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Two Handfuls Of Handhelds

Posted by timothy on from the but-what-about-your-other-hand dept.

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.

4 of 125 comments (clear)

  1. And it's about time! by sllort · · Score: 2, Insightful

    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.

    It's about time!. The lesson of Palm OS was that the functionality of an Apple ][ was enough for most people. A simple spreadsheet, messaging system, contacts and a notepad are a lot of what makes a computer useful. Bundle that in a low overhead package and make it durable and you've got a winner - what mobile professionals don't need is 300Mhz of super high color whiz-bang screen saver action that can dance along to their portable MP3 collection.

    The value of a robust and simple computing platform over a feature-clogged overpriced china shop of a notebook has been obvious to me for a while. Thank goodness industry is getting the picture.

  2. The real test by mlknowle · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Untill I can write on it as fast as I can on paper, untill I can trust it not to fail as much as paper (including being dropped), and the price point is more reasonably, I really don't see how I can justify the price of any PDA... Sure, checking flights wirelessly is cool, but I can do it on the cell phone for far less money now.

    1. Re:The real test by JWhitlock · · Score: 2, Insightful
      Untill I can write on it as fast as I can on paper, untill I can trust it not to fail as much as paper (including being dropped), and the price point is more reasonably, I really don't see how I can justify the price of any PDA... Sure, checking flights wirelessly is cool, but I can do it on the cell phone for far less money now.

      I'm not big on the bells and whistles either, but I find my vanilla Visor Deluxe to be the best purchase I made in a long time.

      For serious data entry, I type it into the desktop software. 90% of data entry can be done this way, and the other 10% is the stuff I can keep in my head while writing, so it doesn't matter how slow it is.

      I travel a lot, and sometimes have trouble getting onto the facility right after my plane lands. It's been a godsend to have the phone number of every person who has let me on, as well as building numbers and other info that is only useful for getting past security. It's also nice to have the number for that nice hotel I stayed at, so I know where to call when I go back in a year.

      I've found that if I enter the data into my visor everytime I'm tempted to grab a slip of paper, then I'm not asking for info more than once. Phone numbers, IP addresses, user names for different systems, all go in, for easy retrival. I may even use one of the password keepers some day, and start using some real passwords.

      I also love Project Guttenberg. Every time I have five minutes waiting for someone else, I can dig out a classic and read a few pages - and it's a lot easier than always having a paperback in my back pocket.

      I'm not saying one of these is for everyone, but I've needed an appointment book, address book, and note holder for years, and I was never able to keep a huge appointment book. Finally, I can stop buying belated birthday cards!

      I have dropped one, hard, but Visor seems to follow the computer maker's lead, and makes the exchange for a new one pretty painless. All the data is on the desktop, in a less portable form, but I didn't loose everything because of a hardware failure.

      Anyway, it may not be for you, but for me, I was able to throw away 25 lbs of little paper notebooks and aborted attempts at address books - it's worth the cost of 12 AA batteries every year.

  3. Hardware Compatible by _Sprocket_ · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Since the last article on this device, I've been pondering something simular to the submitted question:
    "They claim it is Palm compatible, but it won't run palm apps - so what 'Palm compatible' means is anyone's guess."
    The only thing I can think of is "Hey, don't like our Linux distro? No problem! Grab a PalmOS image and load it up! Cheap PalmIIIs!" Illegal as they may be.

    Of course, I'm a little hesitant to push that point so much. Sounds far too much like not-so-distant claims from Microsoft that if a whitebox shop didn't pay for a Windows license, they were obviously intending to pirate Microsoft products.