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Linux Connectivity for the Visor

Posted by Cliff on from the seeing-is-believing dept.

Stickster asks: "What is the deal with Linux's ability to exchange information with the new Handspring Visor (Deluxe)? I realize that there is the USB/serial cradle hardware question which will affect people depending on their boxen, but right now Handspring says only WinPC/Mac can do things like HotSync. Isn't the PalmPilot connectivity solution set for Linux pretty well-developed at this point? And how does that bode for the Visor?"

13 comments

  1. offtopic kinda by nlucent · · Score: 1

    Anyone noticed that you cant get past the first page of handspring?

    1. Re:offtopic kinda by Pascal+Q.+Porcupine · · Score: 1

      I don't have any problem with their site...
      ---
      "'Is not a quine' is not a quine" is a quine.

      --
      "'Is not a quine' is not a quine" is a quine.
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  2. Palms and Linux by Pascal+Q.+Porcupine · · Score: 1
    PalmPilots have decent Linux connectivity, but it's still not on-par with the Windows equivalent. For example, there's still no conduits (i.e. programs which run desktop-side to do special synchronization with certain Palm databases). It's quite usable, though, and there's generally workarounds (for example, I have a shell script called 'hotsync' which does three syncs, one for files, one for mail, and one for AvantGo).

    In any case, assuming that a USB serial device can be setup to look like an ordinary /dev/ttyS* device, the current pilot-link stuff should work just fine. I've not used any of the USB stuff though.
    ---
    "'Is not a quine' is not a quine" is a quine.

    --
    "'Is not a quine' is not a quine" is a quine.
    Quine "quine?
    1. Re:Palms and Linux by Stinking+Pig · · Score: 1

      Yeah, conduits would be nice if you used the "productivity apps" that come with KDE or GNOME. Of course, if those were productive they would be able to import/export info from/to something else. Anything else. CSV or tab-delimited would be something else.

      That said, I sync my Palm III up to JPilot. It's still a little buggy but over all quite excellent at what it does. If it could play front end to the mal-thingie that syncs with Avant Go, I'd be a very happy camper :-)

      --
      "Nothing was broken, and it's been fixed." -- Jon Carroll
    2. Re:Palms and Linux by Pascal+Q.+Porcupine · · Score: 2
      I use JPilot for desktop-side editing of the Big Four PDBs and synchronizing the changes, but I have lots more programs than just the Big Four that I want to keep backed up. In the meantime, I've been thinking of hacking conduit functionality into it (or, better yet, into pilot-link itself) but I'm not quite sure where to begin and it seems to me that malsync would need to be hacked as well, since the whole point to conduits is a single-session form of the separate syncs.

      Doesn't JPilot just call pilot-link anyway? I mean, that's what it looks like it does...

      I think the easiest way to add in conduits would be to add something into the pilot-link library for a sync program to happen in an already-existing sync session. Nice and simple, yaknow?
      ---
      "'Is not a quine' is not a quine" is a quine.

      --
      "'Is not a quine' is not a quine" is a quine.
      Quine "quine?
  3. How about battery life? by moonboy · · Score: 2

    Anybody have a Visor yet? How about battery life? This seems to be the weak link with most if not all portable/handheld devices. How does the Visor compare?

    ----------------

    "Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds." - Albert Einstein

    --

    Co-founder and designer at Music Nearby: http://musicnearby.com
    1. Re:How about battery life? by DrPsycho · · Score: 1
      Ordered mine beginning of October. I'm still waiting for it to show up. I've sent a number of E-mails via. their web site to Customer Service requesting information about when my unit will be shipped... politely explaining my reasons for needing a timeline a little more specific than their standard "4-6 weeks after ordering" line... but I've yet to receive a response of any kind.

      I called them once. Way back when. Just to see if my order was subject to their ordering database bug (see their website). They redirected me from the toll-free number to an ordinary long distance number to get information on my unit... and they put me back on hold during that time.

      (That might have changed, since their staffing has apparently been seriously reinforced.)

      In the end, I learned my order was intact, and that my Visor should be in my hands "around Halloween" as I was originally promised. I'M STILL WAITING.

      Once it comes, I'll happily throw my two cents in about battery life and anything else I can blather about without being as off topic as this message seems to have become.

      --

      -DrPsycho - Coping with reality since 1975

    2. Re:How about battery life? by dumptruck · · Score: 1

      Yes i to was supposed to get mine around Halloween and i didn't but i did finally get mine with cradle but have yet to use the cradle it is plugged into my USB port but i haven't done anything beyond that. I am pretty shore that USB is not supported by linux yet and thus i have not even tried and i really don't like Windows because i find it unreliable and i am using 95 with USB support and if i turn my usb on windows tells me that i don't have a network card so whatever. As soon as USB works with linux i will be willing to put some time into working on some connectivity software but i don't know anything about righting drivers for anything let alone USB so i am out of that.

      this could all be fake

    3. Re:How about battery life? by killbill · · Score: 2

      If anything, it should be superior to the existing (newer) palms. The architecture of the two units are very close, and use the same motorola dragon ball processors.

      The biggest hitter on the palms is the RS232 serial port during hotsync. Without hotsyncs, the average pilot could probably go two months on a single set of AAA's. With hotsyncs, probably about half that. The RS232 specification requires that the port not be parasitically powered, so those little batteries have to do all the work.

      I am not sure what the specifications for USB (which the visor uses) indicate, but I bet they allow for parasitic power delivery for the interface of low power devices.

      Regardless, power usage for any of the palm devices is not an issue. At worst, just go to Best Buy and buy a few sets of AAA NiMh and a charger, and you should go at least a week at a time, even with lots of backlight and constant syncing.

      It is the windows CE devices with their hungry CPU's and color screens that have the battery problem.

      Bill

      --
      Mathematically impossible requirements are technically not against policy.
  4. I bet it works fine. by drewness · · Score: 1

    I haven't gotten my Visor yet (another 2-4 weeks theoreticly), but I'd wager that as it claims to be "100% PalmOS compatible" on Handspring's page it should act no different than a PalmPilot. I ordered the optional serial cradle, because I don't even want to try to fight the USB port to get it to work with hotsync. I think that all they mean is the same thing 3Com means; they won't help you nor do they have any software for Linux.

    1. Re:I bet it works fine. by rgrant · · Score: 1

      when i dropped my Visor (ouch!), i just stuck a
      Palm III in the serial port and hotsynched all my data to it.

      compatible enough? :)

  5. Re:Palms and Linux Conduits... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    look at http://www.moshpit.org/pilotmgr/, while it's not GPL, it does run on a whole lota platforms and uses perl coduits to do a wide number of things like sync mail (various server types), avantgo, and the standard Palm databases. Then there's Kpilot for the K Desktop Environment. It's even got a hotsync daemon that waits for you to push the hotsync button.. *NIFTY* .. it even uses conduits... what will they think of next... crazy piloteers..

  6. Info... by pos · · Score: 2

    I've seen them at the Internet Expo in NYC. Their booth was packed! They were showing off their 4 modules and had several 3rd party module manufacturers there.

    About the waiting... They apparently have had 4x the orders they expected. Now their e-commerce site is up and they are probably rolling in more orders, even faster. Remided me of the G4 mac shortage ;) I ordered 5 about a month ago and they said it would be at least 4-6 weeks before they shipped. I asked when I could buy ~10,000 and they said volume sales won't be available until early 2000. Everyone is waiting for these things.

    Soft/Hardware: The OS is PalmOS so everything is compatable. They added some nice new features to the standard apps, and the USB option is there to win over the Mac crowd. When you drop in a springboard module, it suspends the OS and runs a rom in the module. This allows the module to be always on and interrrupt the palm. It can theoreticaly turn the visor on and sound an alarm or whatever, whenever it wants. The visor has a microphone built in to it so that it can be turned into a cell phone at a later date. Pager modules, gps modules are all coming. Also, don't worry about compatability, the guys who started and run Handspring also invented the palm pilot.

    -pos


    The truth is more important than the facts.

    --
    The truth is more important than the facts.
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