Registered: Sep 2000
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Posts: 32

upgrade from a visor deluxe

hello everyone: i currently have a visor deluxe and several springboard modules including a 8mb and 16mb flash modules. even with the flash modules i seem to be outgrowing the 8mb built in memory. was wondering what my options were. the new "pro" model with 16mb internal memory looks good. also the handera with cf and sm slots may be a option or even the sony with the memory stick. i dont want to have to copy the programs over to the internal memory if possible. another thought was to get one of the visors that can be 3rd party upgraded to 16mb. what does everyone think?

brian riffle
[email protected]
[email protected]

Registered: Dec 2000
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Posts: 43

> i dont want to have to copy the programs over to the internal
> memory if possible

If I recall correctly, both the HandEra 330 and the Visor family (by way of the MemPlug PiDirect program) can run applications directly from the external memory. I currently have a Prism that "thinks" it has about 46MB of local memory applications. In reality, there is roughly 7MB on the Visor's DRAM and 38.9MB on the Flash card. In the meantime, the gMovie and CSpotRun (PalmDoc reader) apps have their own special support for the MemPlug, so I have all my movie trailers in \Palm\Programs\GMOVIE and all my novels in \Palm\Programs\CSPOTRUN. VFS support for the MemPlug is in beta, and that should give a little more flexibility.

I should note that at the moment, with over two hundred apps and databases in that PiDirect directory, there are slowdowns when I have to work with special application launchers like Launch'Em. Individual program operation is not affected, though (except for when you enter and exit certain apps, like the MemPlug's file mover or the Visor's HotSync program, as the PiDirect auto-offs itself when you go into these programs to prevent confusion).

Other disadvatages to the PiDirect functionality is that you cannot put writable databases into that area on the card. Writable databases have to be local. So (if I had, for example, an ethernet cradle to do the TCP/IP) I could put Blazer onto the Flash card, but Blazer's cache would still reside in local DRAM on the Visor.

I do not know if Palm's m125 and m5xx offerings or Sony's Clies can do this stuff, but I imagine that they can. I should note that the Clie 710C has this amazing feature where you can go into a special Sony app on the PDA, put it in the cradle, and suddenly your PC thinks that the Clie is a USB drive for the Memory Stick, and you can directly modify files from PowerDesk or Windows Explorer or the Command Prompt or whatever you like to use. This is an awesome advantage!



I should note that paying to have your Visor upgraded to 16MB will probably cost something like a hundred bucks, which is rather annoyingly high. It is true that having more DRAM is more convenient than using, say, a MemPlug, but for the cost of the extra 8MB DRAM and its installation you could get a MemPlug and 128MB Flash memory. And, remember, Flash won't disappear on you if you lose power, so you can use it as a general backup, as well (I find this absolutely crucial!).

-JC
http://www.jc-news.com/

Registered: Sep 2000
Location:
Posts: 32

jc: i dont think pi direct will work with my visor deluxe due to it having palm os 3.1 however i think pi mover will still work.

thanks for the info

brian

Registered: Dec 2000
Location:
Posts: 43

> i dont think pi direct will work with my visor deluxe due to it
> having palm os 3.1 however i think pi mover will still work.

....oh.

Darn. That totally didn't occur to me! You are absolutely correct.

But having a MemPlug without PiDirect is ... annoying! I mean, there are cheaper CompactFlash choices out there that are just as good, save for the lack of something like PiDirect.

If you end up getting a Handera 330, I would very much like to hear of your personal experience with it. I'm a hardware enthusiast, and I periodically like to write articles for my website, and I've been itching to write a little something on my vision of the "Ultimate PDA". I had a chance to play with the Sony Cli 710C, and I found out that actual experience is far displaced from reading specifications on a webpage. For example, no review mentioned the "USB drive" capability of the Clie, and the benefit of the jog wheel and aux button did not become apparent until I started using it. Additionally, I would never have realized how horribly the front buttons on the Clie suck had I not played with them. So an idea of first hand experience from somebody would be really fantastic, since I'll be able to glean the real benefits. ^_^

-JC

Registered: Sep 2000
Location:
Posts: 32

handera

jc: i'll keep you posted as far as what i end up with. the handera may be a solution

brian

Registered: Dec 2000
Location:
Posts: 43

Bri:

http://www.tech-report.com/reviews/...ra/index.x?pg=1

This is the article that convinced me to give HandEra some consideration. Before reading it, I thought that it was just another Palm, pretty much.

-JC