Help Me Destroy My Treo 650

My Treo 650 has been an endless source of frustration. It's probably one of the most annoyingly bad devices I've ever owned. First of all, the form factor is such that it's almost impossible to grab it when it rings without dropping it or flinging it across the room. There's no traction on the surface and it has odd curvatures which seem to be optimized for dropping it. But that's just the beginning. The darn thing crashes just about every other day, usually when I'm answering a call or driving or looking something up. And then there's the truly bad email program that ships with it. OK, I know all about reinstalling, updating it in every way, and believe me, I've done it all, in spades. It's just a sucky device and the software is buggy. So that's the bad news part of this story.

Now the good news: The damn thing crashed for the last time this week. I did my nth hard-reset to restore it to factory condition, wiping all my data, but this time it didn't work. I got the screen of death -- an endless loop that there's no way to get out of. It won't let me finish the reset process. And I don't care, because I bought a new Blackberry and I'm much happier now.

But here's the fun part -- I have been waiting for my Treo 650 to legitimately crash so bad that I could get rid of it and not feel any guilt. And now that day has come. But I don't want to just throw it away: I want revenge. And I'm going to have it.

I want to destroy my Treo 650 in the most creative and entertaining, and destructive, way possible. And I want your help!

Please comment on this message with your proposal for a truly funny, destructive, epic, and creative way to completely obliterate my Treo 650. Ideally you and/or your friends and/or my friends will video the actual process of destroying my Treo and then we'll put it up on YouTube. I'll put up a budget of $200 for any supplies or equipment necessary to fund the winning proposal. Whenever I or anyone has a future mobile device nightmare we can then watch this video and feel a moment of poetic justice. People: 1. Devices: 0.

Comments

[Wolfman]

It's a all day strugle with my device Treo 650 as well, but you are a lucky one you have services for that damned thing in your country , my closest service center (I'm from Serbia)is in Hungary Budapest about 300 miles away. The best idea to destroy such a thing is that you throw it from a real close distance to a head (or thorax)of some PalmOne staff so that they expirience some pain that we live thru all the time since we buy that piece of crap.

[Sean (not a sprint employee)]

Not that I work for Sprint or anything but, as your downloading something larger like "Earth Navigator" take the back off, hold the power and the reset button midway thru download! As soon as the power cycle ends, your phone will repeatedly cras for 66 cycles. Then the phone will recognize whats going on and reset itslef. Get ti to a Sprint store beforehand!

Your welcome!

[Zack Schwenk]

I too am fed up with my Treo 650. I've have multiple replacements and the last one finally died - it won't connected to the network. The Phone application just crashes. I bought a new BlackBerry Pearl and I love it.

So how did you end up destroying your 650?

[jblocka]

Microwave it for 10 minutes.

[omegaomnicron7]

I love my Treo 650, but I do like seeing expensive toys destroyed. If it wouldn't be too much trouble, can I have the screen out of it before you destroy it?
My suggestion on how to destroy it is as follows.
1. Get/Make some thermite. Pack the battery vaccancy with it, and ignite from a safe distace. Kaboom and melting, all kinds of fun.
2. Build or find a brick wall. Build or find a small to large cannon. Launch the cell phone at great speed at the brick wall. See which one wins, the brick wall, or the phone.
3.Go to the shotgun range, and huck it out like a clay pigeon, take aim and fire! Raining technology is fun.
4. Go to the rifle range. Find out how many rounds of your favorite rifle caliber it takes till there is no more cell phone.
Well, if you try any of these, let me know, I'd be interested in seeing the results.

[Andy Havens]

In my days of hanging out with good friends at MIT, many articles of tech were destroyed in many fine ways. Giving things "The Shaft" from the roof of Baker Hall was a fave, but gravity is only so much fun, and really only works well with large appliances.

For small things like a cell phone or palm device, I really enjoy unleashing the most sophisticated, imaginative and destructive device on the planet: a small child.

Take out the Treo's battery, as you don't want to inadvertently shock the bairn. Find a child; I recommend a 6-8 year old, as they have decent strength, hand-eye coordination, and creativity, but haven't yet gotten really mean or particularly wise... a certain wanton, joyful innocence is what we're after here.

Give the child a variety of tools. A hammer is fine, if small. Again, not something he/she could harm him/herself with. Various wedges, small picks, pliers, grips, wrenches, etc. are fine, too. Watch the fun! Small people are very, very good at getting things apart. But we often tell them they must not. Give a kid you know the chance to really, really go to town. In face, reward them by promising them 10-cents (or 25, if you like) for every discreet part that they can wrest from your hated gizmo.

Alternatively, soak the thing in honey and leave it out for the ants.

[theconcon]

I like reading your blog. However, I am disappointed to see a post like this one.

You were plainly unlucky to have received a defected phone. You should have simply asked Palm to replace your phone and knowing their service orientation, I am sure that they would have done so happily.

Other issues that have been mentioned in your post are a matter personal preference. You may not like the design, but there are others who just love the Treo form factor.

I am a very very satisfied Palm Treo 600 user. I love everything about the device, the form factor, flexibility, features etc.

When I read this post, it looks like dirty work of one of Palm's competitors to pull down a product that has been eating into their marketshare. My apologies to say so, but there’s no polite way to put it.

I also hope that this comment makes it to the comments list since you moderate the comments.

Regards,

[aiasi]

Do with it what you would do to any piece of garbage. Plunge it into a running garbage disposer and rejoice to the sounds of mangulation. Alas, a slow but terrifying death it will be for the 650 initially with a loud clunking noise and gradually subsiding as every last bit of life is extracted with an accompanied note of futile defiance.

One thing though, you won't want to do it with a garbage disposer thats connected to plumbing! You'll have to get a garbage disposer and set it up in the middle of a lot somewhere. I would also wear safety glasses for obvious reasons.

Sorry to hear about your 650. I've had the new 700p for a few months now and its totally awesome.

[vfxjokir]

Go to Staples.

Have them run over the Treo repeatedly with either a forklift or a scissor lift heavily laden with analog versions of the Treo - notebooks, organizers, and pens.

OR - soak it in a jar of acetone until all of the plastic is gone, leaving only batteries, metal, solder and glass behind. Might take a while though...

[Jeff Schuler]

I hate my Treo 650 too.

I tell this to anyone that asks.

I flash its bright screen, (with poorly designed interface,) on dangerous streets, hoping to be mugged and walk away with a grin.

Glad to see someone else feels the same.

[Bruce]

I've destroyed a number of frustrating electronics over the years... dropped a cd player from a 6 story building (repeatedly), bashed a car stero with a sledge.. but none have been all that satisfiying, mostly because the destruction isn't all that complete. I don't know if it is just scifi for things besides fruits, but the liquid nitrogen frozen drop, breaking into a million little pieces would be surefire way to make it complete.