The Visor Edge comes in a lightweight metal casing in three different metallic shades — Silver, Red and Blue. Handspring’s other Visor products feature a special hardware expansion port called the Springboard, which makes it possible for Handspring PDAs to accommodate a wide variety of features and functionality not available in the basic units.
The Visor Edge is compatible with all existing Springboard modules, but it features a small edge connector port instead. The edge connector is protected by a metal-hinged door on the Visor Edge’s metal flip cover. Handspring expects expansion products built especially for the Visor Edge to appear in the coming months.
The Visor Edge incorporates a grayscale screen, integrated Lithium Ion rechargeable battery, and comes with Palm OS 3.5.2H2 installed. Under the hood, the Visor Edge is similar to the Visor Platinum — it comes equipped with 8MB of RAM and Palm OS 3.5.2H2 installed. Like the Platinum, the Visor Edge uses the DragonBall VZ processor operating at 33MHz and comes equipped with a grayscale display capable of displaying 16 shades.
The Visor Edge does sport a couple of unique features, however — “Fast Lookup,” a feature that enables users to access contact info without using the application buttons; and “Silent Alarm,” which provides users with a visual reminder of appointments where audible alarms might be disruptive or inappropriate — it causes the light underneath the power button to blink to remind you of your next appointment.
Handspring Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Ed Colligan said that the Springboard expansion slot is a big win for Handspring’s Visor products, and is sure to appeal to customers interested in the Visor Edge.
“We’ve received fantastic feedback on Visor Edge’s fun, cool design, and people find the ability to instantly add the Springboard expansion slot a wonderful bonus,” said Colligan.
Handspring Visor PDAs have proven to be a popular alternative for Mac users. Handspring ships Visor PDAs with Mac connectivity software and USB cradles, while Palm requires that users buy a separate USB connection kit.
International language versions of the Visor Edge should be available beginning in April. Handspring also expects to sell its full line of Visor handhelds in Australia and New Zealand starting this month.
The Visor Edge has been introduced with a full line of accessories to complement the new PDA, including a hard case made of metal, leather cases, option cradles, a travel charge, replacement parts and more.