If you're one of the thousands of Sprint Treo 700wx users who have been waiting for Palm to enable stereo Bluetooth and USB or Bluetooth wireless internet tethering, then your wait is over! This official update has garnered surprisingly little publicity outside of a small circle of Treo enthusiasts over at TreoCentral. I started a thread there to start some discussion on comments or concerns regarding this latest update from Palm. A summary of my findings can be found at the end of this post.
According to Palm's website, this update features:
- High-speed dial up networking (DUN): use your Treo smartphone as a wireless modem for fast web access virtually anywhere. Supports USB and Bluetooth connections.
- Advanced audio support (A2DP): enjoy your music in full stereo with new support for Bluetooth stereo headsets.
- Hands-free enhancements: Drive safely and work more efficiently. Get support for even more Bluetooth carkits and the Palm wired carkit.
In addition, you must meet the following requirements:
- Current software version must be TREO700WX-1.13-SPNT or TREO700WX-1.14-SPNT
- You must use a desktop PC and a USB sync cable to install this update; it cannot be installed wirelessly.
As always with these Palm updates, please proceed with caution. Although a hard-reset is not required, always backup your phone first. Beware that a few early adopters have run into a couple very minor issues. Here are a few observations from several users who have already made the update:
- Update takes anywhere from 30 to 45 minutes
- Possibly causes a slight performance boost
- Possibly a slight loss of signal (you can try updating the PRL in this case)
- Better Bluetooth DUN connection (over the alternative hack)
- Backlight randomly goes on when in cradle
- If you're having trouble, make sure that you've sync'ed your phone with your PC via ActiveSync before you run this update
If you are looking for a safer bet that enables A2DP and DUN and is likely to give you fewer complications, then go here to download hannip's unofficial A2DP hack (this also allows Bluetooth DUN). Please note that if you already have this hack installed and you have decided to go ahead with the official Palm update, then you MUST uninstall the hack first! Further instructions can be found here.
In other news, this update all but guarantees that Palm will not release a Windows Mobile 6 (WM6) update for the Palm Treo 700wx. So all in all, this is not great news, but it pretty much falls in line with what you've come to expect from Palm lately. At least it will give you some incentive to buy a new phone earlier rather than later.
