PalmPower: Handspring seems to have improved on the Date Book and calculator, and added a world clock. Are these in ROM? Are these applications from third parties we'd already be familiar with? If so, from whom? What else can you tell us about these applications?

GS: We listened to a lot of handheld customers to see what the most desired improvements were with the existing core set of Palm platform applications. The three things that frequently came up were a better calculator, a world clock, and better calendar management.

Rather than reinvent the wheel with these applications, we talked to some leading developers in these areas and made licensing arrangements that allowed us to specialize some existing -- and best-selling applications to reside on our products. The modifications to the Date Book include integrating To Do items so that they appear in the calendar views and the addition of new viewing options.

The advanced calculator features math, trigonometry, business, statistical and conversion functions, in addition to supporting higher precision with the built-in math library. The world clock lets you keep track of the day & time for five cities around the world, and displays a graphical day/night map.

There are other areas where Handspring has improved the product too, but that are not necessarily visible. For instance, the device is about 60% faster than other Palm OS-based products due to some software improvements we've made to the OS.

PalmPower: It's interesting that you're making it possible for software to be distributed on "cartridges". Do you provide some copy protection in that architecture? If so, please describe.

GS: Handspring does not provide any particular protection for the cartridges. The developers are protected by their own copyright and trademark agreements and are free to include their own protection on the module.

PalmPower: Is the wireless Palm VII architecture available as part of the Palm OS license to Handspring?

GS: Handspring's license entitles us to the same software that is available to all Palm Computing platform licensees. We, however, cannot go into the details of our agreement with 3Com. Whether or not the Palm VII architecture is included in the license, the Springboard platform was designed to support multiple wireless standards. As different wireless modules get developed, the customer has the flexibility to choose what's right for them -- rather than being locked into an integrated hardware design or a particular wireless architecture.

PalmPower: Do you think you'll have a harder time attracting smaller developers because of the costs involved in manufacturing Springboard modules?

"We've done some creative things to make development both affordable and compelling in a business sense."

GS: We understand that with hardware, there is a higher level of financial commitment involved, but we've done some creative things to make development both affordable and compelling in a business sense.