Rumors Circulate on Handspring and Palm Products

Remember, Hawkins, AFAIK, played a large role in the design of the zoomer, which was certainly ahead of its time. I'm sure one of the reasons he didn't include a D-pad on the original Pilots was that the processor was not up to handling action-intensive games. Had he not jumped ship to start Handspring, I'd assume that Palms would already be shipping with a D-pad built in. Also, Jeff knew that the Pilot was basically his big (and last) gamble and he did not want the Pilot to be perceived as anything other than a serious work/executive-style device.

I agree with the poster below, just give us a reasonably fast cpu, good battery life and a D-pad and a good majority of the vocal PIC users will shut up and be happy.

It almost makes you wonder if the staff at Palm really do read PIC and take the suggestions to heart. Haven't we been b***hing practically forever now about the lack of decent gaming-support (both in the OS and with the hardware)? Of course, as always, I'll believe it when I hold it in my hands. Remember, the everyone had high hopes for entertainment possibilities on the Sony handhelds, and those button layouts have only gotten worse with each new generation!

Just goes to show your ignorance. That was a hardware flaw with the first-generation iPAQs. All of the current PPC's support multiple button presses.

> Just goes to show your ignorance. That was a hardware flaw with the first-generation
> iPAQs. All of the current PPC's support multiple button presses.

I think the poster was just trying to show that, even though they had it first, it did not work properly back then.

The delay is due to lack of support for GPRS in general amongst the fragmented US wireless operators. It is not a case of 'wrinkles waiting to be ironed out' but one of insufficient demand for mobile products in the US at this time (indeed the US has always had comparatively weak demand). As a result US wireless operators are dragging their heels and making excuses (after all, admitting insufficient demand and bemoaning the large amount of capital investment they would be required to stump up wouldn't do much to increase demand or confidence in the market!)

In Europe, we have a much more advanced network, having had widespread GSM support before it even reached many mainstream US cities (but this network comes at the cost of billions of euro's worth of debt to the carrier companies and hundreds of millions of euro's worth of debt!).

The 'lack of sufficient demand issue' is directly linked to the cost of the service, as it is extremely expensive to install (requiring large amounts of capital investment by the telco's) so the cost of the service for early adopters is high and the technology, though fated to take off and become mainstream, has yet to prove itself.

how? it is far the best..

cyruski!

I just can't wait until they tout all of these revolutionary new features - the things that the Pocket PC and Sony PalmOS units have had for years...

HandEra offers its 240 by 320 version out for licencing and says several companies have shown an interest, though it hasn't specified which ones.

If the NR series is a hit, it seems likely that Sony will include virtual Graffiti on future models.

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News Editor

It protects against scratches and gives you and feeling of writing on paper,

and its essentially FREE.

Extra Screen room is nice, but high resolution (small pixel size) is better.

I don't see that a D-pad has to be any bigger than the standard up/down buttons, they just need to be laid out differently.

Frankly, one of the major reasons why I'm not interested in a Sony is because the thin buttons would be worthless for gaming.

Jon Acheson

Also, instead of the micro-chicklet keyboards Palm has released for the m5xx and i7xx series, they should have come up with a well-built, rugged, lightweight and stylish mini d-pad type of device that clips on to an m500 similar to the way the modem sled does (like the old Widget Works gamepad, but much sturdier). Then they could have bundled it with all of the old m505's and m500s in inventory, tossed in an SD card chock full o' games, and sold it in a nice retail box or blister package and targeted the executives/graduates who also happen to like games. It'd probably outsell that current m125 "dads&grads" package. Such a device would also nicely pave the way for this rumoured built in D-pad in the next generation. Remember, to people used to squinting at a dark GBA screen, a dim m505 is still better than nothing!

If this D-pad rumor turns out to be true, having Sega onboard as a licensed Palm developer will be a bigger plus than anyone imagined a year or so ago when they signed up.