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Handspring's New Handhelds
miradu2000 writes "Handspring has released even more handhelds to drool over. The Treo 270 is a wireless PDA, with a CSTN color screen! They also have decided to make a new organizer too, dropping their proprietary Springboard slot in favor of SD. The Treo 90 is a color PDA with SD and built in keyboard. Strange as it seems SD I/O will not work with the Treo 90. Full coverage is at TreoCentral.com."
A: Palm is great, it does everything I need.
B: Palm sucks, you obviously have no idea what you're missing out on by avoiding the iPaq.
C: My friend had a Cassiopeia and it sucked.
B: Shut up, you're talking about 5 year old technology.
A: What else would I need to use my *Personal Digital Assistant* for? It's not supposed to be an all-in-one computer, you know.
C: My Palm III is still ticking! When it runs out I'm going to run out and buy it all over again.
A: It's a testament to Palm's greatness.
B: What greatness? Palm has a backward OS running on backward hardware doing things that can be accomplished with a pocket notebook for 45 cents.
A: Can a pocket notebook sort and group contacts?
D: My Newton is better than all of your crappy devices. It had handwriting recognition befo...
A,B,C (together): Shut up, dinosaur.
B: Anyway, if you feel that that device is good for you, Palm user, then so be it. Next time you're at CompUSA give the iPaq a whirl.
A: Fuck off Micro$oft luser. The day I use M$ technology is the day I get laid.
I have been pwned because my
The thing that I never understood about the Springboard slot was how a Springboard GPS could cost so much more than a stand-alone one than included a nice screen and everything. I had thought that the point was that you could add funcitonality without spending so much money. But it turns out that you would spend lots of money for something that didn't do a great job. That just sucks. Was it a question of volume? Or difficulty integrating the devices? Anybody know?
Anyhow, I congratulate Handspring on their vision of an expandable PDA. At the same I think they have betrayed the trust consumers who thought they were investing in a platform, buying devices that they could still use after upgrading their Visor.
Lasers Controlled Games!
As a generic user? I'm not really sure. The uses are there, waiting, for decent wireless net access that is cheap and universal. Their small enough, that you can easily use them standing up, with a single hand (unlike a laptop, that has to be pulled from the carrying case, and set down). If only it had the net access, checking stocks, looking for a place to eat, etc. all become possible. Maybe even keeping an accurate checkbook with debit cards (the cash register beams IR indicating the amount withdrawn?).
More intriguing for me, are the non-generic uses (they also require wireless networking, but not necessarily internet access). A waitress taking orders on an iPaq instead of a pad of paper. No more wasting paper pulp, or having unreadable orders. The data mining a restaurant could do, knowing exactly what and when something was ordered. The inventory accuracy that might allow.
Or maybe lots of things that you use a clipboard and paperwork for. Too many to name. Brain has stopped working, if this were a normal hour I could think of at least 2 dozen such ideas... I have before. Oh well...
I'm trying to figure out the hook for this product. It isn't the smallest Palm PDA. It isn't the highest resolution Palm PDA. It isn't the most expandable Palm PDA. It isn't the cheapest Palm PDA.
It is slightly smaller than a Visor Deluxe, but not much thinner. It is still 160x160, but with 12-bit color. (The Prism has 16-bit color, but the Prism is thicker than a Visor Deluxe, not thinner.)
All I can come up with is: it is the only Palm PDA that has the built-in thumb keyboard. Will this hook be enough to sell lots of these?
steveha
lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
Cheap, powerful, portable... Choose any three.
"I'm not impatient. I just hate waiting." - My Dad
Donna Dubinsky of Handspring announced in January 2002 that Handspring would be exiting the organizer business; there would be no more organizers, just "communicators" like the Treo.
Does the Treo 90 represent a reversal of this policy, or can we assume that Handspring is still exiting the organizer business? In other words, is the Treo 90 the last standalone PDA device Handspring will ship?
It appears to me that Donna Dubinsky's announcement was a mistake. The expensive phone/PDA Treo has not sold well, probably simply because it is expensive and times are tough right now. Handspring has been forced to slash prices again and again to keep Visors selling, probably because customers view Visors as a dead-end ever since Ms. Dubinsky's announcement. Now Handspring has shipped the Treo 90 and discontinued the Prism, while continuing to ship other Visor models; this isn't what I would expect if Handspring is serious about exiting the PDA market.
Looks to me like PDAs aren't dead. But I can't really be sure.
If I'm right and Handspring has decided not to exit the PDA market, they ought to have Donna Dubinsky make another announcement. Yes, that's embarrassing to do, but it seems better than leaving customers to wonder whether devices like the Treo 90 will be orphans or not.
steveha
lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
With only one click of your thumb you can now press 3 keys at the same time. Imagine the performance boost. Imagine Billy boy launching his nukes with this - oops! there went Europe as well :)
Seriously, a keyboard is a good idea, but only when you can fit in something at least close to the standard layout and atleast close to the size which makes it possible to press only the correct button. Like in the Nokia 9210.
Okay. I've seen lots of new laptops with SD readers, and now handhelds as well.
But I've yet to see a single SD card in use.
What is SD, and why would I use it over, say, any other conventional flash.
Is it actually useful, or something some industry is trying to push?
A PDA is one of those things you don't need until you've got one. Then you can't live without it.
Well I don't know about so-called "geeks", because most of them are quite far removed from the need to make extensive use of an address address book, appointments, etc. However, for real business people these things are hugely useful. For instance, I know a lot of executives that have their secretaries/assistants add/lookup/edit schedules, phone #s, and addresses in Outlook from their own desks, which they then sync with their Palms. Having the ability to have the data readable and writable in multiple places at one time is a big deal. I'll grant you that it can take more time to write it down on the PDA (but not when it's combined with a computer) than with pen and paper. But looking it up IS often faster on both PC and PDA, plus it can be backed up, accessed by multiple people,e tc. They're really great productivity enhancers in this example. I know lots of other people that make great use of them as well (myself included), but that's one of the greatest using pure PDA functionality.
We each use tools that we most feel comfortable with. Even though I like my Pilot, sometimes I'm still using little sticky notes - mainly because I like pen and paper (although I often regret doing so as some tidbit of info is now floating around my desk somewhere). My wife uses a small notepad in much the same way as I use my PDA - notes, contacts, grocery lists, calendar, etc (though she does eye the PDA display at the local tech store).
But there are a few things to consider before we shrug off a PDA as an overpriced notebook. Collecting and storing data is the main strongpoint to a good PDA, but its small amount of computing power pushes it beyond a notebook.
The search function has been great. Sure, you can flip around a notebook looking for a tidbit of data. But my PDA's search is very quick. It makes short work out of hundreds of entries in several different database / formats.
PDA memory tends to outpace a notebook of the same size / convenience. Not only can I add data at wonton abandon, but if I keep up a regiment of syncing with my desktop - that data is backed up on a regular schedule (and can even be input by a much more comfortable keyboard or copy&paste action). Furthermore, that larger capacity allows one to tote around large amounts of data like dictionaries and e-books with no additional inconvenience (try that with your favorite paperback novel and notepad).
There are tasks that computing alone makes possible. I store account information encrypted with 128bit IDEA. I also have a few applications that kill time when the novel just doesn't quite work out (variations of Risk and Reversi to name two).
Sure, not everyone will find a PDA to their liking. And there were certainly simular devices before the PDA (consider Franklin who's pricy organizer products and systems now offer variations that include Franklin PDA applications and a compartment for a PDA). But nonetheless, PDAs are considerably more usefull than their critics often credit them to be.
Of course, he would have had to rely on more traditional methods to track down the info (including his insurance card in his wallet). But in this case all the data was at hand without the searching and phonecalls. Now the battery issue still exists but is rather easy to manage with at least a bit of forethought. It also helps to use a PDA that is as power-efficient as Palm devices are.
This is a common enough criticism. To each their own. I find the screen comfortable enough to read with (and the backlight is nice at times - at the expense of battery life). I will actually forget I'm reading from a PDA. But I still like books and am not about to give them up - even if I wish to duplicate my library to electronic form. PDAs may need to improve in this aspect (I wouldn't mind), but I already find it suitable for my use. And so do many others, it seems.
See my other reply. In some ways a spiral notebook will surfice. But paper doesn't quite match the convenience, manageability, searchability, and ease-of-backup offered by a PDA used in the propper manner.
I occasionally decide to not pick up my PDA as I head out the door - or I simply forget. It is those times that I often miss it. I'll need a phone number, or want to jot down a note, or get stuck waiting somewhere when a few passages of a book or a game of Risk would help time pass.
I'm an early adopter and I've had ONE PDA - a Palm Pilot Pro (although I really, really should get something with more memory - and the ability to run modern apps).
I have gone from being almost fanatical about having the device at hand and using it at any excuse to almost abandoning it. I've found myself giving up some tasks to a laptop. And I've found that some of those tasks are still better on a PDA. The device has lost its gee-wiz charm where I was SSH-ing in to my desktop just because I could. Now it is a trusted, useful tool that does the appropriate tasks well.