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Handspring Visor Deluxe
- reviewed by Donald
Melanson
Palm has become a lot like the Apple of the mobile computing industry,
despite the fact that Apple was once itself in the industry. Their
PalmPilot line of PDAs has attracted a devoted following remarkable
similar to Mac users, but unlike Macs, PalmPilots have a significant
majority of the PDA market.
Also unlike Apple, Palm decided to let other companies use their
operating system, the PalmOS, in their products. Handspring's Visor
is the first PDA to really take advantage of that. Handspring is
the company founded by Jeff Hawkins and Donna Dubinsky, the inventors
of the original PalmPilot.
There have been other PalmOS-based PDAs, like IBM's WorkPad, but
they've essentially just been PalmPilot clones, identical in appearance
and functionality. Handspring takes things further by not only offering
a different design but by adding additional functionality through
an expansion slot called the Springboard.
Springboard a very interesting feature with lots of potential,
but the modules have been a bit slow in coming. There is a digital
camera available, as well as a handful of others, but the potential
killer apps like MP3 players, pagers and wireless modems were still
not available while I was reviewing the Visor.
 On
the design end of things, the Visor is about the same size as a
Palm III but it's also available in five colors (graphite, ice,
green, blue and orange). Compared to my PalmPilot Personal (with
a whopping 512k RAM), the Visor feels quite a bit sturdier, but
I think it's about on par with the newer Palms in that area.
Since it uses the same OS and input system (Graffiti), anyone who's
used a Palm will be able to use the Visor immediately. That also
means that the huge number of applications and games for the PalmPilot
will work with the Visor as well.
So does Handspring beat Palm at their own game? Not exactly. Palm
serves a wider user base with their devices ranging from the low-cost
Palm IIIe to the high-end Palm IIIc and Palm VII. However, for mid-range
users (i.e. most of us) the Visor does currently give you the most
for the money, and upcoming Springboard modules should make it an
even more attractive option. Prices range from $149 for the Visor
Solo (2MB) to $249 for the Visor Deluxe (8MB).
b i o :
Donald Melanson is the
founder and Editor-in-Chief of Mindjack Magazine. According to
him, Blade Runner is one of the best movies ever, David
Bowie is the single most important rock artist, the future is
in video games, and coffee is the bean of creativity. In addition
to Mindjack, he now also heads a new media design shop, tripledub.net.
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