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Walter S. Mossberg
Back in 1996, Jeff Hawkins and Donna Dubinsky introduced the PalmPilot, the first, and still the only, broadly successful handheld computer. With its small size, simple but savvy software, and smooth ability to synchronize data with a PC, the Pilot revolutionized handheld computing. It also inspired a host of imitators, though none that measured up.
This week, however, the Pilot got a serious competitor that threatens to trump it over the next year as the king of the handhelds. The geniuses behind this new product: the same two people. They left the top posts at Palm last year, along with a few other key Palm executives, to form Handspring Inc.
And on Tuesday, Handspring announced its first product, the handheld Handspring Visor. The Visor is a deceptively radical device. It looks and works just like a Pilot. It even uses the Palm operating system, developed by Hawkins and now licensed from 3Com Corp., which took over Palm a few years back. So it has all the same functions as a Palm, synchronizes with allthe same PC programs as a Palm, and can run all the software ever written for Palms. The Visor even looks like a Palm III, with similar buttons and icons, except it's black, not gray (other colors are also available). It also costs less and has a better synchronization system. In my case, it synchronized perfectly with Lotus Organizer and co-existed with my Palm V.
I've been testing a Handspring Visor for several weeks, and it works perfectly, just like a PalmPilot. Behind all that boring similarity, however, lies the Visor's radical feature: It has the ability to act as a digital chameleon. The Visor can transform itself into a cell phone, a pager, a camera, a music player, a game machine and more. It performs these feats by using small plug-in hardware modules that can alter its size, shape and function. All the user has to do is buy the module he or she likes and snap it into a special socket on the back of the Handspring, and the thing instantly morphs into a new device. It's real plug and play, not themarketing hype spewed forth by Intel and Microsoft.
Alas, most of these add-ons, called Springboard modules, aren't available yet, and most will be built by third parties. But, based on proto types I've seen and the track record of the company's leadership, I expect them to work when they roll out in coming months.
There are two key advantages to the modules. First, they are far better than software-only solutions that might try to make a generic computer into something its hardware wasn't designed to support. That's the PC model, and it's kludgy. One of the PalmPilot's great breakthroughs was to establish the notion that hardware and software must be customized to work together in a special purpose computer. And the Visor's add-on architecture carries on that tradition of customized hardware.
Second, the Springboard modules contain all the software they need to work, and they transfer that software instantly to the Visor so it can work in conjunction with the add-on hardware. No disk or download orinstallation process is required. And the software is instantly uninstalled when you remove the hardware module.
I tested this feature with a simple module, a little card containing only a golf game, and it worked brilliantly. When I popped in the module, the golf game appeared on the screen, ready to play, with no installation process. When I slid it out of the Visor, the software not only vacated the screen but was nowhere to be found on the Visor.
Unfortunately, the very coolest Springboard module, the one that turns the Visor into a cell phone by adding an earpiece and antenna to the top, won't be available until next summer. But a modem, a pager and an MP3 music-player module, among others, are expected by year-end.
Without any modules, the Visor works exactly like a PalmPilot, but it has some advantages over its predecessor. First, it costs less. The base model, called Visor Solo, at $149, comes with two megabytes of memory but no synchronization cable or cradle. It's for people who want to usethe Visor without a PC. The mid-range model, called just plain Visor, at $179, has the same specs but includes a synchronizing cradle. The top model, the Visor Deluxe, at $249, comes in several bright colors, has eight megabytes of memory, and adds a leather case. Handspring is selling all three directly from its Web site at www.handspring.com. They won't be in stores until next year.
By contrast, the cheapest Palm model, the two megabyte Palm IIIe, sells for $229. I expect the price to drop to $199 for the holiday season, but that's still $20 more than the similarly equipped Visor with docking cradle. Second, the Handspring docking cradle connects using the new USB port on PCs, which is much speedier and much easier to configure than the serial connection used by Palm. In my tests, it worked great. Third, the Visor's calendar program and calculator have been beefed up from the versions on the Palm, with added features.
Finally, the Visor comes with Macintoshsynchronization software, which costs extra ona Palm. The Handspring Visor is a very nice, inexpensive, handheld computer right now. But in the coming months, it can be almost any kind of portable device you want it to be. And that will be radical.
(www.ptech.wsj.com)
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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This story was printed from Net Express located at http://www.expressindia.com. Net Express provides a portal to India, with news from The Indian Express and The Financial Express along with sites on travel and tourism, the entertainment industry, the power sector, the environment and much more.
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