[plug] OT: Psion / HP Jornada's and other PDAs

[Peter Wright]

On Thu, Jan 03, 2002 at 04:37:38PM -0800, Wayne Vovil wrote:
> > Arkem <arkem at mornmist.2y.net> plug at plug.linux.org.auDate: Thu, 3 Jan 2002 17:42:00 +0800
> >I'm currently looking to by a palm top PC to help me with certain 
> >things (I'm planning among other things to use it for note taking at 
> >University next year to bypass my shockingly slow and messy 
> >handwriting). Currently I have my eye on several products, the Psion 
> >5mx, the Psion 7 and the HP Jornada 720.
> >Paul C
>
> I have used a Palm V and a WinCE palmtop; but if you intend to take notes
> at uni, forget it. If they have a keyboard they are too small to use for
> large amounts of typing. Most have either handwriting recognition (you
> said yours was bad - so forget that), or a emulated 'tap' kb - too slow.

Well, if you're willing to consider a Palm or Handspring Visor there's always:

http://store.palm.com/Catalog/peripherals.asp?action=add&productnr=3180&parent=1003&type=5

and

http://www.pfuca.com/products/hhkb/hhcindex.html

I actually have a Happy Hacking cradle and a HHK Lite keyboard which I used
to use with my Palm IIIx. Now, however, my main Palm is a Palm Vx and I
can't use it with the cradle... however, as I can now see, the buggers at
Pfuca have now decided to release the Palmdock V for _free_ along with the
cradle! Bastards! Now how can I get one.... *thinking, thinking* :)

Anyway though, a Palm with the HH cradle and a keyboard is really cool. Of
course it's nicest with a HH keyboard, because they're very compact, but
the HH cradle works with any PS/2 keyboard (ie. a bog standard keyboard
that you can get for $10 or so).

Have a look here:

http://www.pfuca.com/products/hhkb/hhkb_pht.html#Happy%20Hacking%20Cradle

or specifically here:

http://www.pfuca.com/products/hhkb/img_hhkb/media/cradle_jpg/comb.jpg

to get an idea of how cool it is.

I just ordered mine along with the keyboard straight from Pfuca in the US
(a year or two ago). It _may_ be possible to get them retail in Oz now, but
I doubt it.

However, I'm pretty sure you can get the "official" Palm portable keyboards
(as in the top link about) retail here. A friend of mine has one which I've
played around with for a bit. It's not bad, though I still prefer using a
Real(tm) keyboard via the HH cradle. 

NB. They're both very good for freaking people out and making geeks go
"ooooh.... coooooool...." :)

> My suggestion would be the new Sony VAIO sub-notebook or one of the new
> Apple ibooks.

Ever so _slightly_ more expensive and power draining, though. :)

> Wayne

Pete.
-- 
http://akira.apana.org.au/~pete/

-- 
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