Treo 800w Rumor Roundup!

What would a week be without some salacious rumor mongering about the Palm Treo 800w, eh? And let it be known, it is officially crazy season as we’re expecting this device to finally make its appearance sometime this summer.

Two important updates this week:

Click on through to get the low-down!

The first, Beta testing, involves Palm teaming up with a 3rd party company (Centercode) to conduct a semi-private/public beta testing of the Sprint 800w. This is a move we greatly approve of here at WMExperts as it is better for you, the end-user.

Lots of questions from readers about beta testing, especially “How do I get in!”. So here’s the low down.

Beta testing hardware/software

Centercode is a company who specializes in managing beta testing for companies. Enrollment is up to their contractor (Palm) in this case and if you have hung around the TreoCentral forums for a few years, you’d know that once in a blue moon Centercode will “open” enrollment for people who are interested. Currently, it is closed and the phones have already gone to their lucky testers, so you are out of luck for now. Sorry!

How are users selected?

While the qualifications are currently not known, basically it comes down to your demographic information such as occupation, income, amount of time traveling, etc. Users are assumed to be randomly selected from this pool and sent invites. They are under NDA (non-disclosure agreement) not to reveal or share any information about the product. (That also means you should not PM users and beg them!)

How does the process work?

In simplest terms, it’s a bulletin board system where users interact with Palm, giving feedback on their device and experience.

Does this mean that the 800w is pushed back even further?

Probably not. Beta testing these devices is usually set for 4-6 weeks but can vary depending on what is required. The purpose of the beta is to further road-test the device by getting user feedback from actual users (gasp!). Most companies do not bother with this step as they are content with

Internal testing (engineers, software developers)
Carrier testing

Palm in this case is taking the extra step to make sure there are no fatal flaws with the launch of the 800w as well as fixing any minor issues (speaker volume, ringers, etc.). The benefit is to hopefully catch some serious problems e.g. not enough memory or poor BT which affected such recent devices as the Sprint Mogul (ppc-6800).

This risk, of course is early leaks, pictures, YouTube videos and complete reviews of what is essentially an unfinished product—something that most companies prefer to keep internal till all issues are fixed for obvious reasons.

Which leads us conveniently to

A Verizon 800w Sighting!

In addition, long time forum member nyc_rock recently was able to actually play with the Verizon version.

Some things that were noted by his quick handling:

Plastic outer-shell
256/128mb memory
WM 6.1
Wifi
Burgundy color
Thick/thin as the HTC Touch
No GPS?

Nyc_rock was not too impressed with the shell of the device, noting it felt somewhat cheaper than previous devices. Of course this may be the result of using lighter composites to keep the device unburdened by weight, however nyc-rock still prefers the rubber paint of more recent devices instead of the plastic feel. In addition he wasn’t as "wowed” by it as he would have liked but as mentioned above, it is not clear just how “finished” the device really is at this point.

Anyways, head over to that thread and our 800w sub-forum to continue the discussion!