Handspring's Treo PDA/Cell Phone

Who do you think you are, anyway? Batman? There's your PDA, your cell phone, and (depending on your level of inherent geekdom) maybe even a Leatherman tool, a Swiss Army knife, a flashlight, and more keys than you probably ever use hanging of off your belt. Handspring can't do anything about the majority of those gadgets, but they do think they've got a solution that can combine the two electronic ones (maybe three if a pager is on your belt as well). The company's new Treo family of compact communicators combine a mobile phone, wireless email, messaging and web browsing, and a Palm OS organizer in a single device. Treo will be available in two versions: the Treo 180, featuring a built-in keyboard for text input, and the Treo 180g for those who prefer Graffiti text input. Both will be available in early 2002 for an estimated street price of $399 with GSM service activation. Handspring is also developing a $599 color display version of Treo for mid-2002 and plans to sell Treo through most Handspring distribution channels including its website, retail outlets, and carrier stores throughout North America, Europe and Asia. The little blue Treo measures 4.3 x 2.7 x 0.7 inches (11 x 6.9 x 1.8 cm), and weighs 5.4 ounces (153g). It includes 16 MB of memory, a 33 MHz Motorola Dragonball processor, a rechargeable lithium ion battery, a travel charger with HotSync cable, and a headset for hands-free phone use. The battery gives you around 2.5 hours of talk time and 60 hours of standby time. Both new products have a 4-bit gray scale display rendering 160 x 160 pixels. Handspring will soon offer accessories including belt clips and car chargers. Treo comes with Palm Desktop software to synchronize PIM data between your desktop and communicator. A software link to Microsoft Outlook is included for Windows users to synchronize data between Treo and Outlook. Third-party software solutions (sold separately) are available to synchronize Treo with other desktop PIM software like Notes, ACT! and Goldmine. Now, do you really need both the Leatherman Tool and the Swiss Army knife?