VisorCentral.com - Live Long, Visor Prism

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-- Live Long, Visor Prism (http://discussion.visorcentral.com/vcforum/showthread.php?threadid=24385)

Posted by VisorCentral on 06-28-2002 07:13 PM:

Live Long, Visor Prism

As expected, Visor Prism is no longer available from Handspring.

http://www.visorcentral.com/content/Stories/1467-1.htm

Posted by HindeR on 06-28-2002 07:52 PM:

Sad, very very sad.

Ok, so things change and maybe it was to be expected. But it is still sad. As other threads have gone on and on to explain, many of us do not see the Teo90 as a valid Prism replacement. I now consider myself very lucky to have gotten my new Prism just a few weeks ago. After today's news I ordered some screen protectors.

So what's next? I don't know. HS has given me no path forward that I find acceptable. I suppose I will enjoy my Prism as long as it lives or has enough memory for ever-growing software sizes. Then I will look for a PDA that has accessories that replace the functinality of my springboard modules (camera, presenter-to-go, GPS, modem). Right now, Treo does not offer that functionality. Neither does Sony. Their PDA of the month approach has not lent itself to standard interfaces for accessories (that I can determine). From what I see, only Palm would be able to replace my Prism and its accoutrements.

To answer another thread's question, you can still order reconditioned Prisms from HS.

Posted by visorprismman on 06-28-2002 08:08 PM:

Extended Warranty?

What about that? Are they still letting you purchase an extended warranty on the prism? That is one thing that I will be sad about cause I got my prism in March.

__________________
Cheers

Posted by jclarke4 on 06-28-2002 08:17 PM:

Treo 90?

If the treo 90 was a suitable replacement, is there one with the graffiti option?, I don't want a keyboard pad. Looks like I'll get a palm next.

Posted by dsilver on 06-28-2002 08:19 PM:

Bye bye Prism

I too am saddened to see the Prism go to the wayside. I ordered the Visor Deluxe almost the day it became available. Shortly after Prism hit, I replaced my Deluxe with it and never looked back. I'm very sorry to see that its replacement, the Treo 90, offers nothing in the way of enhancements. It is like taking a giant step sideways or backwards, depending on your perspective. Yes, 16megs is nice, but the plasticy feel, smaller screen, and lack of grafitti and sprinboard capability is a major disappointment, to put it mildly. While Sony may not have a device interface nearly as innovative as the Springboard, they at least have continued to evolve and add more value to their upgrades. In contrast, for whatever bizarre reason, Handspring decided to stay with the Dragonball 33 AND 160x160 res AND retreat to 12 bit color. Geez, is there any progressive thinking at all in this package as it applies to pure PDA functionality? I think not...

Posted by swendor on 06-28-2002 09:21 PM:

Got My Prism!

I've always wanted a Prism and I finally got one 2 weeks ago when CompUSA was practically giving them away for $149 (refurb) and an optional 1 or 2 year service plan. Like many other users I find the Springboard a unique and hard to beat expansion platform. What other handheld can boast over 50 expansion modules? How about 20? Springboard beat them all!

Also like many others, HS has offered me nothing in terms of a replacement: combo PDA phone? no thanks. Treo 90? Can't beat the Prism. And I'm really not into keyboards.

Here's to the Prism!

PS-May it last me a good long while.

__________________
If at first you don't succeed, skydiving is not for you.

Posted by tbonney on 06-28-2002 11:18 PM:

Hanging on as long as I can

I have the Prism with memplug and a 128 meg CF card. My biggest complaint is that the Treo 90 doesn't have anything I don't already have. I have a thumb keyboard (for when I can't use my Stowaway). The Prism screen is actually better than the treo 90.

As someone else has said, its a big move sideways.

My biggest concern is what I will do when the battery finally does in my Prism. Any ideas as to what the usual battery life is for what is in the Prism? I've had mine since Jan 2001.

My next choice will be either a Sony NR70V or the new Kyceros phone/PDA combo coming out at the end of the year.

Posted by javabird on 06-29-2002 01:47 AM:

Re: Hanging on as long as I can

quote:
Originally posted by tbonney
The Prism screen is actually better than the treo 90.

In what way is the Prism screen better?

I like to read ebooks, and I'm trying to decide between the Prism (I have SB modules), Treo 90 or Clie T615. I looked at a Prism in the store, but the letters on the screen seemed pixellated. I haven' t been able to find a Treo to look at yet, but I'm concerned it might be too small. (The Clie looks beautiful, but the lack of Mac support has me concerned.)

Posted by dampeoples on 06-29-2002 02:16 AM:

Re: Re: Hanging on as long as I can

quote:
Originally posted by javabird

In what way is the Prism screen better?

I like to read ebooks, and I'm trying to decide between the Prism (I have SB modules), Treo 90 or Clie T615. I looked at a Prism in the store, but the letters on the screen seemed pixellated. I haven' t been able to find a Treo to look at yet, but I'm concerned it might be too small. (The Clie looks beautiful, but the lack of Mac support has me concerned.)

The Prism screen is better for four reasons (compared to the 90, I never had a Sony), it's got a brighter backlight, 16bit color, richer color (reds are reds, for instance), and it's slightly larger.
The Treo screen is viewable outside, but it's only 12bit, and the colors are not as rich
I have no experience with a Clie, but have heard the earlier models suffered from a lack of rich colors, but they are viewable outside. They also have hires capability, but some programs like it and some don't, check your preferred reader first.
The Clie will sync with an Apple computer via The Missing Sync, but I have no experience with this.

I'd get the Prism if you already have SB modules and use them, unless they are simply memory expansion, which all these units offer

Posted by tucson_sailors on 06-30-2002 12:41 AM:

Prism Battery question

One of the earlier posters asked what to do when the prism battery eventually fails?

Having also just gotten one of the CompUsa 30 day specials, I started thinking about the future with this unit. Since my original one had a bad springboard port, I got Handspring to replace it.

This said, the speaker on my prism is much lower volume than my ice deluxe. (Yes, this getting somewhere). I noticed that someone had posted that the speakers occasionally fall of the back plastic, so I went ahead and opened the unit to check to see if this had happened. It had not, but it was quite interesting in what I *did* see.

A removable Li-ion battery pack about the size of a portable phone battery pack. While I wasn't thinking about replacing it when it died, my first thought was wondering if the "Battery Factory" place would be able to manufacture a replacement of the same size with higher capacity. They say they can order or build anything you need, I would personally like to have a battery capacity of at least 2x what the Prism came with, if at all possible.

If this ever becomes an issue, this is what I will probably do. Its a refurb unit, but in great shape. I'm also going to screen protect this one (I suspect that eventually there will be replacement screens and digitizers on the 2nd hand market) and hope for the best. I'm quite happy, and my wife is enjoying the deluxe.

All I want to find out *now* is where all the D-I-Y mod pages for Prism got to! All of the pages that the Japanese site palmdecool are not working any more. Looking for the jog-dial mod, the speaker mod (want/need a louder speaker - and I noticed that the speaker is a flat speaker with quick disconnects....hmmm), and the headphone jack mod. Also thinking about the 16 MB memory mod, and just found a page in TW that claims to be able to replace the 2M rom with a 4m *flashable* rom.

If there are any other mod freaks out there with page links, please post em! We lucky few who own Prisms are going to need those resources to take care of our orphan children....

Cheers!

Tucson Sailors

Posted by Techie2000 on 06-30-2002 01:53 AM:

Very disturbing this is, Handspring just put another nail in its own coffin...

Posted by Kesh on 07-01-2002 03:51 AM:

I like my Prism, but honestly I'm ready to move on. Sure, it's brighter than a Treo 90, but I'd rather have something viewable outdoors. Plus, the Prism is starting to feel like a brick. I know, it's nowhere near as large as some other handhelds... but still, I'm ready for something smaller, with integrated SD expansion instead of the Springboard.

For the record, the only Springboard I've ever owned is a MemPlug SD/MMC.

A thumbboard would actually be welcome to me, since I find Graffiti cumbersome and innacurate (I have sloppy handwriting ). So, I'm seriously considering a Treo 90 as a viable upgrade.

But, I'll probably wait until the OS 5 devices come out. I've been drooling over Toshiba's new e740 PocketPC device, because it has built-in 802.11b wireless... hopefully we'll see a PalmOS device with similar features this fall.

The Visor Prism had a good, long life. Admittedly, the Treo 90 isn't a strong replacement, but it does seem to cover the bases pretty well. And I wouldn't be surprised if Handspring came out with an OS 5 device this fall that really did replace the Prism...

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Posted by Silverlokk on 07-01-2002 03:10 PM:

My own wish list, FWIW:

Treo form factor
Graffiti (I hate thumboards)
16-bit color -- whether it's viewable outdoors isn't a major issue, I'm sure I can adjust if really needed. Still, I might be able to live with 4000 colors
built-in Bluetooth -- might obviate Springboard slot
16MB of RAM, although I can live with 8

Still trying to decide just how important Springboard expandability is, although I think I would want some form of slot for MemPlug/Flash equivalence.

Regards

Posted by Silverlokk on 07-01-2002 03:15 PM:

Graffiti vs. thumbboard

BTW, I believe Handspring employed the thumbboard on the 180 because the market was different: it wasn't a PDA market, it was a cell phone market. I just wish someone would do definitive research on the preferences of the PDA market, because I think the ratio might be closer to 1:1 (graffiti might even have a slight edge). The 180 did outsell the 180g by a ratio of 10:1 if I recall rightly, but then, as I mentioned earlier, that's a handset, not a PDA, market.

Regards.

Posted by HindeR on 07-01-2002 03:20 PM:

quote:
Originally posted by Kesh
And I wouldn't be surprised if Handspring came out with an OS 5 device this fall that really did replace the Prism...

That would truely supprise me. Handspring do something for the current user base? Handspring make another PDA with a springboard slot? Impossible. They are working on building a new user base with the Treo's. But the smart potential Treo buyer would take a look at what Hanspring has done lately for the Visor buyer and extrapolate that into their own future. They may not be so interested in the Treo anymore.

Posted by potter on 07-02-2002 07:30 PM:

quote:
News posted by Marcus Adolfsson
In our review of the Prism back in late 2000, James Hromadka pointed out that "the Prism is the most advanced Palm-compatible to date, featuring a 33 MHz Dragonball V2 processor, a beautiful 16-bit Epson LCD screen, and Palm OS 3.5.2H."

So after almost 2 years that typo still has not been fixed. It is a Dragonball VZ.

Posted by foo fighter on 07-03-2002 06:48 PM:

Not quite...

quote:
quote from article:The Visor Prism was revolutionary when it came out.

I would disagree with that. It was competitive with Palm's IIIc model, but the Prism was hardly revolutionary. It didn't really break new ground in handheld design or functionality, other than introduce 65k color to the platform.

PocketPC was revolutionary....Sony's Clie N710 was revolutionary. Prism? No.

__________________
My blog: Pocketfactory

Posted by Toby on 07-03-2002 07:29 PM:

Re: Not quite...

quote:
Originally posted by foo fighter
I would disagree with that. It was competitive with Palm's IIIc model, but the Prism was hardly revolutionary. It didn't really break new ground in handheld design or functionality, other than introduce 65k color to the platform.

I think it was at least as revolutionary as Sony's HiRes (not that I think _either_ was necessarily...).

quote:
PocketPC was revolutionary....Sony's Clie N710 was revolutionary. Prism? No.

How was either of those more revolutionary (or even really revolutionary)? PocketPC (or even PPC2K2) was still just Microsoft trying to get CE right. The Clie was just integrating some things that were already out there into a single integrated package.

Posted by foo fighter on 07-03-2002 07:44 PM:

Re: Re: Not quite...

quote:
Originally posted by Toby
How was either of those more revolutionary (or even really revolutionary)?

Revolutionary in the literal sense? No, neither were. I meant that they were revolutionary compared to the Prism in the sense that each offered a new level of functionality and hardware/software innovation that had never existed before = revolutionary. These were relatively small innovations, but at least it helped raised the bar for PDAs. Prism was just a Visor Deluxe with a 64k color screen. Is that revolutionary? I certainly don't think so.

quote:
PocketPC (or even PPC2K2) was still just Microsoft trying to get CE right.

They still haven't.

quote:
The Clie was just integrating some things that were already out there into a single integrated package.

Not true. High resolution screens and multimedia didn't exist on the Palm platform before Sony introduced them. So it isn't just about "integrating", it's about innovating.

__________________
My blog: Pocketfactory

Posted by jke on 07-03-2002 07:50 PM:

Vibrant color (expect out doors), better then average battrey life. My Prisim has held up pretty well against the "newer" models that have come out. High Res is a subjective thing because I neither play that many games and video/pictures are not thaat big of a deal. OS 5 may change my thinking but, untill my battrey can't recharge any more, I see no reason to change.

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