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Handspring Releases New Visors
ByteHog writes: "Handspring now has 2 more Visors for us to play with. The Visor Neo, which comes in 3 different colors and the Visor Pro" The battery thing especially is a big deal.
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woo!
Holy shitballs, slashdotted in less than a minute.
"Stop saying 'Don't quote me' because if no one quotes you, you probably haven't said a thing worth saying" -KMFDM
Another toy I'm not going to buy
Writers imply. Readers infer.
They rate right up there with watching grass grow.
gnf
The first PalmOS device with 16MB RAM. No wireless. No color. No bluetooth. Not even PalmOS 4. I guess we'll make a big deal about the battery.
Wow. Rechargable. And in a cradle, too! Watch out Palm!
</sarcasm>
I looked all over, but couldn't find what the processor was.
science is a religion
Not that there's anything wrong with making cases in a variety of colours, but when that's a major selling point of your product, I think you have problems.
--
E_NOSIG
Something that actually fits in the palm of my hand! I've been waiting since grade 6
until a new Palm OS comes out based on BeOS. Color, multimedia, usefulness...
here's the correct link to the neo http://www.handspring.com/products/visorneo/index. jhtml?sub_nav_section=Overview&prod_cat_name=Neo
I really hate to say it, but I am not optimistic about Visor's chances of turning a profit anytime soon. Cheaper knockoffs are starting to chip away at their customer base, and much wealthier companies are taking over the high end with their CE devices.
-sting3r
The Handspring supports 802.11 with Intel Xircom's Springboard module. It's pricey (costs as much or more as the PDA), but nice for geeks I guess...
I just picked up a new Ipaq 3670. I've had several Palms in the past and I won't go back until they really change something. While the Ipaq's battery life sucks, the screen is so much better as is the response time.
I just got a cradle and AC adapter for home and work. I just drop it in the cradle whenever I'm not using it and the battery life isn't that big of a deal. Palm/Visor need to make up about 3 or 4 years of features FAST.
I'm afraid there hasn't been much innovation in PalmOS handhelds in quite some time. The only one that has impressed me recently is the one from HandEra (formerly TRGPro) which in addition to having a CF slot also increased the screen size in a backward-comptible way.
All PalmOS clones are stuck with the slow Dragonball line of processors, however.
-Karl
So, is it basically:
Visor Deluxe + 3 new colors = Neo
Visor Platinum + Rechargeable = Pro
... or am I not seeing much else?
I went and sold my Platinum when the Prism came out in hopes that _real_ new features (increased resolution, more on-screen colors (not just the case!!!)) were around the corner. It seems like there's really nothing new under the sun from Handspring this time around...
--
http://www.aikiweb.com - AikiWeb Aikido Information
Among PDAs, it is The One.
Any sufficiently well-organized community is indistinguishable from Government.
Do I pick the Red Visor or the Blue Visor?
...is coming. Are you READY??
buy, now...
Ok let's see what we get:
Colored Cases - So 1997
Rechargeable Battery - Palm V has been out for like what, 3 years?
16mb ram - Whoopty fucking do. How much RAM do you need on a Palm handheld anyway? (640kb ought to be enough for anybody. Heh.)
Not worth it. Not worth it at all. You can get a used Palm V on ebay for less than $150 these days. Now that's worth it.
Pete
The sole purpose of the Internet is to get porn and bomb making plans into the hands of children.
Shame, they should have named them "Neo" and "Geo", then built in some cool multi-player games.
/bin/laden
% unlink
Memory stick. Easy, cheap upgrades. Clie wins.
:>
Color case as well as color screen! Clie wins.
Palm + portable mp3 player = sexy. Clie wins.
Personal opinions are my speciality
-bk
My lips may promise, but my heart is a whore.
reading through these shows slashdot as a bitter group of people...
that said, I've still not filled up my 8 megs in mine and I have no idea what you would need to do to fill the 16. know more people than me I suppose.
I still much prefer a monitor and keyboard. the palms aren't too useful to me right now. but I like shiny!
There are some odd things afoot now, in the Villa Straylight.
Handspring's (and Palm's, for that matter) wireless PDAs look a lot more interesting though. The idea of merging a cell phone with a PDA definitely seems like a good one to me (who wants to load their pockets with extra gadgets when you can get 2 for the size of 1. There was a story on The Register a few weeks ago when information about these models leaked out through the FCC's web site.
FWIW, if you want more details about these officially announced models, The Reg also has a story on them. It's interesting that Handspring continues to advertise their Springboard expansion slot, when the wireless models supposedly will not include one. Their marketing department will have a hard time explaining to all their loyal customers why they abandoned the biggest selling point of all their original models (or, more likely, they will just try to ignore the change).
The first ever Ultimate Frisbee video game: here (now
Stupid thing. That should be Clie (greater than) visor. :(
My lips may promise, but my heart is a whore.
Hmm.. Useless notes program, or pocket word?
Hmm.. Useless Pocket Word or Wordsmith for the Palm? I've used Pocket Word. It stunk. You have a great PDA for word processing, just pick up Wordsmith and a folding keyboard.
I don't see any palm devices playing mpeg video any time soon
You need this why?
When Handspring Visors first entered the marked, they came with innovations like USB and more built in memory. Heck, even the Springboard module is interesting.
For the last year, their efforts seem to be awfully stagnant. I have a Visor Prism which is neat, but every visor to come out since then has been mainly cosmetic. These two new ones use the old greyscale screen and appear to be Visor Platinum variants.
Taking a product like the Platinum and just offering it in new colored cases is not innovation, it's marketing. Even the Pro (with 16 megs) appears to merely be a Platinum with an incremental improvement, but it is priced awfully high for the difference between the two products.
An innovation path they should be investigating is:
1. Standardize on color for all new Visors. Event he passive color of the Sony Clie (or Gameboy advance, for that matter) is better then the pure greyscale. It is difficult to rationalize STILL having B&W after these years. Color DOES have a purpose beyond multimedia, so "B&W is fine for Visors" doesn't fly, especially in light of how nice it looks on the Prism and Sony Clie.
2. Add onboard wireless networking of some sort. Either bluetooth or 802.11 should be in the hardware (or at least almost ready for prime time).
3. GPS on a chip. There are now GPS circuits available on single IC chips and the cost of this component is dropping rapidly. If Handspring wants to stay relevant, they should figure out a way to fit this into the product line of the future.
With the three above features, the Handspring Visor can move forward and take back (or pre-emptively prevent) market dominance from the prettier (but less efficient) Ipaq's of the world. The CE manufacturers will be doing this, so complacency at this juncture is ill advised.
I can't afford $200+ for a PDA, but $80 might be nice...why don't they even offer the basic 2MB model on the handspring site? That's sad. Give them a cheapone and they'll get hooked for more.
/. is made of money :)
Sorry, but $200 is just too big of a step for a PDA for me. Yes, not everyone on
In Soviet Russia...michael would be rotting in Siberia!
1. Memory stick -- proprietary overpriced Sony technology with Sony's idea of copyright protection incorporated. Woo-hoo.
2. High res color screen -- You don't get something for nothing. Much lower battery life, much higher price ($499, compared to $299, it appears).
3. Palm + mp3 player -- Neat. But not as neat as the Handspring 'Springboard' expansion slot, which supports modules for (yes, you guessed it) an mp3 player, several GPS modules, industry standard memory expansion (SmartMedia adapters, etc) and many others.
Handspring still definitely leads in terms of Geek Factor [tm] on the basis of the Springboard modules alone.
Some things that I would like to see, beyond new colors, include:
Oh well. No one listens to me. I have sent Handspring email on this and called thier customer service line, but they don't seem to want to work in the areas that would pull them ahead of the pack. It may be to late, by the time they come around (if at all).
Actually, my girlfriend just got a Sony CLIE' PEG-320 (33mhz Dragonball) and it came with software to allow Quicktime video clips to be played on it.
- jon
Ganymede, a GPL'ed metadirectory for UNIX
As far as I'm concerned, the PDA is lacking the out of the box functionality which we were promised when they first came out. I want a PDA that is more than just a pda. It should have snap-ins for more than just management (notes and w*rd). How about a snap-in for your servers, showing network health, traffic, cpu load, logs, etc. Remote equipment monitoring would go a long way. Time spent hacking my PDA is time spent better elsewhere!
I think I'll wait for a real tricorder
I couldn't agree more about the need to get GPS integrated into small form factor PDA. I'm shopping for this right now in fact, and the solutions are not that appealing (Magellan's add on for Palm V, or the Geode for handspring are both bulky and more money than I'd like to pay). I'll probably end up getting a Garmin etrex with no PDA functions which seems ridiculous as the bulk, battery power, storage, and even processing power seems like it would be sufficient to do some of the basic PDA functions.
Ditto on the color. Color maps are just way more easy to read than gray scale and when the higher resolution displays become available, photo display becomes usable ("Hey did I show you my pictures of Mt. Blanc!")
So, how do Handspring Visors compare to Palm Pilots? What's the big deal with the Visors?
uh..memory sticks aren't just sony. And you don't need the copyrighted ones, those are only for aibo's.
I have a clie, it gets about 20 hours of battery life when it's on. I don't know about you, but that's more than enough for me. And besides, I can turn it off if I want to.
And what is the point of having something portable if you need a billion gadgets? That's like getting a small car for the gas milage, and then getting a trailer for behind it for the space.
-bk
My lips may promise, but my heart is a whore.
When he said... "Never trust hardware small enough to fit in your buttocks."
How about a URL for this?
so aside from the colors, what's the difference between the neo, platinum, and the $169 deluxe?
Wake up.
Since Handspring wasn't able to make headway with the Edge model (thanks to lackluster marketing) they've instead taken the Edge innards and put them in two new cases (modeled after their more popular models) and provided the option for 16mb of RAM in one of them.
:/
My only gripe is that they probably won't offer an 'upgrade' option to those of us who decided to go with the different product (Edge)...
Live and learn I guess...
Polymorphism -- It's what you make of it.
I'm a proud owner of a visor platinum. Of course, my model uses regular AAA batteries. I don't really mind that because a set of batteries usually lasts about one month. However, since the batteries are one of the more common complaints among handspring users, it was wise of them to incorporate rechargeables in the new models.
Being of a technical mind, my biggest complaint about my visor is its lack of a flash-ROM! The onboard OS can't be upgraded to a newer PalmOS version nor another OS (linux). Supposedly, its possible to "upgrade" via the springboard slot, but not practical. That slot is reserved for a visorphone, or something else on my wishlist. I can however, understand why they've designed their PDAs without flash... planned obsolesence, etc.
Skiers and Riders -- http://www.snowjournal.com
1. Memory Stick -- The white MagicGate DRM sticks are only used for playing back ATRAC3 format audio. Unless you're a big MiniDisc fan, the purple non-MG sticks work fine with MP3s.
:-)
2. High-res color screen -- The battery life isn't nearly as bad as you think. The MP3 player sucks far more power. (You can watch the meter go down if you leave the screen on while playing.) And there are now $399 models that trade the MP3 player for PalmOS 4 and 65K colors. In silver or purple. Take that, Neo!
3. Springboard -- Point conceded. Sony has hinted that stick-based devices are in development, but so far, it's just marketing vapor. I'd settle for better throughput.
This sig intentionally left blank.
The red,white and blue colors are a nice touch right now.
The only PDA I've seen in a while that has done something new is the Handera
Handera Website
More expansion options, jog wheel, but the cool one is the "virtual graffeti area" that you can move around, and the ability to rotate the screen 90-degrees for spreadsheets or books or whatever.
WWJD -- What Would Jimi Do?
(Smash amp, burn guitar, take home the groupies)
The only reason I preferred the Handspring to the Palm was that it took AAA batteries. I have yet to encounter a recharger while camping (and no, I can't plug it into a "current" bush.)
So now there's another useless chunk o silicon out there. Big deal.
John
John
Interesting, but, dollar for dollar, the best PalmOS based PDA right now is the Sony Clie PEG-S320...
I picked one of these up at Fry's a month ago for $200 bucks. It has PalmOS 4.0, 4 megs of FLASH(!), 8 Megs of RAM, a Memory Stick Slot, a 33MHz dragonball, Lithium Ion Battery (1.5 weeks or so per charge) and a Jog Dial. Sure, it looks a little girly, but you can't find anything else like it for under $300.
Yes, it still has the lame 160x160 2bpp screen, but why do you need more? A friend of mine just bought a spiffy new iPaq for about $500, and all he got was an MP3 player(do I really want to fill my memory with mp3s???) a picture viewer, and some cool looking games. Neat stuff, but that's not what I bought my PDA for. If that's what you want, go buy a Game Boy and a Rio...
http://www.masturbateforpeace.com/
.. ever since I first read about it, but I have a few reservations. Will PalmOS 4.0 fit in the 2mb Flash, and are most apps compatible with the higher resolution screen? I've already convinced myself I don't really need color, since I'd actually be using this as an organizer rather than an entertainment device (GBA is good for that). The CompactFlash slot should make up for the low memory.
And does anyone know what/when Handera is doing next?
My IP is 192.168.1.100 Hack it if you want.
The Neo is exactly the same as a Platinum, but with pretty case colors and a newer version of PalmOS. It has that quick-lookup thing for the address book. Since it costs the same as a Platinum ($200), if I were to buy a Visor today, it would be a Neo.
The Pro has two features over the Platinum/Neo: 16MB and rechargeable battery. The rechargeable battery might actually be cool for people who use their Visor heavily and/or use Springboard devices that need a lot of power. But this is assuming that the rechargeable battery holds more power than a pair of AAA cells... and I haven't found any hard numbers on that. (It ought to; a built-in Lithium ion battery can pack more power into less space than AAA cells, especially rechargeable AAA cells.)
I use NiMH AAA cells in my Visor Deluxe. They do not last as long as Duracell AAA Ultra cells, but I do get weeks out of them. I like being able to carry a couple of AAA cells and swap them in anytime my Visor runs low on power. I also like being able to buy disposable AAA cells at any store if I run out of power and for some reason don't have my spare AAA NiMH cells on me.
Anyway, these are nothing earthshaking. They are competent upgrades, but nothing really new. This is Handspring in a holding pattern.
What Handspring must do is come out with an answer to the Palm m505: small, thin, sexy, and with color. Handspring execs have said in interviews that the Visor Edge has sold very poorly, and they realize that it was a mistake to make a device like the Edge that isn't color. Within a reasonable amount of time, Handspring needs to come out with something like the Edge but with color.
And they should be very careful about introducing any new connectors. Both Palm and Handspring have been surprisingly cavalier about introducing new connectors, breaking compatability with accessories. Palm seems to have reformed: they swear that their new "Universal Connector" will not be changed for several years at least. Handspring needs to either use the same connector as the Visor Edge, or adopt the exact same connector as the Palm Universal Connector, or (distant third choice) maybe a new connector that will be the last new connector they invent for several years at least.
Failing that, they should come out with something like the Pro but with color. The Prism is a good product, but it is bigger than the Visor Deluxe/Platinum/Neo/Pro; you can't use the same cases, you can't use the same keyboard accessories, etc. (I thought about buying a Prism, but it would be a lot of money for the Prism, then more money for a new keyboard, a new case, a charging travel kit, and a battery-powered emergency charger...)
The Visor Deluxe is about as big a PDA as I'm willing to carry around anyway; I don't think I want to try carrying a Prism. If they can make a product exactly like the Prism but with exactly the same form factor as the other Visors, I think it would sell well. I'd buy one.
steveha
lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
I will trade away color for battery life any day. My PDA (TRGPro) is supposed to be a PD*A*, not an entertainment device.
I know that color can help the GUI a bit in quicker human recognition and differentiation, but it sucks a lot of power. I don't need color until a Palm with a color screen runs 4 weeks on a pair of AAA batteries.
I do agree that wireless networking is an essential feature for the near future and GPS could be very valuable.
I think it was a poor choice for Handspring to use a proprietary expansion slot. One of the reasons I selected my TRG was that it had a standard Compact Flash slot. I can use almost any CF peripheral, including additional memory, modem, barcode wand, whatever.
War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength. - George Orwell or George Bush?
It seems that Handera is the only Palm OS PDA company that is doing anything.
Unless these companys get off their butts and start making something worth paying for. I think my next PDA will be a PPC....if they can get the form factor down a bit.
Here's a few things that I expect to see on the next Palm device:
- 2x the screen res, and go with a soft graffiti area like Handera. So the res would be something like 320x460. Not sure if it's possable to fit a color screen like that, and keep the same form factor of a Palm V/M505, but it should be possable in greyscale.
- Dump graffiti and inclued something like TealScript, which will let users make there own profiles, instead of learing someone elses.
- Inclued a scroll wheel, and 2 buttons on the side of all devices, and make them usefull in the OS.
- And some much needed features to Palm OS, like the ability to list people in the contact by there first name, not just last name and company (WTF?). The ability to transfer PIM info to differnt program like in WinCE (like copying a note, to the calander, or adding an alarm to a note etc). That's only naming a 2 of 100's improvments that could be made to the Palm OS, while still keeping it simple to use.
And I didn't even mention any of the multimedia capabilities that the PPC have that Palm don't (I wanted to keep that part out of it, since there are lots of people that don't need or want multimedia capabilities on their PDA)....what else could it be?
*sigh* All these years and still no reason to switch from my trusty HP 95LX... But, if only I could cram Linux or BSD on here, I'd be one happy hacker. *HINT*Handspring*HINT*
The stylus that came with my Visor Deluxe scratched the screen. Replacement tip ? - no way!I could only buy replacements in packs of 5 . No response from Handspring on this issue. So I buy a 5 pack.
Inside a week and the screen has new scatches. The stylus tips are made of a harder plastic than those from palm. Of course , I want something that actually fits the device , so my options are limited.
My advice - don't buy a visor . In all other areas the device is great.
In everything else I'm highly anti-microsoft...but in this product line...i'm all for pocket pc's. They simply rock! They are so useful.
When the colours are the ONLY major selling point of your prodict, that's an issue.
Otherwise, choice is king. Have you ever changed the plate on your cell phone? How about getting a couch to match your other parts of your house?
Consumers are colour concious, in addition to being aware of the computational features.
--
Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
This sure will come in handy when I have to store 1,000,000 phone numbers...
Yes! 16 shades of grey! Thank you handspring.
I even used it for a week, then left the screen on accidentally (application failure) for 14 hours. I still had a few hours left for games in the airport.
I turn my contrast all the way down, and I would like to see an even lower contrast mode for using in dark rooms or at night.
The point: battery life for color is extremely long if you're somewhat conservative and have a rechargeable battery.
Not really all that exciting considering my 5 year old MP2100 has all of that, plus a PC modem, yadda yadda yadda.
Now if I could only find a replacement screen for it. The digitizer pad is getting erratic.
I'll take free beer over free software any day.
Actually I think the best PDa you could pick up right now is the Casio EM500. I picked up mine at circuit city for 200 bucks after a rebate. It has 16 megs of memory and is 65K color. Great buy!
so what happens when the battery stops taking a charge? cell hunting and some DIY surgery...
;)
don't get me wrong, rechargable batteries are great, but if they're not readily accessible to replace you might have trouble down the road...
(i'm ignoring the "planned obsolecence" issue, btw)
now what i want is a crank w/generator to keep the battery topped off! (use the end of the pen or something...ideas?
Anybody want to buy my visor? I never use it.. i even have an mp3 card for it.. hah! what a waste of 300 bucks.. a paper and pencil is MUCH better
I agree with most folks that these two "new" models are dead boring. Visor should have had them two years ago.
Referring to folks who said that 16MB is pointless, in my part of the world, palm-users generally have a couple of dictionaries loaded, a Chinese-Japanese-Korean enabling system, lots of reading and reference materials installed and a few Avantgo channels. The above would almost certainly stretch the 8MB that comes with the Palm Vx.
Umm. Why would anyone buy THAT, when you can get for example a Nokia 9210 Communicator which beats a Whizzor in every aspect.
I have a Visor Dlx (green!) that I have had since they came out. I love it. And I like Handspring for the springboard.
Why?
I have a wireless internet connection that I can use via my Minstrel springboard modem, I have a serial cable that lets me config routers, I have a cable that connects a Garmin GPS to my Visor for GPS mapping, I have a 64MB compact flash adaptor that lets me do all kinds of stuff, I even have a keyboard for it that lets me SSH to remote hosts via my wireless 'net connection with ease keeping me from needing a laptop on weekend trips.
I like it. Toys. Oh, I have the springboard module to control IR devices with, thats pretty damn handy.
The PalmOS may lack the flash of WinCE but it works very well and does what I need. I would welcome a new Visor that has PalmOS 3.5 to use PQA's as well as the 16MB of native memory.
Plus, the price for these things is pretty good, and Handsprings customer service kicks ass.
I just hope my 16-gray Platinum will be of use when some incarnation Frankified Be/Palm OS hits the market...
Galego
Que Deus te de em dobro o que me desejas
[May God give you double that which you wish for me]
I don't understand the obsession with colour screens on handhelds in the geek community. And I'm a real gadget freak. After thinking long about it, I can't come up with one single really relevant use for a colour screen, with the possible exception of someone who uses a lot of mapping/GPS applications.
Has no one else noticed that a colour screen is next to useless in *sunlight*? I'll take the grayscale anytime, esp. in light of the effect it has on battery life. I often need to look up information while I'm walking from here to there, and simply having a screen that thrives on lots of ambient light is a big deal.
Remember people, the thing is for phone numbers and appointments, and doesn't pretend to be more.
> I know that color can help the GUI a bit in
;)
> quicker human recognition and differentiation,
> but it sucks a lot of power.
A PDA like the Visor Prism or the Palm IIIc sucks power incredibly, but it's not because these PDAs have colour. It is because they use an active matrix screen. Colour PDAs like the Clie 710C and the Palm m505 have active matrix screens and therefore use much less power than that.
I should note, though, that if I were buying a PDA right now from scratch, I think my choice would be the HandEra 330.
-JC
http://www.jc-news.com/
You might try ebay or the local paper for used models. In five years, when the new models support speach recognition, have built in cameras, support multiple users as a swarm via 1Mbit/s satilite upload and play digital movies, I'll be hard pressed to sell my 2M basic visor for more than three dollars. That's the way it goes.
What I'm waiting for is a steep price decline in springboard modules and instrumentation type modules. Cheap scopes, forrier analysis, that kind of thing.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
this has to be one the biggest design flaws in the palm OS. It's a real headache for people who travel. It sure seems like it would have been easy to represent times in GMT and have the timezone as a preference.