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||||||. .|||. || ||\\ //|| |||||||||| |||| || || || || || || \\ // || || || || || || || || || || \\ // || || || || |||||:' ||===|| || || \\// || || || || || || || || || \/ || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || ||===== || || || |||| ||||||. .|||. || ||\\ //|| ___________________________ || || || || || || \\ // || ___________________________ || || || || || || \\ // || _ An On-line Newsletter _ |||||:' ||===|| || || \\// || _ _ || || || || || \/ || _ About Palmtops _ || || || || || || ___________________________ || || || ||===== || || ___________________________ ===================================================================== || || || Issue 7 A Perfection Applied Publication July 1993 || || || ===================================================================== TIME MARCHES ON...... A lot has happened since the last issue of Palm To Palm. First off, we have announced a new publication, aimed at the portable consumer electronics market. The new publication, Portability!(tm), will be out this summer. Palm To Palm will have an annoucement for it and tell you how to get a copy. The annoucement for the publication was to be on April 16th, but that slipped to May 16th. The major annoucement will be provided in a news release and posted over on the Consumer Electronics Forum on CompuServe (GO CEFORUM to access). As for the palmtop industry itself, there have been several new machines that are coming out this year. One is the first 386 palmtop, which will be covered in the next issue. Since it won't be ready to ship until later this year, there won't be much in the way of hands-on reports, but there will some technical details that I'm sure you will enjoy. As for what's covered in this issue, we talk about the new Toshiba T100X (a.k.a. DynaPad). This is a subnotebook-sized pen computer that seems to be the next best entry into the pen-based market. It can run both Windows for Pen and PenPoint, but the unit provided to me had PenPoint installed. We review the Olivetti Quaderno, the latest DOS subnotebook to break the 2.5 pound barrier. We also take a look at the new HP OmniBook 300 in this issue. This is an amazing subnotebook and for being under 3 pounds, it's light enough to go anywhere you want it to. We would also like to take this opportunity to announce that Palm To Palm will be moving towards a regular schedule of being released 4 times a year. This will make it much easier on us here to provide news, reviews and comparisons in a more timely manner. We apologize for any delays we have been through, but since P2P is put together in our spare time, and it's free (except for the small price of the download), we hope you'll understand this reason for moving to a 4 time a year process. And as always, if there any submissions, ideas, complaints or other items you would like to see in Palm To Palm, send your postcards and letters to: Marty Mankins, Editor - Palm To Palm Palm To Palm c/o Perfection Applied P.O. Box 1783 Orem, UT 84057 or send an e-mail message on CompuServe to: 75300,1770. And now we can be contacted on America Online by sending your comments to: PERAPPLIED =============================================================== <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< | Palmtop News | >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> SPARCOM ANNOUNCES SMARTDOCK(tm) DOCKING STATIONS FOR HP 95LX [Corvallis, OR March 1, 1993] - Sparcom Corporation has introduced the first intelligent docking stations for palmtop computers. Designed for Hewlett-Packard's HP 95LX, Sparcoms SmartDock(tm) family of products offers the simplest means of connecting the palmtop with fax machines, electronic information services, printers, desktop PCs, and Macintosh computers. The SmartDock products come bundled with all the necessary software and, depending on features, sell from $169.95 to $399.95. "Connectivity is the key to making palmtop computers useful," says Dr. Steven J. Bares, President of Sparcom Corp. "Our new SmartDock systems offer one-stop, out-of-the-box, connectivity." Palmtop owners requested a simple device to connect their HP 95LX to common office peripherals without the inconvenience of multiple cables. In addition, they asked for a complete connectivity solution in which the software and hardware were bundled in one complete package. The SmartDock products were developed to meet these key customer needs. The SmartDock system is comprised of two different products: 1) the SmartDock ComStation, and 2) the SmartDock PrintStation. SmartDock ComStation. This $399.95 docking station connects the HP 95LX to fax machines, e-mail networks (Internet, MCI Mail), parallel printers and any desktop computer. ComStation comes complete with built-in fax/modem, serial-parallel converter, and rechargeable bateries and will work with both 512K and 1Mb versions of the HP 95LX. The permanent AC connection saves battery life of the HP 95LX and overall battery cost. ComStation includes docking station, DataExchange software for PC or Mac, serial cable, owner's manual, and AC power adapter. DataExchange is Sparcom's palmtop connectivity software for Windows/DOS or Macintosh operating systems. SmartDock PrintStation. This $169.95 doicking station connects the HP 95LX to parallel printers and desktop computers. PrintStation has a built- in serial-parallel converter and will work with both 512K and 1Mb versions of the HP 95LX. The permanent AC connection saves battery life of the HP 95LX and overall battery cost. PrintStation includes docking station, DataExchange software for PC or Mac, serial cable, owner's manual, and AC power adapter. Sparcom Corporation, headquartered in the Silicon Forest of the Pacific Northwest, is a braintrust of hardware and software designers, creating handheld application software and connectivity products. For more information contact: Sparcom Corp., 897 NW Grant Ave., Corvallis, OR 97330, phone (503)757-8416, or fax (503)753-7821. MEMORY CARD ASSOCIATES OFFERS SOFTWARE FOR PALMTOPS Memory Card Associates (MCA), a palmtop reseller and consulting firm, has announced it is now shipping DataBoost compression software for PC cards. DataBoost uses SuperStor 2.0 software from AddStor to automatically compress files on RAM cards, with no significant performance degradation. MCA presently offers DataBoost cards for HP, Sharp and Poqet palmtops. Support for additional portables will be available in the future. The compressed cards come loaded on 512K, 1Mb, and 2Mb cards. Mehdi Vatani, Manager of Business Development, said, "The high cost of PC cards has discouraged many palmtop owners from getting the most from their palmtop. By adding software compression to our cards, MCA customers can now get twice as much storage for the same price as most of our competitor's regular cards." The company also reduced the price of their Flash PC cards from 5 to 15%. MCA has also announced it is now shipping a palmtop-compatible version of WordPerfect 5.1 on PCMCIA Cards. According to Mehdi Vatani, MCA has been tapped by WordPerfect Corp. as the exclusive provider of WordPerfect for palmtops (through the calendar year 1993). Mr. Vatani also said, "A large percentage of palmtop users we've talked to want WordPerfect on a PC card. What we're doing is allowing users to buy a pre-tested and configured version of WordPerfect optimized for palmtops." The program is compatible with Fujitsu's Poqet PC and Sharp's PC-3000. Support for additional palmtops will be available in the future. In addition to WordPerfect, MCA offers a wide slelection of software programs configured specifically for palmtops. For more information, contact Mehdi Vatani, Manager of Business Development, at (800)949-7256 or (408)732-2550. ZOOMER TO BE AVAILABLE IN OCTOBER CHICAGO, June 3, Reuter - Tandy Corp has unveiled the Tandy Z-550 Zoomer PDA at the Summer Consumer Electronics Show, saying the personal digital assistant will be available at Radio Shack stores in October with several models priced under $1,000, one as low as $699. Tandy said the Zoomer, which weighs under a pound, was jointly developed with Casio Computer Co Ltd <6952.T> and four software companies -- GeoWorks, Palm Computing, America OnLine Inc <AMER.O> and Intuit Inc <INTU.O>. Tandy said Motorola Inc <MOT.N> and SunDisk have also announced support for the platform. Tandy said the Zoomer combines the simplicity of pen and paper, the logical power of a computer and the ability to connect to a world of information in a pocket-sized device. It saves handwritten notes, recognizes printing and offers a keyboard on demand to intuitively organize personal information and simplify complex calculations. It also translates languages, retrieves reference material and has the ability to connect to a PC. Unlike portable computers, Tandy said, Zoomer has long battery life - operating up to 100 hours on three standard AA alkaline batteries. Tandy said the Zoomer is built around a custom Intel compatible screen from Casio. Its display measures four inches by 3.2 inches and the total unit measures one inch by 4.2 inches by 6.8 inches. Calling it "perhaps the most significant consumer electronics product introduced within the last two years," Tandy Chairman John V. Roach said Zoomer is "a truely useful product for all consumers at the right price." Using a special stylus, handwritten notes can be stored along with keyboard input, sketches and words can be mixed freely, Tandy said. Tandy said the Zoomer requires no cables for transfer of information from one unit to another and an RS-232 compatable port allows information to be transfered to a PC, printer, or other serial device. MOTOROLA OFFERS WIRELESS MESSAGING THROUGH NEW ZOOMER PERSONAL DIGITAL ASSISTANT BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. (June 3, 1993) -- Motorola, Inc. today announced its plans to develop EMBARC wireless data service compatibility with the Zoomer(tm) personal digital assistant being jointly announced this week by Tandy Corporation and Casio, Inc. EMBARC Communications Services Inc., a division of Motorola's Paging and Wireless Data Group, will enable purchasers of the Zoomer to receive wireless electronic mail as well as its growing family of automated information services. The Zoomer, being developed jointly by Tandy Corporation and Casio, is a powerful, handheld, pen-input device equipped with built-in programs for organization, calculation, recreation, personal finance and communication, including electronic mail and fax. "We are very pleased with the opportunity to support this exciting new product which, through the marketing efforts of Tandy and Casio, will reach the broadest range of market segments," said Steve Brendle, vice president and general manager of EMBARC. "We feel that the benefits of wireless messaging and automatic information receipt will accelerate the adoption of Zoomer, giving users expanded features and broader utility from the already extensive base of built-in functionality," said Dave Christopher, executive vice president of Radio Shack, a division of Tandy. EMBARC's range of information services including the news, national weather, financial information and sports from USA TODAY, as well as HeadsUp industry-specific news summaries from Individual Inc., will allow customers to customize the mix of services according to their individual tastes and interests, and change them easily as their needs change. "Zoomer offers individuals convenience and mobility in managing their personal and professional lives. EMBARC supports those objectives and provides the needed dimension of delivering important information anytime and virtually anywhere," said Donnie Coffelt, vice president of marketing for Casio, Inc. EMBARC Communications Services Inc., wholly owned by Motorola, Inc., is a wireless electronic mail system with service to more than 220 cities across the United States and Canada. Motorola, Inc. is one of the world's leading providers of wireless communication technologies, products and services. The company's proven leadership in RF (radio frequency) technology and its expertise in microelectronics, data communications, computing and information management offer partners and customers a comprehensive range of solutions to enable a new generation of wireline and wireless voice, data, facsimile, image and video communications. Motorola was a winner of the inaugural Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award in 1988, in recognition of its superior company-wide quality management process. Sales in 1992 were $13.3 billion. Note: Motorola and EMBARC are registered trademarks (registered U.S. patent and trademark office) of Motorola, Inc. Zoomer is a trademark of Casio Computer Co., Ltd. and Tandy Corporation." ================================================================= <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< | REVIEW: Toshiba DynaPad T100X - Pen Computing In Your Lap | >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> by Marty Mankins The first time I saw the Toshiba DynaPad was at Fall Comdex 1992 in Las Vegas. It was a nice machine then and had a great deal of promise, but had some problems due to the fact that it wasn't quite done yet. Then I saw the unit again at the Winter Consumer Electronics Show in January, also in Las Vegas. It looked much better this time and seemed to be the best thing that's happened to pen computing since the introduction of the Momenta. But, I had to have one to use to see for myself what pen computing should be incased in. So Toshiba was able to send me a unit, which should be shipping by the time you read this. Since I was already familiar with pen computers to a small degree, It was easy to get started with the Dynapad. The unit shipped with PenPoint, which is my pen operating system of choice. It's easy to use and it's 100% pencentric (see the review of PenPoint in the Mar/Apr issue of TAKE IT WITH YOU, a printed publication from Perfection Applied). FROM THE START... Turning on the Dynapad was a bit tough. The switch is imbedded as to not accidently turn the off or on when being carried around. Well, you have to give the engineers at Toshiba credit on this one. It takes about 3 seconds of holding down the sliding, spring-loaded power switch to get the on or off. Perhaps it could be a tad easier to use for future models. Once the unit is turned on, it takes about 3 minutes for PenPoint to completely load. These 3 minutes are good for getting a cup of coffee, reading the comics in the morning paper or admiring the beautiful backlit screen. I chose the latter. This was one of the first joys I had with the Toshiba. The screen was very easy to see in all light conditions. Although the battery life suffered from this (more on this later), it was nice. You could turn off the backlighting, but it was hard to read except in very good lighting. The hardware specs were very impressive: AMD 386/25 MHz chip, 4Mb of RAM, expandable to 20Mb (my unit came with the 4Mb upgrade card for a total of 8Mb, 40Mb of hard drive space (80Mb would be nice, but 40Mb was fine with PenPoint) and a VGA screen with 640x480 pixel resolution. Connections were plentiful, with a 9-pin serial port, a separate external floppy drive connector, a parallel port (with adapter to make it 25-pin), an external keyboard port for use with a PS/2 style connection and an AC adapter port - all on the right side. On the top of the Dynapad, you will find 2 PCMCIA 2.0 Type II slots for use with modems, LAN adapters and other PCMCIA devices. I did not get a chance to try any of my RAM cards with this unit, but have heard they should be working with the shipping unit. On the left side of the unit is a place for the stylus (don't lose this - it's $279 MSRP to replace it!). And at the bottom left corner, you will find the battery. The battery is small and lightweight and is rated at 3 hours of life. I found that the battery life I got was less than suggested, but was ok. It would be nice if the hard drive would have shut down much sooner than I had it set to. Perhaps the timing was off a bit, but it seemed that since I set the power management utilities to go off at certain times, that it would stay pretty close to all of them. The screen shut down like it should have and so did most of the others. Maybe the hard drive was being overridden by something that PenPoint was doing. Anyway, I wish battery life were close to 4 hours. At least it's not that bad to carry around a couple of spare batteries. The unit does come with 2 batteries, so you don't have to turn around and make an $109 dollar investment for those long drives or flights. As for PenPoint, it had the standard Notebook and MiniText applications installed. No other software had been provided to me for review at this time. So I made the best of it with MiniText. I used the Dynapad in several places, taking notes and trying to keep a log of my daily work. I found that the only problems I encountered were the short battery life and that the resume mode did not work. Fortunately, I found this problem while at home, so I was not inconveinenced by any problems without a backup. Speaking of carrying the unit around, it weighs in at 3.3 pounds, which is a bit heavy for taking it with you everywhere you go, but not bad for most uses. Back to MiniText. It was a joy to use with it's ability of being able to let me write in either blocked cells or on a ruled line. It was about 95% accurate in recognizing my printing. I found the handwriting recognition to be great, but needing some work still. I imagine that it will be much improved in version 2.0 of PenPoint, due out this year. Overall, the Toshiba DynaPad was great, with no serious problems reported. I found the unit to be rugged, with a nice texture that was easy to grasp, without the fear of it falling out of my hands. The unit could survive a drop of 2 feet or less, but I did not test this. It's very solid and is perfact for most pen-based environments. I highly recommend this unit for all. If you get a chance to try it, you will love it. I hope that it does well in this emerging time of pen-based computing. Toshiba has some of the best hardware in the portable computer catagory and great support to back it up. Toshbia Dynapad T100X Pen Computer List Price: $ 2,999 (includes your choice of Windows for Pen or PenPoint 1.0a) Upgrades available are 4Mb. 6Mb and 16Mb will be available in the near future. Other options include; carrying case, replacement stylus, PCMCIA 2.0 modem card, extra NiMH battery packs, external recharger, external 3.5" floppy drive, DC car adapter and an 82-key keyboard. ================================================================= <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< |REVIEW: Olivetti Quaderno - Portable DOS With A Plus | >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> by Marty Mankins When I first looked at the Quaderno, it was obvious to me that I would enjoy this subnotebook quite a bit. And more than 3 months later, it's been a great machine. There's no need for those seeking power and desktop replacement ideas to look here. It's not designed to do that. But it is designed to run your favorite DOS programs, allow you to do some writing without too many compromises and to record a few voice annotations for times when you can't write anything down. Details Olivetti's Quaderno is one of the smallest subnotebooks, weighing in at 2.3 pounds (including the battery pack). It measures 8.8" by 5.75" by 1", which is easy to put almost anywhere except in your hand (it comes close though). The keyboard is a bit of a compromise when compared to other subnotebooks, but the small size is pretty easy to adjust your typing to. I found I could not touch type, but could go pretty fast with 2 or 3 fingers. The screen is a non-backlit LCD with an 80x25 display that can also allow CGA programs to run. The NEC V30HL 8086-compatible processor runs at 16/8/4 MHz (switchable with the MF-MENU keystroke). The unit has 1Mb of DRAM, with 640K being used to run programs in and 360K to be used as shawdow RAM or LIM 4.0 expanded memory. The best part of the storage media is the 20Mb hard drive, which I thought it was a bit too much at first. But, it comes in handy for keeping lots of programs and data. You can't fit all of your large DOS software on this drive, but I was able to put my favorites (WordPerfect 5.1, Lotus Agenda and Borland Turbo C 2.0) on with space to spare. The Quaderno also has a PCMCIA slot. It is only 1.0-compatible, but you can use RAM cards from the HP 95LX and the Poqet PC (cards formatted on the Zeos Pocket PC and the Sharp PC-3000 need to be reformatted on another palmtop or the Quaderno before they work. Olivetti was not aware of this problem, but is looking into it for a future product). One of the most unique features is the ability to record voice annotations on the hard drive. This makes the Quaderno act like a cassette recorder. It takes voice or anything that you would like to record and saves it in a file. It's part of the Personal Applications (PA) suite that's built-in. Although most users won't buy a machine for this purpose, after a few hours of playing with this feature, I felt it was pretty useful. I was not able to say the same thing about the rest of the PA programs. They were quite limited. Besides, the Quaderno runs DOS programs very well and you can use your favorite text-based program from your desktop. Compatibility When testing for both software and hardware compatibility, I put the Quaderno to the test. As I mentioned above, WordPerfect, Lotus Agenda 2.0 and Borland Turbo C 2.0 were installed and no problems were reported. I also ran Microsoft Works 2.0, Procomm Plus 2.0 and dBase III Plus. As for hardware, I have three items that I normally use with a portable computer. One is my 20Mb BSE Flashdrive, which is a parallel port driven IDE hard drive. This worked just fine for keeping several programs and files that I normally use on multiple machines. I also use a US Robotics Worldport 14,400 pocket modem. I had no problems reaching speeds of up to 19.2K (the Quaderno is only an 8086, lacking support for faster serial port speeds) with both Works and Procomm Plus. I also used the Quaderno to access my palmtops with their serial connectivity kits. There was some slow access when using DC95.EXE, a program that mirrors the HP 95LX's disk space on the host machine. I could not go above 57,600 baud, most likely due to the slower serial port. LapLink ran just fine (I used 3 different versions: LapLink 2.0, LapLink XL and LapLink Pro) for linking up to my desktop computers. And MCLink, a program that links the Psion Series 3 to a PC, worked just fine. Accessories The Quaderno came with all sorts of goodies. The first is an external floppy drive. The 3.5" 1.44Mb drive made it possible to install software that didn't want to transfer from my desktop or needed to be uncompressed from it's own install program (i.e. Lotus Agenda). It also came with two AC adapters (one for the floppy drive, one for the Quaderno). Also included was a car adapter cord, a very well-built case that could withstand the worst of all on-the-go disasters. Some faults... This machine is one of great value, but there are some things that could be different. One of the first things that I felt needed improvement was the screen It is a reflective LCD, but is hard to see when the lighting becomes slightly dim. The contrast control helped some, but there could be some improvement. The keyboard had a good feel and it was easy to type on, but the arrangement has to go. The HOME, END and DEL keys are on the separate numeric keypad, which is at the top of the unit. It makes it quite awkward to use programs like WordPerfect, that reply on multiple-key actions (i.e. HOME-PGUP). Battery life could be a little better. I saw an average of 4 hours between charges, with a few of the power management tools activated. When all power management tools were on, the battery life increased to about 6 hours. Overall The Olivetti Quaderno is small, easy to carry, very capable and has some nice features on it. If your looking for power and the ability to run Windows, this machine is one you may want to leave off your want list. But if you run DOS programs, need more storage for programs and want some size convenience, then look no further. The Quaderno is the subnotebook for those who write, don't mind a few compromises and need a sturdy machine with a strong name. I'd recommend this unit based on the later qualifications. ================================================================= <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< | Newton's Folly - Apple's Entry Into Hand held Computing | >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Part 2 of 2 by Marty Mankins [Editor's Note: This is part 2 of the article on Newton technology. We get to talk about the technical details, complete with a tour of Newton. This tour will cover a scenario on using Newton to enter in an appointment, with emphasis on Assistant among other things. The entering of the appointment was actually completed by myself during the Winter Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January 1993. By the time that Newton actually ships, the details of this hands-on report may change, since Apple has been updating Newton since it's announcement. This article is written to give you a small glimpse of what to expect from Newton when it's introduced this year. Thankks for your understanding.] Last issue, we dealt with the marketing size of the Newton Notepad. Now we take our first tour. So without futher dealy, let's get into Newton. The Assistant First, you need to understand what the most important part of the Newton Operating System is. The Assitant is the main tool that puts the whole Newton technology into place. Assistant is always there, learning, watching, and using the data you input. Assistant is there to make sure you find what your looking for. It is the key to all that happens. Let's turn Newton on. The first thing we see is the last thing we worked on. Newton has a true auto resume that starts right up where you last left off, like a few of the palmtops today do. Now let's say you want to add an appointment with Bob. You know which Bob you want to meet with, but now it's time for Newton to "learn". You go to the bottom of the screen to your icons. Choose the Assist icon. This will bring up a list from your phone list. It brings up only the entries that have "Bob" in them. You tell it which "Bob" it is that you want to meet with and Newton "stores" this information for later use. Next time you have an appointment, Newton will go to this "Bob" entry first, then offer you to choose another if you need to. That is just a taste of what Assistan can do. All applications roate their working around the Assistant. They look to it to see what it's "learned" from your daily activities. The more you use Newton, the more it will know how you work. It's hard to explain all of this in words, but for those of you who use Macintosh computers with System 7, it's a lot like having very smart alias'. The alias points to where a folder or application resides, but the alias is in a place that's easy to get to. It eliminates a lot of the process of going through folder after folder to get to what you need. Assistant takes your data and brings it to you. No more going through your phone list looking for the right "Bob". No more trying to remember detailed information or trying to clipboard that information to another program. Assistant takes care of all that by collecting all of the data and showing it to you, letting you decide what you need. Then it goes that extra step and learns what's you've done. That's the first part of Newton. The other part is being able to have access to wireless communications. The idea of being able to send a fax to someone no matter where you are is incredible. Taking some sales information and sending it back to the office could finalize an important deal. For the first unit, Newton Notepad, you will be somewhat limited in using wireless data transfers. Motorola will be offering their NewsCard(tm), which will be available to Newton later this year. The promise of wireless communications will hit big in 1994 when cellular and other data protocols mae their improved debut. Those who long after the fax capabilities of the EO will have to be patient while the technologies "shrink" down to the size a Newton can bear. Newton will be able to communicate without wires using the infrared port, but will only be able to share data with another Newton. I do want that to sound negative, but Sharp uses a proprietary infrared signal on their Wizard 9600/9600II and HP is has most of their new palmtops, subnotebooks and desktops using an infrared signal, which cannot be shared with the Wizard or the Newton. This is limited for now, but watch for some new developments as HP pushes to license their infrared technology to a number of companies. As for the specifications on Newton, there is a comparison chart done by Niguel Ballard (who we give credit to here for his time and energy). The Newton is compared, feature for feature, against Amstrad and Casio's PDA offerings. You can see that there is still some information that needs to come out of Apple. And since we feel that Newton will ship before the end of August (in a limited form), Apple needs to do better at educationg the market. And they are starting with an 800 number [(800)7NEWTON] telling users a bit about Newton and how to get more information. This number is a recording and is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. After the recorded message (about 5 minutes), you are prompted to leave your name and address for more information. Now, the comparison. Nigels PDA comparison chart #7 (25th June) additions and corrections MOST welcome Model PenPad Zoomer Newton ------------------------------------------------------ Designer Amstrad Casio/Tandy Apple OS by Eden Group GeoWorks GEOS Apple Recognition by Texas Palm Computing Newt/OS Apple Ink as data No Yes Yes Text entry Comb field Comb field Freeform Cursor control No Yes No AGENT apps No No Yes Multilingual Yes Yes No(special versions) CPU Z8S180 (16Mhz) X86 variant ARM610 (20Mhz) CPU maker Zilog Casio custom RISC Machines System RAM 1Mb(128K user) 1Mb(384k user) ? System ROM ? 4Mb ? Display area 2.75x3.5 3.13x4 3x6 Display res. 320x240 320x256 336x240 Contrast Yes Yes Yes LCD producer Kyocera Casio ? Backlit disp No No Yes Battery type 3x AA alkaline 3x AA alkaline 4x AAA alkaline Batteries inc. Yes No ? Battery life 40Hrs 100Hrs 6-8Hrs Battery guage Yes No Yes Battery alarm Yes(beep) Yes(beep) ? RAM backup Yes 1xCR2032 Yes 2xCR2032 ? AC adapter Optional Optional ? Size 1x4x6 1x4.2x6.8 1x5x7 Weight 14 Ounces 16 Ounces 16 Ounces Infrared port No Yes H/D (9600) Yes H/D (Sharp protocol) RS-232C Yes(6pin) Yes(10pin) RS-422(LocalTalk) RS-232C speed 9600 19,200 ? Card slot 1 PCMCIA 1.0 1 PCMCIA 2.0 2 PCMCIA 2.0 (TRIMbus) DTMF dialler Yes Yes Yes Email apps No Yes Yes Fax/Modem No Yes(external) Yes(external supplied) PC link s/w Yes(soon) ? Yes MAC link s/w No No Yes PC forms s/w No No Yes MAC forms s/w No No Yes Audio generator No Yes Yes Volume control No Yes Yes Headphone jack No Yes(2.5mm) Yes Internal games No Uki+Solitare ? Games buttons No Yes(A+B) No System password No Yes Yes Diary Yes Yes Yes Time/date stamp No No Yes Alarm functions Yes Yes Yes Address book Yes Yes Yes (Rolodex type) INK scratchpad Yes Yes Yes Graphics apps No ? Yes To-do list Yes Yes Yes Calculator Yes Yes Yes Conversions Yes Yes Yes Dictionary No Yes(50,000 wd) ? Spell checker No Yes(100,000 wd) ? Thesaurus No Yes(660,000 wd) ? Lang Translator No Yes 26 langs. ? World Clock Yes Yes Yes Form Calculator No Yes Yes US Holiday info No Yes ? US City info No Yes ? US State info No Yes ? Int. City info No Yes ? US area codes No Yes ? US Travel data No Yes ? Birthstones No Yes ? Zodiac signs No Yes ? America Online No Yes Yes Internet apps No Yes ? ASCII text fax No Yes Yes US Mail gateway No Yes ? Wire Services No Yes ? EAASY travel No Yes ? Pocket Quicken No Yes No Re-badged No Yes(Tandy/Grid) Yes(Sharp/Siemens) Price $459 $699 sub $1000 Availability Now October 93 Late summer 93 ************************************************************************ * NIGEL BALLARD | INT: nigel@dataman.demon.co.uk | I'M PINK * * BOURNEMOUTH UK | CIS: 100015.2644 RADIO-G1HOI | THEREFORE I'M SPAM * ************************************************************************ Well, this week, more information is coming from Apple and we will soon have a Newton in our hands to give a ful review. Until next time, stay excited as Newton approaches the day that we can change the way we organize our lives. ================================================================= <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< |HP's OmniBook 300: Portable Power for Under 3 Pounds | >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> by Marty Mankins What do you get when you cross the HP 100LX and a powerful, but expandable subnotebook? Well, if you ask Hewlett-Packard, they will show you the new OmniBook 300. With almost unlimited expansion capabilities, the OmniBook promises to be your only portable computer with very few compromises. First Reactions When I first saw the OmniBook earlier this year, my first statement was, "Honey, they've blown up the palmtop!!" And that may be your statement, also. The OmniBook looks exactly like a larger version of the 100LX. The case color, the ribbed top, the front PCMCIA card ejectors, the latch to open the clamshell design and the infrared port all resemble the smaller 100LX. But this machine is much more than just a palmtop look-alike. There are some serious features that people have been waiting months, possibly a year or more, for a machine this size. Let's take a tour. What's In It? The OmniBook weighs 2.8 pounds (with 10Mb Flash card - slightly more with the PCMCIA Type III hard drive), measures 11.1" wide, 6.4" deep and 1.4" high. The unit comes with 2Mb of RAM, expandable to 8Mb (via memory card slot on the front of the machine), a non-backlit, reflective LCD VGA- resolution screen that measures 9" diagonally, one 9-pin serial port, one 25-pin parallel port, one infrared port (compatible with other OmniBook's and the HP 95LX and 100LX, as well as the new line of Vectra PC's coming out) and an expansion port for an optional modem, which will be available later this year. There are 4 PCMCIA Type II slots, with one of the slots (Slot C) being Type III compatible, allowing the use of the 1.8" hard disks on a Type III card. And there is a built-in mouse that "pops" out from the right side of the unit. There are two versions of the machine that you can purchase. One includes the Type III hard drive (manufactured by Western Digital) and retails for $1975. The other version replaces the hard drive with a 10Mb Flash card, made by SunDisk, but with the HP name on it. The Flash version retails for $2375. Street prices have not been determined, but are estimated to be $1750 for the hard drive version and around $2,100 for the Flash version. The OmniBook will be sold through the computer and laser printer sales channel. There is quite a bit of software provided, and has been placed in ROM (which is a removable Flash ROM card in Slot D). These programs include: Microsoft Windows 3.1, Word for Windows 2.0 and Excel for Windows 4.0. And from Hewlett-Packard, there is an Appointment Book, Phone Book (both of which create files compatible with the 100LX), Financial Calculator and OmniBook Tools. Of these Tools, there are 3 Control Panel devices: OmniBook (includes the Status Panel and basic machine settings), Mouse (controlling the pop-out mouse) and Power (setting for the battery and power management). There is also a version of LapLink Remote Access, which makes it possible for the OmniBook to share another computers hard drive. Quite the list of features for such a portable machine. Now let's go into more detail to see how this machine works. Let's Get Detailed The OmniBook is an amazing portable computer and the few days that I was able to use it, I became very interested as to how the features were implemented. So I proceeded to see what made it tick. This is a technical tour of the OmniBook and is meant to focus on the features provided. Some limitations will be brought out, but you need to understand that this is a 3 pound portable computer and is meant to be a powerful computer on the road and not a replacement for a desktop PC. Quality, Rugged Construction The first thing I noticed about the OmniBook was the quality of the construction. It felt very reliable and felt like it could withstand the abuse that it could go through. The case is the same type of design that is found on the HP 100LX palmtop. This is an important consideration when looking at a portable computer and HP gets high marks in this area. Screen The screen is another important aspect. The screen is 9" and is a true VGA screen running in 640x480 mode. Although it's not backlit, it does use a reflective LCD and is readable in moderate lighting. I was able to read the screen with just a lamp in a darkened room for about 15 minutes. I would not recommend this for long periods of time as it is not comfortable on the eyes. In much better light conditions, the screen was a dream. I could read the screen from most angles, with others standing around me being able to view what was on the screen. The clarity of the font when using DOS was easy to read, with the characters not overlapping on lines close together. I rate the screen as being excellent to use. Keyboard The keyboard is one of the best that I've used, almost as easy to use as a desktop keyboard. The keys appeared to be full size, as I noticed very little difference when switching from my desktop PC to the OmniBook. The key travel was excellent and I found that I could type my normal speed (35wpm) with no hindering obstacles. I was amazed at how much I was able to maneuver around without having to hunt for certain keys or try to induce arthritic hand gestures to perform certain keystrokes. There were sperate PgUp, PgDn, End and Home keys, which are used a lot. There is an integrated numeric keypad that works like other portables. There are also 12 dedicated function keys, which was a welcome sight. Overall, I found the keyboard to be excellent. Expansion Moving on to expansion options, the unit has 8 different ways to add peripherals, memory or storage. First, there are 4 PCMCIA card slots. Slot A is defined as Drive A and can take any PCMCIA 2.0 Type II card (5mm in thickness). Slot B is the same. Slot C is used for either a Type II Flash card or a Type III (10mm in thickness) hard drive. If you use the Flash card Slot B is available for use with RAM cards, Flash cards, modems and other peripherals. If the Type III hard drive is used, then its size uses the space of Slot B. A small disadvantage, but very acceptable considering your options. Then there is a Slot D, which is occupied by the Flash ROM card, which holds all of the built-in programs. And yes, this card is replaceable, with limitations. You can't just take the card out and replace it with your own suite of programs. But, if there are upgrades to the ROM programs, you will be able to purchase a new ROM card and be able to have the latest and greatest. HP has not announced anything at this time, but has confirmed that an upgrade is possible. The other expansion options are found in the 9-pin serial port and the 25- pin parallel port (both standard size - no pigtail connectors required). Also, there is a slot on the very front of the unit that will accept a 2Mb, 4Mb or 6Mb proprietary memory card, allowing you to upgrade the RAM to a total of 8Mb. Since the unit comes standard with 2Mb, that's not a lot to run Windows programs in. I would recommend at least the 4Mb card, giving you 6Mb of RAM to use. The extra RAM is nice when you want to use 3-4 Windows programs but don't want to shut any of them down. Pop-out Mouse Perhaps the most unique feature of this computer is the pop-out mouse. You press a button above the keyboard, and the device "pops" out from the right side of the unit. It's very easy to use, no matter where you use the OmniBook. I found that it felt easier to work than any mouse or trackball on any computer that I've used. Built-In Software Taking a look at the software, you get scaled down versions of Microsoft Word for Windows 2.0 and Excel for Windows 4.0. To give you an example of how much has been removed, Word for Windows doesn't include MS Draw, MS Graph, Equation Editor, WordArt, some proofing tools (e.g. thesaurus), some text converters, graphic filters, Word-specific fonts, WordPerfect help, tutorial, readme files and examples. Considering that a full installation of Word for Windows takes 16Mb on a desktop PC, the items that have been omitted seem fair. Windows 3.1 is a bit limited, also. For example, there is no support for Enhanced Mode, which means that not all Windows programs will run (check with the software publisher if there are questions about their program running under Enhanced Mode). This is a limitation of the ROM version of Windows. This may be addressed by Microsoft in the future. DOS Compatibility Support for running DOS programs is limited. This is due to the amount of memory that is being used for the many device drivers (i.e. Flash cards, PCMCIA peripheral support, DoubleSpace, etc.) that get loaded. When using Norton Utilities to check out the system, there was a DOS kernel that was 113K in size that had these drivers loaded. In talking with HP, it is not possible to remove these drivers to obtain more than the 450K free conventional RAM that is available for running DOS programs. I was able to run WordPerfect 5.1, TapCIS and many others, but programs like dBase IV are not for this machine. HP is billing the OmniBook as a Windows machine, so the focus on DOS is not perfect. But if you have small to medium size DOS programs, then you should be able to use them on the OmniBook. MS-DOS 5.0 is version of DOS, but is limited as to which programs have been included (no MS_DOS Shell or QBasic). DoubleSpace Compression DoubleSpace is used on Drive C to effectively double your storage space. This works on both the hard drive and Flash versions of the OmniBook. There are no CONFIG.SYS drivers to load or any setup or manual configuration required. The process works in the background and there is no noticeable decrease in the overall speed of the machine. I found DoubleSpace to be good on its compression ratios, as compared to Stacker. And if you have a device that has a Stacker volume, DoubleSpace can automatically convert it to its format. Now, if you are sharing this card with another device (i.e. HP 100LX), then do not let DoubleSpace convert the volume. It will render it useless on your other devices running Stacker. I was successful in loading a Stacker 3.0 driver on the OmniBook for my SunDisk card that I use on the HP 95LX, with the card being used in Slot B. With the exception of a message when CHKDSK is run, DoubleSpace and Stacker can be used at the same time for different devices. If by chance you purchase the hard drive version of the OmniBook and want to swap the hard drive with a Flash card in Slot C, initializing DoubleSpace is easy. Just place the Flash card in Slot C and reboot. The rest will be taken care of, automatically. Flash cards less than 5Mb are not supported. I would say that the process of storage devices is very painless. And while on the subject of storage options, HP does not provide a floppy drive with the OmniBook. Instead, they are working with other options, using the serial or parallel port for the addition of a floppy. Any of the parallel or serial port driven floppy drives on the market today should work with no problems. Battery Life & Options Battery life is, by far, the best on a machine this size. Using the hard drive, you can expect up to 5 hours, depending on which power saving options you use (settable in the Power control panel in Windows). Using the Flash card OmniBook gives you up to 9 hours of life. These battery life figures are based on using the included Nickel-Metal Hydride pack. You can also use alkaline and lithium AA cells in the OmniBook, but there are some limitations. For example, using the hard drive, you can use the Nickel-Metal Hydride pack or 4 lithium AA cells (Eveready Hi-Energy Lithium), but no alkalines. Using the Flash card, you can use lithium or alkaline AA cells and the Nickel-Metal Hydride pack, all being able to achieve the high battery life. This makes it flexible to use different power sources, depending on where you are when your batteries go. I was able to get 8.5 hours using the Flash card with the Nickel-Metal Hydride pack. As for ni-cad AA cells, HP does not recommend using these with either version of OmniBook. I did get a chance to use both Millennium and Panasonic rechargeable cells and the battery life with the Flash card installed was about half of the rated figure. Connectivity With Other Computers And finally, there is a version LapLink Remote Access that is supported in either DOS and Windows. For those that are not familiar with this program, it allows you to hook up a LapLink cable to another computer and share its programs and drives. You can run programs from the other computer on the OmniBook and have access to any data that you may need to get to. You can even install a software program from the remote computer to the OmniBook. It's easy to use and setup and something that will get used quite a bit. The OmniBook 300. Offering very few compromises and limitations, this is a very capable portable machine. HP calls it a "Super Portable", although it fits in the subnotebook class of machines. But it stands apart from the rest. There is no other machine so far, that has this many expansion options, or includes more programs in ROM. If your needs fit what this review has offered, then pick up and OmniBook 300. I highly recommend it to anyone that needs to travel with a desire to carry less. ================================================================= Copyright (c) 1993 Perfection Applied. Palm To Palm is published at various times throughout the year on several on-line services by Perfection Applied, 454 West 1010 North, Orem, UT 84057. All rights reserved. All articles published here are the property of their authors. All other text is submitted to Perfection Applied and may not be reproduced, in whole or part, without written permission from the publisher.