Where Are the Cheap, Wireless Webpads?

IceFox asks: "Webpad terminals... Over the past two months I have been searching the web, from company to company looking for a cheap webpad. All the way back in 1999 there were promises of webpads. They were almost always terminals. Other then a touchscreen, slow 66mhz cpu, and a wireless card there was not much else in the machines. And they were going to retail for about 400-600 dollars. But where are they now?" <SARCASM>You know, we were supposed to have hovercars by now, too, and I haven't seen any of those flying around, either.</SARCASM> Sometimes the market works a little slower than we'd like. I think the market is currently more enamoured with the sexy new wearables market and the handheld market more than they are worried about webpads. Still, if anyone knows how much longer the wait will be, some updates would be appreciated.

"They are nowhere to be seen. Everywhere you look you see full webpad computers for $4k. Yah right I am going to pay that for a bad laptop. Why are companies making these huge items? Did I miss the anouncement that thin small webpads would not be the thing? Is it that the $400 webpad in 1999 can now be made in $200 and there is no profit? How can that be? There is no compatition so you would have all the profit! Does anyone out there know of a company that is selling right now wireless touch screen computers that have just enough to run as a terminal? I see all the time companies that will see you the mini computer with everything on it. Rip out the hard drive, parallel port, serial, ide controls, ps2, audio. Leave only the bare minimum. Ok maybe there isn't a company out there left doing this, but does anyone know of someone who is selling the parts that I can build such a thing? I can find touchpads here, small lcds there and small computers over there, but never can they all go together. I would love to have a terminal webpad in my living room. Load linux on it and use it to do anything and everything."

Comments

Web pads!

[Black Perl]

Here's a couple:

http://www.my-siemens.com/MySiemens/CDA/Standard/F rameset/0,1649,3_SIMPADCL4_0_1_194_0,FF.html
http://hcpretail.honeywell.com/hcp_store/catalog/p roductdisplay.asp?modelnum=S7350B

There are many others under development.

http://www.galleo.com/
http://www.palmaxtech.com/specswp.htm
http://www.fica.com/products/ia/Aqua3400/FICAqua3. stm
http://www.frontpath.com/pro_home.htm
http://www.national.com/appinfo/solutions/0,2062,8 02.html
http://www.national.com/appinfo/solutions/0,2062,2 16,00.html
http://www.hntek.com/english/product_00201.html
http://www.transmetazone.com/articleview.cfm?artic leid=476
http://www.transmetazone.com/articleview.cfm?artic leID=479
http://elife2.acer.com.tw/webpad.htm

current events

[joq]

All those companies are on FuckedCompany.com now thats why you don't see them anymore. Seriously though, when things come out and are touted as `the next best thing`, especially in tech, don't expect it to last too long. Sometimes things go well but many, rather the majority of the times, things go bonkers for typical reasons.

Did you know that most of the write ups you see in magazines, and online sites were because the company who's being written up has a marketing department to overhype things? Well my guess is things were extremely overhyped, or it wasn't feasible for a company to spend to create something no one would buy.

Same thing happen with DLT (Digital Linear Tapes) once upon a while ago. It's no big secret that the next best thing is likely going to be the next big bust, especially with todays economy.

a few more tablets (available now)

[Helix150]

most are $1k+, but some good looking WinCE based ones.

A list of Tablets

Also check out this thing, Its WinCE with a generic clamshell, but has two fold points instead of one. This means you can put on a small plastic keyboard cover, flip the display all the way around and use it like a tablet. Also, theres a small CMOS camera in the middle part so you can take pics.