This is from a weekly NYT newsletter called Circuits---

From the Desk of David Pogue: A Sleek New Hand-Held ======================================================

The most successful of the authorized Palm clones is by far the Handspring Visor. Its major selling point may be its expansion slot, called the Springboard, that accommodates any of 40 add-on modules: digital cameras, music players, GPS receivers and so on. Unfortunately, this slot dictates what I've always considered a boxy, plastic-y, and somewhat ugly design for the Visor itself.

I don't have any particular need to listen to MP3 files or to use global-positioning satellites to figure out where I am in the home/office I rarely leave, so I've never been the ideal customer for the Visor. No, I've always been a Palm V man; give me a hand-held computer that's so small, sleek and so slim that you forget it's in your pocket.

Obviously I'm not alone. Handspring must have grown so sick and tired of losing sales to the gorgeous, metal-clad Palm V that it decided to devise its own. The result is the new Visor Edge: an organizer in an extremely thin, metallic case. (You can choose from red, blue or silver.)

Clearly the Visor Edge wishes it were a Palm Vx. It has the same price ($400) and memory (8 MB). It's slightly faster than the Vx (33 MHz instead of 20), but slightly heavier and larger.

Odd as it may sound, the best Edge feature is its hinged screen cover, which flips up as though it's a Star Trek tricorder. I'm confident that we'll soon see Edge users snapping their organizers shut with a quick, gravity-assisted wrist snap just to show off.

This may seem like an obvious feature, but it sure took Handspring a long time to discover it. Other Visor models come with a horrible plastic cover that you have to detach completely in order to use the device. There's probably a self-help group somewhere for Visor owners who have lost their snap-off covers.

(The Palm Vx comes with a flexible leather screen cover that often turns on the device in your pocket accidentally. For both the Palm Vx and the Visor Edge, you can buy a hard case that completely encloses the device and prevents such accidents. But the case also doubles its thickness and bulk, defeating the whole purpose of having spent $400 on a sexy hand-held in the first place.)

The Visor Edge stylus is radical and good-looking. It clips to the outside edge of the unit instead of slipping into a pocket as on other hand-helds. Unfortunately, this stylus doesn't unscrew to reveal the handy pin that can reset your computer if it freezes. You'll have to carry around an unfolded paper clip.

There are few differences between the Visor Edge and its rivals other than its shape. There's a new way to look up a phone number using only one thumb -- a very clever system for nerds only. The on/off button lights up to indicate the status of the built-in, four-weeks-per-charge battery. It also blinks when one of your alarms goes off.

So if this thing is so slim, where are you supposed to insert the modules -- your MP3 player or GPS receiver? Unfortunately such modules are too fat to fit inside the unit's case, which is less than a half-inch thick. So you're supposed to slip the module into a plastic backpack that clips to the top back of the Visor. It's an ungainly affair that, needless to say, shatters the sleek, razor-like look of your palmtop. It's my guess that most buyers will wind up using the Visor Edge solo, attaching the Springboard modules in public as rarely as possible.

Still, that's fine -- especially for members of the No Modules Club, of which I'm a founding member. If you're in the market for something expensive and classy-looking, you now have a choice. The svelte Palm Vx finally has company.

Visit David Pogue on the Web at: http://www.davidpogue.com

-- Lars (larsguy@yahoo.com), March 15, 2001