Messaging

The Treo 650 features SMS text messaging. However, for more expressive messaging, MMS (Multimedia Message Service) provides true multimedia capabilities with real pictures, sound, and time-based sequencing, allowing users to share it with words, photos, animation, and sounds.

Instead of sending a simple text message, designed animated birthday greetings or digital vacation postcards can be created by combining photographs taken with the Treo 650's built-in camera and a bit of creativity.

Entertainment

Packaged with the Treo 650's Palm OS 5.4 "Garnet" platform is a multitude of applications. Similar to the Tungsten line, the PIM suite should be familiar to former Palm users. However a quick rundown of the self-explanatory programs include Calculator, Calendar, Contacts, Dial Pad, Media (Pics and Videos), Memos, Messaging, PCS Business Connect, RealPlayer, Tasks, VersaMail, Web Browser, and World Clock.

A CD included contains extra software (some that are trial versions) that can be installed including Acrobat Reader for Palm OS, Documents To Go 7.0, eReader, Handmark Pocket Express, Klondike Solitaire, Tetris Classic, and Zap!2016.

Notable applications include VersaMail's client, allowing users to download their email and calendar entries by accessing to POP3 and IMAP4 accounts wirelessly to synchronize with desktops. Additionally, since Palm licensed Microsoft's Server ActiveSync technology, the Treo 650 can coordinate directly with mailboxes on MS Exchange servers.

Being built on the Palm OS, a vast library of games and applications are available for download. Software can be installed from a PC or through the supplied sync cradle. While a few are free, most require a fee.

Internet

The Palm Treo 650 comes with Blazer 4.0, a web browser capable of rendering web-based content including HTML, xHTML, WML, JavaScript, CSS, and SSL. The dual-view browser can view web pages either as if on a desktop, or automatically adjusted to fit the Treo 650's screen. As opposed to WAP browsers, the Blazer 4.0 browser renders most pages, with color and images.

Depending on the Treo 650 version, higher transfer speeds while browsing or downloading are achieved through either cdma2000 1xRTT service (CDMA version), or EDGE (GSM version).

Short for single carrier (1x) radio transmission technology, cdma2000 1xRTT is a 3G wireless technology based on the CDMA platform, and has the capability of providing ISDN-like speeds of up to 144 kbps.

For the GSM version, the migration of GSM to EDGE results in less strain on current voice traffic bandwidth and allows for higher transfer rates when downloading multimedia or browsing the web. Building on existing technology, EDGE allows for more than double existing GPRS rates. While theoretically the Treo 650 could transfer at speeds of up to 384 kbps, actual rates will be less than that.

Storage

Approximately 32 MB of internal memory is available, however only about 23 MB is available for storage. As we mentioned earlier, the NVFS memory file system is beneficial if power is drained for long periods of time.

However, the ROM allocates data in blocks of 512 bytes. Small data records under 512 bytes will still take up 512 bytes, rapidly decreasing the amount of available free space. And since most records are small, extra space is wasted due to the large block size. Fortunately, the Treo 650 has an expansion card slot for MultiMediaCards and Secure Digital (SD) with SDIO support.

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