Cool Hunting

Too many hours of my day yesterday were lost to making acquaintance with my new Treo 650 (GSM Unlocked). The most obvious new features are certainly a huge improvement-- Bluetooth, high resolution display and a better button layout. Even more exciting than that, however, are the small yet potent improvements to the user interface.

The basic phone applications are finally up to par with phone-centric devices. Messaging is now integrated into one application which means your SMS and MMS messages are all in one place. Chat dialogs even show text and picture messages in-line. The Contacts application can display entries from your contact list and SIM card in one view. After you finish a call, the Treo will ask you if you want to add the caller to your contact list if the number isn't already there-- a feature which is useful, though potentially annoying. But you can turn it off for good. And camera functions are nicely woven into both of these communication apps.

On the data side, VersaMail is a huge improvement over the old Mail application and it's nicely integrated with the more dashboard-like home screen. The contacts and calendar applications seem to be more compatible with iCal and Mac Address Book-- no more data gaps. Though it doesn't come with the Treo, Splash Data's brand new SplashBlog is a must have application for all the bloggers out there.

So all-in-all, the 650 makes me even happier than the 600. What could make the Treo even better? Lose the antenna and make the whole thing as thin as the Razr. Maybe for 2007...