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"Visor" from the Creators of the Palm
Bearpaw writes "ZDNet reports that
that Handspring -- founded by original Palmers Jeff Hawkins and Donna Dubinsky -- will release the first of their PalmOS-based devices on Tuesday. " They have some sketchy details (Same OS, faster hardware, optimized applications, prices) but not much real meat.
I'm looking forward to more data.
When the two people who created the Palm left 3com to form Handspring, part of the deal was that they got to use the PalmOS in their new project. They had originally said they were going to make PDAs for kids and teenagers, cheap and easy to use. I guess that plan went out the window with the prices on these Visors. At least that's what I heard, take it for whatever it's worth.
I mean please, the author quoted "sources" 9 times in about that many paragraphs.
I enjoy my press releases as much as the next guy, but lets not pretend that they are news and lets not give this Spooner character too much credit for rewording it.
Can we have some real news now. Thank you Rob, for slashdot discussion forums and the real information they contain.
-Carl C-M
-- Jeff Paulsen
WinCE makes me sick, not because it's Microsoft, not because it's Windows, and not because it isn't PalmOS. It's because it's a bloated, buggy, non-fault-tolerant OS that has no place in the embedded OS market.
/peter
Um, PalmOS isn't really fault tolerant either. There's no MMU, so there's only minimal memory protection. It's also cooperative (as opposed to preemptive), so if my app gets stuck in a loop nothing else has a chance to run.
The only similarity between Palm and Mac is their popularity - fans of the Palm, much like the Mac, tend to stick to their machines because those machines work _beautifully_, _for them_.
You've never programmed for PalmOS, have you? It's very similar to the old 68k Macs. They're running the same processor, neither has a proper loader-linker, the 'file' format for apps is similar, the memory model is very similar, and I think that the Macs used the same trap interface for APIs that PalmOS uses.
This sounds great. 3com has been treading water with their current palm line. The only real functional improvements since the first palm pilot have been the back light and the IR port.
With the springboard slot and a usb options they're can fix one of the palms biggest shortcomings, it's lack of hardware expandability.
I'm a little concerned about the lack of a cradle on the low end model. Easy hotsync was one of the great things about the orignal palm.
The Math Maestro Tutoring Services in Seattle
For all you Palm lovers out there, Symbol Technologies has three variants on the Palm series.
- -----------------
The SPT1500 is a OEM Palm III with an integrated barcode laser scanner. It is used for warehouse management, shipping, and receiving applications. It looks like a standard Palm III with an added inch at the top for the scan engine. The expansion port holds the scanner card.
The SPT1 700 and SPT1740 are brand new ruggedized Palms that are designed to be used in an industrial environment. They are rated to survive a 4-foot drop onto solid concrete.
And yes, you can use standard function calls to enable and use the scanner. Someone wrote code that stops the scan mirror from oscillating and turns the SPT1500 into a ad-hoc laser pointer.
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"We are but packets in the internet of life."
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."
- Evelyn Beatrice Hall
People keep talking about a 2mb mp3 player.
That's silly(though I grant people and companies have done silly things before.)
Look at an 'average' PC. It's system with, say, 32mb of memory. It plays mp3s. You can only store like half an hours worth of music on a PC then, at 128kbps quality. And that's not even taking into account that Windows will take up a good hefty chunk of operating space. Yet this is the device that mp3s were born for/from!
The secret? Removeable/fixed drives!
Why would not the Visor's mp3 cartridge either use something like IBM's 340mb MicroDrive(compactflash form factor I believe) or Iomega's 40mb Clik disk(for an unlimited amount of storage and swapping)
I mean granted that Winamp takes like 4mb of memory, I'm sure a much slimmed down mp3 player with a DSP on the cartridge could easily live on a 2mb system.
-AS
-AS
*Pikachu*
Come on, how revolutionary can you get? I guess I'd eat that statement, however, when someone *does* release something revolutionary.
Some noticable improvements:
USB instead of serial for faster up/down loads and quite possibly lots of future expansion capabilities (USB printers, cameras, speakers, etc.
Springboard expansion slot, a lot like the GameBoy's cartridge in a way. Imagine hooking up a tiny camera, a microdrive, flash memory, a flashlight, a barcode scanner, medical sensors, ethernet port, whatever, on there!
I don't know about battery life or screen size/resolution/clarity.
It would be nice if all of these were improved, however!
-AS
-AS
*Pikachu*
I'd imagine the mp3 module would have a DSP, or an mp3 accelerator on board, while mainly being a storage device-think 340mb IBM MicroDrive.
Then the Visor would be merely a controller and glue logic. Oh, and I'd imagine the add on would have a speaker/headphone jack if the Visor doesn't already.
I mean, how silly/nonsensical is it for the average PC with only 32mb of memory to play MP3s? You can only store 20 minutes worth at 128kbps, and we're not even taking into account them memory that Windows uses, right?
-AS
-AS
*Pikachu*
k, so my friend's dad does some work for these guys (hehe, it wouldnt be smart of me to say what he does, now would it? ;-) and he got a fully functional prototype to play around with for awhile. anyways, i got to see it and mess around with it, and it is sweet.
first off, it has a fold out keybord, so no more grafitti (yay) and the switchbord peripheral thing has already had such things made for it as a pager, cell phone, mp3 player (as said by other people), etc.
dont ask me how the pager or cell phone work (i was more interested in fiddling w/ the mp3 player), but the mp3 player has little penny-size disks that hold about 2 megs of data (bah) so if you ask me, at'l suck.
anyways, i should shutup now before the mangets mad ^_^
People say that Windows is not meant for the handheld market, but in my opinion Linux certainly isn't, either. Why must you insist on departing from an established OS (PalmOS) designed specifically for this device, with over a thousand applications written for it? PalmOS is tight, tiny, stable, and you can write code for it with freely available tools like gcc. I give credit to Linux for its server abilities, but it's not going to be running my handheld.
For more information, click here.
Ok, I've been bagging on the Visor all morning (ZDNet, PDABuzz.com, etc.) so I'll just say that I'll be a bit let down *IF* the Visor ends up being what ZD says it will be. Handspring released statements like "groundbreaking PDA" and "revolutionary design" then said nothing and let the rumor and speculation fly. Now they give us a Palm clone.
Honestly, I don't find any aspect of the Visor revolutionary or ground breaking.
I just hope I'm missing something BIG here (very possible) and the Visor does live up (to an extent) to the hype that Handspring propagated through their self imposed silence.
(Damn I'm ranting a lot today.)
More useless PDA babble @ PDA Buzz
...the hype that Handspring propagated through their self imposed silence.
"Hype" isn't silence... The price points seem "ground-breaking" for Palm OS devices, and although the functionality doesn't seem spectacular, it does sound like it's ahead of the regular Palms.
Maintaining silence is not hyping their product; we'd be ripping them even worse if they had been pushing the product constantly. Let's not get into a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation.
"You can never have too many elephants on your team."
For news and information on Handspring's Visor, check out http://www.visorcentral.com , or if the DNS has not updated http://207.192.92.38/visor/
But it doesn't do color man! It sucks! :)!
www.HearMySoulSpeak.com
That depends on whether your PDA is a accessory to your computer (Palm) or a replacement for your computer (WinCE, and to a lesser extent, uCLinux).
:)
WinCE makes me sick, not because it's Microsoft, not because it's Windows, and not because it isn't PalmOS. It's because it's a bloated, buggy, non-fault-tolerant OS that has no place in the embedded OS market. If it did it's job without as many crashes, I could reccomend it, but as it is right now I really can't.
('Course, if you're very used to Windows, you might still want to consider WinCE. I'm not stopping or flaming you for doing so, I just think you ought to demand better from your PDA.)
Embedded OSes are just that - embedded. You have to be able to _rely_ on them, all the time, 24/7, or else you just purchased a very pretty paperweight. And for the most part you can't change that OS either. (uCLinux kinda shows otherwise, but it's still alpha hackerware)
The only similarity between Palm and Mac is their popularity - fans of the Palm, much like the Mac, tend to stick to their machines because those machines work _beautifully_, _for them_. It doesn't necessicarily mean that those are The Way That All Must Follow, just that those are The Way That That One Individual (And Others Like Him/Her) Probably Should Follow 'Cause It Works.
(Ya know, that seems to be a problem with lots of folks - just because it works for you does not mean it works for everyone, consequently others should not 1) be flamed, 2) be forced into another way of working, or 3) be ignored. )
I'm sticking with PalmOS, to tell ya the truth, 'cause it works for me
"I don't believe that there is one, single, perfect spiritual way and, in realizing that, obviously you become a lot more open."
If we do not change our direction we are likely to end up where we are headed.