The Null Device

I just picked up a Handspring Visor Deluxe handheld to replace my dead Pilot 5000. It was a choice between this one and the slimline Visor Edge, both heavily discounted, but I went with the Deluxe, because (a) the only advantage of the Edge is that it's slimmer and sexier-looking (not something I look for in a handheld computer), (b) this one was cheaper, and (c) I don't like the idea of a PDA with volatile memory running on an internal rechargeable battery (as those degrade over time).

Now to get it working with Linux...

There are 4 comments on "":

Posted by: cos http://polydistortion.net/monkey/ Wed Apr 17 09:33:15 2002

well, re: c) my Palm V will be 3 years old in June. No problems with the battery yet...

I should upgrade - 2MB isn't quite enough for me to fit AvantGo + actual content on with all my other apps, but PalmOS-based things haven't really improved much apart from adding colour in the last few years...and well...i could buy an iPAQ, but I dunno if it's worth it (I either cope with WinCE, or I cope with Linux on it. either way I reckon I'd be unhappy).

help !

Posted by: acb http://dev.null.org Wed Apr 17 13:59:08 2002

My Visor has 8Mb. Not sure what I'll do with it, given that it doesn't have a MP3 player or anything like that.

I should probably try to get one of the Python interpreters working on it at some stage.

Posted by: Lionfire http://www.lostrealm.com/ Thu Apr 18 02:45:53 2002

Interestingly, the memory itself degrades too, so don't expect your PDA to last forever. Most PDA operating systems (including PalmOS) contain memory management to avoid dead and dying memory locations, but you can't expect it to work indefinitely.

That said, I also prefer having removable (rechargeable) batteries in my PDA. There isn't always the facilities to recharge on a long trip, but spare batteries are fairly easy to carry. It would be nice if PDAs could use mobile phone-style batteries; that way they would be compact and rechargeable, but easily swapped out on the road.

Posted by: acb http://dev.null.org Thu Apr 18 05:25:38 2002

I know that Flash memory degrades with writes (this was one of the dubious design decisions of the Agenda VR3, IMHO); the Palmoid devices use RAM, though, which should last longer.