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-- Questions for PDA/Visor Virgins (http://discussion.visorcentral.com/vcforum/showthread.php?threadid=720)

I ordered my first PDA yesterday, the Visor Deluxe. To be honest, I had no idea what PDA's were all about until about a week ago. Why do I need an electronic day planner I thought? I've bought paper day planners and never really used them. I had read the ads and articles on PDA's in many magazines and kept seeing news about the Handspring Visor and once I realized the unlimited uses for the PDA I was hooked. Great sites like this one finally lead to my purchase and now I wait for its arrival.

My questions for PDA Virgins:

* Why now?
* Why the Visor?
* How long have you had yours and are you using it as much as you thought you would?
* What do you like best about yours?
* Any regrets (other than the Visor shipping and customer service snafus)?
* Has your Visor/PDA changed your life in anyway?

I'll probably have more questions once I see your answers.

Thanks,
Buck

* Why now? Because it's inexpensive
* Why the Visor? Because it's less expensive than the Palm Vx
* How long have you had yours and are you using it as much as you thought you would? Had mine 2 days: no
* What do you like best about yours? $249
* Any regrets (other than the Visor shipping and customer service snafus)? Regret not ordering sooner
* Has your Visor/PDA changed your life in anyway? Something to do on the way into work

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~Mitchel

[This message has been edited by Mitchel (edited 11-30-1999).]

All legit reasons...glad you are happy with your purchase.


Buck

I ordered it now, because my girlfriend knew I wanted one and she agreed to buy it for me as a Xmas gift.
I was using an old Pilot 1000 (128K) and I wanted to upgrade to one with more memory. I was quizzing my fellow grad students at school about the kinds they used, and one recommended I check out the Handspring website. That�s when I showed my girlfriend, �look at this��
I�ve had mine for a week now, and I use it constantly�.still loading frivolous stuff on it to see how it works. Given time, I�ll settle into a routine with it.
Compared to my Pilot 1000, it has gobs more memory (I have the 2MB Visor) and I can actually load stuff on it, like AvantGo.
My only regret is not getting the Visor Deluxe. I broke down and ordered a Deluxe yesterday.
It�s a neat organizer, and with the springboard has a lot of potential, but, no, it hasn�t changed my life.

Good insight...thanks, Flytopher.


Buck

When my visor arrives (any day now, I've entered the 6th week, and have taken to reloading my bank's statement page to see if my visa/checkcard has dinged yet 8-) it will be the first time that me or my friend (who's in the same situation). While I can't speak for him, both of us are pretty much ordering the visor for the same reason. Mobile computing.

I already own a laptop. But there are places that a laptop just isn't pratical (say, in a chemistry lab, or in the field - I'm a chem major in training). My friend doesn't want to shell out the money for a laptop. A calculator just doesn't cut it for some of the programs that we want to write/develop.

Why a visor? It's cheap. It's priced below most of Palm's devices, it has open standards and open specifications (very important when you are a hardware hacker) and it runs PalmOS instead of WinCE. I don't care for M$ much, I run Linux on my desktop at home, and PalmOS is fairly well supported under Linux. If I were to write scientific programs, I want to be able to keep it as open as possible so that it can be adapted to my individual's application.

But let's cover what the visor *isn't*. The visor isn't meant for a full laptop replacement. While the deluxe has 8Mbs of RAM and 8Mbs of expansion slot space, it is not meant for multimedia, or huge data processing. With a 160x160 display, whatever program you write for it has to have good visibility.

What the Visor *is* though, is that if you code your application right for it, it will fly. It offers the capability for almost instant-on. One of the first programs I'm writing for my visor (and hopefully, it will compile without errors before it gets here 8-) ) is a simple program that looks up Ksp, pKa and thermodynamic properties of common lab chemicals. I do not have the luxuary of lugging a laptop into the lab, where a spill would *really* ruin my day. I do not have the luxuary in a advanced level lab to sit and wait 3 minutes for my laptop to boot up. What I *can* do, however, is have a device small enough to fit into my palm, with a touch screen interface, to scroll thru simple database records. Or, run TinySheet and graph a quick and dirty graph of my titration data (notice that I said quick and dirty - more computational intensive stuff, I'd upload the data back to my box via a hotsync).

I see the visor change my lifestyle. Not only will I be more organized, with the software that I'm writing, it may one day change how people (and not just me) do labwork as well.

-=- SiKnight

Silicon_Knight, I do hope you have looked into some kind of case for your visor, to protect it in case you accidentally spill something awful on it.

There was a discussion on the comp.sys.palmtops.pilot group about waterproofing a palm pilot. Some suggested a zip lock plastic bag, but apparently there is something more substatial available. (the user in question wanted to carry his pilot in a canoe)

Buck,

Paper planners never really worked for me, either. Why not?

1. I never really had a lot of appointments, so even if I wrote them in my planner I would often forget to look at them.
2. Most of the stuff I had to plan was "to do" type items and things I needed to buy. Since they usually didn't all HAVE to be done on a certain day, there was no real point in writing them in my planner only to have to re-copy them to the next day. Sometimes I used a loose piece of paper inserted in my planner, but if that's the main thing I used it for, why not just carry a piece of paper? But that is kind of messy, too.
3. I tend to think of things I need to do at pretty random times, so I needed something that was small enough to always have with me. My planner was too bulky to take with me shopping, or to a restaurant, etc.
4. Even the phone/address portion of my planner tended to get pretty messy, because people move, change phone numbers, it's hard to organize people into different groups, etc.

So, to make a long story longer, I started looking into PDAs and settled on the Visor Deluxe. I realize most of the issues I mentioned above are solved by most any Palm organizer. For me, the main reason for the Visor was value. I don't know if I will have a real need for any of the Springboards, although at the rate my RAM is filling up, the 8MB flash module may be a serious possibility. But it is nice to have the expandibility options. I also think there is some real value in the improvements Handspring has made to the OS and the built-in apps.

Why now? I needed to put more order in my life as soon as possible. I have had mine for about 2 1/2 weeks, and I use it more than I thought I would. I love being able to see my to do items in my single-day view in Datebook+. I love always having something with me to read, or a game to play. I love AvantGo. I never seem to have time to read all of the 800K or so of information AvantGo downloads to my Visor automatically when I sync each day.

No regrets. It has mainly changed my life by helping me be more organized. I am definitely less prone to forget things I need to do now, and I'm not shuffling through lists on random scraps of paper to find information. There have been several times already when it has been very useful. I had to fill out an application form, and had to provide some info that I didn't know off the top of my head. I wouldn't have brought my planner with me, but I had my Visor. Plus, with all of the Palm software out there, you can pretty much customize your machine to be whatever you need it to be. Basically, this is the kind of planner I never knew I always wanted. And the Visor provides the best feature/value combination.

Ronbot,

I think I have Visor Envy...I only ordered mine 5 days ago and the anticipation after reading the notes here have me drooling.

Thanks,
Buck

1 & 2) Same answer, because of the open nature of the springboard platform. By it's expandablitity I'm pretty confident I will still be using it for a long time, in one form or another.
3) Almost a month and a half- using it more
4) The 8mb of memory. I still haven't filled this puppy up. (instant on is nice too)
5) No regrets
6) Yes it has, nothing earthshaking, just allowed me to direct some of my designer skills into different things (and I'm learning JAVA)

1.I was shopping for a Palm on Sept 12 and saw the Visor announcment, ordered 9/14
2. Memory, Springboard
3. Since October 25 or so, Yes
4. Not having to lug paper copies of contacts and parts lists.
5. No
6. I read my bible more.

1) Forgot three birthdays in September.

2) You get more for less. I'm no brain surgeon, but you gotta like that.

3) 5 days. I probably don't use it quite as much yet, still adjusting.

4) Everything. Seriously, it's great.

5) That I placed my order online (10/7) instead of calling.

6) Not yet, but it will at least improve my "memory" and therefore make my life a little more peaceful.

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Proud owner of a GVD...