Palm Pilot with Hard Drive

Russ Steffen writes "TRG, Inc, a maker of PalmPilot accessories has announced an interesting Palm clone. The TRGpro is similar to a normal Palm IIIx (OS3.3, 8MB RAM) with one major exception: it has a compact flash (CF) port. This means that only can you have more than 96MB of non-volatile memory in this thing, you can also have a 340MB IBM microdirve. Other interesting add-ons that can interface through a CF slot include a bar-code reader, a super-small v.90 modem, ethernet and a high-speed serial port."

Comments

Review of the TRGPro

[hal-j]

PalmStation has a hands on review of the TRGPro (The device in question here). Check it out here
-Hal

This is exactly my point

[FascDot Killed My Pr]

This kind of thing is EXACTLY why I don't think network computers will ever get anywhere. (yes, I realize the Palm is not an NC--this is an analogy)

First you have the Palm. Then you add a modem. Then a bunch more RAM. Then arbitrary peripherals. Then color. Now a hard drive. Each of these adds complexity, size and cost--all of which are anti-thetical to the purpose of the original Palm.

As long as people continue to think "more is better" the network computer (and similar devices) will not last longer than it takes to fall down this slippery slope.

The correct mindset for this kind of device is exemplified by a (paraphrased) quote from Ton (last name?), the creator of Blender: "My favorite activity is taking code out of Blender."
---

Your pocket supercomputer...

[kcarnold]

is what the Palm seems to be heading for (I say supercomputer in the general sense, not just in the processor). But it can't be. Look at the niche here. Let's do a quick laptop vs. handheld computer comparison (I will use Palms, but most of it applies to any handheld computer):

• Laptops are super-fast, just a little slower than the desktops. Palms hit 33 mHZ last I checked, and it doesn't look like they'll get much faster. (There goes all of your ideas about playing MP3s with the hard drive)
• Palms are tiny. Laptops are just small. (See next two items.
• Laptops have a decent keyboard. You can type a research paper on them easily. There are fold-out-type keyboards for the Palm line (and the CEs), but it's not the same as having a full-sized keyboard.
• Some of the newer laptops have awesome LCD displays that make me drool. Laptops have been color for a long time, and DV on the new screens looks great. They are just now getting color into the Palm line, and that's going to hinder it a lot (battery life especially, but probably weight and speed will be issues as well). And that still doesn't solve the problem of them being tiny; I like to be able to see at least half a page of my letter at a time without squinting or using a magnifying glass '-(. And try playing DV on them.
• Some swear by one, some swear by the other, some swear by wierd stuff, and some, like me, don't care, but there are basically two types of screen-positional input (read: mouse) on laptops: trackpad and integrated mouse ball. I haven't seen a laptop with a touch screen; maybe there is one. Palms have touch screens with those sleek-looking styluses (is that the correct plural?). But no mouse (pardon my grammar). Accordingly, Palms have handwriting recognition, Graffiti. Some people have better luck with Graffiti than others. To me, it's more like writing on paper than typing is.
• If there are any more aspects that I missed, feel free to reply to this message

There is obviously a different niche for these two classes of devices. One cannot reasonably expect to enter the realm of the other successfully. If the Palm becomes too bloated with all these extra features, I'd rathar just dump it and buy a laptop, especially with some of the advantages that I mentioned above. But you still can't beat carrying it in your pocket. There is only so much you can fit into that little package without making it bigger (and therefore not fit in your pocket anymore).

Please, guys, keep the palm in Palm, and the lap in laptop. ("Notebook" is a better term, when it is clear that you are referring to the size of the computer. Good luck getting a real notebook to run Linux :-)

Kenneth Arnold

PS - I want a laptop. Badly.
Real PS - My sig is stupid. I'm changing it as soon as I sumbit this.