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Handspring
Handspring
is a maker of Personal
Digital Assistants using the PalmOS
operating system. The original inventors of the Palm
Pilot who founded Palm,
Inc. were Jeff
Hawkins, Donna
Dubinsky, and Ed
Colligan.
3Com
purchased Palm, Inc. and after some time the three became upset
with 3Com having too much control over the product. As a result,
they left and founded Handspring in June 1998.
In 2003
Handspring merged back with Palm,
Inc. to form PalmOne.
The Treo
600 is the last Handspring product.
Handspring
Visor
The company launched the Handspring Visor
line of products on September 14, 1999 which, unlike most of
products produced by Palm at the time, used USB
to synchronize with the desktop computer and included an
expansion port. The USB support made these the first Palm
devices to work with the Macintosh
operating system out of the box.
More liberal than the Palm Pilot, the Visor line featured
vibrantly colored handhelds focused more towards average people.
The expansion port, called the Springboard
Expansion Slot, allowed for addition of modules such as
games, ebooks, extra memory, universal television remotes, cellular
telephones, modems,
MP3
players, digital
cameras, and even a device for connecting to an EKG.
Visor
and Visor Deluxe
The Visor line at first introduced the Visor
Solo, which was black and contained 2 megabytes of onboard
memory. The Visor
Deluxe had the option of translucent colored models, and had
eight megabytes of onboard memory. The Visor and Visor Deluxe
used Palm OS 3.1H, a modified version of the OS from Palm that
included an enhanced datebook, a city time appllication, and an
advanced calculator. Unlike the Palm Pilot, the Visor's infrared
port was placed on the side of the device to make room for the
Springboard.
Critics of the device note the lack of rubber between the
buttons and metal contacts making the buttons harder to press
and complain that the screen cover was not connected, making it
easy to lose. The Visor and Visor Deluxe weighed 5.4 oz. Their
dimensions were 4.8" x 3.0" x 0.7".
Visor
Prism
When Handspring released the Visor
Prism, it was the first Palm OS handheld to have a 16-bit
color display (65,536 colors); the current model produced by
Palm only had an 8-bit color display (256 colors). Its power
came from a rechargeable lithium ion battery, rather than two
AAA batteries like most Visors. However, it did have the Visor
standard Springboard
Expansion Slot. The Prism featured Palm OS 3.5.2H3, and
weighed 6.9 oz. The dimensions were 4.8" x 3.0" x
0.8".
Visor
Platinum
Visor
Edge
Released in March 2001, the slim Visor Edge
featured a MC68VZ328 DragonBall™ CPU clocked at 33 MHz. The
160 x 160 pixel, 4-bit grayscale (16 shades of gray) display was
standard for most Palm PDAs. However, at the time it was the
smallest and lightest Visor, sizing in at 4.7" x 3.1"
x 0.44" and weighing 4.8 ounces. Packed with 8 MB RAM and
Handspring's latest version of the Palm OS, version 3.5.2H, the
Visor Edge was an appealing PDA.
Available in three colors, Metallic Blue, Metallic Silver, and
Metallic Red, it was also eye catching. With a built-in
rechargeable Lithium-Ion battery, which generally lasted two to
four weeks on a charge, the Visor Edge was one sleek machine.
However, due to its size, the standard Springboard
Expansion Slot was accessed through a slide on sleeve rather
than a built-in slot. Nevertheless, this still allowed the Visor
Edge to access the numerous Springboard Modules available.
Visor
Neo
The Visor Neo offered nothing new to the
Handspring Visor lineup. Released in September 2001, the Neo
featured a MC68VZ328 DragonBall™ processor clocked at 33 MHz.
It had 8 MB DRAM, an IrDA-compliant infrared interface, and
Handspring's standard Springboard
Expansion Slot. It also sported a built-in microphone and a
160 x 160 pixel, 2-bit grayscale (4 shades of gray) display.
The 4.8" x 3.0" x 0.7" unit, weighing in at 5.4
ounces, came in a Blue, Red, or Smoke colored case. It used
Handspring's modified version of the Palm OS, version 3.5.2H3.
Power came from two AAA batteries that would last up to two
months. The only new feature this model had was a lower price,
with which Handspring was hoping to attract new users.
Visor
Pro
Handspring
Treo
Handspring stopped producing the Visor line, and
replaced it with the Handspring
Treo, a more "communication centric" line of
handhelds, most of which were integrated with cellular phones.
The company is now owned by PalmOne.
This
content from Wikipedia
is licensed under the GNU
Free Documentation License.
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