Treo 600 Mail Application

I’ll put it bluntly: Many new Treo 600 owners (myself included) are not happy. The Treo 600 since announcement (and through several previews after being announced) had two clear things about it. The first was that Handspring was going to make the GSM and CDMA versions almost indentical in every way. And the second was that both versions would include an email program designed for the Treo 600.

So what happened? GSM Treo 600 owners turned on their Treo 600 and opened the Mail application, while Sprint Treo 600 owners were presented with an advertisement for Business Connection and no Mail application. Personally, I consider Business Connection a VPN client, and not an email client (because you have to have a PC always-on to push email to the Treo).

Where’s the Mail program? Even the Treo 600 emulator (free to download to the public) that let people test-drive the Sprint-branded Treo 600 had the Mail client (it now doesn’t, Handspring silently updated it to remove the Mail application). I suspect that money-hungry Sprint convinced Handspring to pull a big act of false-advertising and swap the Mail application with an ad for Business Connection.

That said, there is no end user license agreement in the Treo 600 Mail application. And, the Mail application was designed for the Treo 600 (it makes no reference as to which Treo 600, but to all Treo 600s). So I have decided to host the Treo 600 Mail client on my site for all Treo 600 owners to download.

Handspring refuses to comment on the issue, and since I’m sure they copyrighted the software it would be up to them to alert me if I am violating their copyright laws. Since I don’t think I am (though others have voiced their concern), I suggest Handspring contact me if they feel that this is unwanted.

But let me make my stance on this clear: Either Handspring will allow customers to install the Treo 600 Mail application on any Treo 600, or they are guilty of false advertising by promoting a Sprint Treo 600 with a fully integrated Mail application, and then silently removing it. I for one, will ask for a $600 refund if they will not allow me to do so (and, in that case, they can take their Treo 600 and send it to wherever they want).

I hope to get the Treo 600 Mail application up as soon as possible. I am currently exploring self-extracting options that will ease installation.