Smart Phone Flaws Get Attention

As the mobile work force increasingly depends on wireless devices to conduct critical business on the road, service providers and handset manufacturers are working to answer users calls for greater reliability.

T-Mobile USA Inc. last week suspended sales of Hewlett-Packard Co.s iPaq h6315 smart phone, just eight months after bringing it to market. T-Mobile wont resume sales until HP releases a software update to remedy several performance problems with the device.

Both companies touted the iPaqs support for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GSM/GPRS (Global System for Mobile Communications/General Packet Radio Service) wireless technologies, but users of the device have reported performance degradation when using these capabilities.

HP said it will release a software maintenance ROM update next month that will include a new WLAN (wireless LAN) driver, new GSM/GPRS firmware and a new Bluetooth stack, said HP spokesperson Mike Hockey in Palo Alto, Calif. The update will be available at www.hp.com/support.

PalmOne Inc. and Sprint Communications Company L.P. last week released a software update for the Treo 650 smart phone that officials said will improve memory handling and voice quality.

PalmOne Treo 650 users waiting for Bluetooth dial-up networking, however, will have to wait a little longer. An update for this is slated for later this year, according to PalmOne officials in Milpitas, Calif.

“Im really frustrated at times but also cant live without my Treo,” said Treo 650 user Christian Dill, in Chicago, who said his problems include poor Bluetooth connectivity and dropped calls. “Whenever I am on a call and another call comes in, instead of it showing up in caller ID and giving me a chance to accept or reject the call, it drops the current call in favor of the incoming call. This is a big headache and frequently embarrassing when on calls with clients.”

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