Handspring
Handspring was a manufacturer of PDAs with Palm OS operating systems.
The inventors of the Palm Pilot and founders of the Palm company were Jeff Hawkins , Donna Dubinsky and Ed Colligan . When 3Com bought Palm in March 1997, the three named people after a while resented that 3Com had too much control over the product. They left Palm and founded Handspring in June 1998.
After a number of innovative models, Handspring finally merged with Palm again in October 2004 to form the palmOne group . The Treo 600 is the last handspring product.
Handspring visor
On September 14, 1999, Handspring launched the Visor product line, which, unlike most Palm products at the time , could be synchronized via USB and had an expansion slot ( springboard slot). With USB support, the Visors were the first Palm OS devices to work with Apple Macintosh computers without additional hardware . For the Springboard slot, there were modules such as games, e-books , memory expansions, universal remote controls for televisions, mobile phones , modems , MP3 players , digital cameras and even an interface for an EKG . With its cheeky, colorful design, the Visor line also appealed to average people, while Palm with its conservative design was more aimed at business customers.
Visor and Visor Deluxe
The first device in the Visor line was the Visor Solo with a black housing and 2 megabytes of RAM . The Visor Deluxe had optional variants with a translucent colored housing and 8 megabytes of RAM. Visor and Visor Deluxe used Palm OS 3.1H, a modified version of the Palm operating system that featured an improved calendar, world clock, and calculator. In contrast to the Palm Pilot, the infrared interface of the visor was on the side to make room for the springboard. Critics of the devices criticized the lack of a rubber layer between buttons and contacts, which made the buttons more difficult to press. In addition, it was easy to lose the clip-on plastic screen cover. The Visor and Visor Deluxe weighed 153 grams and were 12.2 cm x 7.6 cm x 1.8 cm.
Visor Prism
When Handspring brought out the Visor Prism , it was the first Palm OS handheld with a 16-bit color display (65,536 colors); the then current model from Palm only had an 8-bit color display (256 colors). A lithium-ion battery was used as the power source, as opposed to two micro cells (AAA cells) in the other visors. Together with other models, it had the standard springboard slot. The Prism ran on Palm OS 3.5.2H3 and weighed 199 grams with a size of 12.2 cm × 7.7 cm × 2.1 cm.
Visor Platinum
The Platinum did not offer anything spectacular. The 33 MHz Dragonball processor was supported by 8 MB RAM, and like the earlier Visors it was operated with two AAA micro cells. The display offered 160 × 160 pixels, Palm OS 3.5.2H served as the operating system. Since Handspring integrated the springboard slot in the case of the Platinum, the device was 2.1 cm thicker than the Visor Edge, which appeared a short time later (see below). Further dimensions: 12.2 cm × 7.6 cm, weight 180 grams. The built-in microphone can be considered a special feature. The Visor Platinum was sold in Germany at the discounter Aldi as Medion Visor with the identification MD9508.
Visor Edge
In March 2001 Handspring launched the flat Visor Edge with a 33 MHz MC68VZ328 DragonBall CPU. The 160 × 160 pixel display with 16 shades of gray corresponded to the standard on most other Palm PDAs, but with 126 grams and dimensions of 11.9 cm × 7.9 cm × 1.1 cm it was the smallest and lightest visor. Equipped with 8 MB RAM and Handspring's latest version of Palm OS, version 3.5.2H, the Visor Edge was a delightful PDA. With the three available colors blue metallic, silver metallic and red metallic, it was also a real eye-catcher. The built-in lithium-ion battery offered runtimes between two and four weeks. Due to its size, you had to do without a built-in springboard slot, but you could use the various springboard modules via a removable adapter included in the scope of delivery.
Visor Neo
The Visor Neo was nothing new in the Visor line. The device released in September 2001 had an MC68VZ328 DragonBall processor running at 33 MHz. It had 8 MB DRAM, an IrDA -compatible infrared interface and the normal Handspring Springboard slot. It had a built-in microphone and a 160 × 160 pixel display with 4 gray levels, was 12 cm × 7.5 cm × 1.6 cm in size and weighed 160 grams. There was a choice of three transparent colors: blue, red and "Smoke". The blue and red versions were not available in Germany. The Visor Neo in "Smoke" was sold at Tchibo as "TCM Visor" and when purchased as "Cybercom Visor" with the corresponding imprints in the middle above the function keys. The Neo was operated with the version 3.5.2H3 of Palm OS modified by Handspring. Electricity was provided by two micro cells that lasted up to two months. The only new feature to be mentioned is the low price with which Handspring wanted to win new customers.
Visor Pro
The Visor Pro was the last model in Handspring's Visor series. It weighed 162 grams, measured 12.2 cm x 7.6 cm x 1.8 cm and was powered by an MC68VZ328 DragonBall processor at 33 MHz. Furthermore, the Visor Pro offered a “whopping” 16 MB RAM, a built-in microphone and the springboard slot. It had a 16-grayscale backlit display and a lithium-ion battery.
Handspring Treo
Handspring stopped the Visor product line and replaced it with the Handspring Treo , a range of handheld devices geared towards mobile communications, almost all of which had a built-in cellphone.
PalmOne
In October 2004, Handspring merged with Palm to form palmOne .