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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."
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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.
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!
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