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and if they stick with the same technical specifications long enough It will get down to $10.

I remember before intel was the king of CPUs that there was the Z-80, and by the mid-90's Z-80 embedded systems (like the franklin bookman electronic dictionaries) were selling for around $40, with a hangman cartridge on flash memory.. the big cost, back then was the flash memory, and sadly Franklin moved away from the command line/text interfaces to go with more costly fancier displays, etc. only to go to more simple displays again, and 'text to speech' processors...

here's the thing though, by the mid 90's the Z-80 microprocessor was so energy efficient that you could literally run it off 2 cr2022 lithium batteries, and while i didn't use the dictionary every day, it took 13 years for my batteries to fail, to be honest though i used it more for hangman than for a dictionary.

if i used it daily, it would still last a long time, though, especially since it saves where you are in the dictionary so you can turn it off, then when you turn it on again it's in the same place. very easy to use, and nice.

the reason why i know it's a Z-80 is because i took the dictionary apart to look at it once. they do have cheaper non speaking dictionaries today, as well. http://www.franklin.com/estore/dictionary/TG-450/ like that one (12 language translation! for $40) for whatever reason the language translating models cost the same as the basic english models, and they have a wide array of 'high end' speaking dictionaries, including ones with mp3 playback, and ebook reading features...

Well, obviously the Palm Z22 is as close as the market has gone to this, thought the price point is just about twice your stated max.

Its nice and light and has a terrific form factor; I think by having a smaller screen they avoid the usual Palm misthink of "thin, flat, sharp cornered" for their compact devices.

I don't know how much cheaper they could get and keep a color screen, synching ability (which is crucical, especially for pseudo-disposables) and the touch screen.

Though maybe your "dream" product exists....
Rolodex organizer w/ "touch screen" for $15, or one with a keyboard for about the same price.

I don't see them as setting the world on fire.

Well, obviously the Palm Z22 is as close as the market has gone to this, thought the price point is just about twice your stated max.

Its nice and light and has a terrific form factor; I think by having a smaller screen they avoid the usual Palm misthink of "thin, flat, sharp cornered" for their compact devices.

I don't know how much cheaper they could get and keep a color screen, synching ability (which is crucical, especially for pseudo-disposables) and the touch screen.

Though maybe your "dream" product exists....
Rolodex organizer w/ "touch screen" for $15, or one with a keyboard for about the same price.

I don't see them as setting the world on fire.

If you want to try a little hands-on experimentation, check out your local Staples, which carries at least some of the line, but calls them "Electronic Organizers" rather than PDAs.

If you want to try a little hands-on experimentation, check out your local Staples, which carries at least some of the line, but calls them "Electronic Organizers" rather than PDAs.

The Franklin ebookman is a pda designed to read books on, its got a jog-wheel, touch screen, large screen, backlight. I've got one, and I use it constantly. It supports all the modern formats, and handles text files nicely.

search ebay, you can pick up one new with warrenty for under 50 USD last I checked.

Don't get a secondhand one, becuase if its got a fault (looses memory after you change batteries, requiring re-sync) you'll want to send it back under warrenty (franklin provide a *new* unit to replace faulty ones).

An eBookman, which reads e-books and has some PDA features, is $129-199.

By contrast, a used Palm IIIxe will cost you about $50 used.

Franklin Ebook Models for the google impaired.

I have a sneaky suspicion that e-books didn't take off mainly because no-one realized how convenient and affordable the devices could be. I can carry 30+ books on a device the size of a large wallet, read it with one hand on the subway and yes, I've even taken it on walks into the countryside and sat in the middle of nowhere reading some great books. The backlight means you can even take in a few pages at bedtime, sleeping out under the stars.

Not only is all this possible, it's easy, it cost me less than $50 and in my opinion it's better than carrying around pocket novels, let alone giant works like Finegan's Wake! Just because you think it's silly, or that internet == (PC with 14" LCD and 20GB HD), doesn't mean there's not people out there interested. And I've been surprised by the amount of books downloaded from my P2P server.

pictorial tour of their trip

Posted by Jailbrekr ; Should you really be pointing out spelling errors?

But in answer to your question: Manufactured Spellcheckers

the eBookman from franklin is still much better, and much cheaper.

With the exception that the visor is rechargable,
the Ebookman is a better unit, and quite a bit
cheaper. The 'high' end model runs about $230.
Franklins page doesnt give much technical detail
other than dimensions and memory, but some can
be found here

>> What ever happened to Sony's BookMan

Bookman is/was a Registered Trade Mark of Sherwin M. Borsuk, now a Registered Trade Mark of Franklin Electronic Publishers (aka: My employeer)

Why aren't we all using Personal Digital Assistants for most of our reading? The answers are complex, but the overall situation is clear. The PDAs being produced today and designed for tomorrow aren't intended to function as book replacements: the screens are small, hard to read, and awkward to navigate for lengthy text.

Alot of what you complain about are addressed by our new device called eBookman.I am one of the developers. We just released the product yesterday. They should be showing up in your stores within a day or two. amazon.com is selling them also.

There are two needs for e-books, those needed in your hand, and those you want in your hand.

A monolingual dictionary (ie: english) or bilingual dictionaries (ie: english-german) are things you might like to keep in your hand (a student learning german). If you are a medical person (ie: doctor) you might need to keep drug information in your hand as you visit patients at bed side. Another example is the Bible many people love to look things up in the bible. These fall into the category of 'reference' books. A fundimental attribute of reference is the ability to search, not just string matching - but smart searching. Example: doctor types "child and heart" - it is important to also find references to "pediatric and cardiac".

Typically reference is something you need in your hand, or pocket to peform a task. Much like a PDA, you need your address book, or to-do list.

In contrast, a novel, play or short story is something you want to read from end to end. When you are done, you put it down and get another one. These fall into the category of 'reading' books. Typically these are something you want in your hand, but do not "need" to perform a function, or task.

Duane.

>> What ever happened to Sony's BookMan

Bookman is/was a Registered Trade Mark of Sherwin M. Borsuk, now a Registered Trade Mark of Franklin Electronic Publishers (aka: My employeer)

Why aren't we all using Personal Digital Assistants for most of our reading? The answers are complex, but the overall situation is clear. The PDAs being produced today and designed for tomorrow aren't intended to function as book replacements: the screens are small, hard to read, and awkward to navigate for lengthy text.

Alot of what you complain about are addressed by our new device called eBookman.I am one of the developers. We just released the product yesterday. They should be showing up in your stores within a day or two. amazon.com is selling them also.

There are two needs for e-books, those needed in your hand, and those you want in your hand.

A monolingual dictionary (ie: english) or bilingual dictionaries (ie: english-german) are things you might like to keep in your hand (a student learning german). If you are a medical person (ie: doctor) you might need to keep drug information in your hand as you visit patients at bed side. Another example is the Bible many people love to look things up in the bible. These fall into the category of 'reference' books. A fundimental attribute of reference is the ability to search, not just string matching - but smart searching. Example: doctor types "child and heart" - it is important to also find references to "pediatric and cardiac".

Typically reference is something you need in your hand, or pocket to peform a task. Much like a PDA, you need your address book, or to-do list.

In contrast, a novel, play or short story is something you want to read from end to end. When you are done, you put it down and get another one. These fall into the category of 'reading' books. Typically these are something you want in your hand, but do not "need" to perform a function, or task.

Duane.

here's another one

It's at a similar stage to the agenda, but has the advantage of an MMC slot

The books published by Franklin for all the hand top OSs. It's just that the hot swap HandSprings allow people to carry several around.

A small piece not mentioned in a good article.

The books published by Franklin for all the hand top OSs. It's just that the hot swap HandSprings allow people to carry several around.

A small piece not mentioned in a good article.

What about those personal organizers ? There are the Franklins, the Sharps, and what else ? Anybody play around with those cybikos ?

I'm thinking of building a prototype for a product, which will be a small organizer or two way pager like device with a key board and small 4 line screen. I know nothing about ergonomics, so I'd like to examine the best example.

The eBookman, Developer tools are GNU tool set - whole nine yards; MMC expansion, 8MBYTE ram for $129, and 16MB with back light is $229. Does MP3s too. First appeared in DDJ magazine about a month ago.

http://www.franklin.com, Before I go to far let me tell you I work for Franklin . I'm the guy responsible for the software in the entire pocket translator product line, I wrote it. Not the dictionaries, I've done a number of them but so have many others.

No, I'm not the linguist who does the language stuff - they won't let me do that, they know better then that, I just do the prodcut software, simulation tools, compilers, assemblers and stuff like that.

There are two classes of products, the shirt pocket '106' series. We also make quite a number of larger full DICTIONARY products.

The translator product lines sell here in the states for $14.95 to $29.95 depending on the number of languages, and the store you purchase them in, and the feature set included.

The rip-off shops in NYC charge 200 to 300% over MSRP - check out our web site.

They all include FONETIK spell korekshun, no other pocket translator series has the depth of features the franklins have, nor the word grouping we have.

For instance, try these things in any product: mikerowscope, noledge, phish, kawfee, backtearia, nive, see who can actually find the word you are looking for.

Yes, we do have some competitors, they are Seiko-Epson, and Hachette and to some degree Langenshite (German outfit). Somebody mentioned LINO - they don't make anything - they just sell stuff that is done by a Taiwan out fit.

The TWE106 has Eng/Ger/Frn/Spn/Itl, the TEE-106 (only available in europe) has English, German, Hungarian, Polish and Czech. The TEP-100 (Don't know if they are still around) has English-Portuguese. Some of the other products DLE/FLE/NLE-100 or -106 include Dutch, and/or Swedish. These small credit card sized guys include a small databank (50 to 100 names & phone numbers depending on size). And a simple calculator.

The TRE-400 has 7 languages and a few more features.

In heavily inflected languages, the inflections work the way you want, and would expect. English example: if you type "GO" the product knows how to find the word "WENT" also.

The dictionaries typically include inflection screens showing word usage in simple sentences like: I run, You Run, I have Run, I ran, etc, in most cases, this is in both languages.

Our translators - unlike the other junk ones that are out there know that a "BOOT" is the trunk of a car in [UK], and stop and ask do you want BOOT (AUTO) [UK] or BOOT (SHOE) [US] don't translate it only as a shoe or a trunk. They also know that TRUNK in (US) can mean (AUTO) or TRUNK (LARGE SUITCASE).

Most of the German products (all translators, most dictionaries) understand compound words, ie: German, an airplane Boarding Card is boardkarte or something like that.

The full dictionary type products are available in quite a number of languages, ie: Bi-Lingual Dictionaries and a few mono-linguals included

Languages include: English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Sweedish, Catalan, Polish, Czech, Arabic, Hebrew, just to name a few. The primary european languages are available in the US, the others - well you have to get them from the local countries. See http://www.franklin.com/international

We also have some of the best indexable text compression on the planet - that's how we can do this work.

The little tiny pocket $15 to $30 translators are run by a 1MHZ 6502 with 2 or 3K bytes of ram and about 512K bytes of rom, and a little 2032 coin cell battery.

The larger units run on a custom 24 bit RISC cpu that we developed in house, we have GCC & GDB ported for this custom RISC cpu.

One thing to keep in mind when you are looking for these types of products, Franklin is the only company in the world who Designs and Develops the products *IN*HOUSE* in all aspects, ie: Hardware, Software, Compression, circuit boards you name it. Everybody else farms the work out, it shows in the product quality that you purchase.

Found it... Here's one for 25 bucks that can do phrases in Spanish, French, German, and Italian: http://www.franklin.com/estore/de tails.asp?ID=23

Franklin has been making devices like this for years. If they weren't the first to do it, I'd be surprised. I've never used one myself, but they've been around so long (10 years??) that their technology must be pretty mature.

They also have a ton of other cool PDA-form-factor devices. Definitely the gadget-geek should check them out.

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