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If there was a modern Psion or HP Jornada type computer that ran full Windows, would you buy one?

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If there was a modern Psion or HP Jornada type computer that ran full Windows, would you buy one?
OptionResults
yes (I would pay up to $600 to 900)35 Votes - [67.31%]
35 Votes [67.31%]
yes (I would pay up to $901 to $1500)2 Votes - [3.85%]
2 Votes [3.85%]
yes (I would pay up to $2000)1 Votes - [1.92%]
1 Votes [1.92%]
no14 Votes - [26.92%]
14 Votes [26.92%]

primaz Page Icon Posted 2008-02-04 8:32 PM
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I do believe that the minority for people do want a basic handheld computer in their jacket pocket with a touch type keyboard. Now that the technology is here to build a modern HPC yet actually have it run full Windows, I am curious to see how many of you would buy one? Lets assume it had a nice TFT color screen, either a Psion or Jornada 720/728 form factor, ran XP or Vista, had wifi, at least 2 USB slots, removable battery, and basically similar specifications to devices like the OQO model 02.

Edited by primaz 2008-02-04 8:33 PM
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mikey pizano Page Icon Posted 2008-02-07 3:47 PM
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If about 500 bucks, yes I would.
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cmonex Page Icon Posted 2008-02-07 7:37 PM
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600 is stretching it because i'm not sure about battery life and instant on. otherwise neat idea
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mobile88 Page Icon Posted 2008-02-07 8:44 PM
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The original Jornada sold for 900 I believe so I think that would be a fair price but depending on the memory and cpu it could be worth more. I would expect it to track much like laptop prices but a bit of a premium due to the small size, which would warrant at least 200 more?
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cmonex Page Icon Posted 2008-02-08 1:57 AM
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...and no one will buy it because of high price then
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ExPsionMan Page Icon Posted 2008-02-08 2:13 PM
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Hi - And I wouldn't but it unless it had software built in that would syncronise Contacts and Calendar automatically each time I connect it to my work or home PCs. (Like ActiveSync with a PDA).
Regards
ExPsionMan
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papaken Page Icon Posted 2008-02-08 10:45 PM
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Absolutely I would buy one!

Basically, I am looking for something that is actually portable but also usable, with a 900C type keyboard. That is the single limitation that keeps me from buying a PDA, is that I need a device with a usable keyboard. I love my 900C, except for the crappy screen and the fact that it is finding less and less compatibility.

Built in BlueTooth and Wi-Fi, and full audio connects, in addition to the above suggested stuff would make it capable of just about anything. Also, interestingly, my 900C is the same width front to back as the width of a CD...

I figure such a device would cost between $800 to $1200, depending on options.
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evieabston Page Icon Posted 2008-02-11 5:46 PM
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I would difinitely buy one. There is a Fujitsu Lifebook U810 that just came out and it runs on Vista or Tablet Xp, 40GB, can use Wifi, play mp3's, can load MS Word and Excel (which is what I would primarily use it for) but it is only 6.75" in length. It would be hard to type on that and it sells for $900-1000. I have thought about getting this one, but I think I would be dissappointed in the keyboard size. I think $600-$800 would be a good price.
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primaz Page Icon Posted 2008-02-12 12:58 AM
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evieabston, I agree the Fujitsu had a good idea but they chose to make their computer a bit too wide to ever fit into any jacket pocket and yes they should have made it more like 7 to 7.25" long and not waste so much valuable keyboard area.

HPC's are nice with instant on and I still use my HP 728 but for real business use the lack of being able to load desktop applications is a major drawback. HPC's are nice and when HP sold them new they along with brands like Psion and others sold over 2.3 million with most selling at about $600-1000 before MS killed the OS.

I know the battery life for a full pc in a handheld is never going to be as good as my Jornada but it would be more functional for busines use. I think there is a huge demand for a basic jacket size touch type keyboard laptop and hopefully someone will finally create one. If you look at yearly laptop sales there are about 113 million new laptops sold each year along with a huge base of laptop owners. Many of those users are just business users whom really do not need the fastest cpu laptop and most would love to have a jacket laptop if there was that option.

A pocket laptop seems so obvious as the next evolution from standard laptops yet they many followed blindly with MS and made UMPC's with no keyboard and guess what they did not even sell more than 350K units in all of 2007. There seems to only geeks designing computers today with no social skills to realize what mainstream users want in a mobile computer?

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mobile88 Page Icon Posted 2008-02-12 1:21 AM
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I love the idea of being able to have the power of my laptop yet still be able to touch type and fit it all in my jacket pocket. I hope that option is available soon as I too would love to not lug my bulky heavy laptop. I think paying $1500 is no big deal if it can replace my laptop and fit into my coat pocket. I do not understand why some would feel it needs to be below $600? what kind of laptop can you buy for that? and to have it that small it would clearly be worth more for the technology to enable it to be that small. I know the majority of the people in my company whom are also sales reps would definately buy one at that would be hundreds of reps. What I hate is the hassle of a laptop being both heavy, and the constant worry about theft as it is so visible. I think the price is purely dependant on the specifications. If it has a large amount of ram and more memory then it would warrant more dollars. I like HPC's but I still have to carry a laptop too becuase I can not run my work applications that are only available in desktop OS. If I could buy one device to replace both I would do so in a heartbeat!
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mr-mac Page Icon Posted 2008-02-12 5:14 AM
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mobile88 - 2008-02-12 6:21 AM

I love the idea of being able to have the power of my laptop yet still be able to touch type and fit it all in my jacket pocket. I hope that option is available soon as I too would love to not lug my bulky heavy laptop. I think paying $1500 is no big deal if it can replace my laptop and fit into my coat pocket. I do not understand why some would feel it needs to be below $600? what kind of laptop can you buy for that? and to have it that small it would clearly be worth more for the technology to enable it to be that small. I know the majority of the people in my company whom are also sales reps would definately buy one at that would be hundreds of reps. What I hate is the hassle of a laptop being both heavy, and the constant worry about theft as it is so visible. I think the price is purely dependant on the specifications. If it has a large amount of ram and more memory then it would warrant more dollars. I like HPC's but I still have to carry a laptop too becuase I can not run my work applications that are only available in desktop OS. If I could buy one device to replace both I would do so in a heartbeat!


I hear you....

My main problem is at the moment anything small enough to fit in the pocket is going to end up with IRO 1 - 1.5 hr battery life and no instant on...

IMHO if linux can run on a J728 with office apps that are fully compatible with MS office and it can use firefox (and opera is available for linux). Then we are not all that far away from a device that can have battery life and the ability to do all the office tasks you require.

Not sure what will happen first. An X86 processor that has low enough power requirements (without being cut down and slow for use with windows) or another processor (Arm or Mips) being used in a unit that can do all the office tasks without windows.

I think it won't be long until someone makes somthing like an EEEpc but with a touchscreen instead of a trackpad so you can shrink that dimension to the width of the keyboard ( I think it would almost be coat pocket size if you did that and probs in the same size or slightly smaller than a 900c).

It does make me wonder though what office tasks you need to do that can't be done on an HPC? There is a fine wordprocessor and spreadsheet, there is syncable email and contacts, there is database software, you can even do powerpoint presentations, there are skype applications, you can send email and sms via phone or phone card...

If there are any business tasks you think an HPC can't handle I would be quite intrested in what they are (just from a curiosity point of view). Half the time I think having a full PC that can fit in the pocket only seems like a good idea and once you lay out $1200 or there abouts you find your only using it for excel, word etc... and the boot time makes it a royal pain compared to your old HPC.

I don't think people actually want a full PC (esspecially office users) I think what they really have in mind is an HPC with fast desktop quality applications. I know which would be more usefull.

John

Edited by mr-mac 2008-02-12 5:21 AM
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ZSX Page Icon Posted 2008-02-12 6:46 AM
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I agree with John. In theory a device which does everything in a pocket-sized format with a good keyboard is the holy grail of mobile computing (at least for me). The reality is that current technologies preclude what I think is really essential in a portable device, which is a 24-hour battery life (with moderate use), instant on and internet connectivity (WLAN/WWAN).

That said, there are a whole slew of low power chips out soon, including the Intel Silverthorne (x86 compatible with a theoretical idle power drain of 0.01W) and the VIA Isaiah. Then there's the new ARM Cortex A8 for embedded OSes which touts much higher processing power while keeping within the same power envelope. As with current chips though, it is the display and the radios which are the real battery drainers, so unless we see a revolution in display technologies, connectivity or batteries, a Jornada computer running full Windows with those attributes will remain a pipe dream.
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CE Geek Page Icon Posted 2008-02-12 3:02 PM
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I'm with mr-mac on this too. Sometimes the desktop OS can be more of a pain than it's worth.
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airhook Page Icon Posted 2008-02-12 6:27 PM
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I totally agree with mr-mac & CE Geek. If someone can come up with a device that runs Windows that is instant on/off I might be interested.
I often use my HPC to log online if time is tight in the morning. My PC can take up to 4 mins to logon,- HPC only 30 secs.
OK IE6 is slow, but Netfront 3.5 should speed things up. I can do 99.9% of what I need on my HPC - the 0.1% is printing, (I don't have an HPC compatable printer)
but with a CF card + PCMCIA adapter & SoftMaker software that's no problem.
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mobile88 Page Icon Posted 2008-02-12 8:16 PM
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mr-mac - 2008-02-12 5:14 AM

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mobile88 - 2008-02-12 6:21 AM

I love the idea of being able to have the power of my laptop yet still be able to touch type and fit it all in my jacket pocket. I hope that option is available soon as I too would love to not lug my bulky heavy laptop. I think paying $1500 is no big deal if it can replace my laptop and fit into my coat pocket. I do not understand why some would feel it needs to be below $600? what kind of laptop can you buy for that? and to have it that small it would clearly be worth more for the technology to enable it to be that small. I know the majority of the people in my company whom are also sales reps would definately buy one at that would be hundreds of reps. What I hate is the hassle of a laptop being both heavy, and the constant worry about theft as it is so visible. I think the price is purely dependant on the specifications. If it has a large amount of ram and more memory then it would warrant more dollars. I like HPC's but I still have to carry a laptop too becuase I can not run my work applications that are only available in desktop OS. If I could buy one device to replace both I would do so in a heartbeat!


I hear you....

My main problem is at the moment anything small enough to fit in the pocket is going to end up with IRO 1 - 1.5 hr battery life and no instant on...
? It seems like all the other umpc's that were able to stuff full windows in small form factors even devices like the OQO which is smaller than a J728 can go about 2-4 hours not 1 to 1.5?

IMHO if linux can run on a J728 with office apps that are fully compatible with MS office and it can use firefox (and opera is available for linux). Then we are not all that far away from a device that can have battery life and the ability to do all the office tasks you require.
I am not that familiar with Linux but I've seen some of the new Intel based MIDS and UMPC's that are using Linux but been a bit scared of something too techie? Plus the programs I need are business and I do not know if they can run on Linux?

Not sure what will happen first. An X86 processor that has low enough power requirements (without being cut down and slow for use with windows) or another processor (Arm or Mips) being used in a unit that can do all the office tasks without windows.

I think it won't be long until someone makes somthing like an EEEpc but with a touchscreen instead of a trackpad so you can shrink that dimension to the width of the keyboard ( I think it would almost be coat pocket size if you did that and probs in the same size or slightly smaller than a 900c).
same goes if they increased the size of the OQO and made it about 7" long and scraped the thumb keyboard for a real keyboard.

It does make me wonder though what office tasks you need to do that can't be done on an HPC? There is a fine wordprocessor and spreadsheet, there is syncable email and contacts, there is database software, you can even do powerpoint presentations, there are skype applications, you can send email and sms via phone or phone card...

If there are any business tasks you think an HPC can't handle I would be quite intrested in what they are (just from a curiosity point of view). Half the time I think having a full PC that can fit in the pocket only seems like a good idea and once you lay out $1200 or there abouts you find your only using it for excel, word etc... and the boot time makes it a royal pain compared to your old HPC.

I need to run a number of specialty softwares for building automation that are only made for desktop windows, also I run MS project, autocad, along with a few other programs for the real estate and facilities industry. Plus if I want to add other software almost everything is only made for windows now.

I don't think people actually want a full PC (esspecially office users) I think what they really have in mind is an HPC with fast desktop quality applications. I know which would be more usefull.

John

I do use a HP 720 but I must carry the laptop becuase of work. I can uderstand the love of instant on as I enjoy that a lot and the long 10-14 hour battery life. For me I would sacrafice to eliminate both and just have one computer even without instant on and only the typical 2-4 hour or so battery life most all laptops have. Nobody makes a 24 hour battery computer. For some an HPC might be ok but for me I really need the ability to load any desktop application. There are millions of people like me whom are mobile sales or project business users whom number one goal of a computer is mobility to carry it everywhere but we also need to type not thumb input to create documents, etc. We definately use office software but most all have at least 2-6 softwares specific to our industry that can not load onto an HPC so we all use laptops.

With the HPC OS not really being supported by MS and no new HPC devices I think there definately needs to be more handhelds created mabye both a full windows and a windows.net or ce or linux? I think it is sad that the great designs like the HP Jornada 720's and the Psions seem forgotton memories. People do not seem to learn from the past. The handhelds had good sales in the millions per year even though the OS has some buggy early versions. I think if someone used the handhelds of the past and incorporated technology today like the OQO that would be a great handheld.

Edited by mobile88 2008-02-12 8:18 PM
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