VisorCentral.com (http://discussion.visorcentral.com/vcforum/index.php)
- Springboard Modules (http://discussion.visorcentral.com/vcforum/forumdisplay.php?forumid=10)
-- Six Pack vs. Palm VII (http://discussion.visorcentral.com/vcforum/showthread.php?threadid=5157)

Will the Six Pack wireless capabilities be the same as the Palm VII?

Unlikely to be the same, since Palm VII is not using normal cell phone technology. You're stuck with their network/ISP

Also, the six pack (see http://www.innogear.com/6.htm doesn't have the cell capability in the pack, you plug it into a cell phone.

So...from the point of view of 6-pack:
Pros:
Flexible choices for ISP
Network coverage (there are still huge holes in the Palm VII network)

Cons:
Need separate cell phone
Combination of Visor + cell phone sounds like it will be physically awkward to use.

Pro: You have the choice to use whatever cell phone works with your favorite cellular or PCS provider (assuming you can get a cable for it).

This might not be an advantage if you are not using one of the top two or three most popular phone lines. I seriously doubt I'll see a cable for my Sanyo SCP-4000 CDMA handset any time soon, for example.

As for the awkwardness factor, Rhinoskin makes a case called the RhinoPak 3000. It has two pockets side by side -- one for your PDA, and one for whatever else you want to put there. I think it would be a nice case to hold the Visor+SixPack and your handset side by side for wireless use.

Does anyone know what cables will be available to use with the visor? I'd like to know so maybe if I plan on upgrading my phone, I can factor this in. I have a qualcomm phone but never saw any cables for it. Right now, I'm only thinking of cables probably for motorolla, ericson, and nokia. Others, I don't know. If anyone hears anything let us know!

Mike

I asked the same type of question at the innogear site. My message below w/ Inno' reply:
To: [email protected]
Will the SixPak work with a Motorola StarTac ST7790 digital/analog???

From your picture, I'm assuming that it will fix into the headphone/mic jack at the top of the phone?

Also, release date??
Thanks Art Schregardus

THEIR REPLY:
We cannot say for sure yet�SixPak is our third product in line, and will be ready in late Q1 2000. We will not speculate until we can test each phone and then create a cable assembly. We will post supported phones as testing and cables becomes ready, but certainly the StarTac line is one that we want to be compatible with.

THEN I ASKED THIS QUESTION:
Is it possible to PREORDER the 6pak???? I realize that you're not going to sell/ship unitl 1st qtr, but I'd like to be first in line....

THEIR REPLY:
We would love to but we need to establish pricing first. Please go to www.innogear.com and get on our mailing list and/or send an email to [email protected] and you will be amongst the very first group. We will send out a new flash as soon as we have pricing and availability. We expect to be taking advance orders in March.

If the Canadian market is anything to go by, the ONLY option would be to get a Nokia 61xx series phone.

There are a lot of good phones out there, but none seem to be as popular as these phones.

Eug:
A couple quick questions about the phone you mentioned. I've discovered that the IR port visable on the top of the Nokia 6160 is 'cosmetic in the USA' according to Nokia.

Is it enabled on these phones sold in Canada?
If it's not enabled, is the hardware actually inside the phone (if you can find the right screwdriver & are willing to pop it open)?

I know the IR is NOT enabled in North America on any of the 61xx phones. Dunno for sure, but I read somewhere that the electronics for the IR aren't there either.

P.S. I was shopping for a phone with a friend yesterday. There is a now an alternative face-plate avail. for the 6185/6190 phones that has that translucent blue plastic. So, if you're really into the colours you can now have a matching Visor and cell. (Not for me though.)

The 61xx does not have the electronics in there for IR (I checked it out when I was replacing the green LEDs with blue ones ;-) . Worse yet, even if you could put the electronics in there (transceiver and endec), the phone's OS most likely does not have an IrDA stack and would not be able to talk to other infrared devices. Bummer. My current setup to get email on the road is a blackberry. It turns out wireless web messaging from Sprint only delivers 100 characters per message, versus the blackberry's unlimited message size (in 2K blocks; you have to manually download each block after the first). So it kinda sucks for me - I gotta carry around my visor, my cell phone, and my blackberry. I can't wait for a two-way pager card for the visor or some other more economical messaging solution for email!