Look how old this is!
I post at SearchCommander.com now, and this post was published 19 years 4 months ago. This industry changes FAST, so blindly following the advice here *may not* be a good idea! If you're at all unsure, feel free to hit me up on Twitter and ask.

Well after narrowing my search down to two “close to perfect” phones I had settled on the Palm Treo 650. The other choice was the Audiovox 6600. I’ve had two months to look, since my contract was coming up with Verizon, so I’d done my research.

I have Verizon and any reception feedback or phone issues I ever mention may vary with your service.

The worst thing I heard about the Treo 650 was that when not using a headset, the sound was going to be faint. The volume doesn’t go high enough. Well, I suppose that was fine, and thought I was committed. Plus, I had been a Palm user since 1996 too, and I didn’t relish the idea of Windows on my phone. However, there were tons of things I would like to try, so I wasn’t opposed to it.

My needs were precise. I needed the ability to send and receive email through wireless broadband, and a good quality phone/pda. I did not want a “smart phone”, because I needed a stylus for e-mail’s and notes. Then those notes can sync with my Outlook.

July 7th, the Samsung I730 was actually available. My contract came up for renewal the 21st, and I bought it yesterday.

Where? Verizon Wireless Store on Sunnyside in Clackamas, Or.

How much? I walked out for $525 on my card, with a $30 reduction in my monthly bill. Not back for the most state of the art Star Trek phone in the world!

Brief day 1:
Manual comes on CD. How nice. So, I’ve posted the manual for free here. Hey Samsung, many people cannot deal with this. They need printed material, and either don’t want to print it out or know how. For

I got home, and got the Motorola 850 Bluetooth headset charged and synced easily. I read the paper manual step by step, then guessed, poked and prodded my way through Microsoft Pocket PC until I found the “Bluetooth area”. (Start > settings> connections tab.)

First call from cel to home, my wife said it sounded like I was on a speakerphone. How nice. Well, then she called me, and I called her, from upstairs and downstairs, and she wasn’t impressed with the sound. I was fine, but I’ll have to check later with a corded headset. Besides, it sounds fine to me, and it sure will be cool to tap my ear when the phone rings!

The batteries were dying, because they came poorly charged, so I got the cradle going and charged it, not installing any software until morning.

Morning –
Today started at 6am when we all (my wife Tara and my boys Mikkel, 8, and Matthew, 5) left the house to go to the OMSI Observatory to watch the Space Shuttle launch. (It was fun, and we even got on the local news)

Leaving the launch site, what do you know, my $100 cordless headset had fallen off my shirt button? See, I figured it was secure with the ear hook and the folding boom clamped, but no such luck. Someone found it, and as I sit, it’s on my ear safely. Motorola provided a small loop on it for attaching a neck lanyard, but they didn’t include a lanyard. Nice touch.

Okay, now I’ve synced my “old phone” for the last time, then installed the Microsoft Active Sync 3.7 software, AND THEN plugged in the phone, found new hardware etc. And “Voila!” It synced perfectly with my new phone with my current Outlook, and all the appointment notes from yesterday’s Palm Pilot. I’m impressed.

If this doesn’t work for you, then you’ve likely got a problem. Don’t call for help yet. Do a spyware scan. Then without restarting your computer, use msconfig (Google it) to remove all your startup junk. Then restart your computer and try again.

Okay, a few phone calls have come and gone. I’m told that I sound like I’m on a speaker phone. Hmmm. This isn’t good. But I’ll worry about it later. It was a little confusing, but I got it figured out. After one morning, I did manage to find out the exact range of Bluetooth… Not quite far enough. Stay in the room, or right outside the door.

This is supposed to be a Blog about the Samsung I730 and all the cool stuff it will do.

First, Internet explorer is there, EVDO works, fast and sure is cool. My own website loads my logo and customer login box. Putting in the address is a joke though, and I’ll have to figure out how to import some bookmarks. I know the Palm Graffiti writing. This supports graffiti, but also “Letter Recognizer” which seems similar, and “Transcriber”, which lets you write anywhere on the screen. That seems the most promising, but I can’t get it to save data that way. I’ll figure it out. (Maybe I’ll fire up the manual)

Of course there’s the slide out thumb keyboard, which I’ll get better with I’m sure. If I learn to use that I can answer email from anywhere, without a laptop, and that’s what I’m after.

I also want to use it as a Dictaphone. Whether recording customer meetings or writing articles while driving, I’m assuming these files can be converted to text fairly accurately.

Voice command – Wow, guess what? I can tap my ear and say “call Charlie” and it will call Charlie. Right out of my synced Outlook. Wow. If they can do that, they can certainly convert my text, right?

Oh, here’s a downside. The plastic holster wisely holds the screen face in. This is great. Until you realize that if Charlie has multiple phone numbers, it will ask you which one. Not verbally, but on the screen. Therefore, while driving, you can only call those who have unique names and one phone number without looking at it. How hard would it be to get some speech synthesis here? Maybe there’s a demo I can try…

*** My “old phone” is a Palm based Kyocera 7135. This was the best phone I’ve had since the Star-Tac. But the old girl can’t get broadband internet though Verizons EDVO service. I’ve had to maintain a separate account for that for my laptop. Well with this new phone, I’m not supposed to need a laptop. We’ll see…

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