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Check out PocketPCs. Lots of software and stuff that really does impressive things.

Linux PDAs have alot to catch up to a PocketPC.

For example MS provides a input method call Transcriber. Its based on this;

http://www.paragraph.com/calligrapher/index.html

The Cappuccino doesn't have a battery either, does it? I was under the impression that their MiniPC wasn't for mobility so much as portability- taking it places, or having a problem where a very small computer is a good idea, but not the kind of computer that could sit in your pack or your pocket.

Regarding computing environment, another link I forgot to mention is the PDA operating system/environment I'm working on called Dynapad. It is what I currently run on my Jornada 720 and will run on my OQO when I get one. Even now, on my iBook, I do most of what I do on my computer within the Squeak Smalltalk programming environment. The only thing I use Mac OS 9/X for is to browse the web. Squeak includes a pretty simple web browser, but it is insufficient for a lot of web sites. For some web browsing, I simply use Links from within a vt100 terminal app that is native on Squeak. I've written some code on the Squeak side of things to allow me to open Opera windows from within Squeak to automate it, but I imagine that this may be a bit harder on WinXP than it is currently with AppleScript on OS 9/X, but perhaps Windows Scripting Host would be a good replacement.

In all honesty, the only reason I *may* use WinXP on my OQO is for ParaGraph's CalliGrapher HWR software. As I said, Linux doesn't have any real HWR, so for me, it's pretty useless as a PDA or other pen-based platform. Which is why I have a Jornada 720 running WinCE instead of a Zaurus running Qtopia.

At this point, Dynapad wouldn't do quite everything that PocketPC does, but in the coming months and years it will. In about a 6 MB footprint, Dynapad includes:

* PIM applications: Notes, Todo, Names (Contacts), and Dates (Calendar)
* Net apps: Simple web browser, IRC client, email client; and coming soon, a LiveJournal client as well as an app with very similar functionality to Watson/Sherlock 3
* A full Smalltalk development environment using the Morphic GUI toolkit; with the ability to create entirely new apps on the device itself, or modify existing apps to better work with the user's expectations
* An OODB as the "blessed" means of data storage- makes sycing with desktop machines or other Dynapad devices as well as sharing the data via the internet very easy
* Character recognition, rather like Graffiti,but without a dedicated space- write anywhere in a text box
* A GUI builder for rapid application development
* An advanced, extensible, dynamic, reflective architecture that allows end-user programming and scripting

The HWR system then known as CalliGrapher is still known as CalliGrapher today, also under the name Microsoft Transcriber on PocketPC and PenOffice on desktop Windoze. At Newton OS 2, Apple dumped the then fairly buggy CalliGrapher, and used their own recognizers that were better, and now found in OS X as Inkwell. CalliGrapher has shaped up in years since, and is pretty decent on PocketPC. CG6 on PocketPC is nowhere near as integrated as Newton HWR was on the Newton OS 2.x, but it beats using a character recognizer any day of the week. :)

Making the oft-made mistake of reading the comments, I've noticed that there is a lot of ignotance in regards to handwriting recognition (HWR).

It seems people equate real HWR with the HWR on the first Newton model, as seen on the Simpsons. That's not the case. After a couple years, when the Newton devices reached the Newton OS 2.0 version, HWR had progressed lightyears. HWR has come a long way in the last 9 years since the original Newton MessagePad.

Fortunately, real HWR didn't die with the Newton. On the downside, it seems that the ParaGraph system is the only provider that exists today, with the same engine (derived from the Newton OS system) in a few implementations.

For desktop Windows, there is PenOffice; for WinCE/PocketPC, there is
CalliGrapher; and MS Transcriber, a free version with the same core as CalliGrapher, but with fewer handy features.

With either CalliGrapher or the Newton, the experience of myself and others is that with 2 months of training the neural net by making corrections brings the accuracy up to 99%+ at 40-60 WPM. I tried to use Graffiti and other character recognition (CR) methods before finding real HWR for longer periods of time with pitiful results.

I have horrible handwriting. The great thing about real HWR is that it's incrementally trainable. A neural net learns your handwriting style better than even programmable stroke-based systems can.

Pure real HWR isn't always the best thing when writing code for languages with an overly complex algol-ish syntax. However, used in tandem with programmable a stroke system or macros within the HWR system, it can work out very well.

For example, a program called PenCommander comes with CalliGrapher for PocketPC. PenCommander allows you to program macros. I like to hack Smalltalk, Scheme, and perl on my iPAQ. Smalltalk and Scheme aren't problems, due to the fact that there's almost no syntax and punctuation, and that the function, method and class names are more word-like.

For perl, I have macros set-up. For example, to create a new sub, I have write the word "sub" and circle it, which expands to:

sub SUB {
my ($x, $y, @z) = @_;
return 0;
}

It's a shame that real HWR is confined to the one implementation by ParaGraph. I imagine this is due, at least in part, to the mythology of the Newton, and the impressions of the first three models. As a result, there is only real HWR for the Newton, WinCE, and desktop Windows. I reccomend you try one out for a few months, if you have a PPC or a tablet-based Windows machine. If there was real HWR for Linux, I could dump WinCE on my iPAQ. The only reasons I use WinCE is for the real HWR- I can't imagine putting up with Jot, Graffiti, xstroke, wavvy, &c again!

Making the oft-made mistake of reading the comments, I've noticed that there is a lot of ignotance in regards to handwriting recognition (HWR).

It seems people equate real HWR with the HWR on the first Newton model, as seen on the Simpsons. That's not the case. After a couple years, when the Newton devices reached the Newton OS 2.0 version, HWR had progressed lightyears. HWR has come a long way in the last 9 years since the original Newton MessagePad.

Fortunately, real HWR didn't die with the Newton. On the downside, it seems that the ParaGraph system is the only provider that exists today, with the same engine (derived from the Newton OS system) in a few implementations.

For desktop Windows, there is PenOffice; for WinCE/PocketPC, there is
CalliGrapher; and MS Transcriber, a free version with the same core as CalliGrapher, but with fewer handy features.

With either CalliGrapher or the Newton, the experience of myself and others is that with 2 months of training the neural net by making corrections brings the accuracy up to 99%+ at 40-60 WPM. I tried to use Graffiti and other character recognition (CR) methods before finding real HWR for longer periods of time with pitiful results.

I have horrible handwriting. The great thing about real HWR is that it's incrementally trainable. A neural net learns your handwriting style better than even programmable stroke-based systems can.

Pure real HWR isn't always the best thing when writing code for languages with an overly complex algol-ish syntax. However, used in tandem with programmable a stroke system or macros within the HWR system, it can work out very well.

For example, a program called PenCommander comes with CalliGrapher for PocketPC. PenCommander allows you to program macros. I like to hack Smalltalk, Scheme, and perl on my iPAQ. Smalltalk and Scheme aren't problems, due to the fact that there's almost no syntax and punctuation, and that the function, method and class names are more word-like.

For perl, I have macros set-up. For example, to create a new sub, I have write the word "sub" and circle it, which expands to:

sub SUB {
my ($x, $y, @z) = @_;
return 0;
}

It's a shame that real HWR is confined to the one implementation by ParaGraph. I imagine this is due, at least in part, to the mythology of the Newton, and the impressions of the first three models. As a result, there is only real HWR for the Newton, WinCE, and desktop Windows. I reccomend you try one out for a few months, if you have a PPC or a tablet-based Windows machine. If there was real HWR for Linux, I could dump WinCE on my iPAQ. The only reasons I use WinCE is for the real HWR- I can't imagine putting up with Jot, Graffiti, xstroke, wavvy, &c again!

"Microsoft's Trancriber" is actually a cut down version of Paragraphs Calligrapher hand writing recognition software which provides more features. I don't think that the CPU in a normal Palm device can support this sort of app though.

The original WinCE handwriting recognizer was based on Pen Windows.

However, as I mentioned, Paragraph has *ported* their recognizer to WinCE (Calligrapher). I didn't say it was the default recognizer. Only that it's become quite popular with users and is shipping with several of the HPC units (the PocketPCs usually rely on MS's graffiti-like Transcriber app). See Paragraph's website for more info. At any rate, from what I've read Calligrapher is based on the old Newton HWR engine.

The handwriting recognition I've seen on the Vadem Clio -- which runs Windows CE, but is not a palmtop by any standard -- is frankly amazing. It recognized my signature and that of several friends; easy to use and easy to learn. This is one of the benefits of the faster processors available with the CE platforms. You can check out the details on the software

I'm not sure, but it looks like the handwriting recognition is based on ParaGraph's CaliGrapher product. At least, from what I can tell, they use the exact same gestures, which leads me to beleive they're related (after all, how obvious is it what a "cut" gesture should look like?)

If this is the case, it should be damned good. I have this product on my E-105, and it functions amazingly well, I didn't have to learn a thing, teach it a thing, it just works

Just my opinion, but I'm a big fan of the cassiopeia device, and I'm hoping Casio decides to release an upgrade.

Paragraph's handwriting engine is indeed very good. For those that don't follow the link above, it goes to a Java applet that recognizes cursive writing with a mouse with no training whatsoever.

In fact, it's the cursive engine on the Newton (Apple's own is used for print recognition). Anybody with a touch-capable LCD should definitely see if Paragraph runs on your system.

As mentioned, it runs on Wince. CmdrTaco forgive me for my sins but I have dallied with the Beast - when my beloved Newton died, I got a Phillips Nino. Why not a Palm? I had tried Graffitti on the Newton - didn't much care for it. I gave it another go on Palms belonging to friends. Couldn't cope - my writing habits were too ingrained and I couldn't get my mind around the concept of "write each letter one on top of the other." Since Paragraph's Calligrapher ran on WinCE, I got a WinCE device. No joke. That was the only reason.

Of course, it was Microsoft software. It needed to be reset pretty much every day, even if I did nothing with it but turn it off and on occasionally. If I used it with any real frequency, it would crash. And the sync services fought with everything else for the serial port. Yuck. So I went to eBay and found a "new" Newton.

I'm much happier. My Newton gets words right when I know I got them wrong. It garbles foreign names, until you tap the word in question and select "Try Letters" (i.e., don't use a dictionary for matching). Bingo. Perfect.

Yes. Three years later, and it still kicks the pants off a Palm as an actual computing device. Sure, Palms sync great, but do you use one to take notes in meetings? I'll bet not - as Newton users observe, the Palm is the right size when you're not using it, and the Newton is the right size when you are. And on eBay, you might actually find one at a price comparable to a high-end palm.

Check this impressive demo out..

Paragraph's Demo

Even better, it works on Windows CE HPC and PPC devices natively. (Ofcourse CE fully supports Java 1.1 too).

I keep hearing that company x is releasing an electronic book that you can fill up via the Internet. I have yet to see such a device. What I have dealt with is PeanutPress, which is a nice service. They let you buy books online, and download them to your Palm or WinCE device. I've read quite a few books this way. Also there's Audible, which does the books on tape thing for WinCE devices.

There are two big problems with PDA's today, battery power and input. Most of the color devices that chew through batteries use rechargeables, but that still means you need to dock it daily. And I've never seen a great input method for palm-sized devices (though, some good ones, like calligrapher).

Fix those two things and I think you'll see the market change rapidly.