The
Xemplar Pocket Book III
Pocket Book III
Xemplar
previewed a new Pocket Book at the BETT show in January, and it should now
be available. Called the Pocket Book III, it is once again a collaboration
with Psion, designed to build on the success of the first two Pocket Books.
In fact, it is a rebadged 2 Mb backlit Series 3c, only this time it has the
Xemplar badge on it rather than the Acorn one. Unlike the previous two
Pocket Books, there are very few differences between it and the Psion
original.
- All the built-in software is the same as on the Series 3c
- The names of the applications haven't been changed this time
- The serial port runs at twice the speed of the Series 3c, bringing it up
to the 115,200 baud of the Series 5,
- In all other ways it is indistinguishable from the Psion Series 3c.
Initially it will only be available via the normal Xemplar routes
into schools, but it is possible that could be extended to allow parents,
and ultimately anyone to buy them if the demand is there. The announced
price is £250 plus VAT.
The first two Pocket Books were very succesful in bringing low-cost
computing to schools, and it's good to see that continuing.
Acorn Connectivity
Perhaps the most significant aspect of all this is that the
new machine will need file transfer and conversion software to link it to
RISC OS machines in the school environment, and this is where PsiRisc comes in. Xemplar have commissioned IMS to
produce a cut-down version specifically for the Pocket Book III, which will
obviously also work with the Series 3c. Xemplar will be selling this version
of PsiRisc as well as the new Pocket Book.
It would
seem that folk wanting to connect the S3c or the S5 to RISC OS machines have
cause to thank Xemplar for the PBIII, as that has lent weight to the
development of PsiRisc.
Xemplar's other education machine is the Apple eMate, and the recent
changes in that are discussed on another page.
Connectivity -
Support - Education - Programming - Acorn Reviews
- EPOC32 Reviews - Acorn
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