Psion Is Back :-), With Windows :-(

An anonymous reader writes "Forbes has an article about the come back of Psion in the high end PDA market. Psion's OS, Symbian, that used to power their PDA (as the Revo for example, or the Series 3, or the Series 5), has been mostly used in cell phones lately, like the Nokia 3650. According to Forbes's article, the new Psion laptop/PDA, the Netbook Pro, will not be powered by Symbian OS, but by Microsoft CE.Net." prostoalex points out a ZDNet review of the device, "which is smaller than your usual notebook PC, but larger than a regular PDA. The product Web site contains specifications in PDF format. It's an Intel Xscale PXA255 400MHz, 128MB SDRAM and 32MB Flash, SVGA (800x600) device supporting CompactFlash and Secure Digital (usual for PDAs) as well as PCMCIA (usual for laptops)," and notes that despite the OS, "the specs list the presence of JEM-CE Java Virtual Machine."

Comments

Re:Why dont they use BeOS

[Anonymous Coward]

Palm bought Be, not Psion.

Re:Choice of OS - not so surprising

[vlad_petric]

SynCE with MultiSync .

There are some rough edges, but you can get it to work (not true for Zaurus w. new ROM)

Hmm

[pr0c]

We use a rugged Psion Handheld with an RFID reader to identify livestock electronically (approx 50 sets) as seen here http://www.insight.com/uk/apps/productpresentation /index.php?product_id=PSIMX2MB.

It couldn't possibly be a less reliable piece of shit. Memory cards randomly stop responding, it thinks its batteries are too low to operate even when fresh. Devices attached to it such as the RFID reader stop responding randomly.

I've had one get hot enough be uncomfortable to your hand but not hot enough to burn (it stopped working of course) and others just stop working all together. They are rated for a 1 meter drop on concrete and we had one stop working after a 2 foot drop off of a chair onto carpet and die.

I guess the only thing worse than these Handhelds is the RFID reader manufactured by a different company, Hotraco, that misread often if they bother to read at all. We have gone through a few dozen failed units and had to mail the rest to the factory for an internal wiring weakness repair as an oversight from the factory.

Anyway.. I guess all I'm getting as is you'll never see me buy a Psion PDA. At least my Psion Goldcard works well!

Psion Teklogix, NOT Psion Computers

[gidds]

Don't get too excited. Psion Teklogix, producer of the original netBook and now this update, is not exactly the same company which made the Series 5mx &c. It only seems interested in corporate accounts, in large orders and vertical markets. (It was formed from Psion Enterprise and Teklogix International; I suspect that the latter had by far the stronger influence.) Psion Computers, the consumer-oriented branch and producers of the Organiser, Organiser II, Series 3/a/c/mx, Siena, Series 5/5mx, and Revo, is effectively long gone...

Please sign this online petition if you'd like to see the netBook Pro running EPOC/Symbian OS. I doubt it'll have any immediate effect, but by indicating people's interest in the platform, it may yet do some longer-term good.

I mourn the loss of Psion as was... while Symbian may have kept the core OS alive and in demand, that's no good to us if it's not being employed (or even promoted) in a form factor which can demonstrate its strengths. :(

It's a credit to Psion that, for all its screen problems, the 5mx is still an amazing bit of kit - still my machine of choice, to which nothing else comes close. I just wish that they'd recognise that achievement and cultivate it. If only they'd not chickened out of the market; a little marketing and promotion would have done wonders. [fx: sigh]

Dyslexic users and education

[Nick_Gunz]

There's an aspect of this whole Psion giving up on the Series 5 that I've never seen reported anywhere, but which has deep personal relevance to me and countless others. It sounds odd to say it, but Psion computers changed my life in a very real way, and now they're not making them my life is going to get a lot worse.

I'm dyslexic (learning disabled to North Americans). I find it very difficult to write by hand and am unable to take notes effectively except by keyboard. Right now I'm a PhD student at the University of Cambridge but, if I handn't had access to a computer, I'd never have been able to finish high school.

I used to carry a full sized notebook, but these computers have many problems including lack of portability, inadiquate battery life, and the fact that they're just to big to sit on those little note taking tablets they have in university classrooms. There are countless daily tasks I couldn't acomplish on such a low-portability, slowly deploying system.

But Psion S5 computers are differnt. They are small, they are light enough to be carried everywhere. They take AA batteries that can be easily replaced on the fly and come in several convenient rechargable formats. They're instant on, so they can be used just like a non-disabled person would use a peice of paper. But most importantly, they have a full touch type keyboard. No other comptuer of its size now has a keyboard that can be used for touchtyping.

It is that last factor that makes these machines so useful to people with writing problems. Without these computers I am too disabled to do my job. With them I am able to fulfill my potential in my chosen field. Taking them away from me is like breaking the hands of a pianist.

The frustrating thing is that I can see such a ready market for these little machines. Everywhere around me are classrooms full of students writing away on paper when they would much rather be writing on a computer. I even see students perched awkwardly near ill placed power outlets, or sitting on the floor so that they can use their full sized notebook computers. How many of them would pay for a small touch-type computer if it were aimed at the student market? I'd be willing to bet a lot of them. Perhaps even the majority.

But small computer have always been aimed at executives, and executives don't need them, because executives have offices and secretaries and such. As a result of this misdirection in the PDA market, thousands and thousands of disabled people are being robbed of their potential and their future. I don't know what I'll do when I can't get any more Psion S5 machines. They don't last forever. I'm beginning to suspect my status as a non-disabled person won't last forever either.

You see a nice toy that never really sold well. I see a big part of my future disapearing.

- NG

Re:Dyslexic users and education

[evilviper]

Indeed... I'm not dyslexic at all, but the Psion 5 was the second handheld computer I bought... The first was a Windows CE that I thrashed after a couple weeks, because it's completely useless for just about ANYTHING...

The Psion 5 however, was incredibly great for taking notes, or even writing up full-featured documents/reports. I could embed a spreadsheat/graph/image into a word document, just like you can with the Office suites on computers. I could type up an entire paper anywhere I happened to be, and could print it out just about anywhere. A few printers around me at my school had InfraRed ports built-in, so I could very easilly print to them. It also supported serial printers, or, in a worst case, you can install the software on a computer, and print through any printer the computer is attached to.

I'm not disabled, but it sure saved me a hell of a lot of time, effort, hassle, and frustration, and I was quite saddened when they went out of business. Unlike 99.99% of other handhelds, Psions were not toys, they were useful, and productive devices, that I would have been willing to pay several times as much money for.

I don't know what I'll do when I can't get any more Psion S5 machines. They don't last forever.

I'm going to keep using mine for as long as I can. I've already fixed it when I experienced the famed spring problem, and I don't expect any more physical problem that can't be fixed. I fear the day that the electrical components go out, but it is a device that is extremely low power, and runs at room temperature, so I can't anticipate it ever going out, unless I drop it.

As for you, I know of several computers will keyboards that are about the same size. HPCs have them, but you'll have to deal with Windows CE. I would seriously look for a Palm OS-based device with a keyboard, and I'd bet you'll find at least one good option. Good Luck. Worst case, you'll have to buy a couple more used Psions until another company makes something similar.

Re:Dyslexic users and education

[sir_cello]

I second that; I have used a Psion 5 (not mx, unfortunately) to take notes for two postgraduate qualifications (the second one, a masters, I am completing at the moment).

It's the perfect tool for students and this purpose:
- inexpensive (relatively) at only 200-300 pounds;
- runs off standard AA batteries for a reasonable amount of time, or you could use nimh rechargable AA's (I do);
- has a workable keyboard you can actually type on in class;
- has a touch screen, so you can draw images into your documents;
- small and compact, fits into an A5 sized padded case for me (same padded case carries a few pens, spare batteries and other items) - means you don't look like a complete idiot down the pub lugging around a notebook case;
- has all the built in organiser, spreadsheet, database, events calendar, etc you need to organise student life /activities;
- has a connectivity suite, so you can connect to the internet, use it with email, etc (the 5 is too slow IMHO, but 5mx better);
- use it with CF cards for extra storage, read documents offline;
- there's a lot of freeware and shareware;
- IrDA means you can use (I do) it with your mobile for data / SMS / phonebook / etc;

The difference is that a Palm is designed to be a personal organiser. The Psion is designed to be a personal computer.

It's very sad to have lost the 5/5mx; the overall design is of a high quality and standard.

The only thing I wish my Psion 5 had was bluetooth (apart from wishing that it was a 5mx for the additional speed).

Re:MUST /. be so biased?

[evilviper]

What do you find so bad about them?

There's an incredible large number of things, I'm sure I'll leave some out here...

Performance. On a 100+MHz processor, WinCE apps take an incredibly long time to open, even compared to the apps on my 36MHz Psion5. Every time you do something, click on something, etc., you have to wait. EPOC/Symbian is just so much snappier.

Stability. Using the device regularly, it would just completely corrupt all my data almost like clockwork, once every week. I admit I'm a heavy-duty user, but that's no excuse. I've NEVER had my EPOC-based Psion5 crash, corrupt data, etc. After years of using it, it's track record is spotless, while the WinCE device was quite the opposite.

Then there's stability of of the system. I had to reset the damn thing at least once a day, if not more. I have NEVER had to reset my Psion. These 2 things alone make WinCE qualify for the "flaming piece of shit award."

Features. The Windows CE apps were bare-bones, featureless junk. You can type text into the word processor, and that's about it. Very little formatting, no fonts to choose from, no font sizes, no embedding of other data... Just nothing at all. It was like a system which has nothing but Notpad. With the Psion, I got a full-featured office suite, that comes close to rivaling the desktop version of office, with infinitely more stability.

And how about printing? You are absolutely screwed if you want to print something. You need a computer with the Sync software installed, connected to a printer. That means you get to cary your cables around, a CD of your software, and need to find a system where you can install it. Then you get to go through the annoying process of telling it 20 times that you don't want it to automatically backup your files to the computer. What a huge pain.

Flexibility. Anything you want to do, you have to load a seperate program. My Windows CE device didn't even come with a filemanager. It's like Windows 3.1, where you had to open files from within the apps, wthout the 3.1 option of Winfile. There was no registry editor, even though I ended up needing to change settings there rather often. It was just simply not a real system, just a toy... Just a hassle.

Input. Kill me if I ever consider using handwriting recognition. One in every 10 characters would be a typo, if not more. I switched to using the on-screen keyboard, and input wast still many times slower than it would have been, had I just be writing on paper. I will stick with a keyboard any day. WinCE input was still error-prone, and it wasn't very good about making formatting changes. I would decide to go back and italicize something, and it usually just wouldn't do anything. I would end up selecting a little bit less text, and a little less, and sooner or later it would highlight something, but not everything I wanted it to. It was like working with Microsoft frontpage all the time, with all of it's restrictions on what you can do, where you can do it, and within what area you can do it.

Programs. I found limited Windows CE programs available. With my Psion, I found a free, small, PDF reader based on XPDF. The Psion comes with a terminal emulator, and it was just a free download to get a good telnet program. Converters, advanced calculators, etc. A free SSH program. EPOC comes with a great POP3 e-mail program, and a quick download gets you an upgrade to IMAP support. I found that tar, gzip, and bzip2 were all ported to EPOC, and were freely downloadable. Much more. When you look at thrid-party software, you see the nature of the product. With Windows CE, you find lots of practically useless toy programs (like MP3 players, IR remote control programs, etc), while with Psion/EPOC, you find incredibly useful, productivity apps.

Battery Life. With my Psion, I get approximately a month of use out of a pair of AA batteries. I happen to use rechargeable NiMH rechargeable AA batteries. With my