New toy, again.

[bzarcher]

Thanks to work I now have a somewhat early model (but still quite neat) Handspring Visor, and I'm finding that graffiti is much easier to write in than WinCE's handheld language.

I must explore the power of this toy. Mmyes.

Comments

[dklegman.livejournal.com]

Visors are awesome. The Palm Zire 71 tempted me to replace it until I realized that the camera wasn't so fantastic for the money, and the Visor Deluxe is just about unfuckwithable. Plus, if you hit a few Officemaxes or Staples, you can find Visor goodies for cheap.

It eats AAAs faster than any other Palm I've seen, though.

[bzarcher.livejournal.com]

I really like it, so far. I'll need a copy of Intellisync for it to work with Windows and Groupwise, but I get that from work tomorrow. And I may well look for expansions soon, we'll see. First I want to get comfy with it.

Yum. It loves batteries.

[yetanotherbob.livejournal.com]

Yes. First thing to do is to go out and buy rechargable batteries. 4 AAAs should do it, so you can swap them about, rechargelike. It's paid for itself already on mine.

My picks.

[yetanotherbob.livejournal.com]

Unix has spoiled me. The concept of actually buying software for the handheld seems foriegn, especially when there's a lot of good freeware out there. Here's my top suggestions:

1. Rechargable batteries. I said it before, I'll say it again. It's good.
2. http://www.ardiri.com has good games. Especially the Lode Runner clone, Hordes.
3. Try to find an old copy (Mine's v. 1.2e) of Blocks, by electronhut. It was freeware at one point, it looks like, and I'm addicted to tetris.
4. The Prison by Aaron Curtis is a good breakout clone, complete with level editor for windows.(Dat's what I have an emulator for)
5. http://robotfindskitten.org has the best zen game I've ever seen. It's cute, it's geeky, and it gives you warm fuzzies when you find kitten.
6. Look about for Frotz and various infocom text games of old.
7. Look for Diddlebug (Mine's 2.15). It's a GPL image notetaker, and while it's no powerhouse, the price and features are right for sketchpad capabilities.
8. http://www.plkr.org Plucker plucker plucker plucker plucker! The free e-book reader with literally archives of public domain books at your beck and call. My current fave is http://dave.pluckerbooks.com:81/ . Yes, when Woodsy's reading the Art of War, that's where I got it from. Also, Flatland, from the same place, is another must-read.
9. Oh, and finally, for the one toy that goes great, get the belkin wireless keyboard. ( http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Product_Id=144042 ) The driver ain't so great, and do not try the rotate viewscreen commands unless you like doing a reset with the little pinhole in the back. However, the size is right (I actually have to slow down my typing because the IR port is too slow) and the IR light is large enough that you don't even need to rotate or otherwise do anything special to the handheld; the signal can easily go the 3 or 4 inches through air with no problem. That and it's half the price of the other keyboard of the same style. It's the ultimate laptop killer. Take the handheld when you go, and use the handheld and keyboard to type while in bed. And one nice thing is that it supports almost every make and model of handheld out there, so if you upgrade, you're not stuck.

Finally, make sure the warranties are all nice and happy. I keep my handspring in my pocket, and it gets tortured a lot. The warranty's covered 3 repairs already, always issues with the touchscreen or screen itself. I used to keep the keyboard in my pocket as well, and that needed replacement in a week.