A Look Ahead at New Peripherals

Posted By: Ed Monday, April 9, 2001 1:15:12 PM

No handheld is complete without a few gadgets added on and there are new ones coming soon for the m100, III, and V series, and Visors.

Shinei International is developing two items for the m100 series: the Porteson MP3 player and the 56K clipModem. The Porteson has 32 MB of on-board flash memory and an SD/MMC card expansion slot. Attached to the m100 or m105, users can customize playlists, adjust the equalizer, edit song filenames, access the shuffle/repeat playback option, customize user interface "skins" and control buttons' functions. It can even work independently from the Palm. It is expected to cost $180.

The clipModem is a 56kbps, V.90 analog landline modem sled. Both of these are actually past their published release dates and no price is available yet for the clipModem.

The PP-50 is a thermal printer with versions for the Palm III series, Palm V series, and the Handspring Visor being developed by Datecs. It is a essentially a very large sled, actually larger than the handhelds at 7.7" x 2" x 3.4" and almost 15 ounces. It communicates with the handheld through the serial port and can print 203 dpi horizontal and vertical. It is powered by a rechargeable battery pack or an A/C adapter. It comes with a printer driver and a font manager and can handle logos up to 384x248 pixels. Its paper roll is 2.25 inches wide.

Tech Center Labs is working on a small solar charger for the V series that is expected to debut next month at $20.

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Printer Question

Myddrin @ 4/9/2001 3:59:49 PM #

Is that printer wall/desk mountable?

I have a use for an easily accessible wall/desk mounted
thermal printer,(printing out barcode lables, sample reciepts in a laboratory) and this looks just about perfect.

Is there a link for more info, I didn't see one in the story. [Also are there barcode readers avail for any palmos devices? I seem to recal TRGpro having one, but I haven't found anything about it.]

---
Myddrin
The GLIMS Project
http://glims.sourceforge.net

Barcode Wand

GrouchoMarx @ 4/9/2001 7:22:20 PM #

I think what you're looking for is here: http://www.socketcom.com/bcwcfds.htm

Although Socket doesn't say so on their page, TRG's web site claims that it is compatible with the TRGpro. I don't have one, I've never used one, so I can't speak to the accuracy of either statement.

TRG (soon to be Handera, I guess) has a very conservative list of devices and cards that work with the TRGpro here: http://www.trgpro.com/support/cf_compatible.html

--GrouchoMarx

MP3 for Palm!!!

I.M. Anonymous @ 4/9/2001 3:58:34 PM #

An mp3 player for the m100 is a great idea! I want one! Especially if it doesn't drain the battery like the handspring players. Does anyone know if you can use the memory for Palm files?? (books, pictures, programs) Will the SD cards use the same format as SD cards for the Palm m50x's?

RE: MP3 for Palm!!!

GrouchoMarx @ 4/9/2001 7:25:00 PM #

I'm pretty sure that SD is SD, so an SD card from Palm should work in this reader, at least physically. However, that doesn't mean that you will have the necessary software to make use of it. Remember, the m10x series uses OS 3.5.2, which doesn't include the new VFS API. The player may very well be designed so that only it has access to the reader. It would need to have its own software designed specifically to access SD cards from the Palm in order to do that, and I doubt they would bother. I'm betting it would be for the player only.

--GrouchoMarx

RE: MP3 for Palm!!!

I.M. Anonymous @ 4/10/2001 12:10:20 AM #

According to the Porteson website "Ability to store and retrieve Palm data and program files". I assume they would support the SD cards for this as well?!?

If I'm understanding right, I wouldn't mind having it just to use something like this as a Palm "Hard drive". 32MB with USB access to my PC? A "zip drive" for the Palm and the PC. Cool.

RE: MP3 for Palm!!!

I.M. Anonymous @ 4/10/2001 9:48:04 AM #

Have a brochure and took some photos of the porteson mp3 player when I was a Cebit hannover. It has this skins management
which shows a list of skins that you can interchange and even beam to another porteson user.
Good equalizers with Rock, Classic, Dance, Jazz and custom. Shuffle and Repeat mode to choose from.
Time counter and playlist to choose songs. Data storage management to back-ups filess to the player.
A SD dummy was used to demostrate that it can increase the capacity of the songs and also use as storage. A really cool product.
Downloadd songs thru the mini USB cable.

I got a business card of the Shinei exhibitor and have wrote to him for release date..end of this april.

MP3 Jammer

Now, why didn't they think of that...

PalmPlan @ 4/9/2001 8:11:36 PM #

A solar charger is a fantastic idea! Not only is sunlight free, but light from all sources could keep your Palm constantly charged up!

I wonder if implementing a built-in solution would be feasible, after all, calculators are already sporting solar panels... why not design a Palm that incorporates a solar panel on the front?

This will enable users to use their Palms during the day and keep it charged-up, and then drain the batteries only during the night or while in dark places.

This can also help to prolong battery life for rechargeables whilst saving the Earth...

Cool idea... really hopes this takes off!

PalmPlan

kind of funny...

I.M. Anonymous @ 4/10/2001 1:01:28 PM #

If the MP3 player can work independently and suppose the memory on-board cannot be used as additional memory for Palm ---- then what's the purpose to attach to Palm??? Just to show how "bulky" your palm is???

RE: kind of funny...

I.M. Anonymous @ 11/21/2001 11:38:11 PM #

Actually... I have checked the shinei website to find out more and according to them you can use it to store palm files as well as mp3's on the internal flash memory and the SD/MMC cards... And here's a possible plus - since it works independently ... you could use the palm Os and the mp3 player at the same time... sort of a cheating multitasking trick...he he he... not sure if that works really.. but it would be cool... they are on sale ...75 % off at www.Clipmodem.com until Nov 30th 2001