Slashdot Mirror
A Handheld for a Primary Computer?
fromtheblueline asks: "As the last of her children leaves the house for college, my mother is planning on ditching her desktop, cable internet and landline in attempts to simplify and reduce bills. She doesn't use her PC for anything more than occasional emails and online purchases and her cell phone has pretty much made her landline obsolete. She emails me asking if there is a handheld that could replace these devices. I don't own one, don't need one (my SE616 and Powerbook is plenty), and really never bothered to research one. A quick search for anything decent reveals prices close to, or over, a low end notebook. As for access, unless she searches for open wifi points, I can't imagine mobile service being anymore competitive than a cable/DSL line coming into a house. Any recommendations, Slashdot?"
If your mother has a bluetooth enabled cell phone, then with T-Mobile at least, she can get access to the internet for $20 a month (plus costs for regular services) through the cell phone and share that access with other bluetooth enabled devices (laptops, PDAs, etc). I guess she could check email and stuff on the phone too, though smartphones are kind of expensive right now and most cell phone screens are kind of small.
:)
I've used my PDA to check the web and email, but repsonding on it is a serious chore. She could just enable her desktop for bluetooth with a usb device.
I'm going on a road trip later this month and I plan to do that. Get a usb bluetooth enabler for my laptop and get the data service from T-Mobile. I guess it's partially the geek factor, but that's just cool to be able to connect to the internet almost anywhere I am. Check directions, road conditions, weather, lodging, food, etc. Plus, I still want to read slashdot
In times like these, it is helpful to remember that there have always been times like these. - Paul Harvey
I spent a couple of weeks using a modern (like less than 6 months old) PocketPC via 802.11b. My results were mixed. I used it for browsing Slashdot and reading the occasional email. Can't say I'd want to do a lot of heavy duty stuff with it, though. It didn't really understand the concept of doing more than one thing at a time. I don't mean multitasking, it did that quite well. I could only open one email at a time, or browse one page at a time, etc. That may not matter to you but it bugged the hell out of me. (not to mention that most sites didn't render on IE readably..)
If all she really does is type the occasional email, then a PocketPC + Bluetooth (using her phone to send the mail out...) + a keyboard for it may not be all that bad. But if she does anything more, she'll ache for her PC again.
"Derp de derp."
PDAs with VGA screens are expected in the next few months. These should make tasks such as browsing websites much easier. The Zaurus SL-6000 will a VGA screen. The Toshiba e800 already has one.
-------
Warning: Slashdot may contain traces of nuts.
If she already has a cellphone and plan, adding data service to it can be fairly cost effective. I know for a fact that T-Mobile offers unlimited GPRS for $20 a month if you have a $30 plan or greater - otherwise it's $30 a month. That right there is cheaper than broadband (and rightly so, it is slower of course). Verizon and others have similar plans, though most of them specify its for pda use - not laptops/etc. (which, if she gets a pda - won't invalidate the usage at all) [the idea is likely just a "you won't enjoy doing too many tasks at once on this connection"]
That said - your mother probably still wants a full keyboard/etc. to go with things - she certainly doesn't want to be writing emails with a stylus. So unless she's big on thumb typing - you shouldn't rule out anything just because it doesn't have a builtin keyboard. Clie's are fairly cost effective, and Palm has bluetooth connectivity built into palmos 5 and above - perhaps the clamshell clie with the camera/bluetooth/wifi - uw20? I don't know if that has a separate keyboard attachment though.
Keep in mind that she'll be getting a relatively small screen with whaever she does settle on, what specific bills is she saving on by getting rid of her desktop - that she couldn't just get a dialup account instead of broadband to avoid?
cyn, free software and *nix operating systems enthusiast.
I see three auctions on e-bay for Toshiba Libretto's at the moment, one of them for 8 50CT's that the seller is selling at $385US (each), plus $20 s/h.
Add a standard WiFi card, and it sounds like she would be set.
As an option, that I am not sure I would recomend, but you could "try", I happen to like my Sharp Zaurus SL-5500. I picked up a second one for $185 plus shipping (refurb) on e-bay around Christmas, I see that there are several buy it now's for between 199, and 265 available. It has a thumb keyboard, integrated e-mail, takes a standard cf type wifi adapter, upgrade the linux os and it will take the socket low power wifi adapter, and will take up even less space than the libretto. If she would rather have a fuller keyboard, you might want to search for a zaurus sl-c750, 760, or 860 (there's an 860 for $649 at the moment.)
These (and the Libretto) also have landscape mode displays, rather than the usual portriat of most pdas.
My primary concerns with the 5500 are the display (portrait quarter vga) and the keyboard. The display can be rotated, but not all apps like the rotated mode, web browsing should be fine though.
e-mail clients are built into the Zaurus. I won't claim it's the best out there, but it is workable.
-Rusty
You never know...
WinCE devices aren't designed to run solo, they have to have a "partnership" with a "host" to do things like install software. I had an iPaq for a week before the cradle arrived, and I was trying to install the drivers for the CF wireless card. I had the Dual-CF sleeve for it, with the ma701 in the top slot and a 64-meg flash card in the bottom slot.
.exe file which then loads the drivers onto the portable via the sync cable. Whose assinine idea was this? (don't answer, I already know!)
:)
I figured I could download the driver package and load it onto the CF card at a desktop machine with a reader, then move the CF over to the ipaq, unpack it, and install it. No such luck. The driver ships as a win32
Not that I would've wanted to use an iPaq as my primary machine anyway, even with a foldup keyboard, the screen's too small and the viewing angle is terrible. However, there are a pair of WinCE devices I could imagine using as an everyday machine: The IBM Workpad z50, and the Vadem Clio (a.k.a. Sharp Tripad) are both laptop-style PDAs, with a clamshell hinge and a full size keyboard. They both have real PCMCIA slots, CF slots, hardware serial ports, and VGA screens. Both of them get approximately 8 hours on a battery, and the z50 is available with a double-capacity battery which honestly, realistically does get 16 hours.
Because of the WinCE codependency problem mentioned above, they're both unable to survive without occasional connection to a desktop for certain tasks. The easy solution is to ditch WinCE and run the hpcmips port of NetBSD, which boots on both of them. With a decent-sized CF card you can have a full development environment and not even need someone to cross-compile for you. That's definitely enough to be self-sufficient.
Full keyboard, harware serial port, and 8 hours on a charge. That's a recipe for "portable serial console" if I ever heard one. Oh yeah, it also happens to be a full-fledged NetBSD machine.