Well, it’s been 5 days since I got my Handspring Treo 600 and I’ve been using it quite a bit since then. I’ve not really used the phone other than to contact Orange for some help setting up their e-mail system. Anyway, here are the good and the bad points so far:-

Good points

1. After getting used to it, the keyboard is pretty easy and quick to use. I can type on it about a third to a half of the speed of a normal keyboard now. This is far faster and more accurately than ever I could with Grafitti.
2. The screen is bright and easy to read. Some would not think that the 160×160 pixel screen was good enough, but I prefer the long battery life to a higher resolution one. It is easily ample for what I need.
4. The device is small and light. It’s small enough to fit in the trouser pocket.

Niggles.

1. The built-in midi player only handles files up to 64K and they can only be put onto the machine via e-mail. They can’t be transfered via HotSync!
2. The e-mail client, although pretty decent in most ways only allows messages up to 100K to be downloaded. This can be a little annoying.
3. You can’t play MP3’s on the supplied handsfree earphone.

As a Palm device with a phone attached, it works well overall. Only a few niggles. I’m definitely looking forward to the day I can buy a belt-clip case and a HoySync cradle. The supplied HotSync cable isn’t really up to the job.

Events since my last real update..

My parents arrived for a week and a half’s visit on Thursday. On Saturday afternoon and evening my Uncle and Aunt from Enfield arrived for a family meeting, seeing as my parents are pretty rarely up this way. Lots of family gossip ensued.

Sunday was mostly spent working out how to convert the fence which joins my garage to my house into a secure gate. As part of this we visited a number of DIY stores to review the matterials available. Whilst out I popped into PC World and picked up a multi-format memory card reader so I don’t have to connect my camera or handspring to the computer to transfer files.

Today’s been a pretty non-descript day, really. I’m now having to write down how long I’m spending on non-general items at work. ie. any work which is specific to a certain group within the department I have to note down. This is going to be initially for a month so as to gauge how much time each group is using as a way to determine a charging structure for the research groups. For doing this, my new Handspring has been very useful, just as my Palm Pilot would have been, but the keyboard does seem easier to use.

Tomorrow’s going to be a very boring day. The morning’s going to be taken up with writing reports followed by an afternoon of meetings. Oh well. Such is life.