Category: Wireless

The opening day of CES: Treo 700, Wireless USB and Wireless XGA

It’s the first day of CES and we have a roundup of three really cool technologies: Palm Treo 700, Wireless USB and Wireless XGA.

There are thousands of products on the CES show floor, and we have many, many interviews just waiting to be published. We will be posting each interview one-by-one as unique posts over the coming weeks. During the CES show itself we will be bringing you a 5 minute update of the top technologies we see each day. Fear not, expanded coverage continues after the show.

The higher resolution feeds will be made available as soon as possible. Upload speed in the hotel is very poor, so it takes several hours for each video to make it online. EVDO is not much better, so we’re stuck with lag time. Next year I would like to bring my own OC192 trunk. Due to the limited bandwidth, 480p, the iPod Video feed, and the MP3 podcast are the only files available at this time. While we’re shooting CES Day 2, I’ll start the upload of 720p and 1080p so you can get the content in its full HD glory. [UPDATE] 720p is online, 1080p is uploading now.

We have added the Video iPod feed. Apple still needs to approve the feed directly in iTunes, but until then you can use the link below to subscribe in iTunes using the ‘Advanced’ menu. I hope Apple will approve the feed within 24 hours (but it’s out of my hands).

If you’re having issues playing the video, or if you’re looking for minimum system requirements, please visit our Video Help page.

How to Download Music to a Treo 650

If you have a Treo, it probably goes everywhere with you, right? Why not carry your music and podcasts with you by taking advantage of the phone??????s storage capabilities?
Here is how it??????s done:
1. SD Card: Treo 600 and 650 models (and reportedly, the yet to be released Treo 700 as well) have an SD Card slot. If you have an SD Card today, pop it out to check the size.

This is a 1GB SD Card.
This will determine how many songs you can store. An average song takes between 3-4MB of memory, so here??????s an estimate of how many songs you can store based on the size of your SD card:

SD Card Size Songs You Can Store
16MB 5 Songs
32MB 10 Songs
64MB 20 Songs
128MB 40 Songs
256MB 80 Songs
512MB 160 Songs
1GB 310 Songs
2GB 620 Songs

2. SD Card Reader: Unfortunately, you can??????t sync songs from your computer to your Treo phone??????s SD card using Hotsync. Instead, you??????ll need an SD card reader, like this one:

Stick your SD card into the reader then plug the reader into your computer. Drag your favorite songs or podcasts onto the SD card. If you have a Windows computer, the drive will likely appear as a new drive in Windows Explorer. If your computer is very new, it may have an SD card slot built in, allowing you to skip the external card reader.
3. Put your SD card back in your Treo.
4. Play the songs. Treo 650 phones come with RealPlayer pre-installed. Click on that application (you may need to change your menu??????s display to ALL to find it). Treo 600 phones don??????t have an MP3 player installed by default. If you don??????t have one, check out Pocket Tunes.
5. Using Realplayer or Pocket Tunes (actual steps vary slightly for each program): Click Open, then select your SD card from the dropdown box on the upper-right hand corner of the screen. You should be able to see your songs. Click on the songs you??????d like to play. Click OK.
6. Using headphones. While the Treo has a speaker, it??????s not exactly Bose quality. Headphones will offer better quality, but there??????s a catch: Treo??????s do not have a normal headphone jack. You??????ll need to pick up this 2.5mm to 3.5mm adapter:

Plug this into your Treo, and your favorite headphones into this.
7. Playing Treo tunes on your car stereo system. If you have a tape deck in your car you can use your car??????s stereo to play the songs stored on your Treo. Just pick up a tape adapter like the one below:

If you have a tape adapter lying around your house from your portable CD player days, you??????ll still need the jack adapter from step 6 to make it work with your Treo, but that??????s cheaper than buying the entire adapter.
You??????re done. You have now made your Treo even more useful and entertaining.
Post questions or comments below.