Which Handheld do I want?

I've been looking at the specs on the specs pages and it's hard to tell if any have what I'm looking for.

Sometimes I see serial port mentioned but I remember on my Phenom that it turned out to only be one direction.

I'm hoping to find a standard, regular serial port that I can use for a custom interface to my car, I guess parallel would work too but seems unlikely.

I'd also like stereo line input. Most have a spot for a headphone jack and some have a microphone jack, but I really want stereo line input. Even my T60 only has a mono microphone jack, annoying.

Lastly I need to be able to throw in a CF card or whatever and get wifi if it's not already built in. I suppose a smart phone with a blue tooth keyboard would work as well for my application but I'd really prefer a clamshell.

Also how is java support on handhelds? My Phenom is rudimentary at best but could an HPC2000 run Java2 programs?

One last thing, I haven't logged in for almost a year because it's impossible for me too, I just spent 10 mins trying and didn't have the right verification code 25+ times. Talk about security.

That was quite a list. What do you want this for? You said that you want a handheld, so does this mean that this device needs to be pocketable with a 3-8 hr battery life? The Phenom that you refer to was a very old machine, but those old machines set some very high standards in certain areas (like battery life) that the newer machines have yet to exceed (generally speaking) since the market has been driven by a desire for color and faster processors.

Unfortunately, I can't think of any handhelds that fit your stated requirements. I *did* have a 233-MHz laptop (CTX Ezbook?) that actually did all those (the line-in part and standard serial port), but it was probably 8 lbs and 1.5" thick...

From a Mobilepro perspective, the 900 series has a standard serial port, but you need a special cable to connect to it. The 770-790 can use their sync cables with null modem adapters or again an optional serial cable to connect with.

Forget about redirecting signals to a parallel port with an HPC...most don't even have parallel ports.



No HPC has stereo input that I know of...



Most don't have built in wifi, so a add-on card is the only way to go.



Java2? Forget it with HPCs for practical purposes.

Recommendation: Toshiba Libretto 70

if a non pocket size clamshell HPC is your target, give up on any of these. Nowadays, you can find cheap under 500$ subnotebooks, with the Atom processor, on 1,6GHZ, full config 7" screen, card reader, wi-fi bluetooth,80 or more GB HDD, windows XP, etc. weight under 2lb..

To anyone's knowledge, do any of the above-mentioned under $500 subnotebooks have a touchscreen? Broaden range to $950 and and 9" screen, same question?

Regards, Don

Isn't there a mod for 7" screens where a transparent digitizer is put over the pre-existing screen and wired internally via the USB port?

Of course, I know that you were probably asking for an OEM spec.

Touch screen kits are relatively cheap and available on eBay for the ASUS EEE PC. Whatever he decides, I'm thinking that he would want some type of solid state device for car use...I'm not sure how long a hard drive would hold up with the constant road bumping....

Yeah, it doesn't necisarily need to be a clamshell and pocketable, I'd prefer that so I can put it in my pocket and feel cool :-). A laptop would suite my needs for testing in the car now and then and I bought a USB stereo line input (ghetto) for the laptop so I can do this.

But my hope was finding something old and cool and as close to $100 as I can manage that I could mount in the car as almost a full time thing. The touchscreen, keyboard and solid state are the main things I need, but it need not be pocketable or a clamshell I guess.

Do any of the HPCs have a USB? I doubt it, but if it did that'd solve my serial cable or audio input issues. I figured wifi addon card was neccessary but I can't get one to work with the old Phenom, so just added it so any machines that can't even become wifi are excluded.

As for Java2, there's really no way to get this to work? What about in a CE 5.0 machine, that's pretty new and I would think pretty extensible.

If I can't find something to suite my needs I'm more likely to lean toward a PDA with bluetooth keyboard than a laptop. Once I mount both the pda and keyboard securily it won't be much different.

Thanks for all the wonderful responses.

nec 900c has usb

There are several H/PCs with USB ports. However, support is limited, so we need to know what kind(s) of USB device(s) you want to attach.

Fujitsu LT-C500 might fit your bill at a shade above $100 on auction sites. Its a 400-500 MHz tablet, running (usually) Win2K on a stock 6GB HDD. I'd agree with Rich that an automotive-dedicated machine would do much better with a SSD rather than a HDD.

I don't know much about it, but SSD's and stock Windows flavors don't seem to like each other (well, it's the high number of read/writes), so wrt to the netbooks (eee pc, acer aspire one, etc.), the large HDD's and XP are different critters than SSD with linux variants. Again, beyond the tinker/theoretical level, I don't know how much it matters (I technical-minded enough to recognize the good and bad on paper, but also pragmatic enough to realize that reality always trumps theory).

I take it you are trying to get engine data and/or engine controls via your serial port?

I'm not sure what EXACTLY your situation is because the thread varies, but my sense is that you are searching for the Handheld PC you fancy. In that case, www.pdadb.net (The World's largest PDA database), may help you out.

Have you looked at the "everun note". It has a 7" touch screen and is one of the smallest netbooks available. It is available under $900 but is vastly superior to the Atom netbooks. It has a Dual Core AMD CPU and ATI grfx. In addition to the touch screen it also has an optical sensor that works a bit like a track pad.

Ok so it will need a USB to Seriel adapter but I would have one in a heartbeat and I am sure it would be a lot better than any atom unit.

Also Dynamism has them at $659.

John

http://www.umpcportal.com/2008/09/everun-note-full-review
http://www.raondigital.com/fnt_english/evn06.asp
http://www.dynamism.com/everun_note.shtml