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-- Other Handspring Products - What would you wish for? (http://discussion.visorcentral.com/vcforum/showthread.php?threadid=1351)

If you were in a position to affect what the new products Handspring has in the works are, what would they be?

It does not have to be a PDA but may have a Springboard slot.

[This message has been edited by Deji (edited 10-08-1999).]

I'll say it with a picture:


For details on this and other exciting PDA designs check out - http://www.palmunderground.com/digitalconcepts/ (In my opinion this guy is one of the best designers around ... he ended up working for PALM and I have always wondered if he designed the PALM V.)

-Eric


[This message has been edited by emeyer (edited 10-08-1999).]

Eric:

I agree with you about the coolness of Scott's conceptual designs. But I would hold off on giving credit to him for the V. He joined Palm well after the V was released so I doubt he was the designer. Had an influence? Quite possibly.

I'm assuming this exists, but I'd like it in a small corporate size...

I want a multi-springboard cradle for uploading to multiple springboards at once. I figure a 12-port version would be fine. That way, I can upload to a dozen springboards all at once.

With such a device, I can load data onto a database springboard every morning to be sent out with my field workers.

Of course, as a fashion accessory, I'd like a springboard utility belt or maybe a bandelier.

The industrial design on the PV was done by a group at the product design firm - IDEO, Palo Alto. There was a article in Fortune magizine aroung the time of release. Denny Boyle was the design studio head (I think).

Interestingly, the Handspring engineer (Skillman) the VisorCentral guys spoke to at Internet World is also formerly of IDEO.

Hopefully that bodes well for cool design in the pipeline.

jonpod

Has anyone thought that one of the "four" product that Handspring is working on might be SOFTWARE and not hardware.

While the Palm and Visor are great pieces of hardware, the Donna and Jeff show did put together the very nice Palm OS. Maybe they are working on the next killer software app for the OS. Maybe something that every consumer needs, or something.

jonpod

I think someone has asked about this before, but what about a gameboy? I've never even held a PALM in my hand, so I don't know about the sound-features on Visor, but a little speaker or headphone-jack wouldn't be impossible to add. And of course you need a place to put the game (or catrige or whatever it's called in English).. and a port for some kind of a game-pad. Nothing much, but the screen on Visor sure should be able to run a gameboy-game, shouldn't it?

What else would be interesting to have? A sound card? Something small that makes other things than a simple beep. No, maybe not. I'd rather stick to the MiniJam

A GPS with maps for other areas than the US. I live in Norway, and I intend to buy a Visor even if I don't live in the US (simply by just asking a friend of mine who live there to buy one for me hehe). Anyway, the GPS maps are located in the software, so it's just a matter of time before a world map would show up.. hopefully.

What about a cable to use on different cellular phones? That would be very popular here in Norway I guess. Young people here spends thousands of Norwegian kroner (7 kroner = 1 USD) on sending SMSes.

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Ronny Salomonsen, [email protected]
Feline Medias

[This message has been edited by yu! (edited 10-09-1999).]

Good point jonpod, didn't Hawkins come up with Graffiti as well? So we could be looking at an input interface of some sort, maybe voice recognition.

Like you said, something we need. Question is - what do we need but don't realise how much we do yet?

Note: The idea here is not so much Springboard module for the Visor, but a new product from Handspring.

How about a scanner of some sort as a Springboard? I'd like to be able to "swipe" the Visor over text and graphics from a book, journal, handout, etc. This would help out with research for college students, like myself. I've seen pen type scanners on the market as well as one that has a broader scan area. Maybe memory/storage would be an issue??

Also, how about some way to hotsync, work within a Linux environment? I think Handspring would attract a few folks this way. (I'm just starting with Linux myself. Still tied to Windows 98SE.)

(BTW, I don't own any type of PDA ... at least not yet! I'm sold on the Visor Deluxe and I'll probably order one after the initial shipping date)

Thanks!

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William R. "Rick" Smith, II, LPC
Doctoral candidate in College Student Development
University of Louisville
[email protected]

[This message has been edited by WRSmith2 (edited 10-09-1999).]

[This message has been edited by WRSmith2 (edited 10-09-1999).]

Jonpod,

Maybe they're working on the next-gen handheld OS? PalmOS is great, but maybe Hawkins has something better in mind.

<snap> I know, they're working on a Transmeta-based handheld device!

Even if they do eventually create a different OS, it will still have to be Palm OS compatible, or else their dead!

Yeah, I don't really think they would be working on all new OS, unless they throught Palm was unable to advance it as they need. They might be very into expanding the OS to allow for "other" devices or creating an app (launcher, more integrated app suite,..) that would advance Handspring as much as the Visor on the hardware side.

Something I wonder about is if, "Smarthand" or whatever the next handspring device is, targets the PV and VII level costumer. And if is set to take advantage of 4.0 (Color? Different size screen,...). Then wouldn't you think there is the OS4 based device from Palm in the pipeline. I can't see Palm, not having a OS 4 device ready to go soon.

I wonder if OS 4 (If it allows for higher res or larger screens) will allow users of IIIx and V to up their screen resolution to 320 x 320 once the upgrade releases while Visors will have to settle with the usual 160 x 160. That would be a reason to stay with Palm!

just babbling,

jonpod

Color and higher res is going to require a new processor. The current DragonBall processor used by both the Visor and the Palms contains an integral grayscale LCD controller. (They could increase resolution slightly, but not to 320x320.) So these features are going to require new hardware to support them.

-Eric

I just did a little net poking around and it seems that the DragonballEZ (MC68EZ328) is able to deal with 16 color gray scale and up to 640 x 512 resolution.
http://www.apspg.com/products/drago...z/features.html

I also thought the new screens were capable of 320 x 320 res. but because of the OS it was limited to 160x160. I may be totally wrong but I thought the res was currently OS dependent.

It would be interesting though if 4.0 lets the IIIx and V function better then the Visor which will be stuck in OS 3.? land.

If anyone has more info or can correct me if I am wrong I would love to hear it.

Thanks,

jonpod

[This message has been edited by jonpod (edited 10-10-1999).]

To answer Deji's original question. I would like to see a Palm V sized product with 8 MB RAM and using USB to sync and recharge the Li-Ion batteries. (You'd need built-in rechargable batteries to get the slimness. AAA batteries are too thick to get the unit any thinner than a Visor.) Also, I'd like to see the unit be openable by the consumer and have a replaceable battery.

FYI - DragonBall EZ - LCD Controller specs:

-Taken from the Motorola manual-

The liquid crystal display (LCD) controller provides display data for external LCD drivers or for an LCD panel. The LCD controller fetches display data directly from system memory through periodic DMA transfer cycles. It uses very little bus bandwidth, which gives the core sufficient processing time. The following list contains the features of the LCD controller.
<UL TYPE=SQUARE>
<LI>Shares system and display memory, but no dedicated video memory is required
<LI>Standard panel interface for common LCD drivers
<LI>Supports single (non-split) screen monochrome/color STN LCD panels
<LI>Fast fly-by type, 16-bit wide burst DMA screen refresh transfers from system memory
<LI>Maximum display size is 640x512 pixels for b/w and 320x240 for gray display
<LI>Panel interface of 4-, 2-, and 1-bit wide LCD data bus
<LI>Four or sixteen simultaneous gray-scale levels from a palette of 16
<LI>Hardware blinking cursor that is programmable at a maximum 31x31 pixels
<LI>Hardware panning (soft horizontal scrolling)
<LI>8-bit pulse-width modulator for software contrast control
</UL>
The LCD controller consists of MPU interface registers, control logic, a screen DMA controller, line buffer, cursor logic, frame rate control, and an LCD panel interface.

-Eric

So this means that with 16 level grayscale we are only looking at 320 x 240. Or does this mean you need a lot more then what is in the IIIx and V to get the processor to do the higher res.?

jonpod

Someone mentioned a next generation OS... It struck me earlier that 'Smarthand' sounds a lot like 'Shorthand'. Maybe Hawkins and Co. are coming out with a next generation Graffiti..

The ability to have internal flash and not depend on a module. By the time I thru with all the modules I want, I'll need a steamer trunk. Also a cell phone zapper

------------------
Dave B (Grandpa Geek)"If it ain't broke, don't fix it yet!
BUT IF IT IS PLEEZ FIX"

Graph Tablet for the PC.

For God's sake - why isn;t there a module already, or even a cable to the PC?