[geeks] HP Journada 720 - $75 (Refurbished, after rebate)

[Geoffrey S. Mendelson]

On Mon, Aug 14, 2006 at 04:42:21PM -0400, velociraptor wrote:
> My "perfect" portable is not necessarily a "pocket" device--it's rare
> that I go out with just what's in my pockets, so something to replace
> phone+PDA+iPod+paper reading/writing materials would be an acceptable
> alternative.  It's not a big deal to keep a cheap cellphone for when
> you are running on just your pockets.

That's what I think. I hate the idea of making things so small that
they can't be used.

> 
> I want something about the size of a Flybook or slightly smaller
> (including the rotating touch screen, or maybe it's just a slate) that
> does EVDO/EDGE, GSM, Wifi, BT, and ethernet (might be wise to make
> those upgradeable, ymmv). 

One of the POC units has a rotating 6 inch screen. Looks pretty neat, but
it's big.

>  And, a flash card reader of some type as
> well--SD is a likely candidate, as most of the new smaller formats
> have SD adaptors available.  It needs to have a USB port and mini-DVI
> or mini-VGA so I can hook up an external monitor and keyboard if I
> need to when I am travelling so I don't have to carry a full-blown
> laptop.  I might even go so far as to say that an on-board keyboard
> could be optional assuming it has an onscreen keyboard that will work
> with thumbs (think: hold in portrait mode) and/or decent hand-writing
> recognition (think: Newton/Inkwell).

The problem with SD is that they don't make SD microdrives. I prefer
CF, but it will be a cost/performance issue.

My son has some interesting technolgy sitting on a back burner for
keyboard input. I'm not going to say anymore as someday he wants to
patent it.

> And of course it needs to integrate well with a Mac to handle email,
> calendar, and contacts in the native tools.  Obviously,  battery life
> is the killer, here.   It's a pipe-dream, I know, to keep hoping Apple
> enters the palmtop/UMP/ communicator market, but a geek has to dream.

I can't answe that. I'd like Mac connectivity too, but it will probably
not have it. If there are PC Linux programs to do what you want, then
they could be installed. 

Battery life is always a problem. I have both some simple ideas and
patent pending technology to deal with it, so I won't go into it here.


> I highly doubt I am the typical audience, though.  Basically what I
> want is to give me a "mini" laptop that does everything that
> PDA/Phone/PSP/DSLite/iPod do now.  It doesn't have to have a lot of
> horsepower, it just has to be well-designed so switching between all
> these activities is straight forward and simple.  I think the latter
> is the big barrier to a merge of devices.

Well, it runs X windows. There are lots of window managers. Maybe one
will do. :-)

Geoff.

-- 
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