Still holding out hope for an Apple-branded PDA to replace the years-dead Newton? If so, then you're far more optimistic than we are. We waited patiently (well, okay, not that patiently) for years, but the Mac OS-based handheld that Steve promised us in 1999 just never surfaced. Eventually we here at AtAT headquarters decided to arm ourselves with Palms and Visors, figuring that if any force could finally get Apple to ship its long-rumored handheld, it'd be Murphy's Law; after we spent several hundred dollars on competing products, obviously Apple would release its own device the very next week, thus requiring us to unload our new toys on eBay before buying Apple's version, right?

But guess what? It's been several months, now, there's still no "MacMate" on the market, and we really don't think one is going to surface anytime soon. That's okay, though; just because Apple isn't building PDAs with its own distinctive sense of style, that doesn't mean other companies aren't filling in as best they can. Handspring's products, in particular, gained a reputation as Mac-friendly PDAs, both because they supported USB-enabled Macs out of the box, and because the Visor Deluxe was available in a wide selection of iMac-like translucent colors. And if a certain photo bobbing around the 'net is legit, then Handspring's latest creation looks like it borrows a few stylistic elements from a certain titanium laptop we all know and love.

We doubt it's actually made out of titanium, but take a gander at the pic posted over in PDABuzz's discussion forums and tell us that the allegedly-imminent "Visor Edge" doesn't remind you a whole heckuva lot of a PowerBook G4. The matte-silver case, the metallic buttons, the clean lines and beveled edges-- if you want a PDA that matches your PowerBook G4 as closely as possible, the Visor Edge looks like the only choice. Even its departure from the typical PDA form-factor seems familiar; just as the PowerBook G4's aspect ratio is wider than other notebook computers, the Visor Edge seems longer than other Palm OS devices-- it almost looks like a mobile phone.

By the way, we're not accusing Handspring of actually ripping off Apple's design. We have to assume that the Visor Edge has been in development for far longer than the two months since the PowerBook G4 went public, and Apple guards its secrets very carefully; we doubt Handspring's corporate spies are good enough to have smuggled photos of prototype PowerBooks out of One Infinite Loop sometime last year. Still, the similarities are remarkable-- and gorgeous. If the Visor Edge came in a color model, we might be asking if any of you are interested in a slightly-worn Visor Prism right about now.