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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.
This almost-instant Web access is the kind of thing that you don't miss until you've tried it a few times. Then you get addicted and can't imagine not having it.
I needed it first when I was in line to get a rental car. I wasn't sure if my last payment to my credit card had been posted yet, so I just bounced online and logged in to my credit card company's Web site. I checked my balance and saw that I had enough credit to put the car on the card.
Later that day, we had to pick up my brother and sister-in-law at the airport. I checked my phone really quickly to make sure their flight wasn't delayed.
We decided later in the day that we wanted to go out and get some dinner. I went online and quickly pulled up five or six restaurant reviews so we could make our decision.
I ended up using the Treo to chart a course south from Los Angeles to San Diego. I used it to check the weather in the Washington area. I even was able to log in to the Fredericksburg.com servers to check on a problem with some headlines on our site.
Of course, some Web pages are too huge for the Treo to easily digest--their designs make them hard to read on a small screen. And the tiny keyboard takes some getting used to, though I've found myself adapting to it very quickly. The device's screen sits next to your face as you talk on it, so there's a lot of potential for smudging the screen.
The tool's utility, however, totally outweighed any complaints I have about its design. Just as a broadband Internet connection changes the way you use the Web in your home, this new wireless device totally shifted the utility of the Internet for me as a traveler. I'm sure we'll see more and more of these hybrid devices on the belts or in the hands of people all over the place.
To reach CHRIS MULDROW: 540/368-5053 cmuldrow@fredericksburg.com