Newsgroups: comp.sys.handhelds
Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!think.com!laird
From: laird@think.com (Laird Popkin)
Subject: Re: The next step downwards
Message-ID: <1991May8.000043.11046@Think.COM>
Keywords: fractions,bug,HP-32
Sender: news@Think.COM
Reply-To: laird@think.com
Organization: Thinking Machines Corporation, Cambridge MA, USA
References: <51123@apple.Apple.COM> <1991May06.185832.4863@grep.co.uk> <2826ee5e:2620.15comp.sys.handhelds;1@hpcvbbs.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 8 May 91 00:00:43 GMT

In article <2826ee5e:2620.15comp.sys.handhelds;1@hpcvbbs.UUCP> akcs.falco@hpcvbbs.UUCP (Andrey Dolgachev) writes:
>Along the note of Portfolios, 95, Poquet, etc.  the following is taken
>from a recent article reviewing the Casio Boss, Sharp Wizard, Poquet PC,
>and the Atari Portfolio.
>
>"None has a seperate numeric keypad."   (Unlike the 95LX)

True.  They all provide a numeric keypad overlaid on the QWERTY keyboard.

>"Even simple tests [Atari and Poquet PC] revelaed shortcomings that would
>keep them from being the first choice in a portable computer."

Of course -- they, like the 95LX, were designed to be a portable extension
to another computer.  The article pretty much concludes that if you want a
portable computer, you should buy a laptop computer and get a larger
display, a larger keyboard, and more storage.

[evidence that tiny computers with tiny screens and tiny keyboards have
 limitations deleted]

[some statements that he saw a 95LX in a store and liked it deleted]

> ...  When you press a key, such as Q, it executes that menu command
>(QUIT in this case), there are submenus which replace the main menu,
>instead of being pull-down, but otherwise they function the same way as
>the Menus on the better IBM software.  This is for all the applications,
>even the HP calculator simulator.

Just like a Portfolio...

         			The World time is nice, there are a
>lot of cities, and you can program in your own.  The Appointment,
>Calendar, and To-Do list all run flawlessly and are on a completely
>different level than the Wizard or Boss or etc.  Filer is a simple DOS
>shell with additional additions for the 95 and easier to use than std.
>becasue there's no C: prompt.  It's more like Xtree than a DOS shell,
>actually, you move down the disk list with the arrow keys, and the menu
>lets you do wdo the commands (run, view, etc.)

Just like the Portfolio...

					      Most importantly, the HP
>quality is very evident.  When closed, it's very small, and very light,
>smaller and lighter than a 48.  At the store where I saw it, Ulrich's
>Electronics in Ann Arbor, Mich.  it was only $525.  It really has to be
>seen and played with to be believed though.

For 2.6 times the price of the Portfolio... ($525 vs. $200)

In case anyone is curious, I (today) decided to buy a Portfolio over the
95LX because I could get the Portfolio for $200, and when technology
advances to the point where a _full_ function computer can be handheld,
I'll buy one of those, and until then the Portfolio is sufficient for my
needs.  The incremental improvement of the 95LX over the Portfolio didn't
justify the difference in price for me.

Look, Falco, I am not saying that the Portfolio or any other handheld
computer is better than the 95LX.  My _only_ point in this entire
discussion has been to point out that HP _didn't_ invent the handheld
computer market, or even the subset of that, the handheld DOS computer
market.  Their entry into the market looks quite good, and may well be
"better", but it's not different from any of the other machines available
in any fundamental way.  Even Apple, a company not noted for it's humility,
didn't claim to have created the portable computer market when it
introduced the Portable Mac, and it was the first one to run the *real*
Macintosh operating system, as opposed to a clone.  :^)

>            ---Falco

- Laird Popkin, Thinking Machines

Connection Machine: Massively parallel supercomputer.  Also a cool black
cube with more blinking lights than you can shake a stick at.