Registered: Feb 2003
Location:
Posts: 2

What will become of us??

I read that the Prism is being discontinued. Much to my dismay It is being replaced by the treo 900. This is all fine and dandy, I have no problem with this. but I have also read that the springboard slot is being done away with too????? I am a little confused. I love my color and my springboard. Will I be able to get these both when it comes time to replace mine. This is very traumatic for me. This is my first PDA and I wish I had gotten it sooner. It is great, but when this one is gone then what?? If you know any information about a new color handheld and/or the springboard slot please calm my nerves and let me know. thank you

Registered: Mar 2001
Location: Nebraska- the Good life
Posts: 695

Good news, bad news, good news, bad news time!

Good news- this is a GREAT time to stock up on modules, parts, accessories, even entire replacement Prisms for a great price. Most accessory websites (DirectCase, RhinoSkin, Vaja) offer clearances on Handspring products, with prism stuff being relatively easy to find. ebay and forum marketplaces are also full of these things!

Bad news- even though most of us think that the modular approach is still a great idea, it is functionally dead. Ditto pretty much the entire Visor line of products.

By the way, the batteries in Prisms are pretty much doomed to die a certain amount of time after they are made, so most Prisms will die no matter what at the appointed time (which may be as soon as 3 years from battery manufacture date, but seems to be longer than that in real life.)

Good news again- you have several choices of excellent, low cost replacement devices, depending on what functions you really used. Used the MP3? Get a Sony T-665. eyemodule? Get a Clie Memory Stick Camera or Nx-series with built-in camera (or, better for most people, a seperate small megapixel camera!) For what the Prism cost a couple years ago, you can get several great high-resolution color PDAs today!

Bad news again- this is not a great time to try to sell your Prism and accessories. As more people abandon the Visor, it has become a buyer's market instead of the seller's market it was a couple years ago.

When I sold off my Visor and accessories, they went pretty fast and I got good value for them (mostly through Amazon.com). Lately, however, I notice that my remaining stuff and other people's stuff for the Visor is just not selling well anymore. I even see modules in stores sitting in the remainder bins unsold, when just a year ago people would have snatched it up if only to resell it online!

As I see it, you have two major choices:
1. Stay with the Prism, snatching up parts and accessories on the cheap (keeping your eyes out for batteries). Your Prism was not obsoleted just because Handspring abandoned it- as long as the batteries last. Try a local battery shop to see if they can help, too!

2. Jump ship and sell your Visor stuff off for the best price you can get to offset your new PDA costs.

If it was not for the battery problem looming on the horizon, I'd go with choice 1 in a heartbeat! In fact, I bought a Visor Neo for my son and I know that will last him for some time.

__________________
Do what you can, with what you have, where you are at!

Registered: Jul 2002
Location:
Posts: 120

Re: Madkins007

"In fact, I bought a Visor Neo for my son and I know that will last him for some time."

As a Neo "gourmet", not only will they last for a long time, but I've noticed lately that there is a bit of a growing demand for them and prices are holding steady, though they aren't carried by many retailers.

I've also heard from several folks in Asian countries who get Neos from a Singapore distributor and love them.

Yet another post from the book reader who refuses to believe she is beating a dead horse

Registered: Aug 2002
Location: Indiana
Posts: 11

Plans for the Future

I am going to throw in my two cents here.

I've been a Prism user for about six months now. I picked mine up on sale at Staples. I was given a Neo a year ago Christmas and loved it so much I wanted to upgrade to color. Lucky for me, the price was right. Now I have two PDA's that both use the same accessories.

Right now, I'm thinking that I'm going to be using the Prism for as long as it lasts. I don't know what the future of the Palm platform is, seeing how the PocketPC market is doing. But I probably won't need to buy a new PDA until my two either break or simply wear out. Since the Voyager and Pioneer space probes are still working after 20-30 years, I figure a PDA will last at least that long.

There was a time when we thought of our parents as having gotten off the "fashion train" and became dated in their thinking and style. I'm afraid as I'm getting older, I am getting stuck technologically. I have settled on Windows 98SE as my operating system of choice and the Handspring Visor (Neo/ Prism) as my handheld of choice. I don't know if I'll ever buy a new handheld. But I know one thing. If I do buy a new handheld, it will not be a Handspring. Not unless they come out with a Visor II or something similar. Visors were innovative and able to compete in so many personal electronics venues. I'm dissapointed that Handpring didn't really try once they dedicated themselves to the Treo line. Treos simply cannot compete with Visors. The screens are smaller and once they are built, they really can't do any more than what they were built for. That's the great thing about the Springboard. It can turn your Visor into anything you want it to be. Right now, I can turn my Visor into an MP3 player, a digital camera, a web browser, a dictionary, an E-book reader, even a gameboy. Maybe not all at once, but I can only do one thing at a time. In my opinion, Handspring abandoned a platform with great potential to appeal to everyone, regardless of their line of work.

That's my two cents. Thanks.

__________________
He is Risen!

Registered: Jul 2002
Location:
Posts: 120

Re: Plans for the Future

quote:

---

Originally posted by Merittman
... as I'm getting older, I am getting stuck technologically. I have settled on Windows 98SE as my operating system of choice and the Handspring Visor (Neo/ Prism) as my handheld of choice... plus all the rest of your comment.

---

I agree 1000.00%

I realize that your two cents and my two cents may not add up to much. However, I've posted similar comments all over this board for several months... and plan to continue.

I truly hope that in the case of Handspring this is not a matter of obstinacy. You can turn around. You can start fresh. You can repent and... you can do it gracefully.

In other words, Handspring, stop being so hard headed or turn the Visor over to a company that cares (not necessarily an existing pda manufacturer and not necessarily a for-profit organization. Who knows, maybe somebody like Project Gutenberg's Michael Hart might see some sense in getting involved?).

Registered: Jan 2000
Location:
Posts: 391

Handspring is dead

They had a compelling market niche that nobody else was addressing, that they could have milked forever, like Symbol and Handera and Dana. But, they wanted to be a POWER, and a steady 10-20% of the handheld market wasn't big enough for them. So. They abandoned it, and jumped ship to the cellphone market. Over there they have the Treo, which is turning out to be a reasonably good design for a cellphone and which will sell well until someone copies it.

At which point they'll get bought by Nokia or someone and Hawkins will go off and do something else. Which will probably be acceptably cool and popular, like the Visor and Treo, but ... I dunno.

I think he ought to stick to founding companies and let someone else run 'em. He's really good at pushing an idea through to production, but he doesn't seem interested in sticking with it for the long haul.

__________________
Rev. Peter da Silva, ULC<br>
<a href=http://www.taronga.com/~peter/>Ar rug t� barr�g ar do mhact�re inniu?</a>

Registered: Aug 2002
Location: Collierville(Memphis) TN
Posts: 33

I full agree and have previously state so.
Just go ahead and throw my two cents into that pot also.
Maybe if it adds up to enough someone will pay attention.

Registered: Aug 2001
Location:
Posts: 143

Nobody is Listening

I will ante up my two cents as I have been doing for a while, but I don't expect it to amount to much. As Argent has said, HS jumped ship. And as I have posted before, I think they could have enlarged that 10-20% market share, but shot themselves in the foot. There are more than 10,000 people here at my work, and a large portion of them have PDA's. Unfortunately, there are so few many Visors that I can count them on my fingers.

We have what's called Just-In-Time vendors that sign contracts to be preferred vendors. Employees can make purchases over the web from their desks by clicking the mouse and typing in some numbers. Palms and Sony's are on the JIT contract through one of the JIT vendors. When I asked that vendor if they could add Handspring Visors to that contract, they told me that they had asked Handspring several times if they could carry their Visors, but HS turned them down saying that they already had enough established sales channels. As a result, it takes additional paperwork and signature gathering to buy a Visor. You can guess which path people usually take.

Now I am not saying that my company alone could have saved the Visors if HS would let our JIT vendors carry them, but imagine if HS had made their products more widely available? What if there were thousands of Visors here at this one site instead of just several? That is why I think they shot themselves in the foot. They limited who could carry their products.

I am an Engineer and don't pretend to understand the business frame of mind. Can anyone explain why limiting your sales channels is a good thing?

(Sorry to get off topic. As my subject describes, I had intended to write about HS not paying attention to this forum. We are a vocal minority as they see it. But I got on a rant instead.)

Registered: Jul 2002
Location:
Posts: 9

I upgraded from a Deluxe to a Prism a couple months ago. I got a great deal on a refirb, and now the idea of having to replace it brings tears to my eyes.

Prism's are great. I love the color screen and I have a heap of springboards. I have seen all kinds of posts about the Visor's demise. I do agree with what has been said about resisting obsolecence.

The Prism can last so long as we can keep it working without spending a lot. I think forums like this are the best resource we have to network and share important information.

I know 2 people in real life with visors, but through the message boards we can share valuable information that will keep the Prism alive.

In saying this, I'd like to share a few resources I have come across:

Get High Tech : http://www.gethightech.com/
A replacement parts vendor

Laptops For Less http://www.laptopsforless.com/
more replacement parts

Palm Medic Canada
http://www.palmmediccanada.com/
Canadian resource for Palm parts

Palm Medic http://www.palmmedic.com/
Palm parts (handspring too)

Freeware Palm http://freewarepalm.com
A great free Palm software archive.

Anyway, I hope more of you have some resources to share to keep us all syncing past Handspring's abandoning of the visor

Registered: Jan 2000
Location:
Posts: 391

quote:

---

Originally posted by briandburnham
I upgraded from a Deluxe to a Prism a couple months ago. I got a great deal on a refirb, and now the idea of having to replace it brings tears to my eyes.

---

__________________
Rev. Peter da Silva, ULC<br>
<a href=http://www.taronga.com/~peter/>Ar rug t� barr�g ar do mhact�re inniu?</a>

Registered: Aug 2002
Location: Indiana
Posts: 11

Future Plans II

I like the idea of a Prism II. Reminds me of a thread in here a while back about a dream Visor.

Anyway, I was thinking about this site in particular earlier today when I was writing my post. Every time I check in to the front page of this site, I see the same article about the Personal Massager. Is there really nothing new under the sun? This site, above all others, is for me a great source of information about the Visor line and to see the news stagnate (excluding this discussion group of course) simply tells me where the whole line is heading. Now, don't think I am getting discouraged. I am an optimist. VHS is still my recording media of choice, but I wonder what the future of Visors will hold.

Any thoughts?

__________________
He is Risen!

Registered: Jan 2000
Location:
Posts: 391

Dream Visor?

I think I posted that in another thread. PCMCIA card size, complete with a PCMCIA connector so you can slot the whole thing into your laptop for charging and hotsync. It requires a new as-yet-unannounced (and probably uninvented) display technology that lets you bring the display all the way to the edge, so you can fit a 240x320 display in a device just a little larger than the display of a Visor Prism.

For expansion, there's an optional sled/flipcover with an extra battery and a Springboard slot that connects via the PCMCIA connector. The Visorcard plus sled together are about as thick as a Visor Pro and just a little wider than the card itself... maybe about the size of a Tungsten.

Buttons. The normal 4 buttons on the edge of the PCMCIA connector part, plus 4 recessed buttons on each side on the rails that can act as up-down buttons, record, enter, or a chord keyboard. When the sleeve's in place it's got little rubberized raised spots to match the side buttons... pressing them presses the buttons. The symmetrical design makes it just as convenient for lefties and righties.

Stylus slides into a groove on the back, about where the raised edge of the PCMCIA rails are.

With the sled, it's the size of a *small* handheld. Without, you can carry it in your wallet.

What do y'all think?

__________________
Rev. Peter da Silva, ULC<br>
<a href=http://www.taronga.com/~peter/>Ar rug t� barr�g ar do mhact�re inniu?</a>

Registered: Feb 2003
Location:
Posts: 2

What a Response

Wow, When I originally posted this message I did not expect the overwelming responses. Thank you all for the replies but lets not let this discussion die. It was mentioned a few posts back about fitting a color screen onto another visor. It was also mentioned about someone else picking up the market. Well were are the people to do this. With as much information as I have gotten from readin gyour posts that is enough to buy out Handspring myself, But being a poor College Student Money is a problem. But Just to add to the post about fitting a color screen on a different handheld. I am an Electrical and Computer Engineering student, if some body wants to send me visor parts I'll see if I can make a Handspring Frankenstein. My main point is I don't want this to die just lilke the rest of you. I agree that handspring screwed themselves by saying well we had fun but lets move on. Imagine if Bill tried to start making computers like apple and said ok lets shut Microsoft down I'm done playing. Imagin ehow many people would want to linch him. if I could take over handspring I would but since I can't Hopefully the word will get out and someone else will. Keep the thoughts coming

Registered: Jan 2000
Location:
Posts: 391

Re: What a Response

quote:

---

Originally posted by Aironex
Imagine if Bill tried to start making computers like apple and said ok lets shut Microsoft down I'm done playing. Imagin ehow many people would want to linch him.

---

Imagine how many would cheer.

__________________
Rev. Peter da Silva, ULC<br>
<a href=http://www.taronga.com/~peter/>Ar rug t� barr�g ar do mhact�re inniu?</a>

Registered: Dec 1999
Location: "Children are a gift from God, they are a reward"
Posts: 1049

I love my Prism, after saying that I direct your attention to The Obsolete Computer Museum where plenty of great designs reside because companies "just had to move on".

I plan on using mine for awhile and will probably scrounge a battery somewhere when it finally dies. I don't need anything else in a PDA, although as prices plummet I'll buy more Springboards.

__________________
"I am a debtor both to Greeks and to Barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish."

Registered: Jan 2000
Location:
Posts: 391

What kind of obsolete computer museum....

What kind of obsolete computer museum doesn't have an AT&T 3b1 / 7300 / UNIX PC?

The AT&T 6300 was nothing, just another PC-clone. The 7300, though.

http://unixpc.taronga.com/

See for yourself.

__________________
Rev. Peter da Silva, ULC<br>
<a href=http://www.taronga.com/~peter/>Ar rug t� barr�g ar do mhact�re inniu?</a>

Registered: Dec 1999
Location: New York, NY, USA
Posts: 60

New Prism battery available

You can get a new battery for your prism ($49) at:
http://www.pdainternalbattery.com/

I replaced mine and the battery life is much improved. I hope to get several more years out of my upgrades (16mb) Prism!

Joel

Registered: Jul 2001
Location: OOB, ME
Posts: 176

I'm going to throw another couple of pennies on the table here.

I recently picked up K. Cannon's Prism and accessories. First thing I did with it was ship it off to Alex Wang for a 16mb upgrade. He sells the upgrade for $49 on ebay - look for userid alex2000y2k.

About a week later, I got the Prism back - but there was a problem. Fatal errors when launching the CityTime program. Anyway, he immediately said send it back. Replaced it with a new unit with the mem upgrade. Even paid for my shipping cost.

A++ service and response time. I highly recommend you look into bumping the memory up on your Prism.

More memory = more functionality = more enjoyment




And what's going to happen to us?

I've accepted the fact that I'm turning into a technological bottom-feeder. Sure, I love a kickass new stuff as much as the next guy - but do I need it? Or am I just getting new stuff to get new stuff? If I need it, then fine, I'll get it. If I just want it, well, that's not enough. I want a Ferrari....

__________________
Only in a Jeep.

Registered: Dec 1999
Location: "Children are a gift from God, they are a reward"
Posts: 1049

Re: What kind of obsolete computer museum....

quote:

---

Originally posted by argent
What kind of obsolete computer museum doesn't have an AT&T 3b1 / 7300 / UNIX PC?

The AT&T 6300 was nothing, just another PC-clone. The 7300, though.

http://unixpc.taronga.com/

See for yourself.

---

__________________
"I am a debtor both to Greeks and to Barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish."

Registered: Feb 2003
Location:
Posts: 9

Im a new ueser to Prism .
Got mine on Ebay in January 2003 for $125

Have been getting all the modules on the cheap
CompUsa in NY put all there Handspring stuff on the discount shelf

Got a Mistrel S Modem for $19
Memplug for $10
etc


Rather have this than a treo 300 with the small screen and no springport.

Just bought a Targus camera on ebay for $35

I signed up for Earthlink wireless this month ($40) and love it

I dont care if Handspring abandoned this product , just makes all the acessories that much cheaper.

Love my Prism and cant live without it , do all my work on it and read the news and check email and play games on my way to work.

I also have the Sprint DL module got for $9
Is it any good as a phone / web -email ?

I cant picture myself using it as a phone considering how i abuse my phone (on trips , use in rain,snow . drop while on train )

I called sprint to ask about it and they didnt even know what it was?
guess they dont support (as they stated there were less than 100 users)

If it was supported i might switch from earthlink but earthlink has been great