[plug] Agenda VR3

[Peter Wright]

On Thu, Apr 12, 2001 at 03:52:43PM +0800, Christian wrote:
> On Thu, Apr 12, 2001 at 03:42:29PM +0800, Peter Wright wrote:
> > Mind you, it's still cheaper than a Palm Vx (still around the $750-$800
> > mark last I heard).
> 
> Around $700.  But the Vx is a sleek, fast handheld that is actually a
> very mature product

Indeed it is, with a lot of decent software and is overall very stable and
works well.

> compared with the VR3 which, from all accounts, is rather half-baked.

Yeah, it certainly sounds like it's got a few rough edges at the moment. 

> BTW, the Slashdot review link is:
> 
> http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/04/09/1743233&mode=thread

Thanks for that.

*pause as pete wombles off to read the review*

BTW, the direct link to the review (if you don't mind missing out on the
/. comments) is:

http://www.brighthand.com/html/otherpdas/agenda_page1.html

Bummer, that's an extraordinarily negative "editor's update". There isn't a
date on it, but if you've read the review before and didn't see an editor's
update at the start, go have another look and read it.

> I'm sure someone will bring out a nice handheld based on Linux but this
> sure doesn't look like it.

Well, you know the way the market works. If you can put out a minimal,
usable first iteration and get a reasonable takeup, you can get enough of a
vibe (not to mention income) for later iterations of the product to be a
vast improvement.

However, according to some of Simon's comments and Brighthand's
extremely negative review, this might not even qualify as a minimal usable
first iteration :).

I think the fact that most of the software is(??) open-source, so capable
or interested people _can_ make an effort to improve the software, is
probably the biggest positive out of this.

On Thu, Apr 12, 2001 at 03:46:04PM +0800, Simon Scott wrote:
> 	Yes, cheaper than the Palm, but not in the way that you mean :)
> 
> 	Recycled drinking straws come to mind :)

*grin*

> 	hahaha, actually people, Ive read the review on Slashdot and its NOT
> that bad. Its a developers unit.
[ ... ]
> Supposedly a lot of the guys at Agenda working on the stock apps had no
> clue whatsoever, and a developer who just left has post his own romdisk
> which is supposedly a lot faster. 

Do you know if Agenda are releasing the source code to their stock apps?

> 	After playing with it for a few hours, the HWR still sucks but I
> managed to input a name and phonenumber with it with only a few errors.
> Still not great, but vaguely acceptable as a massively alpha release. 

*grin again* *roll of eyes*

> 	I really think that the review on slashdot was written by a 14 yr
> old Microsoft junkie....

Are you referring to the Brighthand review here or another review written
for and hosted by slashdot? I'll assume the former, though that review
didn't seem anywhere near that bad (unless it was a fairly bright 14 year
old :).

> some of the points he makes are absolutely ridiculous, ranging from 'the
> software doesnt work!' (well, duh, wait for the public release)

He didn't say that precisely. The only comment about something "not
working" was: "Also, the alarms didn't seem to work in the Schedule
application."

> to 'it slows down heaps with 6 apps open!'....

Yeah, he certainly slammed it on the lack of speed... (extract):

  In general, the applications are basic and slow. And here's the
  squeal--load up a few apps and the VR3 becomes a paperweight. That's
  right, the Linux operating system that works so phenomenally well for web
  servers (including the two running the Brighthand web site) grinds to a
  halt in this version after you launch six applications or more with the
  VR3. It cannot seem to manage either tasks or memory--or both! Each
  subsequent app (or even switching to another active app) takes 10-40
  seconds. Nay was working on this issue for several months but it's
  obviously still not corrected."

I'm not terribly impressed that he felt it appropriate to make even an
indirect comparison between a very mature Linux running on serious server
computing hardware and a very minimalist and immature Linux distro running
on a _handheld_ machine, for god's sake.

> AFAIK, this is one of the first palm-tops with multitasking, so which is
> better, slowing to a grind after 6 apps or 1 app at a time?

Good point. I think generally the guy doing the review should have been
more conscious of the fact that what he received was a pre-production model
- although he makes the very fair and reasonable point that he _wasn't_:

  "It was not stated as such in any materials I received and Agenda
  announced the device as available for consumer ordering at Comdex in
  Chicago on April 3rd (I received the device on April 5th) with a ship
  date of April 23rd."

> 	The hardware specs are impressive: 66Mhz, 16M flash, 8M RAM, 8M ROM
> etc..... for the price its a nice, powerful (enough) unit.

It certainly doesn't _sound_ too bad. Damn, I hope the management, etc.
problems can get worked out (or the company is sold to someone who can
revitalise it).

> 	Anyway, once I update the software on this thing and do a bit more
> research I may bring it to a meeting so you guys can play

Cool. I'd certainly like to have a look at it.

Pete.
-- 
http://cygnus.uwa.edu.au/~pete/

--
hundred-and-one symptoms of being an internet addict:
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