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Report from Internet World


Thu Oct 7, 1999 - 2:54 PM EDT - By Marcus Adolfsson

Docking Stations

VISOR SPEAKER
Mike: If you consider the Palm III sound-emitting ingredient a "speaker," then, yes, the Visor has one too. I specifically asked about it and was shown the Speaker/Alarm Prefs that are standard in the PalmOS. You will hear your alarms (or still not hear them, if you hadn’t before!).

SPRINGBOARD SLOT
Mike: The Springboard area cover -- slug, mask, whatever -- is easy to pull out and put back. The pins look just like PCMCIA (no surprise).

IR PORT
Marcus: Visor’s IR port is located on the left side of the unit, moved from the top where it can usually be found on other PDA’s. According to Peter Skillman, Senior Product Designer, the IR Port was moved to the side because of the flexibility of Springboard designs. "Some Springboards will cover the whole top of the Visor, blocking the IR Port if it would be located there," Skillman stated.

VISOR CRADLE
Mike: Surprise! There’s a pimple back there! Handspring’s Mechanical Engineer happened by the Landware booth while I was there to check out Landware’s USB GoType. It turns out that the Visor dock has a pimple to mate with a dimple on the back of the Visor due to the USB connector. The connector requires a mathematically-precise pressure on it in order to make an effective connection. The Visor is simply too lightweight to exert that pressure! So by "forcing" the Visor to "fasten" to the dock, the minimum required pressure is exerted to assure a HotSync can take place. WARNING! Do not sandpaper off that dock’s pimple! Not unless you intend to put your Visor in a heavy lead case!

Marcus: The Visor Cradle is available in two colors - Ice or graphite. The color of your cradle depends on which Visor you ordered. If you are ordering an additional cradle you can specify the color color.

RECHARGEABLE BATTERIES
Marcus: Rechargeable batteries is not a part of the Visor package. Revolv Design, creators of Unimount for Palm, will during the first quarter of 00 start selling Unimount for Visor. This cradle/mounting kit includes a speaker, external power out (to use with mp3 Springboard), and a rechargeable battery back. The Visor has to be docked in the Unimount for the batteries to recharge. Price not yet set.

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