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Waiting For New Toys (9/8/99)
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Have you noticed that Apple's kept us all so busy since the last Macworld Expo that we've heard nary a word about the Apple-Palm rumors? Think about it; one of the "expected surprises" during Steve Jobs' New York keynote was some sort of Apple-branded Palm device to fill the handheld gap left by the deep-sixed Newton. Instead, that keynote focused heavily on the iBook introduction-- which had so much "wow factor" that just about anyone who had been hoping for a Palm announcement promptly forgot all about it. And the iBook buzz had barely died down to a dull roar when Seybold rolled around, and Steve gave us the Power Mac G4. Cool Stuff Overload! No wonder we haven't been thinking about the MacPalm too much lately...
...But we're probably going to start again now that people are talking about Handspring, Inc.'s new Visor. Handspring is the Palm licensee started up by the original founders of Palm, who split to work on Cool New Things™. The Visor, according to a MacWEEK article, will be Handspring's first product, to be released next Tuesday. Think of it as a Handspring-branded Palm device that's "cheaper, faster, and more expandable." First, cheaper: prices for the three models will range from $149 to $249. That's good. Faster? While the Visor will use the same processor as the Palm V, an "optimized hardware design" will make it zippier to use. And as for "more expandable," the Visor will accept plug-and-play "Handspring modules" like pagers, MP3 players, cell phone units, etc.
Sounds good to us-- and as faithful viewer Russell Maggio notes, it's nice that the Visor will ship with Mac connectivity right in the box. So that's all gotten us thinking about Apple's Palm device again. If Handspring can add so many improvements to the Palm, what could Apple do? Here's hoping that the company whose very name and brand are synonymous with "innovation" doesn't just slap a colorful translucent logo on a Palm V and leave it at that.
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SceneLink (1768)
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And Now For A Word From Our Sponsors |
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 | | The above scene was taken from the 9/8/99 episode: September 8, 1999: Rumor has it that Apple's hard at work on a firmware fix to re-enable G4 upgrades in Power Mac G3s. Meanwhile, Handspring readies an improved Palm device, raising questions about what Apple's foray into the world of Palm licensing will look like, and is Microsoft in bed with the NSA? Depends on how paranoid you are...
Other scenes from that episode: 1767: Bad News for Scandal Fans (9/8/99) Ahhh, Blue Blocker-- the scandal that keeps on giving. We refer to Apple's widely-publicized, never-officially-denied insidious campaign to make upgrading current and future Macs as tough as possible... 1769: Smile; They're Watching (9/8/99) Longtime AtAT fans know we're not ones to shrink from a conspiracy theory, no matter how far-fetched. In fact, the wilder the theory, the brighter our eyes light up and the wider our grins get; there's a certain glee and sense of relief from personal responsibility that arises from simply acknowledging that everyone else is out to get you...
Or view the entire episode as originally broadcast... | |  |
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