Registered: Sep 2002
Location:
Posts: 17

I still with thye'd have the springboard in new extensions to their series..
I don't mind getting a Treo but the cost is really killing me.

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Politics can turn best friends into worse foes.

Registered: Aug 2002
Location:
Posts: 67

Handspring blew it :(

Abandoning the springboards was a big mistake for Handspring. The only way in my opinion that the Treo could be a big success (as successful as the origninal visor line) was if they included a springboard slot.

Unfortunately Handspring has shifted their focus to cell phone users, this is where the problem is. Most cell phone users already own a small phone that has organizer and game playing functionality. Why would they trade their small inexpensive phone in for a $350+ Treo?

Registered: Sep 2002
Location:
Posts: 17

I found the so called organizers on a cell phone inadequate, and most definately, the input methods on a phone is definately counter-intuitive (ever try to type a text message on a Nokia? Not very pretty)
I think they could make a market if they have a low end one, but still a springboard is a must.... too bad that they ditched it.

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Politics can turn best friends into worse foes.

Registered: Aug 2000
Location: Alive and well on VisorCentral.com
Posts: 861

from CNET's news.com:

http://news.com.com/2100-1040-959402.html?tag=lh

quote:

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"To date, Handspring's monochrome Treo 180 and color Treo 270 have shown anemic sales," Bear Stearns analyst Andrew Neff wrote in a research note in late August. This month he noted that sales of the new Treo 300, which runs on Sprint's network, seem to be headed down the same road.

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Registered: Sep 2002
Location:
Posts: 17

They better do it soon, cause I feel like owning a piece of a futuristic do-do.

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Politics can turn best friends into worse foes.

Registered: Sep 2002
Location: Makati, Philippines
Posts: 1

diminished vision

Well, I have bad eyes. Maybe some of you guys out there do too - especially anyone over 55, like me. I own a Prism with a Visorphone. Several (yes, several, and I live in Asia!) of my friends use Treos. The thing is, the Treo screen is too small for my eyesight, and it is hard to read the characters on the little thumbkeys .

Indeed, I use graffiti almost all the time, not the onscreen Prism keyboard, because graffiti is something like Braille - I can do it with my eyes literally closed, or at night with the lights out. It's useful for people with diminished vision (but would be better if there were a slight tactile barrier at the edges of the graffiti screens- a very slightly raised surface- so that we could be sure we were scribbling in the right place.)

Anyway, the Prism screen, with the Font selected at Big and Bold, is pretty good. However, the Clie screen is of course better, and that or a Pocket PCwill probably be my next purchase for that reason. Hey, PDA manufacturers, heard of the aging baby-boomers? Keep those screens easily visible for our aging eyes! The Treo is pretty bad in that department.

Registered: Sep 2002
Location: lompoc, CA
Posts: 15

Dude thats not some revolutionary idea thats just describing the EDGE 2

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HooT! HooT!

Registered: Mar 2001
Location:
Posts: 6

The odd thing is the LACK of exapnadibility in the TREO. It would have been all to obvious to include an SD slot for blue tooth and then lonk that to a module adapter.

The Treo is so out of line with the Hspring concept, I wonder if they engineered it or bought the technology?

Registered: Dec 2000
Location:
Posts: 5

when i was a visor deluxe owner i loved the fact that the springboard allowed me to "transform" my visor into what i wanted it to become and what i wanted it to become was a cellphone ... so when treo came along i chose to defect.

i do agree that the treo's biggest problem was it's lack of expandability, after all that's why people bought handspring. however, now that the treo 90 patch has come out it's a bit difficult to use the "exapndablity" issue as a fault.

Registered: Sep 2002
Location: Chicago
Posts: 9

ah the Super Edge

I would also like to see an Edge II, and I wrote to Handspring with the suggestion. Even though they replied that they appreciated consumer suggestions, I'm sure it fell on deaf ears.

I love my Edge. But after buying my wife a Palm 515 because the color contrast makes it much easier for one with impaired vision to read, I also am considering upgrading. I bought a Prism, and gave it a good go, but it is too bulky and drains batteries too quickly. And I looked closely at the Treo, and liked it, except as duly noted by antediluvianist, the screen is too small, and it was too costly, especially compared to the Sony's! I would have bought a Clie 615, but those buttons, if you can call them that, are so damned 70's and non-usable.

My Edge II would contain 16 mb of memory, SD expansion, built in blue tooth and wi-fi, and a good sized color screen.

Now, everyone is clamoring about the loss of the expansion slot, but this in my opinion is just techie gadgetry. I've owned the Visor, Platinum, Neo, and Prism, and Edge. I bought the original Visor with dreams of adding all these cool tools. But in reality, most expansion modules are just TOYS, and for non competitive prices compared to standalone products with superior functionality! I've owned the Eyemodule, Minijam, Magellan GPS, and Visorphone - and they are all toys compared to standalone products. I've aslo owned the MemPlug, FlashPlus, but why would anyone pay $50 these days for these when all other PDAs have built in standard memeory expansion! Moreover, one feels like Batman with a utility belt hauling around the expansion port and all of the modules. Fugedabahdit.

Sony and Pocket PCs are kicking butt because they offer what the general public wants, that is the 80% vs. the 20% who want complicated gadgetry. And who quoted that 80% of PDA owners don't even add new apps? Could that be because all of the documentation is poorly written, and one needs a hack for this and a hack for that? Just give the public the hardware and software that they don't have to spend countless hours setting up, and let them USE the PDA to be productive.

Personally I love my Edge, and will wait to see what unfolds before being forced to make a move away from Handspring.

One final 2 cents, I just loved this so much I had to repeat it again:
"HS will be a player again when Monkees fly out of my butt, when mystical elves cast a spell on Britney Spears, making her my love slave, magical gnomes while away their time turning my collection of lead pipes into gold, and Elvis re-surfaces to give his last farewell concert in my backyard."

But surely Prismer2, Britney Spears CAN'T be your dreamgirl, she's like an uh expansion module, not the real thing!

Registered: Aug 2002
Location:
Posts: 67

80% agreement

I would agree with you, except for your statement that the springboard modules are toys. They may be "toys" to you, but I and many others don't consider them toys. I use my Prism and a stowaway keyboard to type emails then send them using my xircom modem module. I also use my EM2 camera quite often to take digital photos:
http://lightfantastic.org/eye/ericfalk/
and lastly my wife uses the "total recall" module to record lectures for her classes.
-This is why I purchased the Prism in the first place, because it is a useful tool... not because I thought it was a cool toy!

Registered: Sep 2002
Location:
Posts: 17

I personally don't see how we need to "hack" to get the software to work.
I found a couple of freeware pretty quickly and I just downloaded it and it automatically synced to the PDA.
As for the comment about gadgetry, in certain sense, yes, but don't forget that the original visor is quite a few generations ago, where there's no such thing as expansion. I see myself that I'll be getting the visorphone module (as long as I don't drop my visor deluxe again) because I hate the Nokia phone that I'm using (big POS with a POS network who have least coverage... thank god I didn't choose that network, but my sister did), and I don't like clipping my cell to my belt either. Don't forget PDAs that has the capabilities of the PocketPC can't be really reached under 400CDN, which is way too much for me to spend on a tool that is likely to be dropped and go busted on me. I have a former friend of mine that has a Journada, and the reason he had it is because he use to work as a tech there and got a great discount for his PDA, and also he has an income to rely on the purchase. I got my Deluxe of a friend who doesn't use it for 60CDN, and with a little searching here I could still find modules to make it as competent as some of the PDAs of today at a combined price that's still under 400CDN.
Just for comparison, my Deluxe and my friend's Palm V (I think) runs the same os, PalmOS3.01, and his is only 2MB of ram with absolutely no expansion capability while I could still find some modules here to make it do more work than expected. The point of the Springboard isn't really to make it become an excellent mp3 player at a price cheaper than a stand alone or make it a 5 megapixel digital camera. I suppose the original design philosophy is to make it so that people who use multiple devices would carry less bulk.
Tell me, which is heavier? To carry a PDA, cell phone, mp3 player and a digital camera than carrying a Visor, the visorphone, the minijam, and the eyemodule? I know my answer, do you?

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Politics can turn best friends into worse foes.

Registered: Sep 2002
Location: Chicago
Posts: 9

These are very good points, each person has their own needs.

However, as Eric 2002 pointed out, while the EM2 can take decent pictures compared to the original EyeModule, for the cost of an EM2, you can buy a 1 megapixel camera with much better functionality. Stangely enough, the link that Eric2002 provided calls such EM photos "a distinct new form of geekly art." Moreover, the EM has limitations: without an eyeviewer, it is difficult to take photos outdoors with a Visor; you must have enough available RAM on the Visor to save the photos, and color photos in high res take up about 200k each. The point, limitations and not a good value.

And Calyth's makes a good point, "don't forget that the original visor is quite a few generations ago." Yeah it was great when my cellphone was big and bulky, but today, it is small, comfortable fits in my pocket, carries all my addresses, phone numbers, has voice recording, and a calculator, which fills 80% of such needs. And I paid only $25 for it vs. $100 for a visorphone. Personally, the expansion was great when it came out, but today it has limited application. Hell, if you want the Visorphone, you are limited to the number of carriers and GMS at that. Ever try to use GSM out of the carriers pocket? In my market, Chicago, and I bet in many others, the best carrier is not available. Is this choice? Is this value.

More to the point, Handspring move away from expansion slots because they only appealed to the 20%. You can't be a very successful business when only 20% of users want to use your products, unless you want to be a limited niche player. If you are part of this 20%, wonderful, but no one is going to bet their business on you. Now this begs the question, where is the market demand moving? I think this has been answered by the other PDA players. They have defined them, researched who is going to spend the money and who is not, and built products accordingly. But I still want my Edge II.

Finally, to calyth's question: "Tell me, which is heavier? To carry a PDA, cell phone, mp3 player and a digital camera than carrying a Visor, the visorphone, the minijam, and the eyemodule? I know my answer, do you?"

Yes, I carry the products all around together, not my pockets but in my case, where may expansion modules are anyway, and I don't notice any difference in weight, but my standalones offer better performance. But I ask you, if I want just the functionality of my phone when I go out, do I need my Visor Edge? No. If I want just the MP3 on a walk, do I need the Visor? No. And I think the 80% will agree.

Registered: Sep 2002
Location:
Posts: 17

quote:

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Originally posted by dvranik
But I ask you, if I want just the functionality of my phone when I go out, do I need my Visor Edge? No. If I want just the MP3 on a walk, do I need the Visor? No. And I think the 80% will agree.

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Politics can turn best friends into worse foes.

Registered: Aug 2002
Location: St. Louis
Posts: 108

Never without my Prism

I know longer carry a wallet. I carry my Visor Prism in the Handspring Slim Case, which I got for only a couple of bucks at compusa.com during their "blowout" sale of open box items (still a few items left, check it out).

I find that I can make do with only the three card slots and the cash pocket. I carry my Driver's license, my main major credit card, and my ATM/debit card. For some of you, the ATM card and the credit card may be the same so it is even easier. Occasionally, I will carry 1 or 2 additional cards in the cash pocket.

It has become invaluable to me, for work, or play. The downside is my children always want to play Dad's "pocket computer" when they get tired of their GameBoy!

I keep my old wallet in my briefcase, so if I need any of my other cards I can get to it quickly, but for knocking around, all I carry is my Prism and my keys! The Prism pops out quickly for synching and charging (which I do at home and at work). I cannot put any oversize modules in the slim case, but I usually keep only my backup module in there anyway.

"What's in YOUR wallet?"

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The Prismer

"I am not a number, I am a person!"

Registered: Jan 2002
Location:
Posts: 41

I origanally purchased a visor deluxe because it was comparatively priced with the palm models (about a year ago) then upgraded to the prism. I have a minijam, handcam, and a stowaway (currently trying to get a smartpad II). I sit here at work with my Prism sitting on my desk and take occassional notes on it or set alarms for various meetings while I listen to books on MP3, then I'll go to a meeting and take a quick pic of the white board notes and email them to my co workers. I love the expandability that visor used to have. On one hand I'm disapointed because no new modules have come out in a long time, on the other hand I'm glad because I can now pick up nifty gadgets for it pretty inexpensively.

I think one of the biggest mistakes handspring made in their marketing scheme was to overlook the industrial applications of the handspring products. I think my company would have been happy to buy several hundred visors and use them to keep track of barcoded inventory, production equipment data acquisistion, punch hourly employees in and out using magnetic credit type cards. The applications are endless, and whenever you needed to add more capability you just pop in the springboard you need.

Aaaahh well. Perhaps someone will buy up all the bargains out there right now and start a consulting business.

Just my 2 cents
Strange Tanks

Registered: Aug 2001
Location: ILLINOIS
Posts: 227

They're here---------------

They have the Magnetic readers (according to the HS site)
and I've had and used Barcode readers for more than a year--Symbol is the best--

Registered: Feb 2001
Location: Atlantic Rim
Posts: 570

Locked Behind Barcodes

Handspring missed out bigtime on capitalizing on the barcode industry. Instead of relying on third parties to develop bar code modules and software they should have done it themselves. In fact, there is alot to be said for integrating a bar code reader with a PDA as standard equipment. There is a ton of stuff people could and would use barcodes for if they had a convenient hardware-based solution. I'd use them to help organize hundreds (no make that thousands) of blue prints.

Registered: Aug 2001
Location: ILLINOIS
Posts: 227

Re: Locked Behind Barcodes

quote:

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Originally posted by Keefer Lucas
Handspring missed out bigtime on capitalizing on the barcode industry. Instead of relying on third parties to develop bar code modules and software they should have done it themselves. In fact, there is alot to be said for integrating a bar code reader with a PDA as standard equipment. There is a ton of stuff people could and would use barcodes for if they had a convenient hardware-based solution. I'd use them to help organize hundreds (no make that thousands) of blue prints.

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