Mark Haury wrote: > Matt Emson wrote: > >> Fernando Cassia wrote: >> >>> Which shows "newer" is not always "better"... anyone remembers the >>> good old PalmPilot cradles? >>> >>> Not only were those rock-solid, but also it was impossible to break >>> any connectors by pulling hard or by tripping on wires.... it'd just >>> unplug itself without any damage. >>> >> Um... showing my age here, but I almost killed myself by tripping over a >> Palm Pilot Pro serial cable... it broke. The serial cables were designed >> to be screwed in to the serial port. In the fight between my foot and >> the cable, the serial connector sheared off. Luckily, the device flew >> out of the cradle and landed on the carpet face up, else that would have >> been toast too. The serial cradles also didn't charge the device, though >> the Palm Pilot Pro use 2 x AAA batteries, so it wasn't hard to keep it >> running :-) Them was the days!! >> >> M >> > > I think you're missing the point. The *PC* end is a different story. The > *Palm* > end doesn't screw in to anything in the handheld. > Well, no. Clearly, they are not "indestructible". I've also seen the other end come out... it was only held in by a zip-tie, at least on the Palm Pilot Pro model.
> I have a Handspring Visor Deluxe that I still use. In fact, I'm only now > (after > more than a year of IT ownership) getting my contacts straightened out in my > N800 so I can stop carrying the Visor with me. (And even then I'm going to > have > issues with exporting the data elsewhere.) > I had one of those! A blue one. Nice bit of kit at the time, crippled by the odd version of PalmOS they used. Not quite 3.0, but also not 3.3. > The Visor cradle doesn't have > anything that connects to the Visor in such a way that anything can break in > the > handheld. The plain cable is different, but even that will break the catches > on > the cable rather than anything on the device. > I'm trying to remember it there was any damage to the visor cradle that I owned... I think the usual wear on the wire coating... The cradle was sturdier than the Palm ones I had. I think it was possible to damage the connector with downward force - if you sat on the device in the cradle for example. > The point is that cables are relatively cheap and *extremely* easy to > replace. > A PC component and a closed consumer device is hardly an analogue. > Even the serial port connector on your PC can be replaced a lot easier than > the > power jack in your IT. All connector cables for portable and handheld devices > should be designed with that as a top priority. > Nokia have been using that exact connector on their phones for a long time. My wife recently got a Nokia slider phone (5600? something like that) and the PSU has a different part number, but otherwise looks identical to my N800 one. Still, with the GSM consortium announcing common Euro plugs by 2012 (or so), we'll all be happy I guess. M _______________________________________________ maemo-users mailing list maemo-users@maemo.org https://lists.maemo.org/mailman/listinfo/maemo-users
