Tom McMahon

My Viewsonic Viewpad 100 eBook Project: 16,000 Famous Paintings on DVD

My Viewsonic Viewpad 100 eBook Project: 16,000 Famous Paintings on DVD

About 4 gigabytes worth. I hadn't planned to use that much space for art, but it seems a good way to showcase the big 10-inch color display. And when do you ever browse through art anyway? Without the Viewpad, you'd need a ton of coffee-table books.

My Viewsonic Viewpad 100 eBook Project: The Amazon Kindle 2 Library Book CD with 2800 Great eBooks

The Viewsonic Viewpad 100 has a terrific, bright TFT display that makes reading a pleasure. But what to read? Although you could download a bunch of books from Project Gutenberg, a much easier way would be to order The Amazon Kindle 2 Library Book CD with 2800 Great eBooks off of eBay. While the Kindle reads the prc format books, so does the free Mobipocket Reader I've loaded onto the Viewpad. Cool, eh? And with the Kindle craze, that means there's all sorts of CD-ROMs with prc format public domain ebooks available. 

I didn't count the number of books to see if they really added up to 2800, but it seems like enough to me. So that's 600 megabytes out of 16 gigabytes used. How to use the rest? Stay tuned . . .

My Viewsonic Viewpad 100 eBook Project

My Viewsonic Viewpad 100 eBook Project

This is a followup to my previous post A Cheap Alternative to the Pricey Amazon Kindle 2: Ten-Year-Old Windows CE Handheld PCs for $100 or Less. The Viewpad 100 was another Super PDA that came out about 10 years ago for $1000. I've been able to pick up several for less than a tenth of that price. The 10-inch screen makes it great to use as an ebook reader, and it holds up to 16 GB: 8GB in the CF slot, and another 8GB CF card in the PCMCIA slot. But you can't use up all 16GB with ebooks, eh? So what do you put in there? I'll let you know in some subsequent posts.

I'm going to give one of these to my brother Tim and another to my high school English teacher who helps out my 84-year-old father who lives alone. Yeah, a Kindle would be nice, but this is more fun.

How To Access The 500,000 Public Domain Ebooks From Google

From Wired:

Sony Electronics has struck a deal with Google in a major endorsement that makes more than half a million public domain books from its digitization project available for free on the Sony Reader in its e-book store.The pairing is a hefty blow to Amazon not only because it gives Sony a much larger e-book library than the Kindle store — more than 600,000 to Amazon's roughly 245,000 — but also because Google’s books are in the open ePub format Amazon doesn’t support.On top of all that, Sony has also dropped the price of its PRS-700 to $350, slightly below the price of the Kindle.

Here are the step-by-step instructions. You do need to sign up for an account with Sony and download their software, but you don't need to pay any money or commit to anything. Cool, eh?

A Cheap Alternative to the Pricey Amazon Kindle 2: Ten-Year-Old Windows CE Handheld PCs for $100 or Less

A Cheap Alternative to the Pricey Amazon Kindle 2: Ten-Year-Old Windows CE Handheld PCs for $100 or Less

Dan Ackerman over at CNET had a great article recently about using a new $350 netbook as an ebook reader in place of the $359 Kindle 2. That's Dan in the photo above, reading an ebook on his Acer Aspire One. While the Acer has nowhere near the Cool Factor of a Kindle, it does have a color screen, a keyboard, as is a lot more versatile for about the same price. 

But what if your name isn't Rockefeller or Buffet or Gates? Then you can accomplish what Dan has done for a lot, lot less using a circa 1999 Windows CE Handheld PC. And because the introduction of netbooks has driven down the prices on these vintage machines, you can do it for under 100 bucks. And just as they did ten years ago, the Windows CE Handhelds feature no moving parts, long battery life, and instant on, making them ideal ebook readers.

You can choose between full-size or half-size units. I've turned both my full-size IBM Workpad z50 and my half-size HP Jornada 680e into ebook readers. Both work great, and allow me to turn spare idle moments into productive reading time.

The secret trick to converting your Windows CE Handheld into an ebook reader is simply to install the old version of Mobipocket software that's right for your machine. You're looking for one compatible with the HPC platform, either the mobireader_hpc.arm.cab, mobireader_hpc.mips.cab, or mobireader_hpc.sh3.cab, depending on your processor (MIPS, SH3, or ARM), which you will find here. Install the .cab file using these instructions. (More great tips here, by the way.)

Once you got the Mobipocket software installed on your Windows CE Handheld, you can get books from Mobipocket or Project Gutenberg, just to name two sites. Lots of great stuff available. And you just saved yourself $250, you smart shopper you.

Asus eee PC Subnotebook Computer Running Linux For Under $500

Asus eee PC Subnotebook Computer Running Linux For Under $500

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:

• Eee PC Makes Hot Debut
• Asus Eee PC First Thoughts
• ASUS Eee PC Hands On Preview
• Asus launches tiny PC

Happy Drooling, Geek Boys!! ;-)

Handheld PC's: Wi-Fi, Web Sites, And Software

• Your can connect your handheld PC to your home wireless network, but it can be tricky. For example, I have a Linksys PCMCIA card and a Linksys CF card, neither one of which will work with my IBM Workpad z50's. A good way to check for such problems before you make a purchase is the Handheld PC Hardware Compatibility List. They cover everything, not just Wi-Fi cards. Another good resource is this discussion at HPC:Factor.
• Surfing the 'net with a handheld PC is rather like watching a dog walk on its hind legs: It's not exactly elegant, but it's amazing it can be done at all. Gear your expectations accordingly.
• Plinkit is a good site for text-only surfing.
• HPC:Factor is the best site to learn more about Handheld PC's. Be sure to check out their forums.
• The HPC Software Repository is the best site to locate hard-to-find software for the handheld PC. Another good source is HPCNEC.com.
• The Microsoft Entertainment Pack 2.0 for Windows CE is out of print but can be found on Amazon.com. It has Freecell, Minesweeper, etc. A caveat: Try to get the 2.0 version, which is in color. If it doesn't specifically say "2.0" then many of the games will be in black-and-white instead of color.
• And finally for the curious there's the History of Microsoft Windows CE.

Half-Screen Handheld PC's: The HP Jornada 720 And The NEC Mobilepro 900

Half-Screen Handheld PC's: The HP Jornada 720 And The NEC Mobilepro 900

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:

• The HP Jornada 720: A color touchscreen and a 76%-size keyboard. Similar models include the Jornada 620, 680, 680e, 690, and 728.  In addition to eBay, you can find the Jornada 720 at Eagle Computer for around $120. And if you want a more worry-free deal at a slightly higher price, then UsedHandhelds.com is the way to go.
• The NEC Mobilepro 900: A 92%-size keyboard makes it larger and easier to type on than the Jornada 720. There is also a Mobilepro 900C; make sure you understand the differences to ensure you get the best model for you. Similar models include the Mobilepro 700, 770, 780, and 790, all of which are available on eBay.

UPDATE 9/7/2008: With all the new small-form netbooks now being introduced, these older models have come way down in price. On Usedhandhelds.com the Mobilepro 900 has dropped from $399 to $199.

Full-Screen Handheld PC's: The HP Jornada 820, The IBM Workpad z50, And The NEC 800/880

The HP Jornada 820

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.

• The HP Jornada 820: Has a touchpad and a USB port (cutting-edge for 1999!) for a separate mouse or trackball. The most readily-available of the three on eBay.
• The IBM Workpad z50: Lots of nice little touches. No touchpad or USB port, but does have one of those IBM Trackpoint thingees in the middle of the keyboard.
• The NEC 800 and NEC 880: Whereas the Jornada and the Workpad are smaller than a regular laptop, these NEC models are closer to laptop size with a 9.4-inch display. Harder to find on eBay.

Windows CE Handheld PCs

Windows CE Handheld PCs

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.