Is this HP's hw6500 iPAQ Mobile Messenger?
By Peter Rojas 
posted February 3rd 2005 11:31AM
posted February 3rd 2005 11:31AM
Is this that new iPAQ Mobile Messenger we were talking about yesterday? They're unconfirmed, but Brighthand scored some images of what is supposedly the hw6500, a new GSM/GPRS/EDGE Pocket PC Phone with a built-in QWERTY keyboard and a GPS receiver that HP is going to show off at the 3GSM World Congress in a couple of weeks. It's hard to tell how small (or big) this thing is (though if that's an SD card slot on the side, it can't be that huge), but they are so gunning for the Treo. Click to see a couple more pics.
Their gunning for the Treo... And I wonder how they came up with hw6500.
http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000297030068/
look at comment #2 yesterday. what did i tell you?
this looks sweet. kinda like my HP 4355 (which RULES BTW, except for being a little too big to carry all the time), but smaller and with phone service.
i'm torn between this and the Samsung i735 slider Pocket PC.
These portrate desgins are really boring. Take a hint from the MPx, MDA4, and....hmm, thats about it I guess. Cramped KB suck... but so dont cramped chicks.. so whatever.
I can't believe I'm saying this, but if it turns out to be more stable than the Treo 650 is, then, well, I , um, well, I , may, you know, I may switch to, oh you know, I may switch to an MS phone......
there, you heard it? Happy now?
Beatiful. Super!
h6300 was so lame..
You're all tre(o) mad!
It looks more like a Blackberry ripoff to me... Does anyone even remember them anymore?
So what kind of resolution has that got? It doesn't quite look square but doesn't look 4:3 either.
TheRegister says that it will also have wifi & bluetooth ;)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/02/03/hp_ipaq_phone_plans/
Plain and simple the facts are as follows: when people are using mobile e-mail, they want something that just plain works and has a good interface (easy to use, doesn't fail). BlackBerry DOMINATES mobile e-mail because of the afforementioned reasons. They have an OS that doesn't crash and does what it needs to do and does it simply. The comment about anyone remembering blackberry runs counter to their explosive sales and them being synonymous with mobile e-mail.
Looks ok. GPS built in is sweet. GPRS is lamo.
After seeing the MDA IV yesterday nothing else impresses me though. The only thing that the MDA IV is lacking that this has is GPS.
Dude, I don't think your going to make that appointment with Dr. Nguyen at 2:00. He's in jail!
http://www.hrw.org/advocacy/internet/dissidents/3.htm
Yeah, but isn't this thing going to incorporate RIM's PUSH tech? Blackberry is the new TiVo.
If this is indeed GSM/EDGE/WIFI/GPS/BT, I'll have to seriously reconsider adding yet another year to my 7 or 8 year devotion to PalmOS.
Neato.
Looks great to me. Wonder which version of Pocket PC it will use? From the other comments here it sounds like I'm not the only one thats been waiting on a Pocket PC phone that can compete with the Treo in both form and usability. The 6315 was both too big and too buggy for me to want to use as a primary phone. There is always that Samsung too though...
Oh yeah, no antenna either?
That's it right there. That's my next phone.
Well, a year from this summer, when (if) this thing is finally released, it will be outdated. So I'm not giving it any more thought
The blackberry is certainly not the king of usability, and I know that firsthand, because I have owned a blackberry 7100t for several months. I kinda liked it at first, but I grew to abhore it, (figures, right after the return period was over). The OS is the most unuserfriendly and asinine that I have ever seen. Email usage is ok, (it better be since that is what they are known for), but it is very slow, and the coverage of the device is horrible, (this isn't the network, my old nokia 3390 could send or recieve calls from almost anywhere, on the same network) and this is supposed to be a "world" phone, ha. It is extremely rare that I ever get a signal if I have any kind of rook over my head, it is horrible. I no that some of these are nitpickings of my particular phone, but blackberry designed it didn't they? I can't go on more about the horrible os. I have to wait a second before dialing the first digit of a phone number or it will miss the next couple of digits. The pim apps are, you guessed it, horrible. This thing could so use a four way toggle key, I would almost graft one on there myself if it were possible. When you are typing, if you type something wrong (or if the hit-or-miss "suretype" guesses the wrong word), you can't just go back and fix something, you have to delete all the text after the error, fix it, and then retype all the text after it. That makes writing emails longer than a few sentences really easy! The thing takes over a minute to start up in the morning. What else. the bluetooth is disabled for all purposes other than headset, but this is different, T-mobile didn't force them to do this, it was their decision! When I called T-mobile to ask them about it, they said Blackberry decided to do that for security reasons!! What a joke! They said it was because a large portion of most blackberrys get sold to the government, and they are big on security. But this is their consumer model, their first attempt to appeal to someone other than the businessman! I don't think that most consumers are going to care about any minor possibilities of security problems due to the other bluetooth functions. At least give us the option. And lastly, the bluetooth headset quality is horrible. The sound cuts in and out, and this was with the award winning jabra bt250. What a joke of a handset. While I used my cellphone all the time with my old and trusty nokia, I almost unconsciously avoid it with the blackberry, because the experience is so abysmal.
So sufficely to say, I would expect this hp to provide a better experience than with a blackberry.
Well maybe the appointment is to visit him in jail.
@17,
That's funny, I'm a die-hard PPC person, and just dumped my iPaq 6315 (for sale!) for the 7710.
The 6315 had a bad experience, lots of hard resets reported, bad bluetooth connections, etc. Hard to hold this new unreleased device responsible for 6315's sins, but I gotta wonder.
I've yet to come across a satisfactory PPC for my needs. Until then, I'll keep the 7710 and various standalone pocket pcs in my PodZilla. :)
*Phil
I was initially greatly interested in this new IPAQ. Then, when the novelty wore off I came to the realization that the Treo 650 is superior because of the display not to mention all the available apps. for it. The screen res. of the IPAQ will be limited to 240 X 240. The res. of the Treo is 320 X 320. A big difference that doesn't really seem all that big a difference.
I currently have a Treo 600 and am wanting to upgrade to a higher res. device. Not only so but it would be neat to try out a different kind of device. Then the announcement for the IPAQ was made. Cool!
Like I said, after the initial novelty wore off I realized the Treo 650 was still the cream of the crop because of the display and available apps.
Untill a PDA/phone comes along that outdoes the Treo in every way...as well as available options and apps....I don't see Palmone losing ground to HP.
The only way for HP to even dream of overcoming Palm's PDA/phone dominance is to make the IPAQ technologically better. Putting a 480 X 480 VGA screen in it would go a long way toward that goal.
Memory is also something I percieve would be easy for HP to out shine Palm in. I think it's inexcusable for Palm to have included only 22 MB worth of user available memory in the Treo 650 when it uses it so inefficiently compared to the Treo 600, which actually has more user available memory than the 650. Palm should have included at least 256 MB like they did with the T5 which uses memory the way the 650 does.
Understanding that PocketPC devices use memory in much less efficient ways than Palm OS devices. HP would be wise to include at least 256 MB in the IPAQ.
@16, I have it on good authority this unit will be released in early April.
This is currently the device I'm evaluating, can't wait to get my hands on one. I'm a bit concerned about the resolution, but I'll just have to see. I'm thinking of taking my h4150 into a store, turn on BT and push some apps over with which to test.
I've never had a Treo, but I have used a couple of earlier Palm PDAs. It was cool, but I'm over PalmOS. I have a friend with a blackberry. I couldn't stand it, hated the OS. I love my h4150, but bringing it around with a phone too is getting a bit tedious.