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The old PalmOS has by far the most "apps" and they don't have to be approved by anyone:

http://www.freewarepalm.com/
http://www.handango.com/
http://www.pocketgear.com/
http://www.mobihand.com/
http://www.pdastreet.com/
and also: http://sf.net/

I never understand why everyone is so amazed by the iPhone's "Apps". Handheld apps have been around for over 10 years.

Both the 5mx and Netbook have been used successfully by mountaineers; the Netbook in particular was used by a Hungarian team while climbing Mount Everest. They have been out of production for years but it shouldn't be difficult to pick them up (probably used) for a small fraction of what a normal laptop would cost.
http://www.psionteklogix.com/public.aspx?s=us&p=News&POid=367
http://www.project-himalaya.com/news-00-shishapangma.html

I have never used a Netbook, but was pleased with the 5mx that I used years ago (though not for world travel or mountain climbing or anything like that). It fit in my pocket, had a VERY comfortable keyboard for its size (I could type at roughly 2/3 of the speed that I type on a full-sized keyboard) and ran for a good 30 hours or so on a pair of AA batteries. It survived a number of short falls--about 3 feet onto hard surfaces--without any problems.

Both use CompactFlash for removable storage, and can be used with a cell phone or modem for Internet access. The Netbook has a PCMCIA slot as well, which (with appropriate cards) adds Ethernet or wireless capabilities.
http://www.pdastreet.com/forums/showthread.php?p=321802

The 5mx probably won't be of much help when it comes to creating backup copies of photos, but the Netbook might with appropriate accessories (either sending them over the Internet or mailing home CompactFlash cards).

And yes, both will run Linux if you choose, though there are some limitiations.
http://linux-7110.sourceforge.net/howtos/netbook_new/index.htm
http://staff.washington.edu/dushaw/psion/openpsion/
http://linux-7110.sourceforge.net/howtos/series5mx_new/index.htm

Unfortunately what goes around comes around.

I'm sure the employees of Handspring know exactly what you feel.

http://www.pdastreet.com/articles/2002/9/2002-9-19 -Research-in-Motion.html

Toshiba is planning to launch a battery next year that is capable of recharging to 80% of its capacity in less than a minute and fully charge in a few minutes. http://www.pdastreet.com/articles/2005/3/2005-3-29 -Super-Battery-Recharges.html

A number of Psion users agree with you and have created an online petition to have the Symbian/EPOC (not Sybian you perverts!) OS as an option (as used in Psion's previous NetBook, 5/5Mx and Revo/Mako).

A NetBook Pro forum has been set up at PDAStreet/Psionplace to discuss this - with plenty of posters bemoaning the lack of EPOC.

There is so much prior art in this that I can't see them winning.

In the mid 80's I had a Radio Shack pocket computer that could be used to store important information, programmed in BASIC with various applications, and more. It was about the same size as a palm height and depth, but was just a bit longer. It also only had one or two line LCD display.

Then in 1990/1991 there was the Casio B.O.S.S. and the Sharp OZ-9500 (and lower models) data organizers. These were much more like Palms in that they had multiple applications that could be run. The Sharp had cards that could be slid in to give extra functionality. Plus, both had "secret" or "private" storage areas for information you didn't want displayed unless you entered a password. My wife had the Casio while I had the Sharp.

The closest PDA to have something like e-pass describes is the Rex. It appears to have been first made in 1997.

Around the same time was the Motorola clip-on PDA for the StarTac.

The reason I bring up the later models is patent protection. Did e-pass target them to get them to license that e-pass patent? If not, why not? Because the Rex was actually closer to what the e-pass patent describes.

I can't imagine (well actually, I can, this is the American legal system we're talking about) they are going to prevail. From what I've seen, their patent is fairly specific. And, at the very least, any patent they have for a "small" general computing device would seem to violate somebody else's patent for a general computing device. Let's hope the judge is smart enough to use real legal reasons to throw this out in round 2.

According to this article it is a concept, not a real product...

See This article from PDA Street from March... they denied it then... same exact picture it seems... I wonder how valid this article actually is.

But: Bad news

Unfortunately, the Zaurus 5600 is just a little too late to take advantage of Intel's new 200 mHz Xscale bus...

• IBM VR for iPAQ (but I think that is just voice control, not dictation)
• Voice Mate Organizer - Voice Recognition PDA "allows people who are Blind and visually impaired to store and retrieve information" (but still might not be full dictation capable)
• One thread led me eventually to this 1999 Article on the status of VR for PDA's
• Finally after much Googling, I eventually came across this promising Press Release from about a year ago. That Company seems to have a product (basically an SDK), but it's not clear if anyone is putting it to use in consumer PDA application (Samsung uses them for some phones).

• IBM VR for iPAQ (but I think that is just voice control, not dictation)
• Voice Mate Organizer - Voice Recognition PDA "allows people who are Blind and visually impaired to store and retrieve information" (but still might not be full dictation capable)
• One thread led me eventually to this 1999 Article on the status of VR for PDA's
• Finally after much Googling, I eventually came across this promising Press Release from about a year ago. That Company seems to have a product (basically an SDK), but it's not clear if anyone is putting it to use in consumer PDA application (Samsung uses them for some phones).

A picture of the camera on the back.

But not the one everyone else is talking about (i.e. an iBook/Powerbook). A coworker had an Apple Newton E-mate which was a cross between a laptop and a PDA.

It had a monochrome screen, no hard disk, smallish keyboard, and looked fairly rugged. Being based on the Arm chip and not having any moving parts, it probably had an OK battery life.

Surprisingly, the things weighs 4 pounds (!?) at least according to the page I mentioned above. The actual unit only had 4MB of memory, as well, which seems small, even for its time.

I suppose, for the adventurous, you could try to track down a unit and use it as a basis for a new machine. Of course, these are rare, and I suspect they still go for a pretty penny. Newton owners are a pretty fiercly loyal bunch. I doubt you could run Linux on it all that well... EMACS is out of the question with so little RAM.

Something like this, ARM based, flash memory, perhaps a screen with optional backlighting and greyscale, and of course Linux based is something closer to the mark than a full-blown laptop. Connectivity would also be an issue. I suspect the keyboard is a bit cramped, as well. But still... an interesting idea. One potential use that springs to mind is a cheap rugged machine for field use.

The deal is, it's 9600 baud I think, email only... but with web-email gateways, you could do a lot... and the JVC device sells on ebay for around $50... definately a budgeted device anywhere in the states. International callers have to use a direct dial number, and will incur charges probably for that... anyway... neat devices to play.

If you have your own web services, you could probably write up a bunch of scripts to email you data you need when you trigger the page with an email. That's what I do.