Slashdot Mirror
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."
Palm bought Be, not Psion.
As you may be aware, ":-(" is the registered trademarked property of Despair, Inc. It has come to our attention that Slashdot's use of this trademark was unlicensed, and thus it must be removed. If our trademarked :-( is removed immediately, it will not be necessary for us to file charges . Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.
The Day Slashdot uses "LOL" in a story, i stop reading it...
I'me afraid it's close..
Slashdot Sig. version 0.1alpha. Use at your own risk.
With something that close to a PC, I'd rather be using Windows anyway. There's no point in creating compatibility issues for myself just to be able to say I screwed Microsoft. With cell phones syncing isn't an issue, so go ahead and have that market.
Without even using the thing, they just see "windows" and automatically go :-(
At least let it show what it has to offer before you automatically go "well, I'll NEVER use that peice of shitty windoze-crap!" Sheesh...
the price is over $1500, I'd rather buy a fully functional laptop for that price. /overpriced
Have you seen the size of the device?
IMHO, those big-sized PDA's have not and will not be successful because they are too big to be as convienient as a palm-sized PDA but too small to be enjoy the benefits of a notebook.
So, in the end, it doesn't matter which OS it'll use... people won't like it and won't buy it.
Of course, it would have been nicer if their choice was Linux. OTOH my current Linux PDA (Zaurus) can't really be sync-ed with my Linux Desktop (unless i downgrade my ROM or use OpenZaurus, which is a mess in itself), whereas a WinCE one can ...
The Raven
The Fujitsu P1000 is lighter, smaller in all dimensions, has a larger screen, higher resulution, twice the memory, significantly more storage space (hard drive instead of 32mb flash), comparable battery life, also a touch screen, and it's even cheaper to boot too. Oh, and it runs Windows 2000 or XP instead of CE.NET, or potentially your alternative OS of choice if you spend enough effort in it.
There were many great things about Psion palmtops - their clamshell formfactors with actual usable keyboards, their lightweight power requirements (several days on a charge), and yes, their OS. The netBook/Series 7 really never did much for me - it was basically laptop sized, still ran EPOC/Symbian OS so it could (more or less) only run simple PDA style apps, and was, like this machine, expensive. I don't see why new Psion this is an improvement. I loved my Revo+, but it always seemed like Psion didn't know what they wanted their product to be or who their audience was. They killed their own products through simple lack of development.
I'd like to hear how useful most people find the more 'advanced' features in high end PDAs.
For me a PDA is does its job well as a electronic todo-list, calandar and address-book. Any lowend PDA has all of the features. So, is it really worth it pay the extra cash for a highend model?
The Netbook! It is, and always was, TOO BLOODY BIG.
I wish they would continue developing the Psion Series 5 line, which has the best small keyboard ever made. I'm being very careful with my last surviving 5mx, but nothing lasts forever.
I was really impressed by Epoc32 at the time (mid 1990s?) but I'd buy an updated Series 5 running anything - Linux, Symbian Quartz, MS Pocket PC - whatever. Just so long as they kept the keyboard. And fixed the stylus retainer!
I'm asking, actually curious if anyone has any insight.
I mean, it has an embedded processor, little memory, a small low-res screen, likely no graphic chip, no hard drive, smaller battery, etc. Every component is cheaper than what you'd find in the cheapest consumer notebook. And they aren't supporting consumers, so that cost is reduced.
My guess is that the R&D came mostly from a cheap/freely licenseable reference board.
Is this simply a function of economies of scale, the fact that their target audience is price insensitive or has few other options, or is there something else at play that I'm not seeing?
Jonathan
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!
A long long time ago, PDA's didn't have built-in cameras, or tiny keyboards, and wireless computing was holding the infrared port of your PDA an inch close to that of your cellphone, not Wi-Fi.
;-)
Can you remember? It was back when the hi-tech Palm to have was the Palm V but Palm IIIs were really the more affordable ones, it was also the height of the war between Palm and Psion. I decided I needed a PDA (I later found out I'm not rich and don't have the need, so I still don't have a PDA), and sampled each of the two big flavas (ooh), i.e. fold-out with keyboard and palm-likes, and found the fold-out kind to be vastly superior to the other, simply because input was made easier by the keyboard.
Even if you know Graffiti, it's a long way to input things. You have to make a movement with your pen. So you can use the virtual keyboard, which eats up half of your screen, but you can only touch one key then move to the other. But then when I used the fold-out PDAs (my preference wasn't towards a Psion but a clone by Ericsson), holding it with both hands in front of me walking on the street, I could type with both thumbs. All things considered, since a keyboard layout is extremely familiar, and since I had two input sticks (my thumbs) instead of only one on the palm, I quickly achieved a much faster input speed, with a bigger screen... I loved it.
Of course it depends on what you use it for. My use for PDA's was to jolt down ideas, so my emphasis was on what I could use to type in a lot of words. If you use it for scheduling, the palm-type might be better. Either way, Psion went out of business shortly thereafter and I always regretted their smart little devices. I know there have been others since then that have used the same basic layout (actually if I had to pick a device I'd probably pick a Hiptop), but my point is that I've always been nostalgic about Psion and it's good to see them back, even with Win installed.
I'm sure we'll see a NetBSD port before the week-end is over anyway, right?
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]
Ceterum censeo subscriptionem esse delendam.
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
...3 times better. Rather sad. I still have a working Psion II, streets ahead in its day. But Psion lost their way long ago. I didn't even make fun of my friend who bought a Netbook. There was no challenge in ridiculing such an easy target.
Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.