Handspring Add-On & Accessories Catalog

The Handspring Add-On & Accessories Catalog is a printed product guide published in September 2000 by the Affinity Publishing Division of PennWell Corporation, of Seattle, Washington, and produced independently of Handspring.¹ It catalogs third-party Springboard expansion modules, accessories, and Palm OS software for the Handspring Visor handheld computer, organized into three sections — Springboard Modules, Accessories, and Palm OS Compatible Software — across some fifty pages and a closing product index.¹ A welcome note describes the guide as a successor to an earlier volume, expanded by sixteen additional pages of products and solutions.¹

Handspring had introduced the Visor a year earlier, on September 14, 1999, presenting it as the first in a family of expandable handheld computers built around the Springboard expansion slot — a plug-and-play hardware bay on the back of the device.² The company priced the Visor line from US $149 and promoted the Springboard slot as a way to add a camera, MP3 player, modem, or GPS receiver to the handheld.² Handspring had been founded in July 1998 by Jeff Hawkins and Donna Dubinsky, both veterans of Palm Computing, and by August 2000 its Visor Deluxe had become the top-selling handheld computer in the retail market.³

The Springboard Modules section opens with hardware sold directly by Handspring — a Hayes-compatible 33.6Kbps modem at $129, a Backup Module at $39.95, and an 8MB Flash Module at $79.95 that could hold almost three hundred Palm OS applications.¹ Most of the section presents third-party modules: the GeoDiscovery Geode GPS receiver, Good Technology's SoundsGood and InnoGear's MiniJam digital music players, the eyemodule digital camera, PSC's Momentum bar-code scanner, and wireless modem and messaging modules from Glenayre, Novatel Wireless, CardAccess, and Xircom.¹ Further entries turned the Visor into an FM radio and pager through CUE's CUERadio, a voice recorder through Digital 5's Total Recall, a smart-card and RFID reader through Inside Technologies' Hand'IT, and a city travel guide through Lonely Planet's CitySync.¹

The Accessories section listed carrying cases from DirectCase.com, RhinoSkin, and E&B, the ReturnMe.com eTagit lost-and-found labels, and two folding keyboards — the Targus Stowaway, a full-size keyboard that folded to the size of a handheld and won three International CES awards, and LandWare's GoType at $69.95.¹ The Palm OS Compatible Software section gathered synchronization and productivity titles, among them DataViz's Desktop To Go and Documents To Go, Chapura's PocketMirror, Cutting Edge Software's Quicksheet, and Pumatech's Intellisync.¹ Handspring's own branded accessories — leather Matching Cases at $29.95, a Bi-Fold organizer at $49.95, replacement styluses, and a USB HotSync cable at $19.95 — appeared on the inside covers.¹

The back cover directed readers to an online edition of the guide at handspring.resourceguide.net and invited them to subscribe for a free printed copy, with Affinity Publishing describing itself as “The Partner Specialists.”¹

AI generated using primary sources referenced in the footnotes