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Palmtop Nirvana?
cakefool asks: "There seems to be a Slashdot article every day about a new palmtop/subnotebook/digitalwhoojerammy, and without fail people complain it doesn't have what they want. Let's do this the other way around - what do you need in a handheld computing device, seriously? I ummed and ahhed for ages before finally ordering a Psion 5mx, and it does everything I need it to, other than play Doom(1), and is a hell of a lot cheaper than the JVC micronotebook, and smaller than a budget laptop, with a much longer battery life than both." What features do you look for in a handheld/palmtop computing device?
Sharp Velo 500, but it would be better with a PCMCIA Slot or some other sort of WiFi. IrDA is a joke, and the 115k serial connector is just another wire I don't need.
Make America grate again!
Yeah and they're all ads for handtops.com from CaptainJam. Check out his profile. He's had three handtop submissions accepted in the last two weeks. The Captain has authored all the articles on the main page of handtops.com as well. It's clear to me that handtops.com belongs to the recently registered (UID 802805 and his first post came the day after his first submission.) CaptainJam of Slashdot.org and that his submissions are a way to drive traffic to his new site. Come clean CaptainJam.
Support the First Amendment. Read at -1
Clie TH55 does it all except for the price, I own one and is close to perfection, shame on sony for they ridiculous decision of droping the US market...
built in wifi
bundled with documents to go, it opens native office documents.
built in 640*480 camera
built in voice recorder
The Clie Organizer is the best integrated PIM of the entire palm arena.
Is not a phone, but if someone develops the app, it could be used as a voip phone
Integrated flash player, pdf viewer etc.
Memory Stick pro
price around $320 new
battery life is the best of its category (at least 3x the T3)
NEOCA - Custom LED Flashlights
PDA power requirements far exceed what solar power can deliver. You can power a basic scientific calculator with solar power but not a PDA.
Phones suck at input and display. PDAs suck too, but not as badly. Different devices are good at different things. I personally have:
a phone (small, interface poor, low power)
palm (slightly larger, interface ok, lowish power)
Laptop (Large, interface good, medium power)
desktop (Huge, interface great, high power).
I don't see myself changing this general configuration any time soon, althouth I may change the individual devices.
meh
Yes, in fact, it is. Three-way synchronization is exceedingly difficult to manage and get right. It's much better to simply have a single host-side database to synchronize against, and simply have each application use it for their data storage. Having three different calendar applications each with their own unique databases and ways to correlate their records with the records on the other PIMs and then trying to synchronize the three is often disasterous.
If all of the synchronizations are two-way, for N applications you need to run through N! synchronizations. And with each application having its own data format, and then having to correlate each record with its matching record (IF it's present) in the other application -- well, we're talking about quite a lot of complexity.
A simple two-way synchronization is difficult enough -- just take a look at how many existing conduits regularily get things wrong (it doesn't help that most calendars also have different mechanisms for handling repeating entries, but don't get me started on THAT subject...).
If anyone is interested in writing some decent Mozilla PalmOS sync code, go and take a look at the jSyncManager. It's an Open Source, pure Java PalmOS data synchronization solution which, as it has its own protocol stacks, runs on any Java-enabled platform, and has its own Java-based jConduit plug-in specification. A Mozilla jConduit set could run the same on Windows, MacOS, Linux, OS/2, and every other Mozilla supported environment with little (or no) code modification.
(We do have an outstanding RFE to add Mozilla sync facilities, but we don't have the developer resources to do this. The project has two developers who regularily work on the code base, and most of our time is spent working on the jSyncManager itself. So if there are any Open Source Java developers out there who want to tackle this problem, let me know -- we'd love to have you aboard).
Brad BARCLAY
Lead Developer & Project Administrator,
The jSyncManager Project
No really. If you need a PDA, and you're a Linux geek like me, get one of these.
Yes, the default half-translated rom sucks. It'll at least let you boot the system and see the beautiful 640x480 screen though. An amazing sight to behold at over 200dpi. After you're done drooling, go get pdaXrom, follow the instructions, and get yourself a real desktop. Here's what mine looks like, using ROX as the desktop manager (with a nice .hack//SIGN wallpaper I found someplace). You have a number of choices, but I use (prepackaged) gvim as my editor, and sylpheed for mail (pretty much the same as my actual desktop!). You can use FireFox and Thunderbird for web/email if you really want (check the screenshots for more drooling material). I use the little Dillo browser personally, because it's ultra fast, but the choice is yours.
No, it doesn't have builtin wifi. It does have a CF slot so you can stick your own card in there, and doing so hasn't annoyed me yet. The biggest benefit (besides the amazing screen, keyboard, ability to use X, and general design) is the battery lasts quite awhile. I charged it last Friday (before PAX... where were you?), and it's only just down to 50% with "regular use". (On my old 5500, I'd have to charge it every day or so with the same use, and that's without wifi.)
This makes a killer PDA. It does most things a small Linux laptop would, and it fits in your pocket. If that's what you need, this delivers.
Don't think of it as a flame---it's more like an argument that does 3d6 fire damage
Why don't they just make a screen that can change size.. so when you want a tiny pda you have it, and if you wanna look at big spread sheets or watch movies you just have to expand the screen..
You mean, like this??? The T3's been around for almost a year now, it's not like it's new technology!
This isn't trolling, but a serious observation made by me (a Brit who lived in LA for 6/7 months or so).
In the UK, subnotebooks are very popular. I'm not sure why, but they've really caught on with the public over here. They're incredibly convenient (most are smaller/lighter than a hardback book, and 1ghz+ fast), and now boast features that really turn heads. Such as the new Sony Vaio that's under 1cm thick (has a motherboard the size of a minidisc), or the tiny JVCs. I was in a shop on Tottenham Court Road in London (tech centre of London), looking at them. Great stuff.
How about this Vr3 (http://www.softfield.com/vr3.html) cheap at 100$ and runs linux!
Actually, many versions of solitare can be played with more than one player.
I need a sig.
I don't think self-winding provides much power. The battery in my last digital watch lasted 2 years, so it doesn't take much energy to run a watch. I now own a self-winding watch (Fossil Aut-o-matic Signature), and if I don't wear it for 2 days it runs out of power.
Power off before disconnecting connecting connector. Seen on a cash register
X30 already has integrated Bluetooth and 802.11b. I've got a 624mhz. VGA would be nice, as would the dual-slot (SD/CF) feature. What I'd really like is something akin to that but with more on-board storage (~20gb micro drive like ipods?), built-in GPS receiver and GPRS, cellular phone capabilities, a mini- usb or firewire port for peripherals, and of course a kitchen sink. For $400.
I'm using a Treo 600 on Verizon. Yeah, as a .Net developer I hated giving up my iPaq.
palmVNC works great at 150kbs. Certainly not what you could call "fast" but combined with UltraVNC on the server side you can scale the resolution (again, server-side) and it's usable.
http://palmvnc2.free.fr/
VeriChat does AIM, Y!, MSN, and ICQ. Works great and by using SMS you appear always online. The phone vibrates (or plays a sound) when you get an IM, even if you aren't in VeriChat, or even if it's turned off.
http://pdaapps.com/verichat/index.html
An extra feature: PalmNet and a USB cable allow you to get a 150 kbps connection with your laptop anywhere in the US. Worked out great for me, I just moved and PacBell screwed up my DSL line. PalmNet is my only Intenet connection right now.
http://www.junefabrics.com/palmnet/
There is an MP3 player (pTunes) but I have an iPod so I don't use it. There is a built in web browser (Blazer) that is decent. I use it frequently. No email client - some carriers give you one, Verizon didn't. I bought Snapper Mail:
http://www.snappermail.com/palm/email/
There is a GPS add on too. I might try it out one of these days. It would be nice if it was built in, but it would probably make the Treo too big.
The battery sucks. I have a charger at work, at home, and in the car. Used extensivly (phone calls, VNC sessions, lots of web browsing, etc.) I can make it one day, just barely, using just the home charger. Used REALLY heavily I don't even make it one day, I have to charge it on the way home, or during the day.
The screen sucks too. Not the resolution, I can deal with that. But in direct daylight it's very hard to see.
The keyboard is brilliant. I'll never use another type form-factor PDA again. When HP comes out with an iPaq that has this type of keyboard (and a built in phone) then I'll switch back to PocketPC. And yes, I've seen the latest iPaq with the snap on keyboard, I don't think that's going to be good enough.
I would say go for it now, who knows when the phone carriers will have the 650. It took Verizon over a year to get the 600.
tbdean