Jen Colangelo emailed me earlier today to point out David Pogue's review of the palmOne Treo 650 that appears in The New York Times today. I was a bit surprised at this review, both from a timing and content perspective.

It's odd for the Times' technology writer to take a look at a product as celebrated as the Treo 650 seven months after its debut on the U.S. market. Pogue addresses this by combining his review with a recap of the past nine years of Palm-palmOne-palmSource corporate history. I think this information will interest people who aren't already familiar with the story, but doesn't provide us with much insight into the timing of the release of this review.

I'm more frustrated by the lack of useful information for mobile email for individual and small business users. Pogue offers the following information about wireless email access:

Corporations can buy any of several "push" e-mail programs, meaning your Treo gets messages as they arrive (instead of checking at regular intervals). These programs also offer wireless synching, too; when you delete or file a message on the phone, it's instantly deleted or filed on your PC at work.

If your name doesn't end in Inc., you have other options. You can set up the Treo to check your regular e-mail account every 15 minutes, for example. Or, for $3 a month, individuals can get that same real-time, wireless synching with Yahoo e-mail accounts. That way, you get all the joy of corporate BlackBerry ownership without having either a BlackBerry or a corporation.

He doesn't mention VersaMail (palmOne's email client) at all. He offers only two of many different email solutions for small business and individual users. For instance, if you look at other email clients for the Treo 650, particularly ChatterEmail but also SnapperMail, you'll find that push email capability is available on ChatterEmail using the IMAP IDLE protocol. I've talked about these capabilities in several articles on Operation Gadget:

• Which Email Client Should I Use on the Treo 650?,
• In Order to Understand Wireless Email, First Understand the Purposes of the Protocols,
• Treo 650 Saves the Day During the Tour de Georgia, and
• VersaMail Doesn't Seem to Do a Great Job with IMAP.

So much has been written about the importance of choosing the right email protocol and client when trying to work with email on the Treo 650 that I'd expect this would warrant more coverage in a review in The New York Times. I think I know what he was trying to accomplish while working within the constraints imposed on him by his paper, and his positive overall take on the Treo is appropriate, but I have to conclude that this review is late and lacking critical information that would help people who have not yet purchased to make informed decisions. [ Free registration required to read articles from The New York Times. ]