...and you can't get 110s or 130s (not to mention 101s) at all.
Seriously, private car importation rules for the US are absurd. The DOT wants you to replace all the glass, and then bring in two extras just for crash testing.
Personally I'd rather be able to buy a new Land Rover Defender, or better, import a 10-year old used one. Most of the devices on the list are easy enough to smuggle in.
At least people are talking about this one - I never heard about the 770 till it was end-of-life. I might even buy one instead of whatever Apple product might or might not be coming out in November/December/Someday.
I have a 770, and it's great. The screen is beautiful, the OS is acceptable. It plays movies, mp3s, has a fine Linux terminal, tho you don't have to know it's running Linux if you don't want to. Bluetooth keyboard works fine (better with this than with the Palm I bought it for). Got it on Woot for $125. Used it for an art project for Burning Man. I'd have paid $500+ if it was exactly the same but ran embedded OSX instead.
Biggest problem: custom, expensive memory chips (MMC Mobile, which as far as I can tell are only used by Nokia, 2gb max, $50). It doesn't need a hard drive but if it's going to play music I need at least 8GB, movies as much as I can get. Could be a lot faster, too, but I would expect that to be fixed in later versions.
I have a 770, and it's great. The screen is beautiful, the OS is acceptable. It plays movies, mp3s, has a fine Linux terminal, tho you don't have to know it's running Linux if you don't want to. Bluetooth keyboard works fine (better with this than with the Palm I bought it for). Got it on Woot for $125. Used it for an art project for Burning Man. I'd have paid $500+ if it was exactly the same but ran embedded OSX instead.
Biggest problem: custom, expensive memory chips (MMC Mobile, which as far as I can tell are only used by Nokia, 2gb max, $50). It doesn't need a hard drive but if it's going to play music I need at least 8GB, movies as much as I can get. Could be a lot faster, too, but I would expect that to be fixed in later versions.
That said, I sincerely hope the rumors are true. I also had several of the Newtons, and loved them. Their biggest problem with the 2100 was connectivity - instead of the silly interconnect port, they could have given it a USB port, and made the sync software work properly. If they'd kept up development by now we'd have a fine color screen, many GB of memory, movies, mp3s, etc. My MacBook is great - but I can't be bothered to schlepp it back and forth to work with me (I keep an iBook G3 on my desk as an MP3 player). I do think that referring to it as "Newton II" is the surest way to kill the project completely - just hope Steve doesn't read that part of the Internet.
The one other feature I'd like added is what they were calling "Home on iPod" which apparently worked but was never released. When I dock my palmtop, I'd like it to act as my home folder, and store preferences and a few documents. Of course this argues that I'll need a bunch more memory.
(I tried to make a comment on his site but it appears to accept comments and discard them.)
0. Verizon, or preferably carrier-independent 1. More OSX apps 2. Pocket Quicken 3. GPS 4. Bluetooth keyboard compatibility 5. Combo stereo headset/microphone for mp3s or phonecalls. 6. Bluetooth sync 7. More memory. 80GB should be fine. 8. Development kit (or development tools with XCode/Mac).
Basically I need it to be equal to or better in functionality to my 4-year-old Treo 650.
The good news is that (if you believe the OP) the Indian software developer community is concentrating all its efforts on Windows. Which means, plenty of open source work left for us here in the western hemisphere. Besides which, they're digging themselves into a trench. Windows development is so ten years ago; open source and web-platform development (mutter mutter iphone mutter mutter) is the future. That being said, perhaps the poster's best path would be open source software evangelism in his local area?
It's not enough that the software that schools buy should be free open source - all the textbooks and educational materials should be as well. Textbook companies make a killing selling mediocre books to school districts, college students, etc at inflated prices. If the students have laptops, why not make all their books fit on them, for free, and openly editable (wiki-style or better) as well? Handouts, presentations, even reports by other students (fine, put 'em in a free database for plagiarism checking).
Since the house has been gutted, you can install an entire system of pneumatic tubes, one to each room. Send a sandwich from the kitchen to the garage; send your laundry directly to the laundry room.
Electric trains running from room to room along the crown moulding, and through tunnels in the walls.
No, I'm aware of that. That's why I'm suggesting that if the smart power strip the TV and computer are connected to is "standby", then only its small trickle is actually drawing current, and that's not much - like probably about how much their power button lights (usually incandescent when they could be LED) are using now.
Sure, it would be fine if the whole house had two separate circuits, like most cars - one that was always on, and one that was only on when selected; but that would mean a whole other wire to every socket in the house. Easier to replace the sockets and switches, easier still to replace power strips.
The other thing that would have to change, is devices would have to be smarter on power-down - my cable modem for example would have to be smart enough to connect quickly and properly when it's power-cycled.
I'm not in my home all day, and I'm asleep all night. Clocks, fridge, and fishtank (and heat/cooling, but that's a whole other issue) and a few wall wart chargers need to stay on all the time; everything else could automatically be shut into no-power mode. This could be done with smart wall switches and sockets/power strips. I'd feel better knowing everything was shut down that could be - and I'd be saving money and power.
I've noticed that most office buildings I've been in are gross power wasters. Lots of lights on when they're not needed. Space heaters, because the building thermostats weren't adjusted/engineered properly. A/C that runs all weekend. Bathroom and hallway lights that are on 24x7.
I'm just suggesting that the control systems in both home and work environments could be improved to reduce waste. Like reducing "recycling" by suggesting that people don't need to buy so much stuff to begin with.
My grandmother used to praise me for being a great "light turner-offer".
In addition to replacing light bulbs (personally I'd rather wait for better LEDs), why not have more automated light switches, that turn themselves on and off as necessary, when there are people in the room? The sensor technology for these still has a way to go, but 20 years ago I replaced bathroom light switches with motion-activated ones, and except for the occasional waving-hands-wildly-from-the-toilet episode, they've been great. Now I'm living in rentals and they don't offer this (or much of anything in the way of energy savings, even tho I'm the one paying the electricity bills).
Now if I could only afford to convert my Pinzgauer to biodiesel...
Thus we have the inherent problem of most, if not all DRM - it makes things harder and more annoying for legitimate users, while crackers/thieves/mass copiers will easily find a way around it.
Personally I have less of a moral problem "stealing" things that are locked down, than things that are opened up. I pay for shareware and most of my entertainment. But having to jump through hoops to run Windows? That's why I recommend Unix or MacOSX. That and the fact that they're so superior.
Maybe Microsoft could spent more time properly engineering their software in the first place to make it worth buying, and less time trying to keep legitimate owners from "stealing" it?
Our company has Dell machines with the reg code right on the side. Since Windows gets garbaged up on a regular basis, it's necessary to reinstall. Who knows where our original discs went, but I've got Windows 2000 discs (don't dare to use XP, especially since it's of no benefit) - but they don't recognize the Dell serial number. So I log on to the net, find a pirate serial number, and the rest of the install goes fine. We freaking own these machines, and licences for them. And by the way, the cd rom drives had been updated to cdrw but the machine didn't know how to boot off those. And some brilliant engineer had the idea to reformat the machines by sticking working hard drives from other (same exact model) machines, of course that didn't work either.
Meanwhile, on my Macs, I'm continuing to be productive. No serial numbers necessary. Hard drive swap works. Any cd I plug in just works, no drivers. And no looking up install/driver/whatever procedures on arcane Linux/BSD sites either.
Doesn't work with Verizon (or Sprint, or any other standard carriers, apparently).
Probably doesn't have dialtone, or generate DTMF through the speaker when dialing. It's a very simple software solution - make it work like a standard landline phone.
Also appears to be too small - even the "large buttons" are small.
This is a HUGE market, and keeps getting bigger every day. There are some hardware solutions, but. The Verizon store has somewhere around 20 phones on the shelf - all nearly the same thing - same interface, same buttons with no tactile response, (except the Treo, which I have and love). Nothing that's remotely acceptable for a non-technical elderly person.
They should be displaying these in the store. While we were there two other people came in looking for the exact same thing.
"Looking for more customers, the company did extensive market research in poor countries."
Why not look right here at home? Went shopping this weekend at Verizon for a cellphone for my elderly father-in-law. They don't sell any phones (there) that are a little larger, with a decent-sized display, simple full-sized buttons, and a simple "drop-in" charger like a home wireless phone. There's a massive market for old people - all of our parents - who are still out and about (or in our case, being shuttled from nursing home to hospital to doctor's office) and we'd like to keep in contact with. Most of them have money - if you can afford to visit the doctor you can afford a cellphone.
While they're at in, provide a simple interface for speed dial numbers, a dial tone when you pick up the phone, and dialing and disconnecting without having to use the "send" and "end" buttons - make them work like the landline phones these people are used to.
Finally, it's no good if only one carrier has this. Every carrier with "friends and family" has people with elderly family members that need phones.
The article doesn't mention that the main competition for both companies is Microsoft and Sony. Both of which companies tend to treat their users as suspected pirates rather than respected customers.
Slashdot Mirror
...and you can't get 110s or 130s (not to mention 101s) at all.
Seriously, private car importation rules for the US are absurd. The DOT wants you to replace all the glass, and then bring in two extras just for crash testing.
Precisely; in the UK they're closer to $5k.
Personally I'd rather be able to buy a new Land Rover Defender, or better, import a 10-year old used one. Most of the devices on the list are easy enough to smuggle in.
Why spend $15000+ for a (BMW|Harley|Ducati) motorcycle when you can get a Hyundai econobox for $12000?
At least people are talking about this one - I never heard about the 770 till it was end-of-life. I might even buy one instead of whatever Apple product might or might not be coming out in November/December/Someday.
( http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=311919&cid=20788059 )
I have a 770, and it's great. The screen is beautiful, the OS is acceptable. It plays movies, mp3s, has a fine Linux terminal, tho you don't have to know it's running Linux if you don't want to. Bluetooth keyboard works fine (better with this than with the Palm I bought it for). Got it on Woot for $125. Used it for an art project for Burning Man. I'd have paid $500+ if it was exactly the same but ran embedded OSX instead.
Biggest problem: custom, expensive memory chips (MMC Mobile, which as far as I can tell are only used by Nokia, 2gb max, $50). It doesn't need a hard drive but if it's going to play music I need at least 8GB, movies as much as I can get. Could be a lot faster, too, but I would expect that to be fixed in later versions.
Or install VNC client and log in to a server from your palm!
I have a 770, and it's great. The screen is beautiful, the OS is acceptable. It plays movies, mp3s, has a fine Linux terminal, tho you don't have to know it's running Linux if you don't want to. Bluetooth keyboard works fine (better with this than with the Palm I bought it for). Got it on Woot for $125. Used it for an art project for Burning Man. I'd have paid $500+ if it was exactly the same but ran embedded OSX instead.
Biggest problem: custom, expensive memory chips (MMC Mobile, which as far as I can tell are only used by Nokia, 2gb max, $50). It doesn't need a hard drive but if it's going to play music I need at least 8GB, movies as much as I can get. Could be a lot faster, too, but I would expect that to be fixed in later versions.
That said, I sincerely hope the rumors are true. I also had several of the Newtons, and loved them. Their biggest problem with the 2100 was connectivity - instead of the silly interconnect port, they could have given it a USB port, and made the sync software work properly. If they'd kept up development by now we'd have a fine color screen, many GB of memory, movies, mp3s, etc. My MacBook is great - but I can't be bothered to schlepp it back and forth to work with me (I keep an iBook G3 on my desk as an MP3 player). I do think that referring to it as "Newton II" is the surest way to kill the project completely - just hope Steve doesn't read that part of the Internet.
The one other feature I'd like added is what they were calling "Home on iPod" which apparently worked but was never released. When I dock my palmtop, I'd like it to act as my home folder, and store preferences and a few documents. Of course this argues that I'll need a bunch more memory.
(I tried to make a comment on his site but it appears to accept comments and discard them.)
0. Verizon, or preferably carrier-independent
1. More OSX apps
2. Pocket Quicken
3. GPS
4. Bluetooth keyboard compatibility
5. Combo stereo headset/microphone for mp3s or phonecalls.
6. Bluetooth sync
7. More memory. 80GB should be fine.
8. Development kit (or development tools with XCode/Mac).
Basically I need it to be equal to or better in functionality to my 4-year-old Treo 650.
Someone should report this to the Handicapper General.
"Imagine something like Colorado covered in metropolitan area. "
The eastern half of Colorado is the plains, sloped very gently to the east. Denver, for example, is not in the mountains.
I think it depends; how many Brazilians are in a gazillion?
The good news is that (if you believe the OP) the Indian software developer community is concentrating all its efforts on Windows. Which means, plenty of open source work left for us here in the western hemisphere. Besides which, they're digging themselves into a trench. Windows development is so ten years ago; open source and web-platform development (mutter mutter iphone mutter mutter) is the future. That being said, perhaps the poster's best path would be open source software evangelism in his local area?
It's not enough that the software that schools buy should be free open source - all the textbooks and educational materials should be as well. Textbook companies make a killing selling mediocre books to school districts, college students, etc at inflated prices. If the students have laptops, why not make all their books fit on them, for free, and openly editable (wiki-style or better) as well? Handouts, presentations, even reports by other students (fine, put 'em in a free database for plagiarism checking).
Since the house has been gutted, you can install an entire system of pneumatic tubes, one to each room. Send a sandwich from the kitchen to the garage; send your laundry directly to the laundry room.
Electric trains running from room to room along the crown moulding, and through tunnels in the walls.
Lift-off computer room floor in the living room.
Underfloor fishtanks.
No, I'm aware of that. That's why I'm suggesting that if the smart power strip the TV and computer are connected to is "standby", then only its small trickle is actually drawing current, and that's not much - like probably about how much their power button lights (usually incandescent when they could be LED) are using now.
Sure, it would be fine if the whole house had two separate circuits, like most cars - one that was always on, and one that was only on when selected; but that would mean a whole other wire to every socket in the house. Easier to replace the sockets and switches, easier still to replace power strips.
The other thing that would have to change, is devices would have to be smarter on power-down - my cable modem for example would have to be smart enough to connect quickly and properly when it's power-cycled.
I'm not in my home all day, and I'm asleep all night. Clocks, fridge, and fishtank (and heat/cooling, but that's a whole other issue) and a few wall wart chargers need to stay on all the time; everything else could automatically be shut into no-power mode. This could be done with smart wall switches and sockets/power strips. I'd feel better knowing everything was shut down that could be - and I'd be saving money and power.
I've noticed that most office buildings I've been in are gross power wasters. Lots of lights on when they're not needed. Space heaters, because the building thermostats weren't adjusted/engineered properly. A/C that runs all weekend. Bathroom and hallway lights that are on 24x7.
I'm just suggesting that the control systems in both home and work environments could be improved to reduce waste. Like reducing "recycling" by suggesting that people don't need to buy so much stuff to begin with.
My grandmother used to praise me for being a great "light turner-offer".
In addition to replacing light bulbs (personally I'd rather wait for better LEDs), why not have more automated light switches, that turn themselves on and off as necessary, when there are people in the room? The sensor technology for these still has a way to go, but 20 years ago I replaced bathroom light switches with motion-activated ones, and except for the occasional waving-hands-wildly-from-the-toilet episode, they've been great. Now I'm living in rentals and they don't offer this (or much of anything in the way of energy savings, even tho I'm the one paying the electricity bills).
Now if I could only afford to convert my Pinzgauer to biodiesel...
Thus we have the inherent problem of most, if not all DRM - it makes things harder and more annoying for legitimate users, while crackers/thieves/mass copiers will easily find a way around it.
Personally I have less of a moral problem "stealing" things that are locked down, than things that are opened up. I pay for shareware and most of my entertainment. But having to jump through hoops to run Windows? That's why I recommend Unix or MacOSX. That and the fact that they're so superior.
Maybe Microsoft could spent more time properly engineering their software in the first place to make it worth buying, and less time trying to keep legitimate owners from "stealing" it?
Our company has Dell machines with the reg code right on the side. Since Windows gets garbaged up on a regular basis, it's necessary to reinstall. Who knows where our original discs went, but I've got Windows 2000 discs (don't dare to use XP, especially since it's of no benefit) - but they don't recognize the Dell serial number. So I log on to the net, find a pirate serial number, and the rest of the install goes fine. We freaking own these machines, and licences for them. And by the way, the cd rom drives had been updated to cdrw but the machine didn't know how to boot off those. And some brilliant engineer had the idea to reformat the machines by sticking working hard drives from other (same exact model) machines, of course that didn't work either.
Meanwhile, on my Macs, I'm continuing to be productive. No serial numbers necessary. Hard drive swap works. Any cd I plug in just works, no drivers. And no looking up install/driver/whatever procedures on arcane Linux/BSD sites either.
Shouldn't Obama be supporting Ubuntu?
Doesn't work with Verizon (or Sprint, or any other standard carriers, apparently).
h one-for-the-elderly/
Probably doesn't have dialtone, or generate DTMF through the speaker when dialing. It's a very simple software solution - make it work like a standard landline phone.
Also appears to be too small - even the "large buttons" are small.
This one doesn't look bad:
http://www.engadget.com/2004/11/26/kyoceras-cellp
But who knows who has service in the US?
This is a HUGE market, and keeps getting bigger every day. There are some hardware solutions, but. The Verizon store has somewhere around 20 phones on the shelf - all nearly the same thing - same interface, same buttons with no tactile response, (except the Treo, which I have and love). Nothing that's remotely acceptable for a non-technical elderly person.
They should be displaying these in the store. While we were there two other people came in looking for the exact same thing.
"Looking for more customers, the company did extensive market research in poor countries."
Why not look right here at home? Went shopping this weekend at Verizon for a cellphone for my elderly father-in-law. They don't sell any phones (there) that are a little larger, with a decent-sized display, simple full-sized buttons, and a simple "drop-in" charger like a home wireless phone. There's a massive market for old people - all of our parents - who are still out and about (or in our case, being shuttled from nursing home to hospital to doctor's office) and we'd like to keep in contact with. Most of them have money - if you can afford to visit the doctor you can afford a cellphone.
While they're at in, provide a simple interface for speed dial numbers, a dial tone when you pick up the phone, and dialing and disconnecting without having to use the "send" and "end" buttons - make them work like the landline phones these people are used to.
Finally, it's no good if only one carrier has this. Every carrier with "friends and family" has people with elderly family members that need phones.
At what point will Barbra Streisand file a lawsuit against them, for posting pictures of her Mars colony?
u it.html
http://www.californiacoastline.org/streisand/laws
The article doesn't mention that the main competition for both companies is Microsoft and Sony. Both of which companies tend to treat their users as suspected pirates rather than respected customers.
An angle-grinder? Don't you know you're supposed to use a wire brush:
Microsoft Windows 2000 Administrator's Pocket Consultant, Second Edition (Paperback)