PC World has this interview with Palm Computing’s president Alan Kessler. Although the interview took place before the announcements from Handspring and 3Com, Kessler offers insight on the future of the Palm OS and the new wave of smart phones.

MSNBC has this article on 3Com’s plans to spin-off its Palm Computing division. According to the article, 3Com’s CEO Eric Benhamou said that Palm can stand on its own because its revenues have reached “critical mass”.

AvantGo announced support for the new suite of handheld computing products introduced today from Handspring. With a Handspring Visor and AvantGo software, individuals can access personal and corporate information offline or wirelessly in real-time. AvantGo.com is available free of charge to individuals with Handspring devices and other handheld computers based on the Palm Computing and Windows CE platforms.

CNN Interactive has this review of Handspring’s Visor Deluxe. The article compares the device to the Palm III. The article also suggests that the Electronics area of eBay might get swamped with owners of older Palm devices getting rid of their devices so they can buy the Visor.

Red Herring has this article on the announcements from Palm Computing and Handspring. The article says that Visor is a real threat to Windows CE and will probably take a portion of Palm Computing’s hardware market share.

The San Jose Mercury News takes this detailed look at Palm Computing now that it will be free from 3Com. 3Com officials announced Monday it will sell up to 20 percent of Palm Computing to the public in an initial public offering before the end of the year.

What do you think of the latest Handspring and Palm Computing news? Click here to voice your opinion on the PowerBoards about the Palm Computing spin-off and Handspring’s Visor.

“Today the moon was blasted out of Earth’s orbit, apparently due to a mammoth explosion on the Lunar surface. While nothing has been confirmed at this time, speculation within the scientific community suggests this catastrophe may stem from recent troubles with Nuclear Waste Disposal Area 2, a lunar atomic waste dump maintained by Moonbase Alpha. The disposal area has recently been plagued by instability and numerous Green Peace protests.” Remember Space 1999? For a generation of us, it was the ultimate high-camp — and SO far into the future. But time has a way of moving on. I chose to run this wonderful link as a way of honoring all those wonderfully bad programs that were an inspiration to today’s generation of engineers. — DG

News editor Heather McDaniel has been down in Florida for the weekend. Unfortunately, it appears Floyd is keeping her there a bit longer than expected. Regular Windows CE Power news coverage should continue tomorrow, Floyd-willing.

Both Visor devices are very similar to the Palm III series, except each supports an add-in port called a Springboard expansion slot. The Visor (without a cradle, interestingly) starts at $149 and is, for all intents and purposes, a Palm III clone with 2MB RAM and a Springboard slot. The Visor (with a cradle) is $179. The Visor Deluxe is a bit more interesting, in that it has 8MB RAM, and is available in a series of funky colors including yellow (not as nasty as it sounds), blue, green, white, and gray.

Software for the Visors is similar to what you’d get with a typical Palm device, although Handspring describes an enhanced Date Book (a few better views and better integration), a calculator with business, statistical and scientific functions, and a world clock.

Things begin to get very interesting with the Springboard expansion slot. The downside is the Springboard interface is proprietary (or at least that’s what it looks like on first glance). Therefore, all your PCMCIA cards won’t work with this device and you’re dependent on new developments for add-on devices. The company’s press release claims available or under development modules include phones, pagers, global positioning systems, remote Internet access products, MP3 audio players, voice recorders, digital cameras, smart card readers, bar code scanners, and field data collection probes. Interestingly, the Springboard slot is also being used to delivery software, similar to the game cartridges of old. One such cartridge that’s apparently available at launch is Tiger Woods Golf. Handspring’s Web site lists an 8MB Springboard module (presumably, this would allow you to bring the Visor Deluxe up to 16MB), a modem module, a “backup module” (possibly to aid in backing up Visor’s shipped without cradles), and the Tiger Woods game. Pricing on the modules is quite workable, with the backup module costing $39.95 and the 8MB module costing $79.95.

On the surface, the Handspring offerings are both exciting and a bit underwhelming. Fundamentally, they’re basically Palm III’s (even their shape is Palm III-like). Pricing is a bit less and the colors are more consumer friendly, giving them a possible edge with the rank-and-file consumer. But the inclusion of the Springboard slot with all devices opens very interesting new opportunities. For example, we expect the company to get considerable flack for selling their cheapest model without a cradle. But there are many people who can benefit from a killer organizer without having a PC (the Sharp Wizard was quite successful as a standalone device). Even so, without a way of backing up the data, there’s always a bit of risk. The Springboard backup module solves that problem and for under $200, someone who’s not a PC user can still have access to a Palm OS device.

This also sheds light on the inclusion of games and content on cartridges. Again, someone who can’t install software or isn’t prepared to download goodies from the Internet could add new software by popping in a module. And, of course, the software vendors get added protection from copying.

Overall, we’re quite satisfied with this introduction. Handspring promises unit availability directly from their Web site in October and as long as they can keep support, supply, and quality at the necessary levels, we think they’ve got a good start. Of course, we’d like to see new, interesting form-factors and further departures from the Palm III feel. But hey, that’ll give us something to write about next year. –DG