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-- Cirque Pocket Keyboard (http://discussion.visorcentral.com/vcforum/showthread.php?threadid=10626)

Cirque Pocket Keyboard

Discuss your initial impressions of the keyboard here.

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James Hromadka
Old Friend

When you can get a full-sized Stowaway that doesn't need batteries for $87.94 at Amazon.com, I can't imagine that many people will buy this.

Of course, when I went back to your review, I saw:

quote:

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can be used on either a flat surface or in the user's hands

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__________________
Jeff

Price is right but how well does it function?

If this keyboard is the size of a large pager, how stable would it be to type on the go-that is, while moving? I would think you'd need a stable surface to support the weight of the Visor. Is there any word on how long the batteries typically last?

Oh, how nice

Well how nice indeed. I send an email about this, and don't even get credit. I shall now proceed to go crawl into a ditch and check my yadayada mail. Wait a tick...I didn't get my optimized unit. Man, I guess I'll just cry.

On a side note. Guys, I'm getting really worried about Handspring's financial side. Their stock is getting battered more and more on the street. Doesn't look like they will post earning this quarter. Really getting worried. I'm sitting on 200 shares right now, and I'm getting really tempted to sell if they go lower then 30. Anyone else getting worried about them going out of business? Lets start a discussion group about this, so I don't take up space on wrong boards.

Handspring Stock

Coyote67,
I hear you, man. I've only got 100, but I'm a little concern. We both know Handspring makes a superior product-I own two-VDX and Prism-ands I'm convinced there's still upside around the corner. Unfortunately, Bear Stearns just initiated coverage on HAND and they gave it a neutral rating:

http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/ti...10105&ID=453005

I'm playing the optimist and holding on for at least a year.

SSB is feeling butterflies

Well this can't be good. Talked to some friends of mine who are traders here at work, and they pretty much feel the same way, HAND is going to go down and down. The way I see it. The main reason for this is investors linking Handspring to Palm. When Palm suffers, so does Hand. IMHO, Handspring needs to get off the PalmOS addiction. Why dont' they go to the way of Palm and make a web device, like those webpads that were supposed to be made using the Transmeta Crueso processors. The market would see them differently. The way I see it, they are looking to the bulls as nothing but a cheap clone, like the short lived Mac Clones that got much hype and high value, and quickly vanished. Now you guys know I don't feel this way But my opinion isn't the one that makes money. Although my g/f seems to say often that I'm the one who spends it . I say we put a rally together and contact Handspring and urge them to venture into a new territory. Maybe a standalone Handspring cell phone with small Pim capabilities that can sync to the Visor? Oreo, I'm gonna go try to check my mail using YadaYada. I got $20 that the RISSI is gonna jump like a *censored censored censored censored*

Sorry I took up some more space. Come on Man, make a Visor financial board.

Back to topic....

HAND finances aside, I think that this new keyboard is an excellent example of niche marketing, further diversifying the the product offerings of Visor's accessories. Who would've thought that we would have had three choices for keyboards, two choices for MP3 players and GPS's, and more? It's a shopper's paradise! Now, if everyone could get their price point down to this new keyboard's level...

The keyboard itself looks very nice for those looking for a small, portable keyboard with little excess fumbling around. The functional similarity to the Motorola "keyboard" pager works to its advantage. I would not be surprised to see this keyboard, with its familiar functionality and low price, as pervasive in Visor circles as the Stowaway. Not that I'm going to get rid of my Stowaway, mind you! (There's a benefit to being first in the market)

"HAND finances aside ..." ...?
I don't think so.
But maybe HS feels this way, so they release their flagship product w/a paint job that melts in your hands, not in your mouth.
Then when you complain, you get surly cust. svc. people for your $449.
Has HS ever heard of MS?
Anyone ever hear of X-box?
Anyone ever hear of a deadly predator computing machine juggernaut in Redmond, WA?
I guess I'm the only one.
Then when I do what I can to try and wise up people on this board (incl. HS, hopefully) DETAILING "the whys and wherefores" for those who don't seem to be able to connect the dots ... on how the MALEVOLENT ILL WILL CREATED BY INNOGEAR'S CONSTANT LIES ABOUT A FAKED "SIX-PACK" PROTOTYPE ON THEIR WEB SITE just will not be tolerated by your avg. consumer...

... well, you can see why I sold all of my HS stock for a profit, when the selling was good.

What does Xbox have to do with the Visor?

Re: Oh, how nice

quote:

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Originally posted by Coyote67
Well how nice indeed. I send an email about this, and don't even get credit. I shall now proceed to go crawl into a ditch and check my yadayada mail. Wait a tick...I didn't get my optimized unit. Man, I guess I'll just cry.

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__________________
James Hromadka
Old Friend

Hehe, thanx. I can go home and tell the ones I love now,"look, I'm mentioned on VisorCentral"

Why is everyone so excited by the Xbox? Allegedly it'll have 3x the performance of y2k video cards... by nearly the end of 2001. Well, I should hope so!

The thing is, by then your PCs will have the same class of video cards (Microsoft isn't magic, if you can put a chipset in a settop PC you can put it in a desktop PC), higher performance processors, higher performance disks, and better displays. Again.

And since it's running the same OS as the PC, it won't even have the advantage of console-only games like the PSX/PS2 have... you can be sure that most Xbox developers won't neglect to pick up the prize money from the PC market as well.

Microsoft hasn't got any Magic Marketing Fairy. They have monopoly power in one area, and they're damn effective at leveraging that power where it makes sense. But they're also crippled by it: nobody but Microsoft would have taken the idea of using a desktop OS as the basis for handhelds or game consoles.

Look, before I went and *visited* Microsoft, I was worried about the effect of the Microsoft Juggernaut on the Palm market. But damn, it's the next year, Windows-based handheld sales are *still* below where they were in 1999, and I'm using my Visor rather than my Jornada for everything but web browsing. Handspring isn't hurting by hitching a ride on Palm. If they're down, why the whole *industry* is down.

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Rev. Peter da Silva, ULC<br>
<a href=http://www.taronga.com/~peter/>Ar rug t� barr�g ar do mhact�re inniu?</a>

Well, still off topic. But heres a little clearing up. XBOX doesn't use a PC operating system. It uses an optimzed version of Windows CE, like your Jornada, but optimized to really take the full power of its components. The video card in it is in no way 3x more powerful then current cards. The chipset is provided by NVIDIA, who offer a card using the same chipset under the geforce ultra lines. Your wrong in saying you can put the chipset in the pc for the simple reason tha the nv20 video chipset that will be used is optimized for the version of WinCE that M$ will be using. Also the processor is off the shelf, and the dvd drive that will be used can be bought seperatly too. The real difference with the xbox is, its taking all the components that are for a pc, and using optimized versions of it for wince to make the system run even better. The Xbox is console only. It won't run pc games, it is in an essence a psx/ps2/gamecube/dc in the way that is a console. Also WinCE is not a desktop OS, never was. Its just using a Windows interface, but in no way is it a desktop OS.

According to reports the Xbox is using "embedded NT", not Windows CE, but it doesn't matter to the game developer... what matters is that these OSes all use the same API, write a program from the Xbox, you've written it for the desktop as well, and vendors will be nuts to ignore that market.

And the windows API is based around, well, Windows. trim it down for Windows CE, stick it on top of an industrial strength OS like Windows NT, it doesn't make any difference... the implementation details don't make the OS, the API does, and the Windows API is designed for the desktop. It assumes a small number of programs that cooperate with each other, it assumes a single protection context per sission, it assumes a single session per machine, it assumes slow secondary storage and a high quality display.

Using the Windows API on a handheld is as daft as trying to run a server farm on Palm OS. If it wasn't for the absolutely outrageous horsepower available on the latest chipsets it wouldn't even be in the running.

Oh, and to get back on topic, look at this article on Brighthand:

http://brighthand.com/html/event/ces_day2_floor2.html

Look familiar?

__________________
Rev. Peter da Silva, ULC<br>
<a href=http://www.taronga.com/~peter/>Ar rug t� barr�g ar do mhact�re inniu?</a>

AHh, I stand corrected. You are correct, it does use an embedded form of nt. Guess its that screen protector glue going to my head..mmmmhmmmmm. Thanx for the post of the keyboard, and the thermal printer. Nice little toy. On a note about the printer, if anyone cares, I hooked up my lexmark 51z inkjet to my visor and print using palmprint. Works very nicely and I use a visor cradle to connect.

quote:

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Originally posted by Coyote67
If anyone cares, I hooked up my lexmark 51z inkjet to my visor and print using palmprint. Works very nicely and I use a visor cradle to connect.

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__________________
There is nothing yet made by man that cannot be improved upon.

Well, this is pretty much what me and mi amigo did. We took apart a Prism cradle, and removed the part that for the ac adapter. This is important because without that, the cradle will have no power, since usb port provides the power. Then I souldered that to my VDX cradle, and drilled a hole for the adapter. Then I got a usb to serial adapter, and a serial to parrellel adapter. Then just hooked them up. I have to hold the hotsync button when I print (maybe a way around that). You could probably get away with just getting a the adapters and avoiding the cradle.

quote:

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Originally posted by Coyote67
Then I souldered that to my VDX cradle, and drilled a hole for the adapter. Then I got a usb to serial adapter, and a serial to parrellel adapter. Then just hooked them up.

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__________________
Rev. Peter da Silva, ULC<br>
<a href=http://www.taronga.com/~peter/>Ar rug t� barr�g ar do mhact�re inniu?</a>

quote:

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Originally posted by Coyote67
Then I got a usb to serial adapter, and a serial to parrellel adapter. Then just hooked them up. I have to hold the hotsync button when I print (maybe a way around that). You could probably get away with just getting a the adapters and avoiding the cradle.

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__________________
There is nothing yet made by man that cannot be improved upon.