Updating and downloading of news items is very quick. You then view news items by channel. About five fit onto a screen and you can scroll up and down. If a headline is of interest, click on it to bring up a screen full of info.
You can set text size to five different sizes. News here is generally limited to a paragraph. If you want more, you click on the "Read More Online That can be a mixed blessing with some of the larger sites, so keep that in mind.
If you rely on timely, nicely formatted news all in one place, NewsBreak is a terrific tool. It sure beats the email news alerts I used to get. Pocket Express is a service that delivers news, sports, weather, stocks, movies, maps, directories, service, and other things to your Palm, Pocket PC, BlackBerry, and now Windows Mobile Treo.
Why pay for something that you can get for free in many other places? Because Handmark optimized this service for small wireless devices. By Handmark's estimates, 70 of their news stories download and display quicker on your Treo than the time it takes to access a single story on the internet via a browser. That's in part because there isn't the overhead of a browser and a full website, but it's also because Handmark somehow manages to compress the data to a tenth of the size of a similar story coming from a browser.
Further, some of the services, like the directory lookup that then creates maps and directions and places the contact into your address book, are simply cool and very useful. Pocket Express also offers a high degree of integration. Let's say you're locating a business. Once found, you can dial it from within the application and also map the directions.
Finally, Pocket Express offers a higher degree of personalization than most similar applications. You can select what categories, of course, and also how many stories you want per category.
You can then decide if you want just summaries or full stories. In my tests I selected ten news items per category, selected all 13 "Breaking News" categories, and selected "full story. Downloading them from scratch took 40 seconds. And we're talking rather long stories here. So Handmark's service is definitely speedy. Under Sports, you can select information from all major professional sports. Select your favorite NBA team and you'll get a list of its schedule. Click on a game and it'll either bring up the result and very detailed stats.
For a game yet to be played, it may bring up a very detailed preview, and I say that as someone who follows a team very closely. Getting a map of my neighborhood took perhaps 20 seconds.
You can zoom and pan, but that's a bit distracting as you get to see the update screen for each operation. Weather forecasts happen very quickly and come with colorful, informative icons. Click on a day and you drill down into more detailed descriptions for a variety of weather stations in your area. Stocks have an automatic ticker and you can select whatever stocks you wish to follow. Overall, Handmark Express News is a great example of "you get what you pay for. First there was an update , and then it was pulled by Palm due to reports of reset loops and well, Not good!
To see if you need this update, first press Start, then selict Settings. Next select the System tab and then open About. Go to the Phone tab and look at the Software Version. And then you should install this update. Palm has some tips on installing the update such as "System Requirements" and what "to Do" and "Not to Do", so be sure to read those before you begin. The wx ships with Microsoft's Messaging and Security Feature Pack, so you get direct push technology out of the box for wireless synchronization of e-mail, calendar, contacts, and tasks via Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync.
Productivity apps remain the same as for the w. Despite Palm's promise to add Wi-Fi to future Treo models, it's not starting with the wx.
On average, though, they'll fall in the Kbps to Kbps range. You can also access Sprint's On Demand content which pulls all the current headlines for the user's region based on zip code from the Web instantly and puts it into the palm of your hand.
The Treo wx has integrated Bluetooth for use with wireless headsets and car kits and wireless synchronization with Bluetooth-enabled computers, but the Bluetooth dial-up networking DUN capabilities won't be immediately available at launch. Sprint said it does't have a specific time frame for enabling this function. Until then, you can use the included USB cable to employ your Treo as a wireless modem for your laptop.
The rest of the wx's features are identical to the w's. You get the Ignore With Text feature that lets you answer calls with a text message, photo speed-dial, and a 1. Check out our w review for more information. Our callers said we sounded great, and for the most part, we had the same comments, although we thought their voices sounded just a tad hollow. Activating the speakerphone diminished the audio quality a bit, but we were still able to carry on a conversation.
As we mentioned earlier, we experienced improved performance with the wx over the Treo w. The device was responsive as we performed various tasks, even with multiple applications open. We had no problems transferring, viewing, or editing Office documents, and music and video playback were also smooth. The Treo wx is rated for up to five hours of talk time and 15 days of standby time. In our tests, we were able to get 5.
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