August 09, 2003
Punk Rock Cell Phone
My Treo 300 cell/pda broke the other day. Not in any digital or electronic way, its a pure mechanical failure. Phone and pda work great still, but the flip mechanism for opening the device is straight busted. Flip open the phone and the top half is left dangling. Worst part about it is anyone with a couple weeks of high school physics could have predicted this issue, the failure is engineered right into the device. Every time you open the phone, a strong metal spring pushes the soft plastic flip top open. Hard metal pushing on soft plastic, its going to break, guaranteed. And I've only had this particular Treo 300 for 7 months.
Planned obsolescence sucks no matter how you cut it, but I've come to expect I'll be getting a new phone every 12-18 months or so. 7 seems a short for an obvious design flaw. Especially since the replacement model isn't even due out for another few months.
Anyway despite this problem I still think the Treo's are the best devices on the market. The killer app in a palm for me is email, so it needs to be a phone combo. And it needs a keyboard. The Treo is the best of that small bunch.
Anyway for reasons I'm not going to go into here, I'm keeping my current Treo till the new model comes out, rather then having insurance replace it. So that means I'm going full cyberpunk on it. A pda phone held together with wire, velcro and electrical tape. Its the new style, you hear me? All those shiny new devices need to get out like Tom Cruise, its all about the hacked up tech pappi.
Posted by William Blaze at August 9, 2003 02:20 PM | TrackBackWilliam...
That's a known defect, they will replace, did on my 270. Great device, but not without issues.
Posted by: Buzz Bruggeman on August 9, 2003 02:47 PMBtw, Buzz didn't mention that he has a new blog:
http://buzzmodo.typepad.com/buzzmodo/
As for replacing, unfortunately for the Treo 300's its Sprint's jurisdiction. Their support is not quite on the level of Handspring's to say the least. But I'll give them a shot on Monday...
Posted by: Abe on August 9, 2003 07:57 PMLet me know if they jerk you around...I will connect you with the guys at Handspring.
Their goal is to build great stuff, and treat people right. I give them 5 stars.
Given the number portability deadline on the horizon, my guess is that Sprint will feel your pain, and react positively also.
Posted by: Buzz Bruggeman on August 10, 2003 08:05 AMDork.
Posted by: dollas on August 10, 2003 08:49 PMDork. punk rock love.
Posted by: dollas on August 10, 2003 08:50 PMFinally got it replaced, took right about the amount of drama I expect from Sprint, but thankfully it actually worked. Sort of miss the scrappy little punk rocker though... Sure is nice to be able to open the phone properly though.
Posted by: Abe on August 22, 2003 04:34 PM
