Built-in Ethernet, wireless, USB, SD card reader, etc. Uses a Solid-State Drive (SSD) so there are no moving parts on this thing. Built-in applications galore. Some links:
Happy Drooling, Geek Boys!! ;-)
That's the 720 on the left, and the 900 on the right. Again, these aren't the only 640 x 240 pixel handheld PC's, just two of the more common models:
These aren't the only three devices you'll find on eBay, but are the most common among the Handheld PC's with a 640 x 480 pixel screen.
One of the 30 Products & Services We Miss Most:
I miss an entire class of products: mini-laptop-size Windows CE handheld PCs, the lovechild of a PDA and an ultraportable laptop. Many top computer makers--including HP, Compaq, HP, HP, and NEC--offered them, and they had some great features: They turned on and off instantly; their batteries often lasted for up to 10 hours on a charge; and they had no moving parts, so you didn't have to worry about a hard-drive crashes and related maladies. Despite weighing (on average) less than 3 pounds, they had nearly full-size keyboards. IBM's WorkPad z50 was my particular favorite in this category--a PDA version of a miniature ThinkPad laptop. But at the time that handheld PCs were available--in the late 1990s and early 2000s--they were expensive (often around $1000). Eventually, regular laptops got smaller and more affordable, PDAs morphed into smart phones, and the PDA laptop faded away. To a degree, Samsung, Sony, and others have tried to re-enter this territory with Ultra Mobile PCs that cost $1000 and up. But I'd rather jump onto eBay and pick up a vintage Win CE handheld for $200 or less.
I just bought two of the IBM Workpad z50's on eBay (my first eBay purchases ever) for around $100 each. Very nice.
Uses your home's exisitng Wi-Fi connection and that unused Pocket PC of yours to deliver streaming internet radio to your nightstand or kitchen counter. $20. Just add a Wi-Fi card for your Pocket PC and you're good to go.
After I quit using mine for addresses and telephone numbers, I customized it as a nightstand PDA. Usedhandhelds.com now has these for just $69. To that you add the following:
About $200 total. I have 10 hours of Twilight Zone on my 1 Gig CF card, and dozens and dozens of OTR shows on my 1 Gig SD card.
And it even syncs up with Microsoft Oulook. Available at most Radio Shack stores.
Once upon a time, Americans had to choose between LaserDiscs and Video Cassette Recorders (VCRs). They chose VCRs, because you couldn't record on LaserDiscs. Fast-forward 25-30 years, and Americans are giving up their VCRs in favor of LaserDiscs, albeit a smaller version we now refer to as DVDs. You still can't record on most of them, but now it doesn't seem to matter.
Similarly, the original Palm Pilot won out over the Apple Newton because you could fit it in your coat pocket. Fast-forward 10-15 years, and plain old PDA's are a thing of the past. But now a device with the form factor of the Newton could be just the ticket. Maybe Apple won't build it, maybe they will. Maybe it will be a Tablet PC, or maybe some sort of PDA operating system.
Just a thought. Funny how things work out, isn't it?
See a review of this model here. I just got one yesterday and I really like the color display and the larger (but not full-size) keyboard. This "e" version doesn't have a modem or a 2nd CF slot that the 680 does. No great loss. These refurbs came from the Dutch Railway, so there's a Dutch sticker on the back. You'll need to buy a new 2032 backup battery and a little itty-bitty teeny-tiny screwdriver to take out the old dead backup battery and install a fresh new one. Then charge up the main battery and you're good to go. If you need something like this, it's a good deal.
UPDATE: Because my laptop doesn't have a 9-pin serial connector that the cable supplied with the 680E has, I ordered this IOgear GUC232A - USB to PDA/Serial Adapter for around $30 from TigerDirect. Now I can sync directly to my laptop. There are other makers of USB to Serial Adapter too, such as Belkin.
Buy one now, they need the money.
From Mobile magazine's Top 100 Forgotten Gadgets: The Readers' Revenge:
Why it didn't make the original list: A few years ago, our beloved REX went AWOL, along with a maxed-out MasterCard and a tattered library card. We'd have looked for it, but the memory was too painful. Why it should have: The REX may have been Philippe Kahn's last, best stroke of genius. It was a tiny organizer, just big enough to fit into a PC Card slot for synchronizing with your PC. Sure, the screen was small and the buttons maddeningly miniscule, but this was the most portable PDA then or since. Sadly, in 1999 Franklin sold its REX business to Xircom, which promptly drove the product into the ground. We're still waiting for a resurrection.
I had one of these for a long time, and would probably still have one if they still made them. A terrific little piece of technology.
Here's what you do:
Happy Zippy Reading! 20 Bonus Points to the first person who remembers Woody Allen's speed-reading summary of War And Peace.
With this new feature, the words stay in one spot and flash through the content of the book. You can turn it on or off and adjust the speed as well.
Play Macromedia Flash files on your Pocket PC. The only Pocket PC Flash Player I've found that can switch to landscape mode.
Converts your DVDs so you can watch them on your Pocket PC.
Just take your trusty Pocket PC, load the free BetaPlayer on it, and go get yourself some campy MPEG-4 public domain commercials, short films, and cartoons over at archive.org . Myself, I have the old Fleischer Superman cartoons running while I work on my laptop. Cool.
The Cathena was developed as a result of in-depth discussions and interviews with numerous elementary and high school educators, school district technical staff, systems integrators, and federal and state government service personnel. The most common complaint relayed to the Company was the lack of suitable computer hardware products between handheld PDA's and notebook PC's.Built-in Wi-Fi, a 12.1" 800 x 600 SVGA TFT Display, 64 Meg RAM, 4-hour battery life, all for $799. I want one.The Cathena has the look and feel of a traditional ultralight notebook computer while offering all the features and benefits of a high-performance Windows CE product, such as instant-on, extended battery life, and low support costs.
The Company expects that the Cathena will be commercially available in the third quarter of 2004.
OK, OK, it has a Spanish-Language operating system, but you're smart enough to deal with that, right? Don't bother trying trying to sync this up with your PC -- just use a 16 Meg Compact Flash card along with an adapter, and put the card and the adapter in your PC's PCMCIA slot when you want to transfer data.
I've had a 360LX for years, and it's surprisingly easy to type on the keyboard once you get the hang of it. I set the Pocket Word to save files in the TXT format, which makes transfer much simpler. If you have "mature eyes", you'll probably want to bump up the font size a few points.
If attending a conference this is a great system, and beats hauling around a laptop if all you're going to do is take notes. The batteries last a long time, and are AA anyway, so you can just carry some extra with you.
UPDATE: The HP 360LX is now available for just $29 each with a Portuguese operating system.
