Comments on: Handspring Plans Mystery Device (Updated)

If I was handspring, I would ship a device with the keyboard of the trio. Enhance the resolution. Make the unit only available in color. Throw in MP3 playback capability. I'd leave out the cell phone. The treo already does that, pretty well in fact. What I would put in its place is an integrated 802.11 wireless AND bluetooth system. In the office the device would hook into the existing 802.11 net, 1.5mb per sec., fast enough to stream video! Out of the office the device would use bluetooth to connect to your 2.5G or 3G (someday!) cell phone. Hitting the Starbucks your device would flip seemlessly back into 802.11 mode.
Oh, and I think the ability to run remote java applications like danger's hiptop.
If I was handspring that is what I would build. Let's see how close I come. Wagers anyone?
Best, James Scherber
jscherber@tech-pacifica.com
http://www.tech-pacifica.com

The truth is that Handspring cannot just hedge their future on just one product platform (ie. the treo) In my opinion if Handspring really wanted to suprise us, they would try to compete with and emulate what I think may deceptively be one the most interesting and potentially competive devices to the Palm OS universe, that is the iPod. The truth is the iPod, with its huge storage capacity and novel design, is an intriguing option out there for people who carve infintesimal space and the freedom to store and carry around with them almost anything they desire. There are already dozens of hacks that equip the iPod with traditional PDA functionality, and the simplicity of Apple's design that allows drag and drop of files makes this a very useful device. I know i know that there are options like the Handera 330 out there, but i really think the real future has to be a PDA (hopefully PalmOS)device that allows maximal portabilty of data BUILT-IN. The fact is that any device that allows the user to do the most to personlize their data with music, notes, addresses, web pages, books, applications and etc will be the most successfull. Add to this wireless interconnectivity like bluetooth or 802.11b and you gotta something to talk about. Of course form factor, battery life and screen are important, but the Treo isn't exactly a light weight. I persanlly wouldn't mind fi handpring came out with a Treo form factor, QERTY device with color, wireless data only, intgrated Bluetooth, SD expansion, jog dial, and 1-5 GB storage capabilties!! Why isn't that possible?

I agree with the reader on an iPod-type device. The cradle "HotSync" method is so last century. The point of having a PDA is also to carry less especially when you travel so junking the cradle and syncing directly to a port (FireWire/USB2.0) seems more efficient.

Also, carrying a high capacity iPod-type device that is capable of "configuring" itself to carry music, video and data and access it on the go is what I would call a true PDA. Imagine listening to MP3, watching video and carrying your data with you using a viewer to open up Word files. Throw in a cellphone and it will be a killer.

With some of the new technologies coming (OLED, slim drives from Toshiba, etc) it is possible. Of course there is always the question of battery-life and price.

How long more do we have to wait?

AHEM>>

To the, of course, anonymous poster of "its the battery stupid" thread: I never stated that i wanted BOTH built-in bluetooth and wifi. If you had tried to read the comment instead of trying to flam me you have understood clearly. Furthermore, the limitations of current battery technology is something i'm fully cognizant of. IMHO whats wrong with a iPod-Palm PDA like device that would last two days with intermittent use? I dunno but i charge my palm ever other day anyways...

WiFi is an american thing.
According to Ed's comment, this device won't have that anyway.

Now BT would be something...

Cheers,
Jan

/*
One thing a computer can do that most humans can't is be sealed up in a cardboard box and sit in a warehouse.
*/

well, if you put 802.11b in such device without a battery twice the size, your palm would have the battery life of a pocket pc :)

cyruski!

Ah, sorry it's not the battery.

Visit this site

http://makeashorterlink.com/?L2F2122B

This is the type of company Handspring/Palm is going to have to deal with. If they won't innovate, someone else will. Feel free to disagree but please keep the personal attacks to yourself as they are juvenile.

Best, James Scherber
jscherber@tech-pacifica.com
http://www.tech-pacifica.com

At the risk of putting words in a previous poster's mouth, this may be an attempt to paraphrase the line "It's the economy, stupid." For those outside the US and unfamiliar with its politics, those anywhere who don't follow politics, or those who don't remember tons of trivia, the Clinton campaign actually put posters inside their campaign headquarters saying "It's the economy, stupid."--reminding them that this was the point they needed to highlight. The "stupid" here wasn't directed at others (voters, reporters, etc.) but at oneself.

If this was the intended sentiment here, though, it would have been good to clarify that.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled discussion already in progress...

> I don’t rely on press releases. It works, I’ve seen it.

Wow - you're a step up on the people who wrote the article you cited, then - You'd figure that if they had a working prototype, it would be out where the press could see it working - for the investors' sake, at least.

Not that I'm calling you a liar - If you say you've seen a UFO, that's cool. Don't expect me to buy a ticket to Alpha Centauri untill I have more proof, though.

> Please see statement above plus if I want to run Palm
> Apps use a palm emulator or for that matter Win CE
> apps with a CE emulator. Both exist right now.

Ummm, sure. And what sort of battery life would this thing have, running CE emulation? Seeing as how a P300 barely runs POSE realtime?

I have a funny feeling that 9.5 hours is VERY optimistic.

I know Transmeta can do the impossible, but I can't imagine you're going to have incredible performance with a Crusoe chip emulating a x86 chip emulating a PowerPC.

> Plus no Hot Syncing.

Since you're going to have to stick the thing in a dock, or at least recharge it, how is that functionally diffrent from hotsyncing? I mean, other than involving a complex connector.

> You’re not showing very much imaginative thinking!

I guess I'm just old and cynical - Saw the docking laptops come and go - Saw the high-horsepower PDA's show up and go on M$ life support. Can't see why anybody would combine them, particularly when it forms a non-upgradable $1000+ device for you to drop or spill a drink on.

That, and I think the cutting edge just snuck up on me a little. But I think I can be forgiven a little incredulty when Slashdot's intro article on this thing ended with '...Now, only if this didn't sound like vaporware.'

> Hmmm… the last bit of hype these folks designed was
> the titanium powerbook. Did that do well enough for > you?

Tesla made a great three-phase power system, then spent the rest of his life trying to electrocute people with wireless power transmission... or 'Past performance is not an indicator of future trends.', if you prefer.

I've really just gotten tired of people pointing at this week's sci-fi/IPO fantasy and going 'Look! Everything sucks compared to THIS!' Plenty of things have been announced and never made it to market - heck, a lot of them were a lot more plausable than this thing.

If they ship the thing for a sane price (See the poll ), great - you can salt my words so I can have them for lunch. But even if they DO have a working prototype, they're a long way from taking over the market - I don't think Handspring has anything to worry about from them in the next quarter, at any rate.

I /am/ the eggman.

I just confirmed with Brian Jaquet at Handspring that they do intend to have all of these devices introduced before the end of June and we'd start getting details on the mystery device before much longer. Looks like they have a busy few weeks coming up.

As for your second question, sorry I could not. I put an in-depth explanation why in a comment under that article.

---
News Editor

Its cool, you're a cool guy Ed

SONY ROCKS!

Because the O2 xda will be a huge pile of junk, crippled with Micro$oft's crappy OS, that's why.

02 XDA? You're kidding, right? That's like holding a gigantic laptop against your ear. Quite ridiculous. No thanks.

XDA has the same width as treo, but slightly longer. In fact Treo is much bigger when flipped open and used as telephone. Treo is relatively huge compare to other phone with basic PIM function.

Treo 160gr.
XDA 190gr.

The comparison picture.

http://www.pdabuzz.com/Reviews
/Detailed/Handspring_Treo_180.html

Obviously you never compare it to the latest motorola phone with pretty big screen. And at least now nobody whine about how big XDA is compare to treo. since it's flip open and turn into a monster compared to XDA.

oh yeah and 30 grams different. woo hoo.....(what did you trade off anyway with that 30 grs? GPRS, Strong arm, SD slot, BIG color screen, browser and office apps, and hey you can even use grafitti on it.)

hey it runs quake in color, never mind run of the mill office app/email. can your treo do that? Oh wait it's 30 grams less..

call back, when you get a real smartphone.

this summer (if no delay), visorcentral.com has some short blurb about it.

battery is dysmal, and screen is not spectacular. Everything else is the same.

XDA is not smartphone. XDA is pocketPC phone edition. It's basically iPAQ with wireless module and spiff up for phone market.

They already port Doom to smartphone edition btw, but not quake.

My own opinion is that it's likely going to be ...

1) Same Display used in the Color Treo (Visible Outdoors). Yet, still using the same boring 160x160 resolution w 16-Bit color but a smaller overall unit.
2) 16MB RAM.
3) Springboard Slot.
4) Similar keyboard as the TREO (with a Graffiti Version too).
5) 66Mhz Processor (most likely also used in the Color TREO)
6) Masked ROM (still no Flash).
7) Rechargable battery.

The last in the Visor Line and meant to minimize the impact of Donna's comments about droping them. This device would give some additional sales back to the Springboard developers who are likely hurting right now (check the fire sales out on Ebay for Visor-related stuff).

This device might help Handspring to transition more smoothly into the Communicator business. Obviously, with 53% of sales going to the Visor, it's was bad business sense to publicly state they are dropping the Line. My bet, they realize they messed up and this device was likely not planned for release but was a contingency device developed incase the TREO did not live up to internal expectations.

Just an educated guess :) I've been wrong once before though. I can't wait to see how close this guess is though. I like surprises!!!

I guess it will be a color, 16 MB RAM, keyboard, SD slot not Springboard slot, slim, Palm OS 4.1 price range $349.

Well, I'm not sure what Donna actually said when she "made it clear it was not a Visor," but if that was her wording, then I think that primarily means no springboard slot. That seems to be the distinguishing characteristic of "Visors." As for the screen, well sure, it could just be the color Treo screen - but the only difference between that and the Prism AFAIK is outdoor visibility. Plus, the Treo screen is a lot smaller. Hopefully there's more to the screen than that, but OTOH I don't really see HS investing in a high res screen when the Treo won't have it, too. An integrated thumboard seems obvious.

Hmmm . . . maybe the poster who said it would be a color Treo - just without the cell phone - is right. Sounds like . . . . an m130!!! Boy, I sure hope HS set its sights higher than that. Better stop - depression setting in . . .

If the new device only has the built-in keyboard, they'll turn away more customers than they already have. Lets hope 'aspects of the Treo' means it'll have a jog dial... :)

3G is a generic term for any mobile phone network that offers fast connection speeds. There's a technical definition but I won't waste your time with it.

The majority of mobile phones in the U.S. already use CDMA. It is completely different wireless network standard from GSM. In its present form, it is no faster than GSM. Sprint is planning to roll out a 144 kbps version of CDMA this summer. This doesn't doesn't get a new acronym. The new version of the Treo will be able to use this.

GPRS is the next generation of GSM, offering 144 Kbps connections and always-on access. The current Treos will (eventually) be able to be upgraded to use this.

Thanks for the help. I think any product with that speed would be great. Hopefully Palm can integrate this into a color Palm i705 or something similar.

Yes, the Sprint model will be color and keyboard as of this date. I haven't seen a graffiti version yet. More details soon.

San Terre

...and wouldn't that be sad. I've always thought of handspring as a company that thinks outside the box.
I think they'll pull it off however.

Best, James Scherber
jscherber@tech-pacifica.com
http://www.tech-pacifica.com

Here's hoping Handspring adopts Memory Stick instead of SD. More periphals available, better prices for memory cards, better device interoperability.

Very humorous.

Compact flash is still the nearest thing to a 'standard' and has the greatest market share, cheapest memory and most numerous devices. Maybe that's why Handspring based their springboard slot on it in the first place!

Wouldn't that be something. :)

I wonder if Springboard is an attraction to Handspring product or really a drag. It's bulky, expensive and not included in the treo line.

and regarding your theory about ready to release in few weeks. That means they are skipping wide beta testing and marketing campaign, in contrast with treo case. And what's worst within that time window the device is OS 4.1 based. A very tired product. Are they just going to release and update of Neo with 16Mb, 66mHz with/without keyboard?

they better push it under $250 if they want that device to sell in volume.

On upper end above $399 price, they have no chance at all. The competition offer better products with much more attractive design and features.

if Handspring doesn't want anybody to notice, why even bother doing "mysterious" device is on the making announcement (aka. press conference slip up)?

Schizophrenic is not a good business receipt.