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New toy is two gadgets all in one

Handspring's hybrid Treo 600 puts the Web in the hands of travelers

Date published: 1/24/2004

IHAVE A NEW best friend, and his name is Treo.

The Treo 600 is a new contraption that combines the functions of a mobile phone with those of a Palm handheld organizer. It's made by Handspring, the company that the creator of Palm spun off and that has since been bought back by Palm. Handspring's new mission is to create these "mobile communicators" that meld phone functions with handheld computer functions. There have been efforts to make a mobile phone/computer in the past, but lots of folks are saying the technology is finally coming together to create a device that works well.

I've been playing around with my own Treo for a couple of weeks, including a weeklong trip to Nevada and California. I've only touched the surface of what it will do, but I'm certainly already getting addicted to some of its features.

When I traveled in the past, I always used to carry both a cell phone and a Palm device with me. Though my cell phone stored a phone book of numbers, it didn't really hold much other information about the people in the book. I found myself focusing on putting phone numbers into the Palm because it could hold so much more information, and my cell phone held only very frequently called numbers. That meant I had to turn to the Palm to find most numbers.

I also used my Palm to track my checkbook balances. My wife and I both have Palms, so we both use Pocket Quicken and synchronize our account information on our joint bank accounts.

The Treo allows me to use applications like a detailed phone book or Pocket Quicken, however, so I cut out one device and one power cord from my bag of gear when I went on my recent trip. I was also able to quickly synchronize the Treo with the information from my old Palm, so I didn't have to spend a lot of time updating things.

The really cool thing about the Treo, though, is not just that it's a phone and an organizer. It's also able to get online with a very speedy wireless modem, and the Web browser shows up on a bright, crisp color screen that is surprisingly easy to read.

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Date published: 1/24/2004