Wee-Fi: Sprint Treo 800w, New Wireless in Portland (Ore.), Hartford (Conn.) Fail

Palm Treo 800w released: Sprint is offering the EVDO/Wi-Fi phone with Windows Mobile 6.1 and built-in GPS. The phone is $250 with a two-year contract. This is apparently the phone that Palm should have released a couple of years ago; now, it’s unfavorably compared to the iPhone except for keyboard entry and the ability to subscribe ($10/mo) forfree turn-by-turn live navigation. You’ll note that applications are scarcely mentioned, which is one of the linchpins of the iPhone. This is a business phone with productivity tools—unlike the iPhone, you can use on-board apps to create and edit Word and Excel documents, not just view them. There’s also no store mentioned for purchasing video and audio, or software for synchronizing them. The reviewer finds the video quality washed out as well, and the 320-by-320-pixel touchscreen is a bit small compared to other smartphones that focus on video. (Correction: This item said that navigation was an extra $10 per month, but a Sprint spokesperson informed me all plans, starting with the $70 per month starting price for 450 voice minutes and unlimited cell data, includes navigation services at no extra cost. Neat!)

Stephouse steps into Portland, Ore., void: Local firm Stephouse has built out 5 sq mi of business-grade wireless availability in downtown Portland and 2 sq mi in an underserved part of north Portland using Proxim gear for both Wi-Fi and WiMax service. Wi-Fi use is $20 per month or 1 free hour per day up to 10 free hours per month. The offering seems to focus on the business side, though, in competition with services like Towerstream. Prices aren’t listed on the company’s site.

Hartford drops Wi-Fi effort: Connecticut’s trouble capital city has given up on city-wide Wi-Fi. No surprise. No firms ready to build for free, no money, no tangible goals. My wife grew up in the suburb to the west—West Hartford, prosaically enough—and speculates that the lack of county-oriented government in Connecticut has doomed Hartford to be a civic wasteland. It’s recovering a bit as housing affordability goes up, and there’s more going on in the city than there used to be. But there won’t be Wi-Fi. Incidentally, the Mark Twain House & Museum in Hartford, home of one of the world’s first bloggers, is near financial ruin. It’s a great piece of American history; I’m hoping it’s saved again—it’s had many lives since Twain built it and went bankrupt.

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