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- Springboard Modules (http://discussion.visorcentral.com/vcforum/forumdisplay.php?forumid=10)
-- 350mg flash Microdrive... Can we get an adapter? (http://discussion.visorcentral.com/vcforum/showthread.php?threadid=5299)

Check this link out for some distubing news http://www.wiredguy.com/reviews/acc...s/000000012.htm
350 count 'em 350 megs of 'hard drive' space for a CE product. I want one for my visor can we get an adapter SB? (hey look, after i saved so much buying a visor I want A LOT of memory!)

That might be good for WinCE devices because they need so much memory fo their applications, but for a Palm OS devices, that's way to much. Go to ZDnet or Palmgear and ask the size of all their programs combined, That's probably only 500 mb.
What I'm getting to is that 64mb is more than enough for the SERIOUS POWER USER which there are only like 25 (people) of. If you think that you need 350 mb for your Visor, then get a laptop. I mean, all the medical databases will fit on an 8mb card, is that not enough?
Also, don't say that you could use it with an MP3 player because that wou;d mean placing two devices in one spot, not possible!
The innogear MP3 player is supposed to have exchange software so you could have in theory 256 mbs for music and data (two 128 cards), but if you have that many games, then get a gameboy, not a Visor(No body would have 256mbs of e-books,documents and programs besides games) I have 5 books on my Visor, and about 120 other programs, and I'm only using 4 mbs of ram. Doing the math, that gives me 10500 programs and e-books. INSANITY is the only thing for that.
Also lets talk about batteries. If you get about 3 to 5 weeks with the visor itself, then try putting that thing in there. In the article it said that it brought a casio from 8 to 12 hourse to 2 hours of battery time. That's a 80% loss in battery life. By doing this to the Visor, you would get .8 weeks out of the batteries. One of the reasons that the palm was and is so successful is because of its long battery time.
Consider all of this, and then think if you still need such a huge memory for a device that actually doesn't have that much data to be put on it.

BEN -- you sound like the sales guy who sold me a 386SX/16 back in 1990 .. he said that 80MB was twice as much harddrive space then I would EVER need. I now have 125x that much space on my home computer and 900x that much space on my work system. Not that I think 340MB is not a ton of space for a PDA, I just think it is very short sighted to assume that no one would need that much space.

For example, one area where I saw handheld devices being used that I thought was VERY interesting is store barcode scanners. At the local Sams Club, they scanned membership cards into their system and assigned members a barcode scanning device. With this, the customers are able to go through the store and scan items as they picked them up. The device gives a short description of the item along with the price (great to figure out how much you can afford to buy ). After shopping, the handheld device is placed back in the "hotsync" cradle and the items are pulled up at the checkout. At the checkout, a quick visual on what is in the cart occurs and that was that.

From a customer standpoint, before this, it was not uncommon to stand in line up to 10 minutes (or more) to be checked out. With the new system, I was checked out within a minute.

I wouldn't be surprised if this type of technology appears at more stores. Customers could techically pull up product information, reviews, etc of different products in the store on these type of devices along with the purchasing aspect as shown above.

From a individuals standpoint, I would love to have enough storage space to include color images of products, pricing information, up-to-date inventory information, etc of items that I sell for my company. Maybe even store product brochures in PDF format on my handheld so I could easily transfer it to a customers computer and/or printer (IR) to cut down on excess baggage when traveling.

In anycase, there are a lot of new and exciting applications palm based computers will be used in within the next few years. Granted, I agree with you that most power users today should beable to store there information within 64MB without a problem. However, as more uses and data can be converted to this format, the use of greater amount of space will be necessary.

A CF springboard would be a pretty hoopy idea, in general, and not just for this device.

"640 K ought to be enough for anybody."
-- Bill Gates, 1983

On the technical side, it should probably be possible. Unfortunately, I lack the in-depth technical know-how in that area to actually be able to say for sure, or give it a go.

I'd love the idea, and it would be infinitely cool. To keep the springboard Plug-and-Play capability where it is, whoever did this would need to write an app for the springboard that could check the Compact Flash card to see what type was plugged in, and transfer the drivers for it from some flash-rom on the Springboard onto the Visor itself, and delete them when either the CF card or SB got pulled. Or make the drivers capable of being used FROM the SB module's Flash-ROM.

We need to find a hardware vendor willing to put this idea together, or someone willing to do it small-scale for interested parties. I'd be interested in two of them.

Disclaimer: Not that I think I'd ever need 350MB of RAM on my VDx.

Good comments Cerulean,
It was a little wrong to say that 350mb is too much space for a PDA. But, for a PDA with a 16mhz processor, I don't think that my statement was wrong.
Going to the example of your computer, what can you run on a 386 today. I used to have a 386 also, and the 1.5 gig hard drive that came with it was plenty for it. None of the huge programs would work because of the slow speed of the processor, so I didn't have a need for more than the space I had.
The 16mbs that I can have with my Visor is enough for the 16mhz processor that it has. The reason that people need space is because of the large programs that they want to run. Because a 16mhz procesor is not going to run a large program like that, I don't belive that anyone would ever need a large amount of space like 350mb for the Visor. However, when a new PDA with a 50 to 100 mhz processor comes out, i would love to have the extra space. I would probably take advantage of the extra processor speed and need extra memory, but until a day like that comes with such technology avaible, I can live with my Visor and 16mbs of ram contently.

Going on to your comments about the Checkout PDA's I highly doubt that these were normal PDA's, but specialized handheld computers built only for that company.

Good comments Cerulean,
It was a little wrong to say that 350mb is too much space for a PDA. But, for a PDA with a 16mhz processor, I don't think that my statement was wrong.
Going to the example of your computer, what can you run on a 386 today. I used to have a 386 also, and the 1.5 gig hard drive that came with it was plenty for it. None of the huge programs would work because of the slow speed of the processor, so I didn't have a need for more than the space I had.
The 16mbs that I can have with my Visor is enough for the 16mhz processor that it has. The reason that people need space is because of the large programs that they want to run. Because a 16mhz procesor is not going to run a large program like that, I don't belive that anyone would ever need a large amount of space like 350mb for the Visor. However, when a new PDA with a 50 to 100 mhz processor comes out, i would love to have the extra space. I would probably take advantage of the extra processor speed and need extra memory, but until a day like that comes with such technology avaible, I can live with my Visor and 16mbs of ram contently.

Going on to your comments about the Checkout PDA's I highly doubt that these were normal PDA's, but specialized handheld computers built only for that company.

Point well taken Ben.. I guess I really wasn't looking at the other aspects of the Visor when considering the 350MB drive. However, I think as more uses for these devices are becoming available, the hardware powering them will start increasing at a much faster pace. So maybe now isn't such a bad time to figure out how to get a 340MB storage device compatible with it.

RE: checkout pdas -- yes, they are definitely specialized handheld computers, however, I can see these type of units being replaced by more standardized hardware (Palm, WinCE, etc..) in the future.

hmmm.. on an offtopic note: 1.5GB in a 386? That was possible?! I thought they puked on anything larger than ~500MB .. Ahh I remember the good'ol days with my 386

Joe

The 1.5 was an upgrade.
Another note, I'm going to the BJ's, (like Costco, wholesale) and I'm going to try to find more info about the checkout PDA's, they sound really intresting.
BEN

PDA barcode scanners are made by Symbol Technologies. If you have access to the "Palmpilot-the Ultimate Guide" book you will see a photo of one on page 15. Also check out www.symbol.com/palm.

They are custom units based on Palm III's.

Also I may not have 4megs of e-books installed in my PDA but it won't surprise me if someone does. Does anyone know if Franklin (of pocket e-dictionary fame) is going to join the Visor/Palm revolution.

I personally think it should be done JUST to see what people would do with all that space. Just because we can't see why anyone would need all that space, doesn't mean there isn't a great application. I run about nine MBs on my Visor right now. I like to carry quite a bit of reading material with me in addition to all the programs I'm trying out (others and the ones I'm developing for myself and my business partners). I guess I'm a poweruser. Do I NEED all this stuff on my Visor? Of course not, but I like to have it there. Who knows, maybe someone wants to have the entire Project Gutenburg etext library on hand at all times!
(An aside to Simon Magnus- Franklin has already announced some reference book modules in the pipeline!)
Michael

You can never have enough memory!! Seriously though, I've maxed out both my internal and 8meg Flash module. I'm a medical student, and with a few choice medical references it's pretty easy to eat up 16meg. If I want to carry any other books around, I'll need to get another card and swap-on-the-go. Which I am ok with.

The TRGpro is a palm clone made by TRG that uses industry standard compact flash cards. I think one of their reps told me that it could actually use this 340meg microdrive. Regardless, it is able to use the same CF cards used by Digital cameras and other electronic hardware. Some of my buddies chose it over the VDx, and it seems to work pretty well (they haven't tried the 340meg though). One of the guys ordered a package deal that came with a 30meg card. Plenty of memory. So I guess if you really need the memory the TRGpro is probably a pretty good deal. I personally wanted the flexibility that the Springboard affords (GPS, camera, sixpak, sixpak, sixpak...) The TRGPro's slot doesn't seem to have the same flexibility.