Registered: Sep 1999
Location: Lewisburg, PA
Posts: 56

simple question; you know all those hacker types who have been upgrading people's palm V's and palm 3's to have more ram; how about the possibility of replacing the visors rom w/ flash rom? then we can have 4.0 or whatever we want!!!.

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Tom Alphin III - [email protected] - www.students.bucknell.edu/alphin/

Registered: Sep 1999
Location: Urbana IL
Posts: 144

It's likely possible; I would bet that the ROM chip is held in with spring clips rather than soldered. However, I'm not sure what the ROM IC is and if it is easily obtainable. You'd also need a flash (EEPROM)writer to flash the OS to the chip. Altogether a pretty complicated process...if enough people wanted it I could see it happening, but I doubt the deman will be there. You also have to consider the fact that the ROM files are owned by 3com, and they will likely prosecute anyone giving them out on ROM chips. To even obtain a ROM file you need to sign an NDA, or grab it off the product.

Registered: Sep 1999
Location: Lewisburg, PA
Posts: 56

true; plus you would have to reverse engineer 3.3 so you could add in the springboard stuff from the visors modivied 3.1; all together a messy solution.

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Tom Alphin III - [email protected] - www.students.bucknell.edu/alphin/

Registered: Sep 1999
Location: Durham, NC, USA
Posts: 47

But on the other hand, if the ROM *is* held in with clips or like the old Pilots/Personal/Professional, what's to stop Handspring from simply putting out an upgraded OS on a flashROM chip instead of a regular ROM? Those metal stylii for sale on the Handspring site? I heard those even have a reset pin on one side and a tiny screwdriver on the other. (That's from the Internet World article off the front page of this site.) It's definitely a possibility... after all - my fiance's Palm Pro had no Flash when we originally bought it, but the 2MB upgrade brought not only the new OS, but also FlashROM.... it's an idea