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?

Comments

Palm Zire 72

[Steev]

With a 1.2 MP camera, and the ability to play OGG Vorbis, the Palm Zire 72 and my 512 meg SD card will last me for a while. Especially with the new Wi-Fi SDIO cards coming out.

Interface

[El_Ehmenopio]

I've always wanted solar power on a pda. The battery requirements would be a little mroe forgiving. Oh, and the ability to firstpost!

Re:Interface

[AnyoneEB]

I've always wanted solar power on a pda. The battery requirements would be a little mroe forgiving.

That would be a problem because in my experience direct sunlight makes the screens of PDAs (grayscale and color) appear faded and difficult to read. I have a feeling that the indirect light the PDA recives on what little space is not covered by the screen or the user's hand would have almost no effect on the battery life and would waste weight and bulk better spent on... a better rechargeable battery?

I'm not sure what problems you've had with battery life, but on a recent PDA with a rechargeable battery and a color screen, you don't have to worry about data loss because the color screen takes so much power compared to the RAM that when the screen won't turn on the RAM may last for as long as a few weeks.

Easy

[sabinm]

Modularization. I don't care what other peoples' palmtops can do. I want modules. Bluetooth. Storage. WiFi. TriCorder. I want the modules small and hard to break. I want them easy to install. I don't want to wait for drivers. I want open specs and the ability to hack.

Any takers?

Re:Easy

[Trejkaz]

I like the idea of external modules. Why build a camera into a PDA, when you can build Bluetooth into the PDA, and Bluetooth into a camera? The two will then be able to talk. Why build a phone into a PDA, when again, you could just talk remotely? And of course, we're already seeing the beginnings of this. Phone to PDA is pretty common, Bluetooth GPS systems are starting to emerge. How long for Bluetooth storage, I wonder?

The only thing which doesn't really fit into this ideal is the wifi, due to the bandwidth difference between the two. Who knows, maybe there will be a Bluetooth2 one day which fixes this relatively minor issue.

Subnotebooks? Where?

[MSTCrow5429]

You know, here, in the US, the subnotebooks never really took off as far as I can tell. I see mostly medium-sized to desktop replacement size notebooks. The only time I've seen a subnotebook was at those chain stores. Are there any Slashdotter's in the US who use or have seen a good number of subnotebooks? Are there Slashdotters from other countries who believe subnotebooks are much more prevalent than they appear to be here?

all in one.

[binarybum]

screen big enough with high enough res to watch video

processor that can playback smooth divx at decent framerate

GPS

bluetooth

acts as cellphone with bluetooth headset

wi-fi

rugged, can take a beating including static from my pant

SDIO

Re:all in one.

[ThisNukes4u]

Good, but add to that list: waterproof. I have lost soo many devices to accidential spills. And I love kyaiking and offroading in wet weather, so if it was waterproof I could take my mini-computer along too.

The device isn't usually the issue for me

[sjbe]

I am the happy owner of a palm tungsten t3. The only things I would change about it is that I would like some sort of mini keyboard, ala the Sharp Zaurus (not sure how on the T3 form factor tho), better battery life and perhaps slightly better resolution. (though it isn't bad as is) I like the digital ink sketchpad, though I'd like it to have better resolution. Bluetooth is essential as far as I'm concerned and a voice recorder is handy. Otherwise the T3 is about exactly what I want. The Sharp Zaurus would be damn good too if it were so expensive and the software was better.

No, the problem I have with most PDAs is the software on the computer side of things. I use Mozilla/Thunderbird for my email but syncing to anything but Outlook/Notes is a painful exercise if it is possible at all. (Yes I've used the Palm sync in Mozilla and it is barely adequate at best, and no I'm not switching email apps as Outlook/Evolution/Eudora/Pine/whatever don't fit my needs) Even when you can sync to a third party app, forget syncing applications besides an address book and maybe calendar. Sunbird still doesn't support any mobile devices and isn't likely to anytime soon. None of the address book applications can talk to each other in any meaningful way. Would it really be so hard to sync to Palm Desktop AND Thunderbird at the same time? And forget trying to keep my palm and phone syncronized along with my address book, (Mobile Master does an ok job but not perfect) I've tried every application out there to do this (Oxygen, Mobile Master, etc) and none of them are more than band-aid fixes.

What I want is for these applications (particularly address books and calendars) to be able to speak to one another. There is no reason I shouldn't be able to sync to 5 different address books, palm desktop, nokia phone editor and my cell phone at the same time.

Far off, but going to happen

[Phat_Tony]

Mod me off topic, but I don't want a palmtop.

They're inconvenient. I want a wristwatch with:
A cell phone
A fast two-way data connection
A computer with at least 1GB of storage
A GPS
Altimeter, Thermometer, barometer

Being a watch, the interface would be verbal from me to the watch, and a high-resolution screen built into (and superimposed inside the lenses of) a pair of glasses for the interface from the watch to me.

ie, "Watch- what time is my appointment with Bill?"
"Where do I turn to get to the nearest Wendy's, and how far is it?"
"Read me the headlines from Slashdot," etc.

Thus, I will be waiting for several (many?) years.

Need a Microsoft Treo 655+

[aardwolf204]

Treo 650, but with Windows Mobile edition and GPS if thats not pushing it. Yes, I know, this is /., bring on the mods, but seriously this is what I would love.

Pocket outlook would be great for the exchange server my company uses

Terminal Services would be great for administrating my company's exchange server

Pocket Internet explorer is great for those spur of the moment wikipedia lookups, not to mention slashdot and company.

Pocket Streets would be great if the device had GPS, and even better if I can plot a waypoint when GeoCaching

Windows Media player would be great for MP3s on the SD card, however I think there is a winamp port which would be even cooler but to save memory I'm sure WMP would work just fine.

AIM, Yahoo, ICQ, etc...

Oh yeah, and a phone, that would rock.

Pocket word and excel arent that important, if I recieve an attached document I'm probably not going to edit it on a 2" screen but its nice that its there.

Sure, I've got an eTrex for GPS / GeoCaching, and an iPod for music, and a cellphone for calls, and a pocket pc for email, web, and term svc when needed, but put all those in my pockets, including th cables to link ipaq to phone, and gps to ipaq, not to mention the spiffy white earbuds that are always tangled, and I've completely run out of pocket space.

Basically, what I want to do is have all my toys with me but not need a scott-e-vest (OT: Live long and prosper scotty:)

Now if my company was using open-xchange and I needed VNC not terminal services and any imap client would work fine then forget the MS platform and just give me a Treo 650 with GPS.

PS: My next toy is going to be a Treo 650 anyway, I'll live just fine an imap client and cross my fingers using VNC on a 144kbps sprint pcs data connection. Hows the battery life treo users?

Re:Cheap but kickass: eMate revisited

[commodoresloat]

Ditto. In terms of form factor I want it to be like the old eMate that ran NewtonOS. Sturdy plastic that you can drop on the floor, a modern processor and OS -- not too modern; a reasonably fast running Arm with PalmOS will do it for me, or some kind of stripped down unix. The option of a greyscale screen -- sure, have color for the higher end model, but give me a low end greyscale screen for $200-400. Basic text editing and internet applications, the ability to create limited office-like applications with easy transfer to MS Office or OpenOffice, ssh, a basic web browser, wifi, about a gig or two of memory; perhaps less; firewire or usb; perhaps a smartcard reader (tho I prefer usb and attach your own). A decent enough screen for reading and writing -- contrast like those sony ebooks I have seen would be nice; true black n white. A keyboard that isn't too small and isn't loud at all (again like the emate). And it should look cool and be about 1-2 lbs. If it comes in different colors and runs a stripped down version of OS X I wouldn't be upset at all either :) Cool thing about the emate was the screen folded out so you could write on it and you could rotate the display so you could look at it from different angles. Perfect for writing, taking notes in lectures, doing limited web and internet work, creating web pages, posting to slashdot, etc. on-the-go. When it's not in use just fold it closed; it should have instant on when I open it up. And some basic calendar and address book software that syncs to my computer would be nice too; again PalmOS has most of what I would need here, though something more modern would be great. An updated NewtonOS would be even nicer, but now I am really dreaming....