pda

just got a clie nx70v used from fries this week and i think it is awesome.

it’s got a real thumb keyboard so i can type notes. it’s slower than with a full kb on a real computer, and i’m back to looking at the keyboard not tehs creen, but it’s much faster than i expected, and that’ll only improve with time. the trick is that all i have to do is train my thumbs to replace ten fingers; i already know where all the keys are. it’s also got a virtual keyboard if i want to use the stylus, or i can do graphitti which isn’t as bad as i thought, but still not nearly as efficient as the keyboard.

it has a big screen with great resolution, it’s easy to use, it has a built-in 640×480 digital camera that can even take movies with sound. once i hack the networking card slot i’ll be able to use compact flash memory cards, much better than proprietary sony memory sticks, where you’d be lucky to get 512meg for $100. i have a raincheck from fries to get a 2gig cf microdrive for $110.

basically this thing rocking my world, and i haven’t even gone online to find more and better software for it yet. every day i grow to love it more and more.

but at the same time, every day i find more and more that as cool as it is, it’s still not a ‘real’ computer, and that just makes me jones for an oqo or a vulcan flipstart. both are handhelds that run windows xp, not the ‘pocket’ version, windows mobile. they’re both 1gig processors with 256mb of ram and 20 gig hard drives, integrated wifi and bluetooth, high-res screens, and thumb keyboards. they won’t run doom 3, but they’d run most of the other programs i want, and without having to find ‘pocket’ versions that do the same thing.

mostly i want them because i want xp’s fantastic integrated image browser and file manager. the entire reason i decided to get a handheld at all was so i can carry scans of all my pocket notebooks around for reference. the clie integrated browers doesn’t create thumbnail files, it just renders them on the fly, every time you open a folder. even if you were just in that folder and are going back from an image you looked at. this is fine if you have two pictures, not so good if you have, say, 100 in a folder(aka my pocket nb from 9/03 to 12/04, for example).

the price makes the oqo a pipe dream though. the clie cost me $300 refurbished at fries. the high-end pda from hp i like is $650 new.

the oqo just came out and it’s $2000.

which would i rather have for $2000? an oqo or a vulcan, tiny handhelds that run xp? or a fujitsu lifebook, a 10″ laptop with the same specs under the hood, but packing a full size keyboard and screen, an integrated compact-flash reader, and a combo dvd-rom/cd burner?

the laptop gets points for being a larger size, making it more functional as a computer. i can sit somewhere and type fast enough to compose something more complex than a to-do list. i can play dvds. i can play real computer games. i can pull pictures off of my camera’s memory card, i can synch up with my clie on the go. i can do most anything i could do with a real desktop. but the laptop loses because you need somewhere to put it in order to use it. at least a chair, preferably a table somewhere. and you need a bag to carry it in, limiting the opportunities for use.

the palmtop wins because it has the same hardware profile as the fujtisu, but it’s pocket-sized. it doesn’t have any removeable media, so you can’t run any program that requires the cd. but it does have a huge hard drive, which means that you’ve got room for every program you want that doesn’t require the cd. it won’t play dvds but you can put big movie files on it and play them in the appropriate player. it’s got wifi so you can get online in a hotspot, and because it’s a real computer, it’ll run mozilla or whatnot and you can browse the real internet, not the pocket version. and the real winner for the palmtop is that it’s so tiny that you can use it anywhere at any time. standing in line, walking around, on the bus, at work, anywhere.

both options appeal to me, but ultimately i think the oqo or vulcan would get more use. the laptop would be more convenient for school, on bus/car/plane rides, or at lan parties, but the oqo would be convenient EVERYWHERE. and the oqo is expandable. i can take it’s cradle, a full size keyboard, mouse, and monitor, and use it as a real computer for lan parties. i can get a compatible folding keyboard and carry that around for when i need to do real typing.

so who knows. $2000 is a lot, but it’s not impossible. at my current rate of pay, working three days a week, i could fairly painlessly get one for my birthday in may. by then i’d know if i still wanted/needed it and if it was worth the money.

what i really want, though, is for sony and nintendo to put out palm os and windows mobile cartridges for the gameboy dual screen and the psp. the gbds has the advantage that the second screen is a touchscreen, and i imagine they could work out a combination cartridge/memory card to give it full pda function and good storage. maybe not, but it’d be cool. the psp has the advantage that, last i checked, it’s going to have a memorystick slot already, and they could easily put windows mobile and a great many programs onto one of their game discs.

hell, if the psp is going to have memorysticks anyways, i imagine people will probably hack it so you can install windows mobile or palm os onto a 1gig memorystick anyways. if it’s going to have the option of playing movies on the new minidiscs, it might have a native os already; it wouldn’t be a stretch to imagine sony including a version of palm os in the psp natively, so that whoever buys a psp has added incentive to carry it around and use it as datebook and whatnot.

although without either a keyboard or a touchscreen, inputting information would be really annoying. so maybe not.