Handspring releases Visor Platinum and Visor Prism.
October 17, 2000 6:47 PM Subscribe
Handspring releases Visor Platinum and Visor Prism. Platinum = fast; $300. Prism = color; $450.
Just in time for the you-know-what season. And here I bought a Visor Deluxe for $250 just last month like a sucker...
Two clicks is not bad to get to the info. I'm not particularly PDA savvy but these look like cheaper alternatives to the other Palm-type devices, and it has that cool GameBoy cartridge add-on thing. Hehe.
posted by PWA_BadBoy at 4:47 AM on October 18, 2000
posted by PWA_BadBoy at 4:47 AM on October 18, 2000
Jessie, a Visor is essentially a Palm clone with one big addition: the Springboard slot which allows expansion on a hardware level. Memory, modems, wireless ethernet, GPS, MP3 players, hard drives all can be added (in theory anyway) to a Visor with the interchangeable cartridges. Plus they're generally quite price-competitive with similar Palms.
Oh, and the Visor Prism has a 16-bit color screen instead of an 8-bit like the Palm IIIc. That's 65,000 rather than 256 colors available. Not that most software can utilize those colors, but hey.
posted by daveadams at 8:05 AM on October 18, 2000
Oh, and the Visor Prism has a 16-bit color screen instead of an 8-bit like the Palm IIIc. That's 65,000 rather than 256 colors available. Not that most software can utilize those colors, but hey.
posted by daveadams at 8:05 AM on October 18, 2000
Handspring is the company that the Palm creators started after 3Com got Palm. I'm a little sad that there are new ones out there so soon after I got my Deluxe, but I love it so I'm not *too* sad. (I was never a PDA person either, I just woke up one day knowing I needed a Visor... it must be mind control.)
If anyone is looking for a good Uncle Joe christmas present, I'd love the MP3 springboard module.
posted by CrazyUncleJoe at 9:33 AM on October 18, 2000
If anyone is looking for a good Uncle Joe christmas present, I'd love the MP3 springboard module.
posted by CrazyUncleJoe at 9:33 AM on October 18, 2000
It's a pity there's no trade-in plan. Though I don't know if I could yet give up my orange Visor Deluxe just yet.
Even though it crashed hard on me yesterday, requiring a hard reset and complete reinstall of all my programs. (I'm sure it was just PEBKAC.)
posted by phichens at 10:24 AM on October 18, 2000
Even though it crashed hard on me yesterday, requiring a hard reset and complete reinstall of all my programs. (I'm sure it was just PEBKAC.)
posted by phichens at 10:24 AM on October 18, 2000
Yeah, my Visor Deluxe is all I need ... for now. I want a PDA, not a tiny little computer. The speed might make a difference in some applications like games, and if you have a really good use for it ... go ahead. But
I just can't see making it a Minijam MP3 player ... I'm getting a Nomad instead. And a separate cell phone. But my eyemodule has proved useful already.
posted by dhartung at 9:07 AM on October 19, 2000
I just can't see making it a Minijam MP3 player ... I'm getting a Nomad instead. And a separate cell phone. But my eyemodule has proved useful already.
posted by dhartung at 9:07 AM on October 19, 2000
The only problem with Visor's are they are locked into using the Palm OS, version 3.0 (I think). Can't upgrade the OS. Other than that it's great.
I have a TRGPro. It looks like a Palm III but comes with 8 MB of RAM. However, the selling point for me is the very slim compactflash slot in the back. Compactflash modules are non-propriatory (that is, they're used for all sorts of devices like digital cameras) so they are relatively inexpensive (unlike Visor's propriatory modules). I can boost my storage up to 300 MB (and run apps from the compactflash module).
TRG makes memory for Palms. BTW, their tech support if very good.
posted by Taken Outtacontext at 8:22 AM on October 21, 2000
I have a TRGPro. It looks like a Palm III but comes with 8 MB of RAM. However, the selling point for me is the very slim compactflash slot in the back. Compactflash modules are non-propriatory (that is, they're used for all sorts of devices like digital cameras) so they are relatively inexpensive (unlike Visor's propriatory modules). I can boost my storage up to 300 MB (and run apps from the compactflash module).
TRG makes memory for Palms. BTW, their tech support if very good.
posted by Taken Outtacontext at 8:22 AM on October 21, 2000
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posted by jessie at 12:48 AM on October 18, 2000