A Spiritual Psion - The Oregon Scientific Osaris

After posting the piece about the Psion Series 3, I intended to get my hands on a Psion Series 5 for comparison. After all, it was the follow up device in the Psion range. However, actually buying one is a smidge expensive. E-bay prices for good condition models are exorbitant and I could only find one retailer offering reconditioned units whose prices are not bad at all, especially compared to auction sellers but still high enough to put off a casual purchase. It was a bit like a replay of the 1990's, wanting one but never being able to fully justify the price and buying one. All was not lost, though. Just as in the '90's, there was a cheaper alternative that does almost exactly the same thing as the Series 5: The Oregon Scientific Osaris.

It looks decent...

Oregon Scientific started out life in Portland, Oregon (I see what they did there!) producing electronic weather stations, digital clocks, electronic learning devices and the like. From a UK perspective, the clogged up the Argos catalogue with tat but at the back end of the 1990's. They licensed the EPOC operating system from Psion and released this relatively cheap PDA.

With the usual software...

I say relatively cheap, at £219.99 to £279.99, it was cheaper than a Series 5 proper but also didn't offer everything that the Series 5 did. The main differences were the screen and operating system. The Osaris packed an 18MHz Arm 710 chip with 4 or 8Mb or RAM depending upon the model. The screen is a backlit and touch capable, with a resolution of 320x200 pixels (The Series 5 offered a 640x240 screen). Unlike the Psion, the Osaris used a forked version of the EPOC operating system, release 4. With the technical gubbins out of the way, what about the device itself?

... but even here you can see issues with the screen

It's fairly light and quite compact. Built from plastic, it doesn't feel overly robust and I wouldn't want to drop test of these machines. The hinge is quite easy to operate and upon opening, there is a plasticky rattle that gives pause for thought. Closing it gives a sharp snap that is more reassuring. The display is bordered by two touch-sensitive menus, leading to the smaller (although cheaper) display. These function as you'd expect and to be honest, the smaller display size is something you tend to forget about in day to day use. It helps that the side menus have a similar background to the display. One issue with the display is the fixed angle of the hinge, meaning if you're not in the right position, you'll have to contort yourself to see the screen clearly. Some might also find the screen a bit too murky and in less than decent ambient light, the backlight is a must.

The main draw is the keyboard and, whilst not up to the standard of Psion's Series 5, is more than good enough for note taking. The keys are relatively big and quite easy to tap away at. Initially, I found them a tad stiff with little feedback but with some perseverance, I grew to accept the feel. It's not a keyboard you could bash out a lot of words on but it does the job.

The built in software is the Psion standard package, so Word, Sheet, Data, Agenda etc. Nothing much to be added about those.

Connectivity is as per late 1990's standard PDA tradition - a compact flash slot that permits file transfers even today using a USB to CF adapter, RS-232 for a serial PC link and an IR port for beaming contacts and phone connections. Power is supplied by two AA batteries and they are easily replaceable.

Power, IR, RS-232 and slot for stylus

CF slot cover

Is this a device that could be used today? Well, maybe. Certainly you can use it for typing on the go, but the rather firm keyboard and the fixed angle screen hinge are two of the main ergonomic reasons against the Osaris. File transfers are still possible using a CF card and I don't have a serial cable or software to try a PC link. In one sense, I am glad I didn't get my hands on one of these back in the day. Yes, it looks a bit like a Psion, and it acts like a Psion, but it's not a Psion. With too many corners cut to hit a budget, it just can't compare with it's more expensive cousin.

Handspring Visor - oh, so close!

As I have said before, I used a Palm m515 for quite a while back in the early noughties to keep track of personal and professional commitments and very quickly got used to dropping it into my pocket and having it on hand on a daily basis. But it was not the only palmtop device at the time and, indeed, not the only Palm-based device either. Starting back in 1998, there were licensed hardware manufacturers for the Palm OS and some of the best devices came from Handspring.

Handspring was a company created by the original inventor of the Palm Pilot and the founders of Palm Computing, unhappy at the time of the way Palm was being ran by their corporate overlords. What they did was take the basic concept and take a slight left turn to create this: The Handspring Visor.

The Handspring Visor - looks just like a Palm device.

Screen cover, Visor and leather case

Looking pretty similar to the original Palm Pilot, the Visor had a few differences that made it stand out from the crowd. Yes, it ran using the same Motorola Dragonball processor with either 2 or 8Mb of memory. Some models had a translucent plastic casing (Jonathan Ive has alot to answer for!) but the device I have has a very simple black casing that hasn't really aged at all - not like the beige of home computers from the time. And yes, it ran on two replaceable AAA batteries that lasted up to two months(!).

Back of the Visor, SpringBoard to the top, battery compartment and dock connector to the bottom.

But what the Visor range offered as a unique selling point was the SpringBoard slot. On the back of the device was an expansion slot that offered a variety of options that could add to the Visor's usefulness.

The cover is in the background

Whilst a proprietary design, the SpringBoard gave the Palm OS platform the option of adding additional memory, software, wired and wireless networking, GPS and even cellular cards that turned the Visor into a mobile telephone. They truly were plug and play devices, with software being added to the device once you plugged a card in, contrasting vastly with the supposed plug and play of computing at the time where it was often called plug and pray!

Now I will say that the Visor, as a basic device, doesn't do anything a Palm handheld couldn't do, apart from a few basic application tweeks: the OS was the same, but with the Springboard slot, the versatility of the platform increased a hundred-fold - albeit at a cost, the modules could be quite expensive.

Bog-standard organiser

But back to the actual device for a moment. It sports a 160x160 16 grey-scale screen, an IR port on the left hand side for wireless syncing and a proprietary connection port on the base for a docking station connection to your desktop computer. For the time, this was a speedy option, using the relatively new USB connector, rather than the then traditional serial cable. It also made setting up the dock quick easy as you didn't have to fool around with any out-of-the-way settings. As an aside, it also means connecting to a modern day computer is straight forward - hardware wise. There is also a microphone port for use with the cellular expansions, but it does little else otherwise. Despite being made out of plastic, the Visor is quite solid in the hand and doesn't make any creaky noises when prodded and squeezed. And, whilst this may just be me, I find it quite natural to use the stylus and the easy to learn Graffiti handwriting system to enter information, something that can't really be said for any touchscreen device as you are taken away from the task by the manner in which the software on modern devices wants you to act. By that, I mean the brain `gets` writing but has to adapt to tapping and swiping - and that process varies depending on the individual application you are using.

IR port and detail of the ridge effect that prevented the device slipping from your hands

There were seven buttons on the front of the device, from left to right, they were: power (with a dimple for use with the included stylus), Calendar, Contacts, Up and Down, To-Do list and Memo. The silkscreen area above has shortcuts for Home, Calendar, Calculator and Search, plus the Graffiti area itself. This is divided into two, one for letters, the other for numbers with additional shortcuts for the on-screen keyboard and numeric keypad.

Visor and supplied screen cover - note included help sticker.

The help sticker, detailing the Graffiti handwriting system

The Visor I have was very cheap to buy but still works surprisingly well for something approaching its 20th birthday. The screen is still very responsive and the only niggle I would have using it today is the back-light - it's totally useless unless you are in a pitch-black room. Aside from that, I would happily use this today, and there are still places you can get desktop software if you have a quick Google (and hardware too!). The battery life is, compared to modern day alternatives, immense, and there is something to be said for prioritising battery life over other features, especially for devices used in this manner. Sadly, it seems that functionality beats practicality for many - and I say this as an iPhone 7 user who knows damn well how that has worked out!

So what happened to Handspring? Well, it was the curse of modern technology, poor management decisions and the market in general. It tried to move into mobile communications with the Treo range, halfway houses between organiser and mobile telephone, but they were a damp squib. They were bought out by Palm (of all people) in 2003, who were themselves bought out by Hewlett Packard in 2010 but by that point, the original ethos had fizzled out, replaced by ever more capable mobile phones. There was also a lot of corporate shenanigans about branding and licensing but that could fill a book in itself.

It's a shame, really, as it wasn't too difficult to carry two devices at the time (remember, long battery life and AAA batteries meant no charger to consider, and mobile phones would be good for three to five days back then) but maybe that's the nostalgia speaking. The m515 and by association, the Visor, are probably best remembered as very good technological dead ends, but that doesn't mean to say that if you can live with the (relatively) few limitations, you shouldn't be able to still use them today.