Handspring Visor Platinum

...PDA's, I recently purchased a Handspring Visor Platinum after reading a review in T3 magazine. As somebody who tends to be very disorganized (scraps of paper with 'to do' lists litter my desk on a daily basis!) this seemed like an opportunity to get more organized.

You could of course just buy a diary and save yourself a couple of hundred pounds, but that would'nt be very high tech and cutting edge now would it! And of course a PDA ...
...One good thing about the handspring pda's is the 'plug in' bit on the top (where the visor phone slots in) - you can also add an mp3 player, a digital camera and other accessories. However, these do apparently have their quality limitations and are a bit pricey. (See handspring.com for details of what you can add on). By the way, with omnisky you cannot yet use the visor phone as a mobile phone as it is set to send and receive data only - however ... more

*** Update 2 ***
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9 July 2001.

Just got an e-mail from Omnisky today, saying that they do not need any more 'beta testers' - so anybody else wanting to sign up will have to wait for the full product launch. Also one interesting statistic - they said that a whopping 99% of their users are male!! Bit of a 'boys toy' then!!?

*** Update 1 ***
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19 June 2001.

I have had this product for a few months now - so time for a quick update. I have been reasonably happy with the Handspring, but have found the internet on the move (Omnisky) a bit unreliable. It cannot display web sites which use frames, for example and reading web pages on such a small screen does become tedious. The preset 'channels' are very good (particularly the Guardian, which you can read online). However, you could just buy the newspaper which is much easier to read and save your batteries + a similar service is available from Avantgo. Best uses: Checking your e-mail on the move - good for killing time on a long train journey. Sending emails is a bit tedious though, due to the small keyboard. (I have not really bothered to learn the 'graffiti' method of inputting text!) Bottom line - good pda, but probably not worth subscribing to the internet service after the 3 months free trial.

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Although I have never been totally convinced about the virtues of PDA's, I recently purchased a Handspring Visor Platinum after reading a review in T3 magazine. As somebody who tends to be very disorganized (scraps of paper with 'to do' lists litter my desk on a daily basis!) this seemed like an opportunity to get more organized.

You could of course just buy a diary and save yourself a couple of hundred pounds, but that would'nt be very high tech and cutting edge now would it! And of course a PDA is much more than just a personal organiser. What sold me on this one was the Visorphone which clips on to the top and with a new service called omnisky (www.omnisky.co.uk) lets you surf the internet and read or reply to your e-mails wherever you are. Very handy on those long train journeys, it has to be said! The best bit is that because omnisky is still in beta (testing) you don't have to pay any call charges - so you can use the internet as much as you like for 3 months!

However, although this is much better than that rather disappointing wap thing you can now get on your mobile phone, it does have its limitations. For a start, not all internet sites will display (for example sites which use frames don't work - yet) and the pages look very different to what you see on your PC screen. It is best for pages with lots of text as graphics don't display very well on a small pda screen. Plus, on the platinum everything is in black and white - although a more pricey colour version is available (T3 magazine said that pages looked 'washed out' on this though!?).

However, for the omnisky service you can't really lose as it costs about the same as just buying the Visor Platinum on its own (£240 incl VAT) - you get 3 months free service and apparently after that you can give it back or pay a monthly subscription of about twenty pounds (a bit pricey that!). There are also preselected channels (a bit like Avantgo) which offer content from Guardian Unlimited, Harderns restaurant guides (very useful when visiting a new city), Weather, BBC Online, Sky, FT, Bloomberg, The Times, Motley Fool and many others. Of course if you wanted to read the Guardian or The Times on the train you could just buy a copy of the real thing - much easier on the eyes! You can also search the web with Google, which is very useful.

As for the Platinum Visor, the palm operating system is easy to use, the pda looks attractive and seems fairly robust. You can enter text using graffiti (basically writing the letters on the screen in a way that they are recognised by the PC) or you can bring up a little keyboard on the screen and tap away on that. There is 8mb of memory (apparently this is a good thing) so you can have lots of software and store lots of addresses, telephone numbers, e-mails etc.

One good thing about the handspring pda's is the 'plug in' bit on the top (where the visor phone slots in) - you can also add an mp3 player, a digital camera and other accessories. However, these do apparently have their quality limitations and are a bit pricey. (See handspring.com for details of what you can add on). By the way, with omnisky you cannot yet use the visor phone as a mobile phone as it is set to send and receive data only - however apparently this option will become available soon. (There is a microphone on the Platinum visor already).

Bottom line - if you are a busy business person wanting to make the most of your commuting time on the train, or anybody who travels a lot, you will find the Platinum visor very useful (especially with the omnisky service). If you have 240 pounds to splash out on a new toy (or even better, can get your company to pay!) then this product is worth getting.
Not quite 'the internet in your pocket', but a big improvement over wap and a pda can help you get organised if like me you tend to leave little lists all over the place!
 

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