PalmOne Treo 650 "I'm sorry, what did you say?"

If any piece of technology deserves to kick off this site naming and shaming the very worst of new technology, it is my PalmOne Treo 650. It runs the Palm OS and functions reasonably well as an organisor, succeeding in cramming one day's diary appointments onto one screen. The only problem is that noone can hear what I am saying on the phone. I'm curious about the quality control process that went into this product. They must have made a phone call with the thing right? Or is the ability to make a call no longer considered an important feature for a phone?

What is particularly strange and warrants our first "Complete Clucker" award at TechnologyTurkey is the unique one-sided conversation feature. It appears that while the person calling me is talking, they cannot hear anything from my phone as if it has cut my microphone out. It's rather like having a conversation on a walkie-talkie. I've had a number of conversations with the kind of people who rarely pause for breath where I can't get a word in because my "yes, but"s and "hold on a minutes" are never heard by them (this seems to suit some people just fine of course).
I think I'm going to have to start punctuating my conversations with the word "over".

But it gets worse - if someone calls me from a noisy bar or in the middle of traffic, they can't hear anything I say! My girlfriend avoids speaking to me on my mobile because it sounds like I'm not listening to her. This is quite an achievement - a communication tool that actually damages relationships.

I emailed PalmOne tech support about the problem and they replied saying that I needed to perform a hard reset to remove all my software and personalised settings before they could help. Is this a test to get rid of support queries? Perhaps the NHS should try this "Please abstain from all food and drink for 7 days before consulting your GP".

But there is hope. There is a software update (although currently Orange has mislaid the installer on their website). And software updates always fix everything. At least that's what I always think before I install them. Maybe that's the problem - I'm still an optimist.

If you have similar experiences, can explain the strange behaviour of this phone, or have a suggestion for an alternative gadget (which can actually make phone calls), please post a comment.

If you are a pathological optimist and want to try a new Treo in the hope that version 1.20 of the software will work, try Amazon below.