Data Accessory Musings: Handspring hopes to gain an “edge”. “The new device will have an all metal case, PalmOS 3.5, 8MB RAM, a
lithium (ion or polymer are uncertain) battery, a detachable Springboard adaptor, and it will be the the lightest
& thinnest Visor yet” … Especially if it comes with a color display, the combination of that and the expansion slot might make me abandon brand loyalty and upgrade from my invaluable Palm Vx, even with the rumors of a color version coming this spring. On the other hand, there’s the Kyocera Smartphone, which integrates a Palm organizer into a cellphone neatly; this has apparently just been spotted in Verizon stores. This degree of integration of my two most important data accessories is appealing. I’ve tried some wireless web access on my current cellphone but it’s a brain-dead process with the small screen size and crippled data entry via the twelve-number keypad; I cancelled web services on my cellular account after a trial month. Here’s a primer on short messaging service (SMS), the wireless instant-messaging technology that’s very popular with the European market and, apparently, especially with the young. I honestly can’t see this catching on with me, but it wouldn’t be the first time I’ve scoffed at geeky developments I later came to depend upon.I don’t even see any use to instant messaging on my wired desktop, like ICU or Yahoo’s instant messaging client. As the article describes it, this appeals mostly to the Britney Spears set. Here’s an article on using an instant messaging client with a connected Palm device. Then there’s the two-way paging world of the Blackberrys etc., which I haven’t even thought about. If not a dot.com executive, I hear I’d have to be a nightclubbing NBA star for that. Your next net appliance, however, is of course going to be your car…

Update: From Robot Wisdom comes thsi pointer to Simson Garfinkel’s rave about the Handspring Visorphone PDA-cellphone combination in Salon.