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New Wireless Handhelds On The Way

Posted by michael on from the stuff-to-lose dept.

Imran writes: "Palm and Handspring have both received regulatory approval for three new wireless devices. According to documents filed with the FCC, the Palm i705 will have a built-in antenna, a universal connector for add-ons and syncing, and a postage stamp-size Secure Digital expansion slot. There will also be new features aimed at making e-mail a key function of the device. Handspring's devices, the Treo k180 (which has a keyboard similar to that of the BlackBerry) and Treo g180, can surf the Internet using Handspring's Blazer browser. They feature a 33MHz Dragonball VZ processor, 16MB of DRAM and rechargeable batteries. Both can connect to a PC using a USB or serial cable. The cover of each device flips up and acts as the earpiece for the phone, while a microphone is located at the bottom of each unit."

6 of 133 comments (clear)

  1. Old news, wrong news by bribecka · · Score: 4, Informative

    This article was posted 2 days ago. Since then (also on CNET), the FCC has pulled its approval for both devices at the request of the companies. Odd, no?

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    1. Re:Old news, wrong news by Satai · · Score: 3, Informative

      The Reg (which is down as of this writing) just posted an article, giving the Handspring's release-of-information date to be October 15. And I believe that the companies requested the information to be pulled; but it's a standard procedure.

    2. Re:Old news, wrong news by RedX · · Score: 5, Informative

      Saying that the FCC approval was pulled makes it sound as if it was denied. This isn't the case, the application approval was just changed from "approved" to "pending". Supposedly, Handspring and Palm both forgot to elect to have these approvals deferred. By deferring the approval, both companies can get their product specs in front of the FCC without having to make it public.

  2. The "Old" VisorPhones by JMan1865 · · Score: 5, Informative

    I've got one, and they aren't perfect, but all in all, its not a bad device. I get my Visor functionality, and by adding a very small module, I can ditch my old cellphone, and get similar, if not better reception. And I can use the internet. Not the WAP internet, the full internet. I can pull up slashdot. The Blazer software is just a giant proxy server that strips out the useless code that the Visor can't run anyway (Java, Flash, etc.) But all in all, it is a solid product that was probably ahead of its time, proven by the fact that they are making smaller hybrid devices. But these "big and old" VisorPhones will definately go down in history as the first useful convergent device. If what I remember is correct, the Visor line was created with the VisorPhone in mind. (Hence the hardwired microphone that is useless to any non-springboard device.)

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  3. Re:Dragonball VZ? by bcombee · · Score: 2, Informative

    Because the original chip, from the early 90's, was the DragonBall. It was designed for Motorola's paging group and for some equipment manufacturers in Asia. There have been three updates since then: DragonBall EZ, DragonBall VZ, and the new Super VZ (coming out this fall). I don't think the anime played a role in the original naming of the chip.

  4. More pictures of the Palm i705 (inside pics too) by slashbrent · · Score: 2, Informative

    For the interested:

    Found these pictures available at palminfocenter.com - looks great, and seems even better.. time to upgrade this Palm III!!

    X-Box, coming soon to a dumpster near you.

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