.KEYWORD visor
.FLYINGHEAD PRODUCT REVIEW
.TITLE A first look at Handspring’s Visor
.FEATURE
.SUMMARY When Palm founders Jeff Hawkins and Donna Dubinsky jumped ship, they promised us some exciting new products. How cool are Handspring’s products? Read Senior Technical Editor Claire Pieterek’s review to find out.
.AUTHOR Claire Pieterek
Handspring’s Visor series gives Palm device users more of a good thing for less money. Visor offers more RAM, more expandability, and more colors, all for list prices lower than comparable Palm Computing models.
.CALLOUT Although there is a built-in microphone at the bottom of the unit, it’s internally connected to the Springboard slot and isn’t usable at present.
Many of you might remember that Handspring is the company formed by Palm’s founding pair, Jeff Hawkins and Donna Dubinsky. Now that Handspring has released its highly anticipated first products, we’re ready to take an in-depth look.
If you look at Figure A, you’ll see that the Visor is very similar in appearance to the Palm III series. Like most of the Palm III series, the Visor runs PalmOS 3.1 on a Motorola Dragonball EZ processor. The screens used in the Visor are similar to those used in the Palm IIIe, IIIx, and V, and have the same default backlighting mode. And just like on your Palm device, the .8 shortcut will work on your Visor, if you don’t overwrite the Graffiti_Shortcuts file.
.FIG A The Visor is similar in appearance to the Palm III series.
Initially, Visor handhelds and Springboard modules (more on these later) will be available only online directly from Handspring, with shipping to start this month. According to Handspring, Visors will be available in selected US retail outlets and internationally in early 2000. Pre-orders for Visors and some of the Springboard modules are being taken now at 888-565-9393.
A 2MB Visor (similar to the Palm IIIe — 2MB RAM, no flash memory) sells for $179, and an 8MB Visor Deluxe (twice as much RAM as the Palm IIIx, but no flash memory) sells for $249. In comparison, Palm’s suggested retail price for the Palm IIIe was $229 (but, probably in response to Handspring pricing, it was just lowered to $179), and the Palm IIIx lists at $229, although you should be able to find them for less online. The Visor Solo — a 2MB Visor with no HotSync cradle — is available for $149.
.H1 New built-in software
A couple of the Visor’s built-in applications are big improvements over Palm’s.
DateBook+, shown in Figure B, is a special version of Pimlico Software’s DateBk3, modified to meet Handspring’s requirements. According to DateBk3’s author, C.E. Steuart Dewar, he modified the existing version of DateBk3 by standardizing the user interface and omitting some of the "power user" features such as icons, categories, time zones, and appointments spanning midnight. If needed, Visor users can still load and use DateBk3. There is some sort of time zone support. It’s provided by the City Time application, which shows the time in your home city and four cities you choose from a comprehensive worldwide list.
.FIG B Here are some of the things you can do when using the DateBook+ application.
Although the built-in Calculator defaults to the familiar four-function calculator found in the Palm models, it offers a new advanced mode that provides many useful features, ranging from math, trigonometry, logic, statistics, weight/temperature, length, area, and volume. There is also a finance feature, which is shown in Figure C. Unless you need some highly specific functions, the advanced mode should be able to solve many of the problems you couldn’t figure out with the original Calculator application.
.FIG C The financial calculator is only one of many features in Visor’s built-in Calculator.
The Expense and Mail applications don’t appear to provide any more or less functionality than those provided by Palm, but I have to admit that I didn’t look at them in much detail, since I prefer third-party software.
Mac users have come up a little in the world. Macintosh desktop software is included in the Handspring package, although Mac users still can’t sync to Mail or Expense without third-party conduits.
.H1 Hardware changes
Although the Visor superficially resembles the Palm III family, a number of significant hardware changes have been made.
The "Big 4" buttons are metal and offer both audible and tactile feedback. The cable that connects the display to the main board is no longer located in the stylus silo, which should alleviate the friction-based wear that has impacted some older Palm units. The IR unit is on the upper left corner, rather than on the top, due to the layout of the Springboard module interface. Although there is a built-in microphone at the bottom of the unit, it’s internally connected to the Springboard slot, and isn’t usable at present. The contrast wheel is gone, replaced by a Palm V-style software slider.
The Visor comes in graphite (it looks black to me), and the Visor Deluxe comes in an additional four colors: orange, blue, green, and ice. All of them are shown in Figure D. How did they come up with blue, orange, and green? They’re the colors of Handspring’s logo. Some of you may be wondering why only the front of the Visor Deluxe case is colored and the back is clear — that was a design decision.
.FIGPAIR D Handspring’s Visor Deluxe comes in five colors.
The flip lid has an interesting design. It snaps on to the back of the Visor when it’s not protecting the screen and HotSync port. Instead of flipping up from the bottom, it flips down from the top. A bit more of a visual cue for "open here" should be provided, since this action wasn’t intuitively obvious to me or to others when holding the Visor as you would when you use it.
.CALLOUT The HotSync connector is a different size and pinout than Palm models.
The HotSync connector is a different size and pinout than Palm models. Palm peripherals, such as cradles, the Pilot Modem and the GoType keyboard, will not work with Visors (unless Midwest PCB Designs comes out with a new model of The Bridge). The Visor Solo does not come with a cradle. The Visor and Visor Deluxe models ship with universal serial bus (USB) cradles, although optional serial cradles or cables can be purchased.
.H1 The Springboard slot
The biggest change is the Springboard slot on the back. As you can see in Figure E, it resembles the memory board door that was a fixture on the Pilot and PalmPilot, but offers almost unlimited potential. Unlike the expansion slot in the Palm IIIx, the Springboard slot is an open standard, freely downloadable, with no licensing fees or royalties.
.FIGPAIR E The Springboard slot resembles the memory board door on earlier Palm devices.
Springboard modules that will ship in October include Handspring’s Backup Module, designed for Visor users who are away from or do not wish to sync with their PC, an 8Mb Flash Module, and a 33.6 kbps Modem Module, plus EA Sports’ Tiger Woods PGA Tour Golf module.
Other announced Springboard modules range from Airtrak Technologies’ One-Way Pager, MarcoSoft’s Streetrak Integrated GPS, Sycom’s Voice Recorder, and Innogear’s MiniJam MP3 Player and InfoMitt pager.
The nicest part about Springboard modules is that no external drivers are needed, and they truly install and uninstall themselves (unlike the aptly-nicknamed "plug ‘n’ pray" found in a certain desktop operating system). Remove the Springboard slot cover, pop the module in, and it installs the software or hardware automatically. Pop the Springboard module out, and your Visor is returned to its former state. The process is transparent to you — you’ll barely notice it even happened.
.H1 What the Visor doesn’t have…
With all of the attention to detail that Handspring has put into the Visor, you’d think you’d get a decent stylus. Unfortunately, that isn’t so. The Visor stylus is a cheap plastic stylus that looks very much like the original Pilot stylus. No metal, no reset pin–just a black plastic stick.
I admit that I’ve been spoiled by the Palm III family’s metal/plastic stylus and the great third party styli that are available, like my favorites from TTools, PDA Panache, and PGHQ, to name a few.
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Neither one of the Visor models offers flash memory as part of the device itself. Handspring’s rationale is that there hasn’t been a great deal of demand driving OS upgrades, and that people tend to upgrade hardware sooner than they are likely to want or need an OS upgrade. I find this somewhat disappointing, because I like to have the ability to put third-party applications I depend on in flash, which is very easy to do with TRG’s FlashPro utility. TRG’s version of the FlashPack utility also lets me put copies of databases into flash so I have a nearly-full backup on board if I should have to do a hard reset. I wasn’t able to try out the Flash Memory Springboard module, so I’m hoping the associated software offers similar characteristics.
All in all, the Visor seems like a nice product, but it’s definitely evolutionary, rather than revolutionary.
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.H1 Product availability and resources
You can get a 2Mb Visor (MSRP $179) or 8Mb Visor Deluxe (MSRP $249), and the Backup, Modem, and Flash Springboard modules from Handspring at http://www.handspring.com.
DateBk3 is available from http://www.gorilla-haven.org/pimlico.
For information on Innogear’s announced products, visit http://www.innogear.com/mj.htm for the MiniJam and http://www.innogear.com/im.htm for InfoMitt.
Information on Marcosoft’s Streetrak Integrated GPS was not available at press time, but you can visit Marcosoft at http://www.marcosoft.com.
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.BIO
.DISCUSS http://powerboards.zatz.com/cgi-bin/webx?13@@.ee6d818
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