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Summary: Handspring Visor Deluxe
Review: I am very pleased with this organizer. I was mainly interested in scheduling appts, viewing phone #'s and addresses. I like how one can create and customize catagories for their information. The "To Do" function is really nice - I set alarms for myself to get certain things done. I sync this up to my Win 98 PC at home - works like a dream. The only thing I don't like is that there is no back light when trying to view items at night - just need to be close to light. Excellent product - highly recommended.
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Summary: Love the Visor
Review: I've had my Visor Deluxe (Blue) for about 3 weeks now, and I absolutely love it. I have to admit, I am a gadget person, but I made the decision to purchase the Visor mainly for functionality purposes. It has met, and even exceeded my needs.Set-up of the Visor and the cradle is extremely simple. It took me all of 5 minutes... ok, I outsourced a little (I had someone crawl under my desk at work to plug in the cradle). Seriously though, the set up and sync feature are very easy to use. I primarily use my laptop or my office desktop to enter data into the address book, date book, to do list and memo pad, and sync with my Visor a couple times a day. However, it couldn't be any easier to enter data directly into the Visor; the Graffiti program is outstanding. Everyone told me it was a piece of cake to master the handwriting recognition, but I still had doubts about my ability to master it. Trust me, it takes 5 minutes to learn and the touchpad is very accurate. I would strongly recommend the WriteRight screen protect. I don't like scratched surfaces, so I was sure to put a piece of the screen protect on as soon as I got the Visor. It doesn't fit perfectly, as the shape of the Visor screen differs slightly from that of the Palm, but it removes easily and maybe oneday Visor users will have more of a selection of customized accessories. I ordered the rainbow 5-pack, which is the same stylus that the Visor comes with. They're great... just the right weight distribution of metal and plastic and they look nice too. Download Vindigo if you decide to buy a Visor. It is the best database of restaurants (Zagat), places to shop, movies, nightlife etc. I believe it is only available for major cities, including NYC, San Francisco, Boston, Washington, D.C. and Chicago, but if you live in or travel to any of these cities, you will love Vindigo. I haven't had the Visor long enough yet to get into the Springboard feature, but it seems really useful for true techie travelers. As far as cost goes, you can't beat it for the product you're getting. You get 8MB for ~$250. You pay ~150% of that for the Palm Vx (8MB), which runs on the exact same platform as the Visor. My only complaint at this point is that I have yet to find a case that I like. I am not interested in the slim leather case and I have looked at the RhinoSkin products. There really don't seem to be as many alternatives for the Visor as there are for the Palm. Maybe I'm being stupid, but I think I'm going to wait just a little bit longer to see if someone comes out with a slim, stylish, yet protective and inexpensive case for my Blue Visor. In the meantime, I am using the cheesy case it ships with and treating my Visor with extra great care.
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Summary: User in New England
Review: Defective out of the box. Put the batteries in, bulls-eye came on to calibrate pad with stylus, and the bulls-eye jumped all over screen before I touched it. Eventually, it locked up completely. As I tilted the Visor, I heard it beep and discovered that it was responding to movement - like it had a short in it. I took it back the same day.
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Summary: Customer Service?
Review: I purchased this as a graduation gift for my fiancee. While it was great at first, she quickly became disillusioned when she discovered that she could not hot sync it with her computer. She has sent several emails to the tech support as well as many phone calls (which, by the way, are costing us quite a bit in long distance charges). She has an HP computer with an AMD processor that is running Windows 98. According to tech support, the problem is resulting as a combination of the AMD processor, Windows 98, and the USB connection. Any of the solutions that have been offered have not worked. They then said that they did not know what the problem was and that they "would have to get back to her." They called three days later saying that they were "still working on the problem." It has now been several weeks, and there has been no response from the company. She has since purchased a PalmIIIx, and has had no problems with it. I do hope that ours is an isolated incident, however, due to our poor experience with the company, I can not support the purchase of this product. Be especially careful if you are running a computer with an AMD processor as you may experience similar syncing difficulties. Or at the very least, you may want to consider purchasing the optional serial port to remedy any USB syncing problems. I think that the product has good potential, unfortunately, their customer support is lacking, and we have been basically left with a very overpriced rolodex.
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Summary: "Don't leave home without it" takes on new meaning
Review: No longer is this only the American Express slogan, this is my slogansince I bought the Visor. When I bought my Visor, I was woried that it was just another 250.00 blown on yet another thing I do not need. When I started to use this I realized it was the best 250.00 I had ever spent. I debated long and hard about the 2mb vs the 8mb and I am so glad I got the 8mb after seeing the programs availible for the visor. (Any program compatible with the palm is compatible with the visor) There are literally thousands of programs availible for FREE!. A shopping list for when you go to the store, a fuel program, dicionaries, games, tide tables, anything your heart can imagine! Amazing. All sorts of stuff all the way up to the moon phases of Jupiters moons!..Now the last thing, but no where near the least, the expanibility. You can buy so much stuff for these things it is amazing! Books, MP3 Players, modems, wireless modems, pager, vibrating pager, again the expandablity is awesome! (palm pilots do not have this! ) The only down if you have NT4.0 or Win95 is you will have to buy the serial connection for HOT SYNC, but never fear there are tons of ebay buyers that will buy your USB HOT SYNC! As we speak we are headed out to the store to buy my wife her very own 8mb Visor, we will now be able to "beam" our shopping lists, to do items, sync our scheduals! We can't wait, you must get one!
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Summary: Good
Review: The device improves on the Palm III a lot and I'd receommend it over anything else, except maybe the Palm V or Vx (if you don't mind the premium). The applications are better and there are more of them. I like the colored casing. I also like the USB syncing, much, much faster than any of the Palm devices. Springboard is a suspect technology for me at the moment. I might change my mind later on though.
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Summary: All I expected
Review: I purposely waited until I must be the last person in Silicon Valley to buy a PDA - and I am glad I did. My blue Visor Deluxe is a great tool that has all the basic software I need bundled with it. It synchronizes faultlessly with Microsoft Outlook on my PC and is great to use. However, the synchronization software on my Windows 98 laptop seems to be stopping it from going into suspend mode. I tried getting e-mail support for this problem from Handspring and they were no help at all. It looks like they don't have time to read the e-mail you send, but just reply with a canned response that does not address the issue. I'm living with that problem. The Visor (Palm OS) software has only failed on me once: when I turned it on I got a dialog box saying the system was corrupt. It then went into a loop rebooting itself but never actually restarting. I had to do a hard reset (losing ALL my data) to get it to work again. I have no idea why that happened and it has not happened again. Fortunately I had it backed up to a Springboard backup module and did not lose anything permanently. I find the Graffiti handwriting input quite easy to use - although I am still faster picking at the soft keyboard on the screen.
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Summary: PDA for the masses
Review: I just received my Handspring Visor Deluxe, and the only thing I said was "WOW". This is possibly the best PDA made to date. The price for this piece of wizardry is very low(comparitavely). This might be the first PDA that brings this technology to everyone, not just business execs.
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Summary: Visor's battery capability
Review: I just wonder how long a Visor will last with two AAA batteries assuming I use it daily?
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Summary: Buy it, live it, love it
Review: What an amazing little piece of technology this Visor Deluxe is. Of course, it works the same way a Palm does, but Handspring gives you more stuff for the same money as a Palm IIIxe. Both machines have 8mb of memory (way too much if all you're using it for is a day planner; the 2mb version will be fine for non email users), and work exactly the same way. But the Visor has the expansion module, and while Palm makes do with a serial hotsync connection, Visor has a quicker USB port. I also had occasion to try out Handspring's customer service the other day (apparently I loaded a bad app onto my Visor, which kept it from booting up), and I'm pleased to say it was fast, very courteous and effective. The only thing I'd improve on is the thickness of the product, but then again, that's what makes room for the expansion module. And if you look at one of those ultra-thin Palm V's, you'll find they run off rechargable batteries...which means if you're taking it on a long trip, you'll have to bring the charger with you. With the Visor, the AAA batteries last about a month, and they're easy to pack along when you travel (if you think it'll go dead during the trip). All in all, I'd heartily recommend the Visor to anyone who needs a little organization in his or her life. Now if only Handspring would make good on their promise to make more expansion-module apps...
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