Phone Functions of Treo 180 Touted by Stewart Alsop in Fortune
CTDATA.com was on a hiatus of sorts last week. During that time, Stewart Alsop published a column in Fortune that says the greatest feature of the Handspring Treo 180 is that it works so well as a plain old cellular telephone.
Its "telephoneness" is precisely what makes the Treo great. The Treo is a telephone that just happens to have a full, but tiny, keyboard built in. The best use of that keyboard is to look up phone numbers; I have more than 4,000 people in my contact list, and I can call any one in fewer than five key clicks on that keyboard. Who needs speed dial?
The article goes on to compare the Treo to the RIM Blackberry 5810: "...the new BlackBerry is an e-mail device that happens to have a telephone built in. In fact, the only way that you can make and receive a phone call is with the ear bud that comes with the product. If you lose your ear bud, the device doesn't have a microphone and receiver, and you can't make and receive phone calls! I've lost the ear bud for my Treo, but I can still use it as a flip-phone."