The Ringer Switch: Treo 800w vs. iPhone

Bollocks. :)

If I am already polluting my surroundings with music or a movie I am not so concerned about the impact of another disruption.

Of course choice is always a good thing. Being able to configure silence all but a specific app could be nice. All-but alarm and TCPMP.

If no choice is given, make it silent. Voice Command chirping out the subject of a spam email can be inconvenient.

+5 for the "bollocks".

-5 for this being a crazy plot to somehow setup a WMExperts post saying "you could do both or anything on WinMob with just 1000 complex registry hacks" :)

iPhone has a ringer-off. Treo has a sound off. Neither are always ideal, nor is the infinite-possibilities-through-infinite-tweaks alternative for the vast majority of consumers (though there's also limited sound able/disable functionality in the preferences for both, no doubt).

Until mind-bullet alerts, though, I'm okay with the way both platforms do it, as long as I know and can plan for their methods.

I guess the question becomes how many taps does it take to go in and disable all sounds (meetings and such). It can't really be (Power -> slide -> Home Button -> Settings -> Sounds -> and then flip all 6 audible indicators to Off) in conjunction with flipping the ringer switch to off?

I don't have the Treo with me right now, but didn't it have an option to override the ringer switch in the Alarms control panel? Or is that the Touch Diamond? The Diamond definitely has that. I must've been thinking of that.

Hmmm, I used to think that Palm Treo switches guarantee silence (except for vibrations). No more -- my Sprint Treo 700p after a firmware upgrade now makes really annoying noises when the phone is turned on. It appears to come from the speaker/headphone, but I suppose it could be some other source inside. And it's loud enough to hurt my ear if I have a headset on at the time.

Maybe just one bad firmware upgrade, but not only does it annoy me to no end, but it reminds me how important the feature is to me for a single switch to cover all bases and silence the device. When I don't want noise, I don't want a particular event or application to still give me surprise sounds.

So, yes, I like have individual controls on sounds. But on top of all that, I hope we continue to see a simple hardware switch override.

Just another example of Apple trying to make the software do the thinking for the user.

When one goes into a meeting, flick the little "silence all" switch, and your good. Seems easy enough on the Treo.

I prefer the silience all switch of the Treo, but the Hitachi G1000 from 2002 had one better. An Enviroment switch, that had three positions and they were customizable for three profiles. Just goes to show that new is not always better..

I prefer the Treo switch - I don't need some random alarm I forgot about blaring at me during a call or a meeting. The vibrate feature will be enough to alert me to anything that is pending.

Also, if I want to listen to music through the speakers, you would think that I would be in an environment where a phone call wouldn't create even more of a disturbance.

I definitely prefer the Treo way. I don't want alarms going off if I'm in a theater. Period.

I did find it interesting that even if you go in to the sounds section on a iPhone and turn everything off, there's still no way for you to silence a pre-set alarm. Apple is obviously of the opinion that you're not going to set that alarm unless you really, REALLY mean it.

Remember that alarms are not calendar reminders. Calendar reminders are silenced by the iPhones switch. Alarms have to be set up by you and unless you specifically tell it to repeat, after it goes off it shuts itself off in the alarm list. I just can't see an alarm 'accidentally going off' in this case.

But I definitely feel as passionate about ringer switches as you do, Dieter. The G1000's switch was too soft and easily shifted from position to position. It's a must for any smart device. I'm using a Tilt right now while waiting on an unlock and it's just a PITA to use. I found a happy medium by being able to set a long press on the end key to vibrate, but it still requires the phone to be pulled out and turned on then turned off to do. Man, do I hate HTC devices.

I think I'm prefering the iPhone ringer switch though. It just seems like more thought went in to the operation of it. They're both equally easy to switch on or off. I think I found one fatal flaw in in the iPhone's switch though.

If, somehow, in your pocket something managed to press the home button to turn the iPhone on and then, somehow, managed to press the home button twice rapidly to bring up the music controls and then, SOMEHOW, mnanaged to press the play option on the screen, the iPhone would start playing music even if the ringer switch is flipped off.

The steps required for that to happen seem impossible though. Even if it turner on, it requires two very quick home button presses to bring up the music controls. A delay of half a second or so between presses won't do it. It needs to be two presses within a half-second.

I don't think there is a right or wrong application. It seems like the switch on each phone is optimized for the type of user most likely to purchase that particular phone. I prefer the Treo and the silence all switch.

If, somehow, in your pocket something managed to press the home button to turn the iPhone on and then, somehow, managed to press the home button twice rapidly to bring up the music controls and then, SOMEHOW, mnanaged to press the play option on the screen, the iPhone would start playing music even if the ringer switch is flipped off.

LOL! Agreed, that's a pretty unlikely scenario.

btw: your point about not using alarms as reminders is a good one -- Apple is dead serious about leaving those on, apparently, and with the new iPhone 3G they are LOUD.

Treo wins this one hands down.

You know, to me an ideal switch would have three positions: normal (whatever is set up in the sound profiles on the device), vibrate, and OFF. And by off, not just no sounds, but no vibrate. Who can't hear a vibrating cell phone in a meeting? It is annoying to everyone around!

I want to know about price of palm treo 800w with ultrasound