Customer Reviews

Handspring 8 MB Flash Springboard Module

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I purchased this with the Visor Deluxe as soon as it was available. It doubles the memory of the Deluxe(obviously) from 8 to 16 Meg of memory. The File Mover function is very easy to use, so it is a breeze to move Games and other optional files to the module. This allows for both safekeeping and easy removal of the Module, as well as leaving the Internal memory free for serious endeavors such as the Calendar and Contacts.

It does not much matter what you move, since it is all accessible in a relatively transparent fashion on the category screens of the Visor. The File Mover icon is only way you can even tell that the 8M module is attached.

The only flaw that I have found is that the Books I have downloaded cannot be transferred to the Module with the Reader that they use. Maybe someone brighter than me can figure it out and share the wealth.

If the Book transfer worked, I would have given the product a 4th Star. If it worked and they dropped the price, it would definitely be a 5 star value in my opinion.

I bought this module recently, and have found it works like a charm. I am a first-year doctor in pediatrics (a pediatric intern) and absolutely LOVE the amount of memory it gives me! Handheldmed.com recently gave away the entire merck manual for free, and with this module I had no problem storing and accessing the entire thing (which is a mind-blowing 4.5mb!) on the flash module. The only reason that this product did not recieve 5 stars was -

(1) It initially crashed my Visor until I figured out how to place the Merck and the Merck reader on it (I had to copy it, NOT move it)

(2) It causes some hacks to crash (switchhack, ect)

Highly recomended, especially for medical Visor users!

-Mike

At first I thought another 8mb would be great for my Handspring Platinum. My Platinum had only 1mb free and I needed more space for my apps, I still needed to loaded Noah Dictionary and Mapopolis which would require another 3 or 4 megs (already had Vindigo and AvantGo and a few fairly large apps). The 8mb Flash module is *only* useful for some individuals.

Here's why I don't recommend it to everyone: 1) You can not edit ANY files on the flash module. Meaning Vindigo will not run from it or edit a picture/doc file from the module. 2) It adds a noticeable amount of weight to your visor especially if you carry it in your pocket. 3) If you have hackmaster (or similar), make sure you disable it when removing and installing the module. I duplicated the resulting crash many times and had to do a HardReset each time. 4) You will go through your batteries a little faster. 5) You cannot HotSync directly to the FlashModule. Meaning you have to install it to your Visor, and then transfer to the module. A big inconvenience if you are running low on space and have to play "musical apps" to get it on the module.

In summary, I love my Platinum, however I feel there are too many shortcomings to make it a truly useful item. Its price is not justified. However, if you don't mind the weight and inability to transfer *everything* to the module and run it this may be right for you. Users with large uneditable PDB files will be thankful for it, that's who I sold mine to!

I bought it just the other day, and the transfer mechanism is painless, and easy to use. I use Documents to Go, and moved all 5M of my docs to the module, instead of swapping them in and out depending on what I needed during the day.

Some months ago, I wrote a review about how useful it was to have one of these, and there was something I needed to add to my previous review. The Handspring Module is great to have as a backup device and also to store lot of extra data and programs that you don't have room for on your Handspring.

For the Palm, although they don't have the Springboard slot, you can still get 8 Megs of extra storage by buying the Flashplug module, which plugs into the Hotsync port. It's not quite as convenient as the Springboard module, since it sort of sticks out the bottom of the Palm unit, but it's still very useful to have.

However, there is one advantage to getting the Palm Flashplug unit. The Palms have a Flash ROM, whereas the Handsprings do not. This allows you to do the following pretty neat trick, but first I have to explain a couple of things.

This has to do with the data recovery process. Besides using it to store large documents and some programs that I don't use very often, I use my Flashplug especially to backup my main databases--memopad, todo list, datebook, address book, and so on, when I can't Hotlink to my desktop system. This is great; however, if you lose your data "on the road" and there is no convenient system to do a restore from via the Hotlink program, you're still out of luck until you can get access to a desktop or laptop system that has the Flashplug Utility program on it to download it again to your Palm unit, or to restore your data through the normal Hotlink process, unless you do the following.

In order to be able to "do this on the road" you will need to use one of several programs that allow you to write data or programs to the unused space in the Palm unit's Flash ROM, which, depending on whether you have a TRGPro, Palm, Symbol 1500, or Workpad unit, ranges from 440k to 690k in size. These are programs such as FlashPack or FlashPro, which allow you to perform this operation. They are available for download and/or purchase from the main Palm download sites, such as Palmgear.com. The flashplug program is small, so it will fit easily in your FlashROM.

But these FlashROM writer programs are an extra utility you must purchase in order to be completely independent of your desktop or laptop system for the data restore. With the FlashPlug program in ROM and your data on the Flashplug, if your Palm loses power or some other glitch occurs to erase everything while you're on a trip or something, you can run the Flashplug utility from ROM, use it to access the Flashplug data on the plug itself, and then copy everything back, and you're back in business.

I've had both Palm and Handspring units, as well as a Compaq iPAQ now, and I think both the Palms and the Handsprings are great products. But whether you have a Handspring with the 8M Flash Springboard module or a Palm unit with the 8M Flashplug module, these are still two of the most useful accessories you can buy for your PDA.

There are some very informative reviews already written about this product so I won't repeat the details.

I own the Visor Prism and use it daily for a number of tasks. I keep a number of large spreadsheets on one of these modules and when I need them, copy them over to the working ram of my Prism.

I have found this unit to be very reliable.

As I continue to find great programs on my Visor, this module has
allowed me to load them on without worrying about running out of
space. I will probably buy a couple more to add to my collection
of Visor gizmos.

For that price, Handspring should have made a 32M module (or better yet a 64M for a higher price), AND offer the capability to transfer the contents of most other modules into this module, making it a "mother" module which could essentially become an integral part of the Visor and stay. If Handspring can do this, then it truly lives up to the aspiration of an "expendable system." Otherwise, this module has very limited use and will soon become obsolete. In fact, it soon gets in the way and helps to make Visor users module jugglers.

One might say 64M is too much to ask at the moment. But people who say that will change their mind soon. Already, Franklin is introducing memory modules up to 64M for its eBookman this fall. I am sure other will follow the suit. Technologically, there is no problems to do much better than 8M for [$$]. If IBM can put 1G memory in a PC card, how difficult is it to make a 64M module of Visor's module size? Other than market factors, there is no technically good justification why RAM costs only [.$$]/M for PCs, and only a bit higher for digital cameras and digital audio players, but [$$]/M for Visor.

Others will say you won't need 64M for a PDA. Well, if you use PDA as an organizer only, you won't even need more than 256K. But memory expansion begets broader usage. I'd like to put many large reference materials in my PDA. Other people may want materials such as audio and images that are even more memory intensive (but for these people, I suggest they go with the Pocket PC platform, for at least the present Palm's OS is not intended to perform multimedia functions). Once the memory is available, developers will provider useful contents. For starters, how about a real English dictionary with pronunciation scripts? So far none is available. Noah Pro takes more than 7M yet still has no pronunciation. Landware is introducing a "pocket Webster" but has only very limited number of word entries due to the memory consideration.

The Visor 8M module deserves three stars due to a concept that has potential.