VisorCentral.com - Will Apple buy Handspring?

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Posted by lennonhead on 05-25-2001 10:27 PM:

Didn't Jobs offer and HS refuse a few months ago?

As much as I like both companies I don't think they'd make a good match. They are both innovative, but who would have the power if Apple bought HS? Jobs would and I give him credit for Apple products, but I haven't seen anything to make me think Dubinsky and Hawkins haven't been just as creative with the Visor line. Two heads are better than one (remember the Sesame Street song? ).

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Posted by homer on 05-25-2001 11:00 PM:

quote:
Didn't Jobs offer and HS refuse a few months ago?

When Jobs first came onboard again, he offered to buy Palm. I know nothing of Apple courting Handspring.

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Posted by bblue on 05-25-2001 11:45 PM:

ooohhh

Apple HAS tried to buy Handspring already, and Handspring did refuse. However, the gritty little details are still unclear. Unlike with Palm, Apple & Handspring seem to be unusually close together. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that the Visor Deluxe obviously took some hinting from the iMac, (then again, the iMac has started it's own revolution in design) , and the EDGE designers probably did take steps to make it similar in appearance to the G4 Powerbook. (Note: I saw the article one in PopScience, and I had to do a double take!) Then take a look at how many of Apple's ads/promotions the Prism has been in?

Of course, keep in mind, many HS employees worked for Apple or an Apple-related company. (Claris)

I wouldn't be surprised if a NewtonX-like module came out for the Visor, or if Apple made an AIRPORT module too.

Hmmm... a merger though? No. "Strategic Alliance" seems to be what would describe these two companies. And we know Apple will NEVER buy HS, but it's fun to talk about.

Oh yes, your best bet is to never say a bad thing about Apple. If it's not backed up like crazy, chances are you get your head bitten off, no matter who you are. (That stupid Linux founder guy comes to mind.) And it's pretty hard to trash Apple now, too.

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Posted by homer on 05-26-2001 12:51 AM:

quote:
Apple HAS tried to buy Handspring already, and Handspring did refuse. However, the gritty little details are still unclear.

When did that happen? I'd like to know more about it...

quote:
Oh yes, your best bet is to never say a bad thing about Apple.

There ARE a lot of bad things about Apple...just as there are in all companies. People tend to make a lot of things up about Apple, though, for whatever reason.

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Posted by dick-richardson on 05-26-2001 10:02 PM:

Re: ooohhh

quote:
Originally posted by bblue
That stupid Linux founder guy comes to mind.

He has a pretty impressive resume for being "stupid." I'm curious how yours would compare.

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Posted by Toby on 05-28-2001 03:07 PM:

Re: Re: ooohhh

quote:
Originally posted by dick-richardson
[...responding to a comment about Linus Torvalds being 'stupid'...]
He has a pretty impressive resume for being "stupid." I'm curious how yours would compare.

It should be noted that Linus' comments were not against Apple per se, but more against the kernel upon which MacOSX was based.

Posted by JHromadka on 05-28-2001 08:01 PM:

As this is getting into an Apple only topic, I'm moving this to Off-Topic forum.

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Posted by foo fighter on 05-28-2001 10:08 PM:

quote:
Originally posted by Galley_SimRacer
Will Handspring buy Apple?

LOL! I don't think you understand the disproportionate size difference between these two companies. Handspring is a very small startup on a small budget. Apple is a vastly larger company with 4 billion in its coffers. To say that Apple will be bought out by Handspring is like saying that Tombstone tires...oops, I mean Firestone tires will buy out General Motors. Not going to happen any time soon.

As for the Mac vs. PC debate, well...to each his own. "Apple teetering on the edge of its own destruction!".... Hmm, well I'm a PC user giving serious thought to switching to a Mac. I certainly wouldn't be entertaining such thoughts if I believed Apple was doomed. To the contrary, I think Apple has made some rather impressive, coherent strategic moves (a rarity for Apple) that has instilled some interest in me. Look at the Apple stores for example, so far they are a hit! I have a friend in the D.C area, and he says the the store down there is attracting steady crowds, and many of the window shoppers (pun intended) are PC users. This could be a big hit for Apple, and may well draw more interest in the platform. Or it could fail miserably. Time will tell, but they seem to be off to a good start.

Now let us never speak of this again!

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Posted by homer on 05-28-2001 10:59 PM:

quote:
Apple HAS tried to buy Handspring already, and Handspring did refuse.

bblue: When did that happen? Do you have a URL for that story? I'm interesting in knowing more about that.

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Posted by foo fighter on 05-28-2001 11:29 PM:

As a side note; one thing that really gripes at me is Apple's high pricing on the PowerMac G4 line. For example, look at the price/specs on the low-end G4 tower:

* 466mhz processor
* 128MB PC133 RAM
* 30gig 5400RPM ATA/66 hard drive (this is just pathetic)
* ATI Rage 128 video card (This card was state of the art...back in 1998)
* CD-RW

Total Price = $1700

Sorry guys, but this system is a joke! For $100 less I can buy a SONY Vaio Digital Studio system with these specs:

* 1.5ghz Pentium 4
* 128MB PC800 RDRAM (expensive)
* 60gig 7200RPM ATA/100 hard drive (fast!)
* Nvidia GeForce 2 MX video card
* CD-RW
* DVD-ROM

Total Price = $1600

See what's wrong with this picture? Apple has got to be more competitive on features and pricing. They are starting to become very aggressive in portables, but the desktop line is languishing. They just dropped the price on the 15" studio display to $599. That alone has me, almost, ready to jump ship! I'm hoping Apple will kill off the Cube and remarket the G4 towers accordingly to fill in the gap. If I could nail a dual processor system with the above specs as the SONY, I just might jump for it! But right now, there isn't a chance in hell I would pay $1700 for such paltry features.

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Posted by homer on 05-28-2001 11:34 PM:

quote:
Apple has got to be more competitive on features and pricing.

Why? They seem to be selling them just fine with the nice profit margins they currently have on them.

Granted, I wish the WOULD reduce the prices, but from a financial standpoint, I don't think they have to.

The Apple stores may be a catalyst for lower prices. They clearly are going to need to move higher volumes of product to support these stores and I'm thinking lowered prices would be the easiest way to do so.

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Posted by BEN on 05-28-2001 11:37 PM:

For once I completly agree with Foo about the apple pricing. I am a devoted PC user, and I am for the first time ever considering the chances of buyign a mac. I am not goign to buy a desktop though as tehy are completly over priced, but I am going to buy a laptop. I think that the new Titanium powerbooks are some of the coolest devices to hit the market in a long time. This is not because of the impressive specs of the machines (they really arn't), but the functionality of the MAC OSX for the mobile user, and the specs to back-up THAT aspect of the computer. MAC OSX can handle media files better than windows can nativly, and the screen and HD space on the powerbook beat any laptop that I have seen. As a desktop system, I think that the Apples are mediocre at best. (Look at Foo's specs, a 466 MHz processor? Comon, on a desktop I want either a x86 in the GHz's, or a PPC above 750 atleast) But for a Laptop, these specs are fine, and I am willing to spend the big ticket price to get a device like this.

BEN

Posted by foo fighter on 05-28-2001 11:53 PM:

quote:
Originally posted by BEN
... I think that the new Titanium powerbooks are some of the coolest devices to hit the market in a long time. This is not because of the impressive specs of the machines (they really arn't), but the functionality of the MAC OSX for the mobile user, and the specs to back-up THAT aspect of the computer.

The T-Book is a huge hit. I've seen several of them in public. I asked this one woman how she likes hers. I didn't care, but I was just using it as an ice breaker to get a closer look at her...uh, portable(s).

Anyway, she told me that she absolutely loves it, and that it "beats the hell out of my old ThinkPad". Looks like Apple is grabbing the attention of PC users. Nice to know I'm not alone!

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Posted by bblue on 05-29-2001 12:06 AM:

Re: Re: Re: ooohhh

quote:
Originally posted by Toby

It should be noted that Linus' comments were not against Apple per se, but more against the kernel upon which MacOSX was based.

True, very true. However, what makes me question his intelligence ( snicker snicker ) is what aspect of it he trashed... the kernel. Uh... it doesn't take a professional network administrator to tell you that BSD has many advantages over Linux. It's far more stable... far FAR more stable. (This coming from something I read way back when.) The Linux man seemed to think the opposite. That's fine, except the quotes I have read simply show as much fact as what I'm saying right now. The only thing is, if I ever find that article, or a similar one, I'll prove it to you. (I hope that article has not been removed... if not, I'll show you something from daemonnews.org !) Basically, the guy simply thinks that there is no way possible that Apple could make an OS that in almost every way is better than his, and could most likely cause its extinction. (This won't happen, because of people like him!)

But I don't think it's exactly legit to just trash BSD if you have nothing to back it up. This guy simply didn't. But can you blame him for trying?

*After more than a month, I have yet to have to reset Mac OSX. For lacking the memory & processor guts I'm supposed to have to run it, that's amazing.

----

Also, I have not found the article, but here's a little blurb on it. It says this happened before Handspring IPO'ed.

http://www.google.com/search?q=cach...ng%22&hl=en

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Posted by homer on 05-29-2001 12:38 AM:

bblue:

Thanks...interesting links, although it only appears that it was a rumour...but interesting nonetheless.

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Posted by Toby on 05-29-2001 02:55 PM:

Re: Re: Re: Re: ooohhh

quote:
Originally posted by bblue
However, what makes me question his intelligence ( snicker snicker )

Your questioning his intelligence bears little weight, especially considering that Apple wanted him to work on the project originally, anyway. If he was their prior choice, that doesn't speak well of Apple's intelligence, by your 'reasoning'.

quote:
is what aspect of it he trashed... the kernel.

It seems to be the part that he'd be most qualified to critique.

quote:
Uh... it doesn't take a professional network administrator to tell you that BSD has many advantages over Linux.

No, any idiot can _tell_ you that, but at least a professional network administrator (or kernel developer) might be able to offer some substance behind their statements.

quote:
It's far more stable... far FAR more stable.

Irrelevant. The kernel in question is not BSD, but rather the Mach kernel which was derived from BSD. A decent analogy here would be a truck and an SUV. Perhaps that truck frame when used to build a truck is highly stable. However, if you use that same frame to build a top-heavy SUV, there can be a highly decreased level of stability.

quote:
(This coming from something I read way back when.)

Well, I think the statements of a kernel developer carry a little more weight than the unsubstantiated memory of some bloke on a message board in this matter.

quote:
The Linux man seemed to think the opposite.

What kernel version do you claim is less stable than the Mach kernel? I've run various flavors of Linux on several kernel versions, and had little in the way of stability problems. Of course, I've also run at least three versions of BSDI's BSD/OS which were also as stable. Of course, this is still irrelevant, since none of those are Mach.

quote:
That's fine, except the quotes I have read simply show as much fact as what I'm saying right now.

I don't see how that's Linus' fault. The quotes are taken from drafts of a book which is a work in progress.

quote:
The only thing is, if I ever find that article, or a similar one, I'll prove it to you.

I won't hold my breath. Here are a few articles where Linus addresses the hysteria (I rather like the third one):
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,s2085525,00.html
http://www.itworld.com/Comp/2384/LWD010410maccomments/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/39/18162.html

quote:
(I hope that article has not been removed... if not, I'll show you something from daemonnews.org !)

Hopefully, it'll actually be relevant.

quote:
Basically, the guy simply thinks that there is no way possible that Apple could make an OS that in almost every way is better than his,

1) Technically, Linus doesn't make an OS. He makes a kernel.
2) I remember how well Jobs last version of NeXTStep caught on. I hope that this version does better, and if it does, he can thank Linux for raising people's awareness of Windows alternatives.

quote:
and could most likely cause its extinction. (This won't happen, because of people like him!)

I agree that Linus probably won't let Apple cause his extinction.

quote:
But I don't think it's exactly legit to just trash BSD if you have nothing to back it up.

1) He didn't trash BSD. He trashed the design of the Mach kernel.
2) How would you know whether or not he backed it up unless you've read the book?

quote:
This guy simply didn't.

Have you read the book?

quote:
But can you blame him for trying?

I don't blame him for anything yet, when nothing has been proven for which he deserves to be blamed.

quote:
*After more than a month, I have yet to have to reset Mac OSX. For lacking the memory & processor guts I'm supposed to have to run it, that's amazing.

Perhaps, but it still proves nothing.

quote:
Also, I have not found the article, but here's a little blurb on it. It says this happened before Handspring IPO'ed.

http://www.google.com/search?q=cach...ng%22&hl=en

I notice that you ignore the part where it admits to being "a wild and hopelessly unlikely rumor".

Posted by homer on 05-29-2001 03:37 PM:

Toby:

Welcome to the wonderful world of bblue logic.

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Posted by Toby on 05-29-2001 04:03 PM:

quote:
Originally posted by homer
Toby:

Welcome to the wonderful world of bblue logic.

FSVO 'logic' ~ 0.

Posted by bblue on 05-30-2001 12:02 AM:

BBLUE LOGIC: :-D

Just a quick lil' blurb. Linus trashed the BSD platform for its so called "lack of stability."

That's like trashing MacOSX for "lack of a good interface" !!!!!! (although, interface is a bit more of a matter of opinion, but for all general purposes, OSX has got one hell of a great interface!)

Other than that, the most likely reason he refused to work with Apple on it, is that it would pose a near death sentence for Linux. I can't blame him for not trying.

But I still think he's wrong. My opinion. Yours may vary.

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Posted by Toby on 05-30-2001 12:47 AM:

Re: BBLUE LOGIC: :-D

quote:
Originally posted by bblue
Just a quick lil' blurb. Linus trashed the BSD platform for its so called "lack of stability."

Citation please.

quote:
That's like trashing MacOSX for "lack of a good interface" !!!!!! (although, interface is a bit more of a matter of opinion, but for all general purposes, OSX has got one hell of a great interface!)

Linus seems to agree if you'd bother reading the links I posted.

quote:
Other than that, the most likely reason he refused to work with Apple on it, is that it would pose a near death sentence for Linux. I can't blame him for not trying.

Yet more unsubstantiated pablum.

quote:
But I still think he's wrong. My opinion. Yours may vary.

You haven't even provided a documented citation of the position you ascribe to him, so you don't seem to have any basis for your opinion. I provided substantiation for my position. Of course mine varies, because mine actually has substance behind it and not synapses misfiring.

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