Registered: Sep 1999
Location:
Posts: 72

Like many of you reading this, I am excited about receiving the Handspring Visor in the mail. I am glad that Donna and Jeff formed this new company from scratch to sell us the best PDA devices.

The Visor�s springboard is the reason why I am purchasing the Visor over a Palm Vx. I am looking forward to GPS and the wireless connection modules. I think it�s great Handspring understands what the consumer wants in a PDA device and doesn�t give them a bulky CE PDA.

I am a little disappointed with the unorganized release of the Visor. There is definitely a lot of chaos going around the Handspring office. The customer service representatives I have talked to are extremely friendly and desire to do a great job. However, they have given consumers varying information. For example, posters stated the purported price of a serial cradle purchased with a visor range from $9.95 to $19.95.

I am also surprised to hear the customer service representatives are taking orders by pen and paper. It is not going to be fun for Handspring to manually enter all these orders. Why don't they temporarily type the orders into Excel or an Access database? Several posters have mentioned concerns about receiving what they ordered due to the inevitable errors of manual data entry. I hope Handspring ships my order correctly and also shreds the piece of paper with my personal information such as credit card numbers, etc.

I called the technical support and asked them if any versions of win95 would work with the USB cradle. I asked them to see if they could test versions 2.1 or 2.5 with the USB cradle. I was pleasantly surprised that Handspring called me back later that afternoon. They informed me that I would need win98. However, they did not answer my question. Will the Visor sync through a USB cradle with win95 version 2.5?

Food for thought�
Do any of you know why Handspring named their PDA the Visor? Or why they didn�t include rechargeable lithium ion batteries. Wouldn�t a recharger and lithium ion batteries take up less space than 3 AAA batteries? Does anyone know if the cost for rechargeable technology is too much for $250?

Handspring has given us a great PDA. But� they are off to a rocky start in delivering them.

Registered: Sep 1999
Location: New Jersey, Exit 137
Posts: 52

There were two great stories in todays NY Times. Check it out on www.nytimes.com

The articles are in the Circuits Section. The name VISOR came from Jeff Hawkin's 10 year old daughter, as short for advisor.

Registered: Sep 1999
Location:
Posts: 12

Hi Gene,

I too am surprised by the state of affairs over at Handspring. It's almost as if they were told at the last moment about the launch! On batteries: I am glad they chose to stick with AAA's. This way I can use my NiMH cells most of the time, always having a fully charged pair in the charger--ready to go, and still be able to grab a pair of Alkalines whenever necessary on the road. About your Qs about USB and Win 95, this is what I found in Handspring's Developer Kit Manual (Section 1. page 3--p. 7 of the PDF file):

"Note that the Visor handheld cradle can be purchased in two configurations:
serial or USB. USB is the standard configuration and can be used with PCs running Windows 98
or 2000, and Apple computers that have a USB connector. Serial is recommended for PCs
running Windows 95 and NT, as these operating systems do not have reliable built-in USB support."

So I think that Win95 with USB support is NOT good enough . Hope this helps...

-David.

Registered: Sep 1999
Location: Valparaiso, IN
Posts: 146

Gene,

I heard on a post somewhere that they named their PDA the "Visor", as in "Advisor". Not sure if there's truth to that, but it makes more sense that any other explanation that comes to mind.

Hawk

Registered: Sep 1999
Location:
Posts: 21

PEN and PAPER? Assuming you're not joking, that single fact is enough to persuade me to wait until these guys are really up and running. I know most ballpoints are Y2K compliant, but that just doesn't make up for the risk of having my credit card number, address, etc. floating around in a drawer while somebody figures out my order confirmation number (something you should get IMMEDIATELY upon ordering). Besides, what if the sales tax gets computed incorrectly on the abacus?

Registered: Sep 1999
Location:
Posts: 28

Not only should u get a confirmation number right away, but also the exact cost of your order, and I get the idea people haven't been given that information either. I too shall wait until they're properly up and running.

I don't understand why they're using pen and paper instead of at least typing this info into a database. I've had my visa card # stolen before and it is NO PICNIC let me tell you.

Registered: Sep 1999
Location:
Posts: 72

Yup. I am not sure about today, but when I ordered my visor on Tuesday, they were writing all the orders down with pen and paper. Several other people on this site have mentioned the same thing. I am not too paranoid about people using my credit card.
However, I would like to think that Handspring or the call center that is handling Handspring's orders would be able to think on their feet and start typing in the information in Excel. Or spend 1 hour to create a quick and dirty Access database. I understand Handspring wants to bring this product to market quickly. I understand that time is everything in the PDA business. I also understand that customers are going to be disappointed when they receive the wrong color Handspring, don't get their memory, or serial cradle. Customers might get over charged for the latest price on the serial cradle. Do I hear $10? $20 or maybe free?