Xref: utzoo comp.sys.atari.8bit:2575 comp.sys.atari.st:16066 Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!portal!cup.portal.com!Bob_BobR_Retelle From: Bob_BobR_Retelle@cup.portal.com Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit,comp.sys.atari.st Subject: Re: Atari News - Portfolio Message-ID: <17909@cup.portal.com> Date: 4 May 89 00:27:40 GMT References: <10212@ihlpb.ATT.COM> <17301@cup.portal.com> <17381@cup.portal.com> <17477@cup.portal.com> <17692@cup.portal.com> <17792@cup.portal.com> Distribution: usa Organization: The Portal System (TM) Lines: 67 Lisa Raine asks about the Atari Portfolio... (Regarding its use for the handicapped, and my reply that it wouldn't be suitable..) >Bob, why not? With a little help from canada who has come up >with a speech synthesizer about the same size as the folio, >why wouldn't it work? That's the problem... the "Atari" Portfolio is a toy computer which is only being marketed by Atari... they had nothing to do with its development, and as far as I know, nothing to do with its manufacture.. they're just slapping an Atari label on it... The Portfolio has no standard interfaces or "ports" on it, so any devices like speech synthesizers which needed an RS-232 interface, would be useless.. There are no "internal card slots" to use standard IBM PC style expansion cards (actually, that's understandable, given the compact size), so that avenue of expansion is closed.. There is no provision for attaching any standard printers or disk drives... There is virtually *NO* software available for it, despite the fact that it will *RUN* any MS-DOS programs, because of the "RAM-Card" storage device.. (try an experiment... call any IBM software store, and ask them how many IBM programs they have... then ask them how many of those are available *now* on "RAM-Cards"... if they're polite, they'll wait until after they hang up before they laugh..) There *IS* built-in software provided with the Portfolio... anyone who plans to use a "Lotus 1-2-3" spreadsheet clone with an 8-line by 40 character display, raise their hands... I didn't think so... There is a "wordprocessor" built-in, but with no printer support, and no disk drives to easily port your documents (again, typed on an 8-line by 40 character display), it's nothing but an electronic "notepad"... Supposedly you'll be able to buy a "RAM-Card drive" to attach to a "real" computer so that you can transfer data from the Portfolio to a more capable machine for printing or whatever.. add the cost of that to the Portfolio's original cost... There *is* a 60 pin connector on the back of the Portfolio which could theoretically be used to go to a serial/parallel port adapter, but none are currently available, and unless Atari manages to sell an awful lot of Portfolios, I don't expect to see much in the way of this kind of peripherial... In short, Atari has found a convenient "short term profit" vehicle, which has the added advantage of attracting a lot of Press coverage because it has the "magic word," MS-DOS attached to it... I expect to see the Atari Portfolio a year from now, if indeed we see it at all, in Perry Drug Stores, right next to the Timex/Sinclair 1000... or given away free with every air-conditioner from Crazy Fred's appliance store, like the Atari/Hartech calculators... To get back to Lisa's original question... by the time you'd add all the things missing from the Portfolio, you'd have a monstrosity that would be twice as big and expensive, and far more bulky, than a "real" computer that had all those features built-in... The Portfolio sounds nice when you read the publicity releases.. but take a closer look before getting your hopes up... BobR