Two Handfuls Of Handhelds

rgarcia writes: "CNET has this story: Panasonic announced on Monday its first handheld computer, the Toughbook 01, which is designed to complement its notebook line of the same name. The consumer electronics maker has been selling into a niche in the notebook market by focusing on durable laptops that can withstand the shock of a fall and can resist moisture, dust and scratches. I know Ive dropped a few in my day. Damn things are fragile. Cool design, though I dont know if its actually better." And an unnamed reader points out that DALinux now has hardware available: "They claim it is Palm compatible, but it won't run palm apps - so what 'Palm compatible' means is anyone's guess. But it is a cool gadget, it runs Linux, and, most importantly, it is affordable." "Palm compatible" better at least mean painless address-book import.

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Review

[Bomb Regardless]

I found a review of the Palm clone... It seems decent, but not any more. If some of the apps get better, it might work for the vast majority of Palm users who need only a datebook & never install any extra apps (& therefore want it cheap).

agenda vr3... compatible

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, perhaps it's similar to Agenda Computings VR3 that I own. It's palm compatible in the sense that I can send stuff easily back and forth using IR.

Coding:
I hope that it just 'looks' like palmOS, because PalmOS is way harder to code for than my VR3. but it'd be nice to run palm apps.

Pandora

Re:Haha.. What A Laugh

[BlueGecko]

Given that spending literally about twenty seconds on the website revealed that their OS runs on a Palm (see http://www.linuxda.com/store/index.html), I think it's a reasonable assumption that you can also upload (albeit with shady legal reprecussions) the Palm OS onto their system. Thus, their handheld is Palm-compatible in the same way that my FreeBSD box is Windows-compatible: the hardware is identical.

Re:Palm Compatible

[Icy]

Umm, you can load PalmOS onto it...read first!

Re:Palms are "rugged"

[IHateEverybody]

I've dropped my IIIxe a total of 12 times, from 1 foot to 15 feet (scaling a fence :)). Its gone into "self destruct" mode (cover flies off, batteries fly everwhere, battery cover takes a long trip), but no permament damage (screen is still fine, no cracks). I would call that rugged.

Much as I've liked the various Palms and Visors that I have owned, you've been lucky. My first Palm III fell two feet onto a hard bathroom floor and cracked its screen. My replacement Palm III never got damaged but I could feel its case flex when I squeezed it enough to know that it would probably suffer the same fate if I dropped it. My Palm IIIc feels a little more rugged as do my Visor Deluxe and Visor Platinum but they aren't very rugged compared to other devices like cell phones.

Re:Appologies to those who may think this insensit

[GreyPoopon]

But if you paid $2000 for a laptop, or $300 for a PDA, wouldn't you take care of the damn thing?

I agree with you, but also remember that any device you wear or carry around with you constantly needs to be much more rugged than most of today's devices are. The laptop needs to be more rugged than a desktop, but since it's usually in a pretty well padded case, it doesn't need to be nearly as rugged as a cell phone. People take them everywhere they go, and expect them to be able to handle a fall once in a while. The same should be true for PDAs. If they are advertised as "pocket sized" or wearable, people will take that to heart.