In this month's edition of Letters to the Editor, one reader relates his experience dealing with Handspring customer support, and another has a question about the PalmPower news pages. Finally, our own Contributing Editor Bob Draper writes in with a problem in hopes that you can help.

Handspring support
I recently had a problem with my Handspring Visor Deluxe, which the company attributed to my use of Duracell Ultra M3 batteries. When I followed Handspring Support's instructions and switched to regular Duracells, my problem was solved. The first symptom of the problem was that Graffiti stopped being recognized. Then I tried to beam a contact and it couldn't. Next everything just started to slow down. Finally, the Visor would not turn on, and I discovered my fresh batteries to be dead.

I replaced the batteries (with more M3s) and reset the Visor by pushing the end of a paperclip through the reset hole in the back. My problem appeared to be solved, but in a short time, less than a day, the Visor again would not turn on, though the batteries still showed a charge. I checked the charge by pressing the dots on the batteries themselves. I was ready to write off my loss. The Visor has a 90-day warranty, and I've had mine over a year.

So far, the instructions from Handspring Support solved my problem. They responded within 24 hours both times I sent a message, and their responses were relevent, which was a pleasant surprise (my experiences with other companies' support has lowered my expectations). One more thing to note is that part of the solution was to press the reset button while the batteries were out every few minutes, seven times, over a half hour. I love my Visor, and I'm very happy that it lives.

Sincerely,
Shamus Thornton

What news goes where?
I have followed your PalmPower News Center for several years and really enjoy it. However, I am confused as to what determines where something gets posted. The PalmPower News and PalmPower Enterprise News seem to have similar articles, but I can't determine the rationale for where an article gets posted. I end up checking both because there is information I can use on each one. What criteria determines whether it is a PalmPower News article or a PalmPower Enterprise News article? Any help you can give me would be great!

Thanks for providing a great service! I thoroughly enjoy the daily updates as well as the monthly magazines.

Jeff Dieterlen
Indianapolis Water Company

Staff Editor Steve Niles responds
When deciding which news items fall into which category, I consider the audience. PalmPower is geared towards the typical consumer as well as Palm OS application developers. PalmPower's Enterprise Edition is geared towards business users and corporate decision makers who are considering a large-scale implementation of Palm handhelds within the company. The same goes for the magazines' respective news pages. Naturally, there's going to be a lot of crossover, and at times the decision comes down to a simple judgement call. Our goal is to be the most comprehensive source of Palm industry news on the Web. I encourage you to continue visiting both news centers, and we'll continue to keep you up to date on the latest developments.