VisorCentral.com (http://discussion.visorcentral.com/vcforum/index.php)
- Springboard Modules (http://discussion.visorcentral.com/vcforum/forumdisplay.php?forumid=10)
-- SAD (http://discussion.visorcentral.com/vcforum/showthread.php?threadid=5353)

I, too, think that the springboards are one of the greatest assets AND liabilities of the Visor. I believe that the specification is an *open* (and free) one; if some other design (Apple?) also used it it would help adoption / development.

Speaking of which...It boils down to a chicken/egg problem. When there were major problems getting the Visors made and sent out the door, there was really no market for the springboards: SB development plans may have slipped at that time. Now there are no problems shipping Visors, but a real dearth of SBs is making the choice of an esoteric standard (vs, say, compact flash like the TRGpro) seem foolish.

There is a limited time window, IMHO. The next Big Thing (color, moving to strongARM, decent wireless, OS upgrades) is on the way and to maximize the window they have, Handspring should (1) fly engineers around to help out with design, (2) use some marketing leverage to help them get stuff made, if that is the problem, and (3) jumpstart the open-source / hacking community with software examples and a CHEAP (cost +$5) "expansion" board that can be used to easily interface with the visor. I'd use the latter for prototyping instruments, interactive displays, programming chips in the field, accessing the microphone, and a ton of other uses.

If the SB becomes even a minor hacking standard, it will be insanely great for Visor and extend the life of the product we have now. I do not expect this from a company that sent me two DOA Visors and still ships with that crappy, scratchy stylus, but they might not orphan us yet.