Geofox One (Psion S5 clone) sightings/opinions?
Martyn Cadogan
I've just seen an article in Electronics Times (UK trade paper) about
Geofox One, a licensed Psion Series 5 clone using EPOC32. It features a
larger display, trackpad, PC card slot and has strong emphasis on
communcations and email (current S5 weak point). It claims compatibility
with 'all Psion office applications'. Release date is supposed to be today
(October 1).
Geofox have a web site at:
with UK and US contact numbers.
Has anyone seen one of these?
Martyn Cadogan
Reading, UK
Mike Salmon
Nicko van Someren
In article <B057C3FB...@0.0.0.0>,
Martyn Cadogan <mar...@pavanne.NOSPAMdemon.co.uk> wrote:
>I've just seen an article in Electronics Times (UK trade paper) about
>Geofox One, a licensed Psion Series 5 clone using EPOC32. It features a
>larger display, trackpad, PC card slot and has strong emphasis on
>communcations and email (current S5 weak point). It claims compatibility
>with 'all Psion office applications'. Release date is supposed to be today
>(October 1).
>
>
>Has anyone seen one of these?
I had a chat with one of the sales guys at Geofox in Cambridge. They
expect to ship the first units on October 20th. They are not selling
them through shops so it will be hard to check one out before you buy
it but they will be selling them with a 14 day money back scheme so
you can see if you like it (buy it just after your credit card bill
comes and you can get the refund in before they send you the next one
:-)
The units will ship with the email and web software pre-installed and
it looks pretty similar to the stuff Psion will offer for the 5 (I
wonder, can I buy one on 14 day trail, extract the web software and
install it on my 5).
Nicko
--
--
Nicko van Someren Fax: (+44)(1223)723601 Vox: (+44)(1223)723600
Mailto:ni...@ncipher.com http://www.ncipher.com/
Martin Kurrein
In article <60t7kl$d...@ludlow.ncipher.com>, Nicko van Someren
<ni...@ludlow.ncipher.com> writes
>
>The units will ship with the email and web software pre-installed and
>it looks pretty similar to the stuff Psion will offer for the 5 (I
>wonder, can I buy one on 14 day trail, extract the web software and
>install it on my 5).
More to the point (or the legality!)- why aren't they offering that
software as a product in its own right?
--
Martin Kurrein 199 Strand London WC2R 1DR
mkur...@mkurrein.co.uk
http://www.mkurrein.co.uk/
Hans Nygaard
Nicko van Someren wrote:
>
> I had a chat with one of the sales guys at Geofox in Cambridge. They
> expect to ship the first units on October 20th. They are not selling
> them through shops so it will be hard to check one out before you buy
> it but they will be selling them with a 14 day money back scheme so
> you can see if you like it (buy it just after your credit card bill
> comes and you can get the refund in before they send you the next one
> :-)
>
> it looks pretty similar to the stuff Psion will offer for the 5 (I
> wonder, can I buy one on 14 day trail, extract the web software and
> install it on my 5).
>
If Geofox can ship the e-mail client and web browser on october 1st
(20th actually) why the h*** can't Psion! Grrr... It's clearly just a
port of Psions software, just for a larger screen.
Besides that it looks like a nice machine exept for size/weight. The
screen hinge design does not look too solid though?
Hans
------Hans Nygaard------no-spam mailto:ha...@nygaard.com------
------------http://www.image.dk/~sonic/index.html------------
"Never mind the star, just get those camels off the lawn!"
"Hey! Odo! You got any more of that jello? Odo? Odo??"
-------------------------------------------------------------
Dr H.R. Matthews
>If Geofox can ship the e-mail client and web browser on october 1st
>(20th actually) why the h*** can't Psion! Grrr... It's clearly just a
>port of Psions software, just for a larger screen.
According to their web page, they are NOT shipping, just taking
orders. My (unofficial) guess is that the email and web clients _are_
Psion's software supplied along with the licensed EPOC32, but
(apparently unlike GeoFox) Psion are reluctant to preannounce to that
degree. Once Psion have internet apps which are ready to send to
GeoFox, I hazard the guess that they will turn up in S5 guise on the
Psion web site soon after.
Certainly all of the other apps bundled with the GeoFox appear to be
standard items from third party commercial suppliers.
>Besides that it looks like a nice machine exept for size/weight. The
>screen hinge design does not look too solid though?
If size and weight don't matter, then go buy a notebook. Seriously,
though, even Psion have taken a lot of flack on points of durability
on their usually very carefully considered palmtop hardware designs.
The Geofox looks like a "shrunk" notebook, so one has to wonder how
carefully the durability issues have been considered.
Usability seems to have gone out of the window: using a trackpad that
small could be a real challenge, and having used the Psion S5
keyboard, I would not go back to conductive rubber keypad-style keys.
Just my opinion.
Hugh Matthews
Jim Omura
In article <01bcce53$b0474740$3c68...@grey.cru.uea.ac.uk>,
>Now has lots of details.
One thing I noticed was that they are NOT saying that the Web browser
and Email are "future upgrades." They are saying that they are including
them now. I tried calling Syscan (the Canadian distributor) to find out
whether the Psion Web Browser and Email applications are ready. Syscan
failed to return my phone calls. The Psion website doesn't have any news
on the matter. I would have expected that if they had completed the
Web browser and Email, the news would have been on their Website
immediately.
James Omura, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
jimo...@pathcom.com
jimo...@newsroom.com
The Moving Target: mobile information technology
http://www.pathcom.com/~jimomura/
Dr H.R. Matthews
On 4 Oct 1997 13:17:23 GMT, jimo...@pathcom.com (Jim Omura) wrote:
> One thing I noticed was that they are NOT saying that the Web browser
>and Email are "future upgrades." They are saying that they are including
>them now. I tried calling Syscan (the Canadian distributor) to find out
>whether the Psion Web Browser and Email applications are ready. Syscan
>failed to return my phone calls. The Psion website doesn't have any news
>on the matter. I would have expected that if they had completed the
>Web browser and Email, the news would have been on their Website
>immediately.
One thing I noticed was that although Geofox are including the web
browser and EMail, they are NOT _shipping_ machines yet, just taking
orders (at a discount) for when they do start shipping. It seems
possible that they are hoping that the browser and mail apps will be
ready in time for their hardware ship date, and keeping their fingers
firmly crossed! Someone said in an earler posting that Geofox had
indicated that browser and mail would be in RAM not ROM, so they
really could leave the installation until the last minute if
necessary.
jf mezei
> opprtunity?? And dont forget geofox promise a full refund of the purchase
> price if the machine is returned within 14 days.
I do not beleive that 14 days is enough for a serious user of a palmtop.
Considering the very little amount of serious documentation available
publicly about epoc32 (all the good stuff is hidden in the EPOCworld
site)
it is next to impossible to judge what is innvolved in porting your
existing applications to a new platform in that 14 days.
Amd 14 days isn't enough for you to really explore such a machine to
find that one nag which will make it unusable for you.
While 14 days is plenty of time for new users of PDAs, I am not sure it
is adequate for those who already have a PDA.
Jeremy Rickard
In article <343359A2...@nygaard.com>, Hans Nygaard
<hansD...@nygaard.com> writes
>If Geofox can ship the e-mail client and web browser on october 1st
>(20th actually) why the h*** can't Psion! Grrr... It's clearly just a
>port of Psions software, just for a larger screen.
I can't believe Psion will trail Geofax by much, if at all. In another
thread somebody posted to the effect that the software was now out of
beta. I'd hazard a guess then that it will be released this month.
--
Jeremy Rickard
Oly
What on earth are you talking about??? For someone who has had a pda for years
and years it would be much easier to check out than a new user. What you are
saying is a contradiction in terms!!
Ajai Khattri
On Sun, 12 Oct 1997 01:18:37 +0100, Oly <o...@bhari.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>We seem to have
>managed quite well with the rubber keys until the psion5 came along.
Tell you what, Il send you the medical bill for fixing my shoulder due
to strain in using a touchpad on my laptop ;-)
>Also the fact that
>machine is far better specified than the Psion 5!
I like the extra memory. I don't like the touchpad (suprise!). I like
the extra apps and email. I don't like the keyboard. I like the bigger
screen. I like the price.
Pluses and minuses.
Of course, there is nothing wrong with commenting on a new machine and
I suspect that most people will want to see what other people's
experiences with the machine is before making any sort of decision.
Regards,
--
Aj. (aj...@ibm.net)
Consultant Engineer, The Market Net Group
jf mezei
Oly wrote:
>
> What on earth are you talking about??? For someone who has had a pda for years
> and years it would be much easier to check out than a new user. What you are
> saying is a contradiction in terms!!
*ASSUMING* that one gets all the documentation right away, then you are
correct, 14 days should be plenty of time to know if you can move from a
previous PDA to the new one, otherwise return the new one.
BUT, consider that the S5 is an unfinished piece with lots of stuff that
is still to come (email/internet, mac connectivity, rom upgrade) and
consider the silence of PSION, then you should be able to understand
that it takes more than 14 days to get real information about the
machine.
Consider that early adopters (back in July) couldn't get ANY info on
programming since EPOCworld did not exist yet, and consider the time it
would take to get the subscription to EPOCword and receive all the
stuff, there wouldn't be much left to sift through it all to find the
equivalent functions needed to port your previous PDA's software over.
It took me MUCH longer than 14 days to find out that PSION would not
release
file formats. First responses were so silly that I could not beleive
them. had they responded "PSION's policy towards file formats is that it
will no longer document them and prefers that you use the WIN32
application interfaces" right away, then I would have returned the unit.
Instead, the responses were more like "the PSION 5 has no file formats
because it is in a stream store format".
A new user only needs to find out he he/she/it likes the user interface
and he/she/it will grow into the unit and not be aware of its
limitations. But those who must transplant stuff have a more difficult
time.
jf mezei
It will be interesting to see how GEOFOX handles the ROM upgrade(s) for
its machines and how GEOFOX policies will influence PSION's own
policies.
Kip Bowes
In article <344042...@videotron.ca>, jf mezei <"[non-
spam]jfmezei"@videotron.ca> says...
> > opprtunity?? And dont forget geofox promise a full refund of the purchase
> > price if the machine is returned within 14 days.
>
> I do not beleive that 14 days is enough for a serious user of a palmtop.
> Considering the very little amount of serious documentation available
> publicly about epoc32 (all the good stuff is hidden in the EPOCworld
> site)
> it is next to impossible to judge what is innvolved in porting your
> existing applications to a new platform in that 14 days.
>
> Amd 14 days isn't enough for you to really explore such a machine to
> find that one nag which will make it unusable for you.
>
> While 14 days is plenty of time for new users of PDAs, I am not sure it
> is adequate for those who already have a PDA.
>
company lets you look at a unit. If you like the Geofox, then buy it.
If you like the Series 5, then buy it. Quit bickering about useless
trivia.
Wayout
jf mezei wrote:
> I do not beleive that 14 days is enough for a serious user of a
> palmtop.
> Considering the very little amount of serious documentation available
> publicly about epoc32 (all the good stuff is hidden in the EPOCworld
> site)
> it is next to impossible to judge what is innvolved in porting your
> existing applications to a new platform in that 14 days.
>
Forgive me, for I am not a programmer but isnt the "new platform"
(EPOC32) exactly the same on the S5 as on the Geofox?And please excuse
the assumption, but dont most of those who are serious about writing
code for EPOC 32 already have an S5? Theres seems to be nothing new to
consider that would take more than a few hours. The different screen and
touchpad are the only differences I can see.
> Amd 14 days isn't enough for you to really explore such a machine to
> find that one nag which will make it unusable for you.
>
Then I guess you will have to be responsible to yourself and count the
days while you probe the mysterious new device and make sure you dont
get stuck with something you dont want.This is a VERY simple yet
incredibly uncommon practice. Especially around these parts.
> While 14 days is plenty of time for new users of PDAs, I am not sure
> it
> is adequate for those who already have a PDA.
I see this logic being completely backwards.
I am not here to police the stupid, I am simply trying to understand
that which does not make sense to me.
Jason L.
jf mezei
Wayout wrote:
> Forgive me, for I am not a programmer but isnt the "new platform"
> (EPOC32) exactly the same on the S5 as on the Geofox?And please excuse
> the assumption, but dont most of those who are serious about writing
> code for EPOC 32 already have an S5? Theres seems to be nothing new to
> consider that would take more than a few hours. The different screen and
> touchpad are the only differences I can see.
Well, I doubt that many who already have an S5 will go out and buy a
Geofox.
So, I suspect that most who buy a geofox will be new EPOC32 users and
hence will have to go through the "learning curve" from whatever
previous PDA they had.
The idea is to allow serious users to make fully informed decisions, and
this
is harder when buying by mail-order with short money-back periods.
Ajai Khattri
>Consider that early adopters (back in July) couldn't get ANY info on
>programming since EPOCworld did not exist yet, and consider the time it
>would take to get the subscription to EPOCword and receive all the
>stuff, there wouldn't be much left to sift through it all to find the
>equivalent functions needed to port your previous PDA's software over.
Registered developers had advance information (how do you think Alan
Richey came out with S5BANK back in July?!). I managed to get my hands
on an S5 prototype back in March in fact.
>A new user only needs to find out he he/she/it likes the user interface
>and he/she/it will grow into the unit and not be aware of its
>limitations. But those who must transplant stuff have a more difficult
>time.
Exactly. Developers are far and few between but users are not.