New Accessories for New Handhelds

Posted By: Ed Monday, May 14, 2001 7:32:21 AM

Several Palm powered handhelds have just been released or announced. For many people, the actual handheld is just the beginning. A complete setup requires accessories, like keyboards, modems, and cases. The handheld manufacturers themselves and third party companies are already rushing to produce these peripherals for Palm's m500 series and Sony's N710C. The HandEra 330 has the same shape as Palm's venerable III series so there are already dozens of add-ons for it.

Probably the most anticipated peripheral is Think Outside's Stowaway folding keyboard. Rachel A. Wild, Think Outside's Marketing Communications Manager, said that an m500 series version of their keyboard will be out on June 4. She also said a version for the N710C should be available in the U.S. in late June. The company hasn't yet released prices but their keyboards typically sell for about $100.

There have been rumors circulating that the m505 version of the Stowaway wouldn't be available until August. Ms. Wild said, "The 'rumor' you've heard might possibly be for the German version of the m500/505 keyboard which will be available this summer."

Another highly anticipated item is the Kodak PalmPix digital camera for the m500 series. A spokesperson for Kodak said it would be available in early June. It should cost $130.

Wireless users will be happy to hear that Novatel Wireless is developing a Minstrel modem for the m500 and m505 which will be on the market in June. While it is possible to buy modems directly from Novatel, generally they are bought from wireless ISPs and come at a discount with a service plan.

Many people feel their handhelds are naked without a good, solid case for it. RhinoSkin already makes several soft cases that will fir the m500 series and, according to Claudia Dragonette, they are developing hard cases for it, too, which "should be on the market within the next month or so". However, they aren't planning on making any for the Sony N710C.

Portsmith is developing an Ethernet cradle that will allow the m500 and m505 to HotSync over a corporate network without going through a PC. These should be available in June for about $200.

The m500 series ships with a catalog of peripherals, including the PalmModem, the Travel Charger, and a HotSync Cable. Several calls to Palm's sales number at different times always got variations of the same answer: Palm is expecting to have these in stock in the next week or two.

Both the N710C and the m500 series have expansion slots. Eventually, users will be able to plug peripherals like Bluetooth modules and digital cameras into these but none are ready yet.

The models from Palm use the SD standard and the SD Card Association hasn't yet finalized the specification needed to let input/output devices work. This will delay any SDIO devices until at least this Fall.

Palm has been showing an array of mock-ups of SD slot peripherals for months but all appear to be non-functional and none of them has even a projected release date or price.

Sony has plans to release several Memory Stick expansion modules this year. In addition to the Bluetooth Infostick expected to be available in June, they have also developed working prototypes of digital camera, GPS and fingerprint recognition modules which are planned for market introduction in 2001.

Related Articles:

On the Web:

Article Comments

 (52 comments)

The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. PalmInfocenter is not responsible for them in any way.
Please Login or register here to add your comments.

Comments Closed Comments Closed
This article is no longer accepting new comments.

Down View Full Comment Thread

Accessories drain money fast

fkclo @ 5/14/2001 8:05:32 AM #
I start to wonder if switching to any of these new devices really make sense. I owned a keyboard, a modem, PalmPix, digital compass, and a couple of other addons (IR modules, tale flash... ) and leather / metal cases.

Throwing all these away and re-equip a m50x or a Clie can can easily end up payment noless than the device itself, which means spending almost a thousand dollars.

One really needs to find real good justification for all the change. All of a sudden, I found myself very close to Handera :-)



Francis Lo
Hong Kong

yes - keep your Black & White TV and AM Radio too.
I.M. Anonymous @ 5/14/2001 8:25:26 AM #
nttt

RE: Accessories drain money fast
I.M. Anonymous @ 5/14/2001 8:49:37 AM #
Well, who says any of this makes sense?

RE: Accessories drain money fast
I.M. Anonymous @ 5/14/2001 9:00:50 AM #
Even if you don't buy an H330, you can be happy that it will save the market for III series add-ons. I thought they'd be gone in a few months but lots of new H330 owners are going to want keyboards, cases, etc. You can sell all your III series stuff on eBay for $$$ to buy stuff for whatever handheld you get.

You should only buy new versions of the stuff you actually need. Did you really use the digital compass that much?

RE: Accessories drain money fast
I.M. Anonymous @ 5/14/2001 9:21:05 AM #
what programs are these new handhelds going to run that whatever device you have now wont run?

RE: Accessories drain money fast
fkclo @ 5/14/2001 9:29:09 AM #
It is kind of mixed feeling. I have a Vx - all 8MB RAM pretty squeezed, and the graffiti sensing is getting worn out from heavy use. So, I thought it is time for a change.

I also have a TRGpro, in a Dave Design shell - kind of collector's item, which works pretty well, no short of storage with a 64MB CF on it. But then the 16MHz CPU seems to scratch out and outclocking to 28MHz plus induces a lot of instability on my particular unit.

I use DockV pro to accommodate most of my III series accessories. The digital compass helped a lot during my days of crazy travelling.

Then I have a Visor Deluxe too, pretty new (special pricing from a media press conference), but still limited in CPU power and IrDA incompatibility (although IrLink will help). It always is my "standy unit" to try out betas. Not a "true love".

I did not get all these over a short period. It starts since the day of my Palm III but still it is a lot of investment, and all of them works fine.

All that I am looking for is a new Palm device that (a) give me more power, (b) more screen resolution, (c) more features and (d) more storage while still embrace these gadgetary assets happily. I feel that Handera is closer than M50x or the Clie.

BTW, M505 was said to have a Benchmark 2.0 score of only 156% while Edge and Handera delivers 244%. Sounds like M505 is the slowest 33MHz unit so far and does not seem to provide the horsepower I would expect from a 33MHz VZ unit.

Can anyone confirm this ?

Francis Lo
Hong Kong

RE: Accessories drain money fast
I.M. Anonymous @ 5/14/2001 10:58:26 AM #
Marketing Depts. are smart. They know that if they can make a new gadget for around $100 give or take a little, the gadget freaks will see it and say wow, that would be neat to have and it's only $100, no problem. Before you know it, the typical gadget guy has "it's only $100" himself into having $1000 or more tied up in his little "inexpensive" life simplifying maching. Please don't misunderstand, I don't me to sound condescending as I am no better. I have a new Palm m505 with 16MB SD card, along with a Palm Modem, Travel Charger, Lamy 3 in 1 pen/stylus on order, and am planning on ordering a new Vaja case as soon as they become available for the m505. Oh yea, the Palm Pix sure is cool, and only $130, no problem. My saving grace is this is my first Palm, so I haven't learned my lesson yet.

RE: Accessories drain money fast
bcombee @ 5/14/2001 11:29:40 AM #
I expect the slow benchmark results of the m500 series are due to Palm's conservative settings for memory refresh. One of the things Handspring did to get faster performance is to remove the memory waitstate. This can be done on the Palm units too through almost any of the overclocking problems like Afterburner. I'd expect after you did that, the m505 should score comparable to a Visor Platinum or Prism, and do better than the Prism on graphics tests due to better optimized color code in Palm OS 4.0.

RE: Accessories drain money fast
fkclo @ 5/14/2001 12:04:38 PM #
I am not sure if this is due to wait state settings, or some inherent inertia of OS4.0 ( Prism, Edge, and even Handera are runing some version of OS3.5.2)

This reminds me of the sluggishness when switching from OS3.3 to OS3.5.

BTW, even with wait state removed in the stock OS of Prism, Afterburner is still able to clock it up to 45MHz !!

Need to see how real owners of m505 feedback!


Francis Lo
Hong Kong

Dewious (sic) plot

Agagooga @ 5/14/2001 9:53:14 AM #
There's really no good reason for the m5xx series to use different accessories from the V series, is there? It's just an excuse to earn $ (alienating many in the process)
RE: Dewious (sic) plot
I.M. Anonymous @ 5/14/2001 10:16:13 AM #
Companies that make add-ons are pissed too. It costs a ton to develop a new product. If the handheld it was designed for doesn't sell, the company loses big $$$. That's why nobody made anything for the old CLIEs.

I was told the reason Palm promised to keep using the "Universal Connector" wasn't because we bitched but because big companies did. I think Cnet ran an article in which Kodak told Palm they wouldn't make the new PalmPix camera unless Palm promised it would be good for 2 years.

RE: Dewious (sic) plot
Lucky Dragon @ 5/14/2001 11:00:13 AM #
How the hell else were they supposed to provide native USB support? I for one am impressed with the increased speed of my hotsyncs since switching from a IIIx to the m505. You can bet if they'd kept the same connector with it's limitations, we'd be hearing complaints about THAT.

RE: Dewious (sic) plot
bcombee @ 5/14/2001 11:32:00 AM #
Two reasons for the new connector:

1) USB support -- the previous commenter made that point.

2) Plug-and-play serial port -- the new connector has several lines that let a peripheral tell the system what it is. This lets the system automatically do the right thing when you plug in a keyboard, a modem, or some other item.

RE: Dewious (sic) plot
I.M. Anonymous @ 5/16/2001 10:00:23 AM #
At least we can hope that Palm will stick to their promise to use this Universal Connector in future devices. If we're REALLY lucky, maybe future 3rd-party devices will latch on to it too...

RE: Dewious (sic) plot
I.M. Anonymous @ 5/23/2001 9:41:43 AM #
You are right that we would hear bitching...because that's exactly what a lot of people have griped about with the HandEra...no USB! I personally would rather be able to use all my same peripherals than have the faster sync speed and it makes sense in terms of supporting the business customer (many of whom do not have USB at work).

MJS


Rhinoskin cases are a joke

I.M. Anonymous @ 5/14/2001 10:03:57 AM #
These are just all the Palm V cases that happen to fit the m505... joke... When are the metal cases coming out?

Laziness
I.M. Anonymous @ 5/14/2001 10:12:28 AM #
Did you read the entire paragraph or just the first few words and stop when you got to the word RhinosSkin? The rest of it says

> according to Claudia Dragonette, they are developing hard cases
> for it, too, which "should be on the market within the next month or so".

RE: Rhinoskin cases are a joke
I.M. Anonymous @ 5/14/2001 11:15:59 AM #
I think we should use the acronym "RFA" for Read the F____ing Article.

RE: Recommend against trying the Rhinoskin Flipcase...
I.M. Anonymous @ 5/14/2001 2:32:56 PM #
After seeing on rhinoskins site that the leather flipcase was listed as V/m500 series compatible, I picked up on at Compusa. End result, a very unhappy camper... Im taking it back today. Heres my experience....

1. The first time i slipped the nob on the back of the case into the belt clip, the belt clip cracked. So much for sturdy construction... I expected more from rhino after all their aluminum/titanium cases.

2. The m505 fits but tightly... All seemed ok but I had to take the m505 back out so I could exchange the case for one with a working clip... when i took it out of the case, i realized the right side of the palm had its finished marred / scraped off by the case. So not only is the case tight and fragile, but it damaged by new $449 palm. The damage is akin to the 'scraps' made on iPaq cases by some sleeves... not major but still irritating.

RE: Rhinoskin cases are a joke
I.M. Anonymous @ 5/14/2001 4:39:47 PM #
scaps or scrapes?

Otter Box are the way to go
I.M. Anonymous @ 5/23/2001 9:45:30 AM #
Try

www.otterbox.com

We have seen and tested them all - Otter Box are the best.
A better one did not pass my table jet

See how they performed with us in the arctic on board the icebraker "Polarstern" on this very forum:

http://www.palminfocenter.com/view_Story.asp?ID=1923
and
http://www.palmtop-pro.com/news/palm_bars.htm

Boris von Luhovoy
publishing editor
Palmtop-pro magazine
www.palmtop-pro.com/index1.htm

Cables to mobile phones?

Todd Huhtanen @ 5/14/2001 10:13:14 AM #
Anyone hear of a supplier of cables to connect a M5xx series to a Motorola Star Tac cell. phone? I've seen dates of August from Supply net ......Guess I can't sell my IIIxe yet!
RE: Cables to mobile phones?
BillW @ 5/14/2001 3:02:55 PM #
I ordered one last week and they emailed me it would ship at the end of this month.

BillW
RE: Cables to mobile phones?
I.M. Anonymous @ 5/14/2001 3:48:49 PM #
what is the URL where I can order the cable to my startec phone?

RE: Cables to mobile phones?
I.M. Anonymous @ 5/16/2001 9:42:15 AM #
Here is the URL for Supply Net:
http://www.thesupplynet.com/

RE: Cables to mobile phones?
I.M. Anonymous @ 5/21/2001 4:27:57 AM #
You can buy Ohfish GSM sled for the new m500 series.

Stowaway Keyboard for Visor Edge?

dchadler @ 5/14/2001 12:53:41 PM #
Has there been any news on if/when a Stowaway keyboard will be available for the Handspring Visor Edge? Or do any of the exisiting models fit onto the Edge? From the looks of Think Outside's website, there is nothing right now.

Thanks,
Dana


RE: Stowaway Keyboard for Visor Edge?
I.M. Anonymous @ 5/14/2001 2:46:19 PM #
Dana - we anticipate that a keyboard for the Visor Edge will be available in August/Sept. of this year.

Thank you,

Rachel Wild
Think Outside

Heard anything on Sync Cable and travel charger for M500

I.M. Anonymous @ 5/14/2001 2:03:54 PM #
Do any of you know the lastest status on the sync cable and travel charger? I travel very frequent and it is makes carrying this bulky cradle everywhere very inconvenient.. :(

Can't wait for them to ship out my pre-order accessories..

RFA!!!!
I.M. Anonymous @ 5/14/2001 2:20:16 PM #
Do you mean besides in the article where it says when these will be available?

RE: Heard anything on Sync Cable and travel charger for M500
I.M. Anonymous @ 5/14/2001 3:41:26 PM #
Will office depot or Staple got these cables before Palm.com?? Since this was the case for M505



RE: Heard anything on Sync Cable and travel charger for M500
I.M. Anonymous @ 5/19/2001 12:59:27 AM #
I wrote to targus about this (i am assuming that you are talking about the sync/charge cable that targus came out for the palm V) they said that they are working on it and that it would be out soon.. hope so! I am traveling with my m505 and I HATE carying the cradle arround.. if it had only been a folding cradle...

Write to PalmDock?

mikefoley @ 5/14/2001 2:25:33 PM #
Well, we can all do what I just did, write to the
folks at PalmDock.com and ask for a m50x to Palm V
adaptor.

Start writing and generate demand. I'd gladly pony
up $25-$40 for a m50x-->Palm V adaptor.



mike

RE: Write to PalmDock?
I.M. Anonymous @ 5/14/2001 4:42:49 PM #
i don't know if i would mail just for that. I think they should make an entire series of adapters for all sorts of models. wouldn't it be a waste for peopple like me to buy something to change ming into a V, just to use the dock V to turn it into a III?

Oh well, it doesn't really matter to me. my buddy is really good with wiring and he's going to plan out and build one for me!!! He already knows how, but needs to build a plastic casing for it to look good and fit in the accessory clips!

-Pepper

Map software with color support?

Cheetah @ 5/14/2001 4:43:24 PM #
I got a free U.S. Cities SD card with my 505 (brought in my receipt to an Office Depot to get it based on their latest ad). I was really disappointed that the maps did not have color support (or any other part of the application, including the icons in the main menu).

Why would Palm OEM this software and debut them with their new color 505 if they didn't have color support? Maps are one of the few applications where color would truely give the user a clear benefit (besides just being pretty).

With that said, are there any plans from Palm developers to sell SD cards with maps that support color? I've seen severals such software for PPCs.

m505 SDIO prototypes

I.M. Anonymous @ 5/14/2001 6:35:26 PM #
I have actually seen a working prototype of the barcode scanner. not the one we see in all those pictures of SD accessories, but a smaller one. it clips in and is practically flush with the surface of the case. It looks like an SD memory card with a small red reflective strip on the top (like a mini bike reflector). It looks REALLY techy! This was all at a palm seminar in Itasca, and they told me it wasn't THEIR product, but 3rd party. it was pretty awesome, light as a feather!!! Since it is 3rd party though, I still don't have any timeframe available for the Palm brand SDIOs.

-Pepper

BTW: I can't wait for the stowaway keyboard, but too bad it won't be availably untill AFTER the school year is over. DAMNIT!!!

affordable modules

Mobetter @ 5/15/2001 10:46:00 PM #
While I am a generally happy owner of a Visor Platinum, it ticks me off that the only worthwhile Handspring modules cost as much as the Visor itself. Please, someone make a $150 cell phone module or modem.
RE: affordable modules
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/14/2001 11:59:23 PM #
I have a Thinmodem 33.6 modem that I do not want and will sell...
send me a email:
bbs@austin.rr.com

[ No Subject ]

mike leys @ 5/16/2001 8:24:10 AM #
Can we get SupplyNet cables in the UK?

If so where?

RE: [ No Subject ]
I.M. Anonymous @ 5/16/2001 9:48:23 AM #
?? I don't know if they will ship int., but here is their URL:
http://www.thesupplynet.com/

Top View Full Comment Thread
Achtung! Only the first 50 comments are displayed within the article.
    Click here for the full story discussion page...

Account

Register Register | Login Log in
user:
pass: