Fantasy PDA gadget

Having been addicted to the Palm Pilot for 4 years now, I think it has become my favorite gadget.

I have developed a longing for an accompanying gadget that would attach in the stylus slot via a fold out stylus of course.

From there the gadget would be similar to a small scale multi-tool with small screwdrivers and maybe a big one or two. An LED flashlight that shown down along the stylus or out through the clear stylus cap might be nice too.

I recently upgraded to a Handspring Visor (a Palm clone FYI).

This comes with an expansion slot (called a springboard) for gizmos like extra memory, GPS, cellphone, text pager, modem, voice recorder, MP3 player and whatnot. But most of the time, my slot is empty. It would make a great place to attach a micro toolkit similar to Benchmade's pocket torx kit, or even just a flashlight that could operate off the PDA batteries. The springboard slot is an ideal space for "mundane" non electric gadgets too.

And for the accompanying knife, of late that has been a BM 940 in blue. It kind of clashes with my orange visor butif the Broncos can do it....

Maybe a knife clip that fits in the stylus slot? Nah, too silly.

Phil

 
J

Joe Talmadge

Joined
Oct 3, 1998
Messages
4,842
Phil,

I've more or less decided to take the PDA plunge, I'm waiting for the Handspring Platinum to come up (hopefully in the next month or two).

Most of my non-electronic gadget-based wishes don't revolve around PDA add-ons. Rather, they revolve around a slim leather PDA case that also has an low-profile convenient place to put my micra, UKE 2AAA light, etc.

For the PDA itself, the springboard add-ons coming out are doing a good job so far and doing what I want. My ultimate PDA would be a Handspring w/ springboard slot that was the size of the Palm V, and had flash ROM. The lack of flash ROM and the size versus the Palm V are the only things that made the Handspring choice difficult.

Joe

 
Joe,
What's the Handspring Platinum? I couldn't find it at their site.

TIA,

Greg
 
Greg,

I don't think there's any info at their site.
Handspring is coming out with two new Visors, the Prism and Platinum. The Prism is a color version of the visor. That's true 16-bit color, and is being pushed as a game display, at $449. The Platinum is the next evolution of the Deluxe, and is supposed to be slightly thinner, at $299.

Both have faster processors than the current Visors, at 30 MHz, and will use PalmOS 3.5. That last part is important to me, due to the lack of flash ROM.

The scheduled release date for both was October 19, but someone called Handspring and they're not going to make it.

Joe
 
The Flash ROM, while useful, is over-rated IMHO. Only two of the Palm Pilots have the Flash ROM and they have released only one upgrade for them. PDAs withouth Flash are still OS upgradeable with "patches" that reside in RAM and override the etched ROM OS.

Handspring already has one patch out for their non-flashable units. Of course, that's not as nice as a flashable OS, but it's not that big of a deal either. The vast majority of users never upgrade their OS and most of the add on packages are compatible back to OS 2x or at most 3.0

Yes, the Platinum should be a nice unit. They have some color screen versions due out soon too.

Handspring has a custom case design option on their site you might want to look at. I don't think it will quite hold everything you want and still be "slim".
Phil
 
Joe has good info. For more, check out www.visorcentral.com. That Prizm is cool, but I can't justify tossing my Deluxe for it after only one year. I'm trying to decide which MP3 springboard and GPS I want. (or if I should get a seperate GPS unit)
 
Thanks, Joe and Gadgetman. I don't think I can ever do without my Visor

-Greg
 
phatch--

I've been talking to some users and they seem to agree with you -- most applications are 2.x anyway. Still, with a 3.5 version coming outin a.month or two,it makes sense to me to wait..

>What about batteries? When you change the AAA batteries, do you haveto re-sync with your PC orsomething? Iguesswith Handspring and the backup module,no extra syncstep is necessary, but don't really understand what goes on when you change batteries

Joe
 
When changing batteries, there is a capacitor or some similar device that keeps the RAM charged for about 11 minutes. Even with low batteries that lack the oomph to turn the display on, your data is safe for almost a month.

I took mine apart a couple of weeks ago and there is a tiny lithium battery for the clock and those kinds of board functions.

To be safe, change the batteries quickly. I know one person who has never synched their Pilot to the computer but hasn't lost data yet in three years.

A must read is O'Reilly publishing's _Palm Pilot: The Ultimate Guide_ with a CD of fun software and lots of tips and useful tricks including all the easter eggs in the OS. Your library likely has a copy. There are two editions. The software options are quite different between the two. I'd give the nod to the second ed for better software but I actually have them both. A few months ago, Barnes and Noble was clearing the first edition for 14.99, a great buy. They might still be doing that in your area.

For gadget content, the stylus on the visor unscrews from the tip and the clip end. The tip has a built in reset prod, which is handy, and the clip end a small phillips screwdriver for the visor screws. They also sell a stylus with a ball point pen beneath the tip and the tip pulls off like an inexpensive ball point pen. Pretty pricy though at $13.00 or more.

If you haven't seen it, the TRGPro (http://www.trgpro.com)is a pretty good Palm OS device too with an interesting expansion slot. THey have written an OS extension so they can run programs on external memory cards.

For the Visor, any app that wants to do an incremental file write (a Save function) won't work off the springboard memory module. And some apps that don't do file writes still don't work on the module. But it's a trivial task to copy files back forth from the memory module to on-board RAM.

If audible alarms are important to you the TRGPro is alleged to have a louder speaker.

Phil

 
phatch, you are in serious "geekdom!"
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The next question to ask is, do you wear yours on your hip in a clip-on pouch?
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Hank
 
Well guys, if you truly wish to be "cutting edge" and wish to have something that goes beyond just an address book (looking sneeringly down nose at Palm hehe), check out this neat toy: http://www5.compaq.com/products/handhelds/pocketpc/
They are tough to get at present, but it blows away every other PDA I've used in the past decade*+, starting with my little Selectronics DataStor8000C from the old DAK catalog back in the 80's sometime.

This new Compaq has a blazing 206MHz processor (beats the hell out of a 20MHz processor), 12 bit color= 4096 colors (ok that's a tad odd, but it's an AWESOME screen- 5 levels of automatic backlighting so you can even see it in the bright outdoors), 32M RAM, 16M Flashable ROM, can take Compact Flash Cards or PCMCIA cards, modems, etc. I have a 56k modem and a 1GIGABYTE IBM Microdrive on it. I can surf on it if I want, do my work with Word and Excel, listen to about 200 MP3's while I work (in full stereo with headphones or a BLASTING speaker in mono). MS Outlook Calendar & notes, voice recording, calculator, infrared connections, Microsoft Money, email, Internet explorer, games, awesome handwriting recognition, mpeg1 player, .wav, .mp3, .wma media player, Pocket Streets (soon to be GPS'able), picture viewer, Microsoft Reader- lots of books- very cool feature) etc. All this an a Lithium Polymer rechargeable battery. And it LOOKS COOL.
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More stuff coming out every day. Recent CNet reviews cite this as the first PocketPC/WinCE device that has a chance as a Palm-killer. I'm a believer.

------------------
Regards,
Tim
Nor'east Knives
noreastknives@bigfoot.com

There are two rules for ultimate success in life.
Never tell everything you know.

[The other one is to please read the groundrules for the Auto forum at: http://www.bladeforums.com/ubb/Forum14/HTML/001211.html ]
 
WinCE devices are interesting, but they have drawbacks too, just like the Palm devices.

The battle won't be won on feature count alone, but on making the compromise between the right features and usability. In the majority of reviews, WinCE devices are deemed inferior on a couple of key points of PDA usability: They have rotten battery life, are generally bigger and heavier, and the input mechanisms stink. Plus expense.

Yes, WinCE devices have more storage, more robust programs and often better screens.

WinCE market share still continues to erode at last report.

The debate isn't over by any means, but the Palm devices have proven themselves much more useful to me personally which is why I carry them.

Never the less, I hope WinCE continues to improve to drive the innovation, improvements and cost benefits that competition creates.

Phil

 
These new PocketPC devices are getting much better reviews than the old WinCE devices did. Still, they suffer from the drawbacks mentioned above. The battle remains far from over, but having looked at both, I'm going with Handspring to start. The PocketPCs do have some nice features, though.

Joe
 
There is a cool program for the Palm called Afterburner where you can actually over and underclock each specific application on the PDA.

Overclocking pumps the speed and responsiveness of the application at the price of some lessened battery life. Underclocking extends battery life significantly.

The range of clock speeds isn't huge, but you can clock the Dragonball processor from 13 to 30 Hz, but it makes quite a bit of difference. Various units may not clock all the way up depending on the tolerances of that specific chip. Most of my apps are way underclocked and work just fine.

Phil
 
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