Linux Connectivity for the Visor 13
Stickster asks: "What is the deal with Linux's ability to exchange information with the new Handspring Visor (Deluxe)? I realize that there is the USB/serial cradle hardware question which will affect people depending on their boxen, but right now Handspring says only WinPC/Mac can do things like HotSync. Isn't the PalmPilot connectivity solution set for Linux pretty well-developed at this point? And how does that bode for the Visor?"
offtopic kinda (Score:1)
Palms and Linux (Score:1)
In any case, assuming that a USB serial device can be setup to look like an ordinary /dev/ttyS* device, the current pilot-link stuff should work just fine. I've not used any of the USB stuff though.
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"'Is not a quine' is not a quine" is a quine.
Re:offtopic kinda (Score:1)
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"'Is not a quine' is not a quine" is a quine.
How about battery life? (Score:2)
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"Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds." - Albert Einstein
Re:How about battery life? (Score:1)
I called them once. Way back when. Just to see if my order was subject to their ordering database bug (see their website [handspring.com]). They redirected me from the toll-free number to an ordinary long distance number to get information on my unit... and they put me back on hold during that time.
(That might have changed, since their staffing has apparently been seriously reinforced.)
In the end, I learned my order was intact, and that my Visor should be in my hands "around Halloween" as I was originally promised. I'M STILL WAITING.
Once it comes, I'll happily throw my two cents in about battery life and anything else I can blather about without being as off topic as this message seems to have become.
I bet it works fine. (Score:1)
Re:Palms and Linux (Score:1)
That said, I sync my Palm III up to JPilot. It's still a little buggy but over all quite excellent at what it does. If it could play front end to the mal-thingie that syncs with Avant Go, I'd be a very happy camper
Info... (Score:2)
About the waiting... They apparently have had 4x the orders they expected. Now their e-commerce site is up and they are probably rolling in more orders, even faster. Remided me of the G4 mac shortage
Soft/Hardware: The OS is PalmOS so everything is compatable. They added some nice new features to the standard apps, and the USB option is there to win over the Mac crowd. When you drop in a springboard module, it suspends the OS and runs a rom in the module. This allows the module to be always on and interrrupt the palm. It can theoreticaly turn the visor on and sound an alarm or whatever, whenever it wants. The visor has a microphone built in to it so that it can be turned into a cell phone at a later date. Pager modules, gps modules are all coming. Also, don't worry about compatability, the guys who started and run Handspring also invented the palm pilot.
-pos
The truth is more important than the facts.
Re:Palms and Linux (Score:2)
Doesn't JPilot just call pilot-link anyway? I mean, that's what it looks like it does...
I think the easiest way to add in conduits would be to add something into the pilot-link library for a sync program to happen in an already-existing sync session. Nice and simple, yaknow?
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"'Is not a quine' is not a quine" is a quine.
Re:I bet it works fine. (Score:1)
Palm III in the serial port and hotsynched all my data to it.
compatible enough?
Re:How about battery life? (Score:1)
this could all be fake
Re:How about battery life? (Score:2)
The biggest hitter on the palms is the RS232 serial port during hotsync. Without hotsyncs, the average pilot could probably go two months on a single set of AAA's. With hotsyncs, probably about half that. The RS232 specification requires that the port not be parasitically powered, so those little batteries have to do all the work.
I am not sure what the specifications for USB (which the visor uses) indicate, but I bet they allow for parasitic power delivery for the interface of low power devices.
Regardless, power usage for any of the palm devices is not an issue. At worst, just go to Best Buy and buy a few sets of AAA NiMh and a charger, and you should go at least a week at a time, even with lots of backlight and constant syncing.
It is the windows CE devices with their hungry CPU's and color screens that have the battery problem.
Bill