the Treo's in a form factor smaller than a G1.



Other items that I miss from my 700P:

- Copy text in *any* app
- Browser: page optimization, download images and files from the web
- Email app: Select all, mark all as read, delete all, empty trash, auto delete old files from trash, and time windows for email polling (and when not to)
- Homes screens...like those provided by TakePhone, DialByPhoto, etc.
- Notification light...with Butler
- Filez
- Real global search for local data
- A decent MP3 player
- A decent video player
- Tank-like build
- Huge battery


That said, the non-standard headphone jack sucked, the phone was a heavy brick, the screen was tiny, it crashed all of the time, and the OS was incredibly stale and tired. For everything I miss, there are 2 or 3 WebOS features that I love...and I am hopeful that new software will address almost all of my concerns...except for that D-pad and the SD card slot. I will always miss those.

Great points! Totally agree with you - for everything I'll miss on the treo, the Pre has that many more features; ones that take the smartphone experience to the next level (the multitasking alone!!)

[dcigary]

1) My Crosswords from Standalone, Inc. And I refuse to buy Classic just so I can play crosswords! C'mon, Standalone, make a port!

[Carioca_FL]

- An indicator light (the Pre would look really slick with a nice, discreet light near one of its corners. Of course, in all their wisdom, Palm would fail to have an option to disable it.

- The 5-way rocker. Why they didn't make the Pre's button a rolling ball like in the BB still amazes me. It would make navigation so much cleaner -you'd still have the option of either doing on screen gestures/touches or using the ball.

- Windows Me-style boot process. Have you EVER seen a slower phone booting up? Luckily, I've set myself to "reboot it" only on occasion, but still.

Let me add what I don't miss from ANY of my previous Treos:

- ugly (but functional) UI
- slow (granted, native apps like Calendar -a working in progress on the Pre- were wicked fast

[preczmisst]

Vindigo. Vindigo. Vindigo.

see jasondevitt dot .com

[willyrick]

Voice Dial / command

[Vince_K]

I REALLY miss:

D-pad
Cut and paste
one-handability (you treo owners know what i mean)


I kinda miss:

indicator light
reliable alarm / world clock
amazing battery life
bejeweled
indestructibility


I DON'T miss

big heavy brick of a phone
non standard everything plugs
needing to sync to my pc
outdated interface (an atari looking interface in a world of PS3s )
did I mention how big and heavy it was?
less then stellar web browser
no landscape mode

[ruffrydasean]

I agree that the button shoulda a scrolling ball like the blackberry. I don't really use it for switchin apps. It would be nice for it to be customizable...

[Gompers]

Originally Posted by Carioca_FL

- An indicator light (the Pre would look really slick with a nice, discreet light near one of its corners. Of course, in all their wisdom, Palm would fail to have an option to disable it.

- The 5-way rocker. Why they didn't make the Pre's button a rolling ball like in the BB still amazes me. It would make navigation so much cleaner -you'd still have the option of either doing on screen gestures/touches or using the ball.

- Windows Me-style boot process. Have you EVER seen a slower phone booting up? Luckily, I've set myself to "reboot it" only on occasion, but still.

Let me add what I don't miss from ANY of my previous Treos:

- ugly (but functional) UI
- slow (granted, native apps like Calendar -a working in progress on the Pre- were wicked fast

I miss the rocker too, but I can understand why Palm didn't want to bring it along.
Having the rocker fundamentally changes how you can interact with various apps. It creates headaches for developers as well, thinking about how you are going to actually interact with their application.

I think it's something I'll get used to, in time, but I do miss the pad.

Things I miss?

To be honest, there aren't very many, and they are mostly minor.

Slingplayer/Kinoma/Media apps.
Obviously these things will come with time, and webos has MUCH better underpinnings for this sort of stuff.

The calendar was much better, on PalmOS IMO. I miss being able to see "No Time" events in the month view. I'd often block out whole days for trips that way. It's hard to see what's going on sometimes.

On that vein, having categories for events is nice too. I've sort of gotten around this by using different calendars for different things, but I still miss it.

I miss having the keyboard always available too. It's not a huge deal with the slider and all, and obviously the screen on the Pre is simply gorgeous compared to the 755, but I do miss it.

Battery life is a bit worse on the pre, but not THAT much worse.

Intelligolf (though I honestly haven't tried it in classic...I don't have enough apps to make it worth 30 bucks to me)

VPN connectivity (probably easily do-able)

Tethering - not a dealbreaker, but it's an important feature.

And the other big thing is customization.

Honestly, all the things I miss will be on their way, I'm sure.

The only thing I fear that might not be fixed anytime soon is signal issues. The pre just doesn't quite have the same coverage my 755 did (RSSI with the two sitting side by side is a good 10 points worse on the pre). It's not a dealbreaker, but it'd be nice to have the same coverage or better.

The phone form factor I miss the most was the Kyocera 7135. I loved the clamshell, and not having to worry about scratching the screen constantly. If the radios didn't frag themselves all the time in those things, that would be the phone I'd probably have carried longer than any other. Having analog coverage in the middle of nowhere was handy too.

Things I don't miss:

Having to carry around an extra GPS dongle to use tomtom

Tiny screen

Blazer - GOOD LORD do I not miss Blazer

Google Maps on the Treo was way worse than the current version on the pre, IMO. Just having your location available is huge.

Having a "dead" OS. For all intents and purposes, PalmOS has been dead for years now.

As a decade-long PalmOS smartphone user, the Pre is about 85% to where the Treo was in terms of functionality, but it contains a whole bunch of stuff that is vital moving forward that just didn't exist on PalmOS.

The most important thing, is that WebOS has a future.

[eharty]

- D-pad
- Sturdier build
- Ability to customize everything
- Datebk6

[dpetersman]

Gee lets see...

Like you guy mentioned,

• Customizable alert sounds
• Colored Calendar events
• Actually a REAL calender all together... pre one SUCKS
• Tethering
• ability to assign a specific ring tone to a blocked or un-known caller
• navigation button... i find it difficult to hit just the right spot if i have go go back and edit something i typed or correct spelling. (apple did this well with the little hourglass thingie)
• Full version of Docs to go
• Ability to actually download a document from e-mail and go figure... be able to read it.
• Universal search including calendar events, contacts,...
• Copy and Paste that's actually functional & can carry from one app to another. ( I do a lot of copying from docs into my calendar.) With c/p too, Apple did a FAR better job. the pre's for me anyway is virtually useless & difficult to use.
• Battery life (just gimme a DAY! that's all i ask!!
• Smilies in texting. (stupid i know but i liked 'em)
• Solitaire

Those are *almost* enough for me to return my Pre. Don't get me wrong, I REALLY like the Pre, and the browser is LEAPS AND BOUNDS better then Blazer. But it's hard for me to understand why Palm would design a spiffy new state of the art phone that doesn't do some of the basic functions there previous models did. Honesty I didn't hate Palm os. Give me my 755p squeezed into the pre's body & i'll do cartwheels! In the meantime, i'll be chomping at the bit for updates hoping at least *some* of those issues get addressed.

[groovy]

I miss that heavy brick-like feeling in my pocket. And I miss being able to drop-kick it without having to worry too much about anything but my toes.

Actually, I don't miss too much about the hardware. My only reservation is the keyboard. I like the Pre keyboard and having a bigger screen, but also liked the easy access on the Treo keyboard.

[sacherjj]

On Friday, when I picked up my Pre, I was sure that I was going to miss all my apps. Now it is Monday night (ok Tuesday Morning) and I'm trying to remember which apps those were, besides some of the games. It is harder than I thought it would be.

CallRec was cool for both Voice Memos and for not having to write down things during a call. Just go back an listen.

I do miss one handedness, coming from Treo 600, 650, 700, 755p. But I am getting better at thumb flipping and starting. I can now one hand start apps and close them pretty well. It turns out to be faster than with the Treo.

A good eBook reader. MobiPocket is really no more, since Amazon decided to buy them to kill them and force the Kindle everywhere. No WebOS version of that. So I'm really wanting a good auto scrolling eBook reader. Might start working on this if I don't see anyone else taking it up in the next few weeks. I'm sure I'll get back to reading more eBooks once the blast of new media available subsides.

Snapper mail had nice keyboard navigation. O for next, I for previous, D to delete and go to next message. This would really speed up reading through email. I might hack the standard email client for that functionality.

Oh, yes. How can we forget USB Modem. However, half or more of the things I had to tether for are now possible on the Pre. This need isn't gone, but severely reduced.

The speed of the Pre and instant updates for Twitter, Email, SMS and clean, quick handling of these makes me just want to help getting those missing things on the Pre.

One thing I noticed while taking a phone call in the car today is the improvement of the mic over the Treo. More than once, my wife asked if I was there. The Treo used to ramp up amplification if you weren't talking, so ambient noise came through really bad. I was driving my '96 Maxima with 282k miles on it, so there is a little ambient noise there. She said it was almost dead silent on the other end when I wasn't talking. That is a good improvement.

Edit: Almost forgot about downloading from the browser, along with opening Zip files if needed. Almost didn't mention it, because I'm sure the Pre will have it in the future, just doesn't now.

[realistdreamer]

Originally Posted by Vince_K

I REALLY miss:

D-pad
one-handability (you treo owners know what i mean)


I kinda miss:

amazing battery life
indestructibility


I DON'T miss

big heavy brick of a phone
non standard everything plugs
needing to sync to my pc
outdated interface (an atari looking interface in a world of PS3s )
did I mention how big and heavy it was?
less then stellar web browser
no landscape mode

I'm sitting here looking at my Verizon 700p and my Sprint Centro and I agree with the above items from your list. After getting used to the Centro keyboard, I forgot how "roomy" my 700p was. The Centro was close to "pocketable" but the Pre is in another league. I also miss the hackability and apps. Something tells me that even though it's based on Linux, hackability won't be as great. I sorta hope I'm wrong, but I also don't want too many stories of software incompatibility making the phone useless.

[bennyandthesets]

Video.
Bigger keupad.
Snagging things from the web.

Not enough to think twice about it.
LOVE yhe Pre