Treo 680 headed to Cingular

Big surprise everybody, the Palm Treo 680 is coming to... wait for it... Cingular. Right, we know, we all figured it was coming to Cingular anyway, but we snagged an internal Treo 680 PowerPoint doc and now we know for sure. It'll have everything we've been expecting: Palm OS 5.4.9 with that new five-tabbed quick access (dial pad, favorites, home screen, contacts, call log), quad-band GSP / GPRS / EDGE, 312MHz XScale processor, 2.2-inch 320 x 320 display, SDIO, Bluetooth 1.2, IR, PocketTunes, 1200mAh battery, and a 4.41 x 2.36 x 0.88-inch body weighing in at 5.28 ounces. Oddly, Cingular also made mention of a few things in their "confidential and proprietary" document that we found a little puzzling: listed with their compatible email clients, it mentions XpressMail, Good, BlackBerry Connect and... "Microsoft Direct Push (Q1,'07)"? Huh? Ok, so maybe the Cingularian who threw this document together didn't know his biz as well as s/he might have, but either way at least now we know for sure orange customers can expect theirs soon.

[Jon @ Oct 21st 2006 1:28PM]

Uh Ryan? We know damn well that the 680 uses SD; not mini-SD. You are thinking of the 750. Sorry buddy.

[HughJass @ Oct 21st 2006 1:30PM]

lol... *shakes head*

[David @ Oct 21st 2006 1:35PM]

T-mobile never gets treos :'(

[Jim @ Oct 21st 2006 1:39PM]

The 680 has an SD/MMC slot, not miniSD, so Cingular got it right:

http://www.palm.com/us/products/smartphones/treo680/specs.html

[JerkyChew @ Oct 21st 2006 2:01PM]

Microsoft's DirectPush is their Blackberry Killer... It shipped as part of the latest service pack for Exchange server. It enables supported clients to get 'push email' directly from the Exchange server without a BES or any other type of conduit, and it's free (so long as you pay for Exchange, that is).

[Zadillo @ Oct 21st 2006 2:06PM]

I'm trying to figure out if this would be a compelling upgrade from the Treo 650. I definitely wouldn't mind the extra internal memory, and the internal anntena is nice.

[Justin @ Oct 21st 2006 2:11PM]

Direct Push is a feature of Exchange 20003 SP2 and Exchange 2007 that works similar to Blackberry and Good. The device needs a firmware update to take advantage of that, which will be released in Q1 07

[Pirateinmymind @ Oct 21st 2006 2:13PM]

Is it just me, or is that the only picture on Engadget to have an engadget watermark. Prolly Just me I probably never really noticed any other ones, somehow that just caught my eye.

[Atomic16 @ Oct 21st 2006 2:19PM]

I don't suppose that we could get a look at the powerpoint?

[AndrewNeo @ Oct 21st 2006 2:22PM]

"Microsoft Direct Push (Q1,'07)" probably means that the service will be available Q1, 2007?

[C.G. @ Oct 21st 2006 2:46PM]

I spoke to a Cingular rep recently and he said that the upcomming Treo will have BOTH operating systems and that users will be able to choose which one they will install. He even went on to say that users can switch between the two. While I wish it were true, I'm not sure the switching will be an option but one can hope.

[curtis @ Oct 21st 2006 5:07PM]

actually Windows Mobile doesn't support 320 by 320 res--a stupid limitation of the OS--so putting WM on the 680 won't work. The Cingular rep probably meant customers will be able to choose between the 750 and the 680, and switch SIMs between the two...

[IWantTouchScreen @ Oct 21st 2006 3:41PM]

Actually Ryan Palm is a licensee of MS's ActiveSync, Versamail already synchronizes with exchange servers as a result of this. It just doesn't support MS's Push. Yet :)

That's probably what they mean, they'll add that extension via a firmware update in Q1.

[rob @ Oct 21st 2006 4:10PM]

Why is there a shadow on the right photo but not the left? photoshop?

[funkyred @ Oct 21st 2006 4:23PM]

do we know WHEN Cingular will be getting these? Come on guys......I have an upgrade just WAITING.....throw me a bone here!

[monica @ Oct 21st 2006 4:24PM]

we have more photo's here;
http://www.palm-dubai.net/001/2006/10/palm_treo_680_s_1.html

[Isaac Levy @ Oct 21st 2006 4:33PM]

Do Treo's have wifi? If not, why?? I can't find any mention of it in articles, but the EDGE network is pretty slow (especially latency) compared to broadband...

[Zadillo @ Oct 21st 2006 7:45PM]

I think it's really because the wireless companies want to make sure people use and pay for the data plan, and offering wifi would make it less necessary to use the data plan.

[RyanTV @ Oct 21st 2006 5:22PM]

Is it confirmed that the 750 is coming out on Cingular? I haven't heard anything but speculation on the matter. I'd love to get the 750 over the 680, but at this point I'll take what I can get. Cingular's product line has been stagnant for so long, it desperately needs some refreshing.

[HughJass @ Oct 21st 2006 6:32PM]

How strange, I could have sworn reading nonsensical ridiculing of Cingular's fact sheet on this article this morning, yet now it's gone... *snickers*

[jaytee @ Oct 21st 2006 6:42PM]

Exchange already supports push if you use the IMAP functionality of it (with IDLE) and Chattermail. Been doing that for quite a while already.

[Sotckoperator @ Oct 23rd 2006 9:04PM]

Actually chatter supports Exchange directpush today. You don't need IMAP. (It can even support push with an OWA server, it's pretty amazing software).

[Aaron @ Oct 21st 2006 8:30PM]

Does anyone know when it will be released to the public?

[Benjy @ Oct 21st 2006 9:10PM]

So.... tell us something we didn't know...

[James @ Oct 21st 2006 10:33PM]

software update != to firmware updates, firmware for this type of device would be specifically for the gsm radio, which is totally unrelated to an application update.

infinity flex, who 'loses' global address lookup? that's available both with devices talking to ms exchange servers that support push as well as good right?

[InfinityFlex @ Oct 21st 2006 10:42PM]

Direct Push is only good for people that don't want the extra expense of BB or Good. You lose at least one very important feature for business users: the ability to search the global address book of your company.

Use Good. It rocks.

[Chris R @ Oct 21st 2006 10:46PM]

James - No. You do lose global address lookup. Confirmed by my tests and by my corporate Cingular rep. This was a little while back, so if they have made any kind of improvements since then, well, I am wrong.

PS-sorry about that double post.

[jatooley @ Oct 21st 2006 11:05PM]

How many crappy phones will Cingular "introduce" before the smart consumer just says no. No to Edge Phones. Cingular has a broadband that competes favorably with EV-DO but they refuse to utilize it. Edge is absoultely worthless. Under ideal situations, you get 90 kbits per second downstream and about 33 kbits up. While this is superior to the average dial up modem, it is an embarrasment to any person that has what they believe to be a "high tech" device. Especially if that person is paying about 80 a month for this "service."
Cingular, get the HTC 8525 and the Samsung i60? in the pipeline so you have something to compete with the Motorola Q at Verizon.

[Giovanni @ Oct 24th 2006 10:21AM]

And what phones that you think that Cingular has that are crappy? I can give you some that are very good and better than their competitors from other carriers.

[jrodriguez @ Oct 21st 2006 11:39PM]

Bring it to US Cellular FTW!

[roadrunner @ Oct 22nd 2006 1:01AM]

FYI - Cingular's site is down for maintenance, maybe unrelated though.

[Andrew @ Oct 22nd 2006 1:46PM]

The 680 will be available in Cingular stores on October 31st, and the 750 will be available in Cingular stores on November 9th. I've heard this from a reliable source, although was unable to get a price quoted.

[Khaytsus @ Oct 22nd 2006 5:22PM]

Under ideal situations, you get 90 kbits per second downstream and about 33 kbits up.

Wrong.. I get 135-140 down at any given time, not sure of up as the two speed sites I've tried only measure down.

[Josh @ Oct 23rd 2006 9:54PM]

Uhhh...you do NOT lose the ability to do Global Address Book lookups with WM devices. We have several 8125s we've been kicking around, utilizing the "push" email feature built into Exchange 2003 SP2. That part works fine.

Battery life is terrible, but that's the breaks.

[rwright @ Nov 4th 2006 5:59PM]

2 questions about the 680-when will cingular have it and will it work with cingulars high speed mobile broadband? the major limitation of my 650 is sloooooow downloooooads. Thanks!

[Molen @ Dec 27th 2006 10:49AM]

Wanted to know if anyone has been using this device? The treo 680 with cingular. Have heard reports that the treo locks up at time and wanted confirmation on that....
Also, Has anyone tested the quality of voice with the treo?