palmOne recently launched in Spain the Treo 650 smartphone, initially through Movistar with prices starting at 499 € (the device will cost 699 € in free mode). The 650 comes to join the Treo 600, the world’s best selling smartphone. For users of each model, we have selected the 10+1 essential Treo applications that should have been included as standard.
palmOne’s Treo is an excellent hybrid of cellphone and personal assistant. Unlike other products in the market, the manufacturer is already in its fifth generation of PDA/cellphones (Visor Phone, Treo 180, Treo 270/Treo 300, Treo 600 and Treo 650), having gained an expertise that is missing from the ranges of other companies that are still in their first or second generation.
However, even with such expertise, there are many third-party niches and applications that enable maximizing the telephone/PDA features. As a Palm OS-base device, the Treo can run virtually every application designed for this operating system, starting at CanalPDA’s 10+1 Palm Essentials.
In this article we will focus on the main software apps and tools that every Treo user, specially of the model 600, should consider in order to benefit the most from his/her device. Some of the programs can also be used with other Palm OS devices.
1. QSetApp
Anyone who has used the Treo 600′s built-in photo camera has noticed that the picture quality is, being generous, dreadful. QSetApp is a small freeware utility that allows improving the image quality by changing the compression index of the generated JPEG files. Applying less compression makes bigger files, but the pictures improve enough to become usable.
Make no mistake: no Treo can replace an actual digital camera, but it’s useful for taking pictures where one cannot bring a camera, or for snapping mugshots of your telephone contacts.
License: Freeware
Languages: English
2a. KeyCaps600
The most distinctive feature of the Treo 600 is its full QWERTY keyboard. However, if you are going to use it regularly for data input, even if just for keying people names and phone numbers, KeyCaps600 will make your life much easier.
KeyCaps600 allows writing uppercase letters by keeping the key pressed a bit longer (instead of pressing the shift key at the same time); also, for writing the special character of each key (numbers, math symbols), you just press the key twice, in rapid succession.
License: Freeware (the author accepts donations)
Languages: English
2b. Graffiti Anywhere
This tool is not Treo-specific at all, but many seasoned Palm users find it essential. A basic Treo feature is the QWERTY keyboard and the lack of a grafitti area, a section of the screen reserved for handwriting, that has been the traditional input method in Palm OS devices.
Grafitti Anywhere enables such handwriting recognition, but you can use the whole screen area for writing letters, numbers and symbols. Personally I don’t miss this feature: I’ve never reached grafitti proficiency and I’m really slow at it, but I understant that many users are just the opposite and they find difficult using the keyboard.
License: Free
Languages: English
3. Agile Messenger
If you are reading this on your personal computer, most likely you have another window running an instant messaging (IM) client with a list of your friends, family and colleagues. Actually, IM is being used at many companies as a regular communication medium between employees located at different sites or floors.
Agile Messenger is an instant messaging client that allows logging into the networks of Microsoft, Yahoo!, AOL and ICQ via the Treo’s Internet connection over GPRS cell phone networks. Therefore, you can bring instant messaging with you anywhere you can bring your cellphone and your cell carrier provides GPRS data access.
Users of the free Jabber messaging network will notice its absence in Agile Messenger. They can always use the commercial Chatopus client.
License: Free
Languages: English
4. PDAnet
Probably the feature most missed in the Treo is the ability to use it as a modem for your computer, that is, using the Treo for browsing the Internet (via GPRS or GSM) from a laptop.
The lack of this feature is even more irritating when you notice that most phones sold nowadays include it as standard, provided you get a cable for connecting the PC and the cellphone. Such a cable is supplied in the Treo package, but you cannot use it as a modem.
PDANet circunvents this limitation. It’s a software app that turns the Treo into a PC modem (if your PC uses the Windows operating system, that is) that you can use to connect to the Internet or any other data link you may have defined in your Treo.
License: Shareware (26,5 €)
Languages: English
5. Pocket Tunes
Pocket Tunes is a comprehensive music player for the Treo, supporting the major audio formats (MP3, WMA, WAV y OGG) in the form of audio files and, if you want to make your cell carrier happy, also in streaming mode.
If you want to use your Treo as a music playing device, you will have to purchase some headphones for listening in stereo. Please remember that the Treo’s jack is not standard, so you must ensure that you’re purchasing the right headset.
License: Shareware (de 12 a 43 €)
Languages: English, Spanish
6. PhoneToolsPro
A major benefit of integrating a mobile phone with a PDA is the ability to leverage the PDA’s processing power in using the telephone.
PhoneToolsPro is an example of such applications. It provides exhaustive details of our cellphone usage, both in voice calls and data transfers. It does not only logs the total calls during a period of time, but also analyzes in detail each and every call made and received.
License: Commercial (15 €)
Languages: English
7. SoundRec
SoundRec turns the Treo into a digital recorder for voice notes, that are stored in the internal memory or in a memory card inserted in the expansion slot.
The operation is very simple: there is a button for starting the voice note recording, and another one for playing it. The Treo’s built-in microphone is sensitive enough to record, for instance, the sounds from a meeting.
License: Freeware
Languages: English
8. Butler
Here’s a tool that solves several limitations of the Treo, those that any user will have thought sometimes ‘how could palmOne’s engineers fail to include this in the base software?’.
Actually, Butler does not provide any outstanding feature (with the possible exceptions of enabling the use of MP3 files as ringtones, and the use of the device LED as a message reception alert), but the option set allows each user to customize the Treo according to his/her personal preferences.
License: Shareware (10 €)
Languages: English
9. TreoAlarm
How would you like to turn your Treo into your customized alarm clock? Actually, an alarm clock that not only sounds when the dreaded waking time arrives, but it also downloads automatically the weather forecast for the place you’re in (for instance, in order to know if you must grab a raincoat before leaving… even if the severe drought we’re currently experiencing threatens to relegate raincoats to museums).
TreoAlarm allows defining up to eight separate alarms, including the week days when they must trigger, in order to avoid inadequate wakeup calls on Sundays; the sound to be used; the enable/disable of the cellphone function and the download of the current weather and forecast, besides several additional functions
By the way, please be advised that using your Treo as an alarm clock, you risk ending up throwing it out the window in anger some day!
License: Shareware (10 €)
Languages: English, French
10. Skinner for Treo 600
Skinner allows replacing the Treo 600′s not-really-impressive built-in telephone, with one of many available skins. Some of them are on the functional side, improving the aspect and clarity of the buttons, while others are, well, more artsy. Users feeling creative can create their own skins, using the skin editor available for download from the program web site.
Another Skinner feature is the ability to customize the screen logo that appears while connecting/disconnecting from the cell network.
This is a merely cosmetic utility, but like the other applications in our selection, it allows customizing our Treo to our personal preferences.
License: Shareware (12 €)
Languages: English
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