Palm exec points to a Treo 700p update
Posted By RichC on December 15, 2006
Attached below is a segment of a letter that a Steve Sinclair, a Palm senior product manager, wrote to TreoCentral in regard to a needed (and seemingly long awaited) update for the Treo 700p. I’ll link to a PDF copy of the full letter, but cut to the chase by posting the important stuff like:
1) Bluetooth compatibilty,
2) Stuttering music playback
3) lag in switching applications
Mr. Sinclair, Sr. Product Manager writes …
Dissatisfaction with Bluetooth performance is clearly a top customer issue and our technical team has been working to overcome Bluetooth hardware limitations to deliver improved performance on the 700p. Tops among these is improving the stability of the Bluetooth connection between the phone and the headset/carkit. We hope to have a patch specifically available for Bluetooth early in the new year assuming it passes through all its certifications and is approved by the carriers. At that time, we’ll be able to publish an updated compatibility list, but to be upfront about this, the number of devices we have time to test is limited, so some users may still be disappointed that their headset or carkit isn’t listed. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t work – it just means we didn’t have the resources to test it.
Stuttering during music playback on the Treo 700p can occur when another app or system activity takes priority over the digital audio stream playback. For example if you have another app running in the background (like Versamail), it will kick off radio activity that takes precedence over the music playback activity, thus causing a stutter or skip. This is another area where we are making some changes in audio buffering although the stuttering won’t be 100% eliminated on this particular device. These changes will be released as part of a formal ROM update planned for availability in late Q1 2007. That 700p ROM update will roll in the Bluetooth patch I mentioned above as well as a number of other enhancements to system stability, reliability and performance. It takes time to make sure we haven’t broken anything in the process of fixing issues, and I’ll add the caveat again that it is up to the carriers to test, certify and release the ROM update before it can be released to customers.
The last issue mentioned in the letter is a lag seen when switching between apps which is apparent to upgrading customers who are used to faster response times on other Treos or Palm handhelds. This lag is noticeable for some because it is taking longer than desired for the databases of the previous application to close and the databases of the next application to open. Aside from working with 3rd-party developers to minimize the lag while switching to/from their apps, there isn’t much we can do to alleviate this as it is partly a result of the shared hardware design between the Treo 700p and Treo 700w/wx. I don’t want to sound like I’m dismissing the frustration this is causing for some power users, but it has not been reported by a significant portion of our customer base.
…
Hurry please … especially on the bluetooth as neither my Motorola or Jabra is all that great with the Palm Treo 700p.
🙁
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