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. 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 Links - Psion S5 Links - Home


Any comments? Please let me know.
The pages on this site are all © John Woodthorpe, and are my personal opinions. All trademarks are acknowledged.