PalmSource: Symbol Demoing Color QVGA Model

It may be what YOU want. Not everybody wants low resolution QVGA and some stupid virtual grafitti. I for one, am perfectly satisfied with my 320x320 screen and good old "classic" grafitti

It also means the backlight will actually illuminate the graffiti area... something that you *can't* do with a silkscreen graffiti area. You can also customize the graffiti area more if it were done in software. You could even increase the resolution of 320x320 devices... just cut the graffiti area and add more vertical space. It just makes more sense to ditch the silkscreen and do it all in software... makes it much more scalable. Everyone wins with a software graffiti area.

Are you sure you'll pay a thousand bucks to buy this handheld base on Dragon Ball 33Mhz?

That price is ridiculous.

This is an INDUSTRIAL handheld, it's not for your average consumer nor will it be available for retail consumers, hence the price.

Am I assuming correctly that most critics to this are Sony Clie' fanboys who would hate to see 320x240 or virtual graffiti truly becoming an "emerging standard?" Why worry, since the new Epson screens Handera will be soon using are also capable of displaying 320x320 when the silkscreen area is minimized, therefore it's a win-win situation for all developers and consumers.

"Sony Clie' fanboys who would hate to see 320x240 or virtual graffiti truly becoming an "emerging standard?""

Actually the emerging standard is square screen, so obviously that can't be 320X240. it could be 160X160, 320X320, 480X480 ..... Those are not Sony fan boy out there that's against virtual graffiti, most of those people are palm fan boys who think fixed graffiti is always the best.

Anyways sit up and listen, high density square is the energing standard, not 320X240.

> QVGA is not good since it causes a lot of old apps not scaling well.

Most apps scale perfectly fine. I don't notice any scaling problems in daily use. It is unlikely you have ever used one.

> 320x480 is the future with 320x320 for old apps double pixelling.

Try scaling 320x480 to 480x640. It'll be awful, since you'll actually have to lose pixels in some places, and 480x640 is the future for this size of device.

>> QVGA is not good since it causes a lot of old apps not scaling well.

>Most apps scale perfectly fine. I don't notice any scaling problems in daily use. It is unlikely you have ever used one.

I bought a Handera 330 and many of my old apps with drawings didn't scale well. I returned it in a few days.

>> 320x480 is the future with 320x320 for old apps double pixelling.

>Try scaling 320x480 to 480x640. It'll be awful, since you'll actually have to lose pixels in some places, and 480x640 is the future for this size of device.

The future is here! 320x480 is the future of palm form factor screen.

Give me a flipping break. Saying you only want a 320X320 screen (and not QVGA) is like saying you want 15" monitor and have no use for a 17". The display size is bigger. How can that possibly NOT be a good thing? Man, I can't understand the logic of some people.

The virtual graffiti area isn't important. Built in keyboards will be on most high end handhelds. Only low end will still use graffiti.

> I rather have a 15" screen running at 800*600 then a
> 17" screen running at 640*840 things will look so ugly

You do understand that the pixel density on the hi-res Clies and HandEra 330 are already way greater than either of the monitors configs you just described above don't you?

> Built in keyboards will be on most high end handhelds.
> Only low end will still use graffiti.

Name one successful handheld yet that has a built in keyboard.

I hear a lot of talk about the "classic" grafitti area being built in. If you really wanna get technical, grafittit debuted on the Newton and was Software based, not built in. And to this day grafitti 1.0 is still better than the one on the palms! you could resize it and customize it out the wazoo. You could have a big area, a small one, one split between numbers and letters, one that was all letters that became all numbers with an upward stroke, it had cusomizable buttons around it for launching up to 10 apps. When I first saw one on the palm pilot waaay back when I was disappointed, it's almost inconceivable that the screen size and grafitti and customization and programs, haven't caught up to my almost 10 year old newton as of yet!!!!!

I agree, something like 480x640, with virtual graffiti, on something like a m50x form factor would be sweet! Built-in Bluetooth and enough RAM, and what more could you want? I wonder how dense the pixels on those OLED displays can get?

I was talking about what I would like. Yes, for an industrial app, this device is sweet!

"As such, their handhelds are built for industrial conditions. They can survive a 4-foot fall and are sealed against rain and dust. They have built-in bar-code scanners and can have wireless networking, either 802.11 or CDPD. Symbol says the devices have enough power to survive an 8-hour work day. "

This would be WHY it is ugly.... dumbasses

Actually I thought it reminded me of those old Coleco electronic football games, where two people could play head-to-head. So yeah, it's ugly but it brought back nice memories. :-)

they are so ugly because its more durable and usefull outdoors. With this handheld you can probably get more work done no matter what type of living standards there is around them. Panasonic had a PDA very much the same that can even be used out doors when it rains! This PDA is not directed to us consumers who care about looks and size. That's most likely why its like that.
http://pdan.has.it

>Industrial? You call that industrial? HAHA! how old are you?

32. You are obviously much younger or have never stepped foot in a manufacturing environment (yes, I've stepped foot in many-about 30-40 different CM's/OEM's).

Line operators drop things, this is very common. Investments in technologies for data collection must be met with durability in mind. Inorder to minimize the shock to the device, the device must me a bit larger that the "typical" handheld. Try dropping your VisorPrism on a concrete manufacturing floor at 4ft. (I dare you) and see what happens. This design is larger to surpress the shock on the sensitive circuitry. I.e. Industrial use.

The ability to provide 802.11b and remote connectivity is commendable. This is a device that a serious systems integrator drools over. The price is high, true, but it was designed to fulfill a business need and was not designed to take the place of your Palm IIIxe that you use for playing games. It was designed for hard-core business use/industrial applications.

This looks to be an extremely valuable device for those who know how to use it and what it was designed for. Great Job Symbol, I hope you soon release this Unit. I'd certainly be interested in developing for it.

Does the barcode scanner support 2D symbologies (i.e. PDF417) in addition to the more common Code 39, UPCA/E, EAN13/8,CODE128, etc?