eMate recommendations
mcdermot3 -atsign- mindspring -dotcom
there are people selling refurbed eMates for under $100 on eBay. My
specs would be:
· Keyboard big enough for human fingers
· Screen big enough to read a good sized chunk of text
· Connectivity to the Mac
· WiFi web surfing
Since this is mostly a writing machine, speed may not be as much of a
requirement.
Should a well-refurbished eMate 300 be better than a Palm Tungsten?
(I've already used a Poquet pocket PC [takes a minute or two to boot up
in DOS, WP has a limit of 5000 characters per file, PC card slots
pre-date PCA/MIA standards] and an NEC MobilPro 770 [worked just fine
until it got dropped and the startup toggle broke, and NEC won't even
support out of warranty repairs--suspect finding a replacement switch
wouldn't fix the problem].
My main machine is an old Power Computing clone, which may soon be
replaced by an iBook, but I want a smaller device I can tuck away and
take anywhere, them sync to the 'book for heavy crunching.
So please fill me in on the group's expoerience with Newtons in
everyday life.
Mark
Helpful Harry
"mcdermot3 -atsign- mindspring -dotcom" <mcde...@mindspring.com>
wrote:
I can't help with the eMate since I've never used one, but perhaps
another alternative is a small portable keyboard called the AlphaSmart
(http://www.alphasmart.com) which might be worth a quick look.
It's basically a keyboard with a small LCD screen that fits around 5
lines of text which runs on normal AA-sized batteries. It's a
lightweight device that stores quite a bit of text and can keep them
separated into a few different files. You type on it as normal, then
when you get back to the Mac you simply load up your word processor,
plug the AlphaSmart into the ADB or USB port and tell it to send the
text through - your word processor then begins "ghost retyping" out
your document, only much faster.
I haven't used one in a while so I'm not up-to-date with the new
abilities of the latest models, but the old one we had was quite useful
and cheaper than buying a laptop when all you need is to be be able to
type up documents.
Helpful Harry
Hopefully helping harassed humans happily handle handiwork hardships ;o)
Richard Plume
You might want to consider getting a MobilePro 780. It meets your
criteria, it has a better web browser than anything on the eMate, it's
also a lot smaller than the eMate and they're reasonably priced on eBay.
You can run it as a standalone computer or sync it with a Mac using a
utility available from Marc/Space. As you know from your experience
with the 770, it uses standard compact flash cards that can be read
directly by a Mac. Just add TextMaker for a word processor that can't be
beat on an eMate. Your battery from the 770 could also be used in the
780.
As far as the Palm goes, I tried it a couple of years ago, but for a
variety of reasons, just didn't like them (your mileage may vary).
As a bit of background, I've used both Newtons and MobilePros for the
past few years. My main desktop computer is a Mac (although I also keep
an old Windows laptop around for loading programs on the MobilePros) and
I switched completely to a MobilePro 700 (monochrome screen, internal 32
megs of RAM, 1gig CF card and runs on 2 AA batteries) a couple of years
ago. I switched from a 2100 (monochrome screen, 4 megs of RAM internal,
2 32 meg linear flash cards for storage and an external keyboard). I
also recently picked up both an eMate in a trade and a MobilePro 780
from eBay. I use both but my main writing machine is the 700 and soon it
will be the 780 (just waiting for a 2 gig CF card). You should also know
that after loading the programs that I need/use on both the MobilePro
and Newton, I use them as standalone computers and don't even bother
synchronizing anymore (actually haven't for years).
Hope this helps...
Rick
In article <1103758817.7...@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com>,
"mcdermot3 -atsign- mindspring -dotcom" <mcde...@mindspring.com>
wrote:
> I've searching for a small writing machine, and have been noticing that
--
rpl...@NOSPAMsympatico.ca
Remove NOSPAM before replying.
Bruce Tomlin
"mcdermot3 -atsign- mindspring -dotcom" <mcde...@mindspring.com>
wrote:
> I've searching for a small writing machine, and have been noticing that
> there are people selling refurbed eMates for under $100 on eBay. My
> specs would be:
> · Keyboard big enough for human fingers
First of all, the eMate is smaller than you think. The keyboard is just
a tad smaller than a real keyboard. And the handle is just a bit small
for adult hands. Which isn't too surprising since they only got sold to
schools, just before Newton was dumped completely.
> · Screen big enough to read a good sized chunk of text
The screen size is okay, but it's still black & white. Er, green and
white, thanks to the backlight.
> · Connectivity to the Mac
Sort of... you can do serial (slow and your Mac needs a serial port),
Localtalk (ditto, and your Mac needs a built-in serial port) or
Ethertalk (you need a supported Ethernet card, but there's only one card
slot on an eMate, so you couldn't use a Flash card at the same time)
> · WiFi web surfing
I don't know if anyone got a WiFi card working with the Newton, but even
if someone did, I tried it myself with an Ethernet card. Once you've
loaded up half the flash memory with drivers, network protocol stack,
and a web browser, you'll notice that the thing is agonizingly slow at
even text-only web browsing. It's only got a 25MHz ARM, after all.
> Since this is mostly a writing machine, speed may not be as much of a
> requirement.
It better not be much of a requirement. Slow, slow, slow.
> Should a well-refurbished eMate 300 be better than a Palm Tungsten?
I doubt it. Other than the full keyboard (which you can get as an
external for a Palm anyhow), there's no advantage to the eMate.
Then there's also the good chance that one you would get on ebay may not
be refurbished enough. The batteries might be at the end of their
lives. The only good part is that they're NiMH, and it is possible to
build a replacement pack.
A 2000 or 2100 might be a better choice if you want to stick with Newton.
But damn, the eMate sure does look cool. A 2000 or 2100 wedged into an
eMate case would be really nice.
Helpful Harry
<bruce#fanboy.net-16ECB...@alpha.newsreader.com>, Bruce
Tomlin <bruce#fanbo...@127.0.0.1> wrote:
> In article <1103758817.7...@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com>,
> "mcdermot3 -atsign- mindspring -dotcom" <mcde...@mindspring.com>
> wrote:
> >
> > Should a well-refurbished eMate 300 be better than a Palm Tungsten?
>
> I doubt it. Other than the full keyboard (which you can get as an
> external for a Palm anyhow), there's no advantage to the eMate.
There is (at least) one other major advantage: NewtonOS!
Beats the {beep} out of that rubbish Palm use for so-called
"handwriting recognition". :o)
Bruce Tomlin
Helpful Harry <helpfu...@nom.de.plume.com> wrote:
> There is (at least) one other major advantage: NewtonOS!
> Beats the {beep} out of that rubbish Palm use for so-called
> "handwriting recognition". :o)
I do seem to recall that the original poster was talking about typing,
not handwriting. And unlike a regular PDA form factor Newton, the eMate
screen isn't very comfortable to use for handwriting.
derimac
take anywhere. Currently I am using a 2100, have used almost any type of
wince/palm/notbook in the past years. Here are my experiences so far.
There is no perfect solution, unfortunately! My criteria were:
- readable display
big enough to see significant amount of text in reasonable size (rules
out all palms and pocketpc). HandheldPc displays and notebooks are
unreadable in bright daylight. Newtons and emates monochrome displays
are fantastic in any light.
- battery life
is crucial. If you depend on a ac plug, forget it. This rules out
wince devices, which run for a few hours max, and need to be charged
constantly or all your data and system setup is lost. Sometimes I don't
use the unit for a week or more, and then I don't want to spend an hour
setting everything up again. Newton is the winner here - it holds it's
data forever. After years in a drawer, i plugged in the ac adaptor - and
voilà, the green dude started up just the way i left it in 1999. Cool.
- responsiveness
a notebook spills half it's battery life and a part of my life with
booting. Useless for me. My writing machine needs to be there when i
grab it. And while I'm typing it usually starts whininh that it's
battery is empty. Yawn.
- synchronisation
well, this has never been newton's strenght... palm and wince rule in
this department. However texts can be imported and exported, although
it's not really comfortable and you have to do one by one.
-wlan
my goodness, wlan on a newton! i bet nobody had thought this possible
:o) Beats most wince and pocketpc unless it's built-in.
-communication
browsing the web is, well.. very limited. In other words - forget it, if
this is a crucial requirement. Email works quite well. Built-in printing
and faxing however can be a lifesaver.
Conclusionn:
As a writing machine, the newton ( i use handwriting!) with keyboard or
emate is by far the best device for my needs, but your mileage may vary.
Unfortunately the MP2x00 is much faster than the emate, but the emate
is more ergonomic for typing. The fact that the emate has just one
pcmcia slot also makes it hard to use a wlan card (or modem) and have
one's data on a storage card.
But since all these units are old and cheap now, you can collect them on
ebay and see what works best for you, much unlike in 1998 :o)
Have fun!
mcdermot3 -atsign- mindspring -dotcom
I would have gotten another MobilPro in a heartbeat if I didn't have
the bad experience of seeing how easily it breaks. Yes, I know,
dropping any electronic device on the floor is a good way to kill it.
But then finding out NEC won't even suggest how to fix it was the
heartbreaker r. Luckily, I ad my vital files backed up to a CF card,
except for the problem of being unable to translate my Pocket access
file without being hooked up to ActiveSync.
But anyhoo, short of finding a real bargain on another Mobilepro or
Journada, I think my solution will be to wait until Nokia's new PDA
phones with the wide screen and keyboard become more available. Yes,
I'm trading off a teeny keyboard, but at least some of them will have
the office functions I need.