Netbook Pro

[hammera]

Harvey,
Just noticed that you are logged on and so thought I would try to catch you. Now that the netBook Pro is official, when will we get a look at it? As loyal Psionites (made up phrase) any chance of a special viewing (official offices, back of a pub, anywhere really)?

Adam

[harveyr]

I would be more than happy to give you a preview of the NETBOOK PRO - I guess the logistics of sorting out a venue to suit everyone may be tricky though !?!?

If anyone has any ideas....let me know.

H

[netBookBabe]

That would be excellent, Harvey! I agree, though, that the choice of venue is a difficult one - I have no idea how far people would be prepared to travel.

Perhaps members would care to post in this thread to register their interest in Harvey's offer of a NETBOOK PRO preview.

Julie

[harveyr]

The simplest options for me would be:

Within the next 2 weeks - somewhere around Leeds area.

Last week of the month - somewhere in central London - maybe at our offices near Regents Park.

H

[netBookBabe]

Harvey

Did you mean that you could do both of those options? That would be very good. :)

Leeds area would be great for me - I would definitely attend. Will other members please register their interest in this suggestion?

Thanks
Julie

[Steve Moore]

I would possibly attend in Leeds (am in Yorks 20-23rd, otherwise could do London more or less any day after that.

I really appreciate your offer Harvey. Our company has a number of netBooks and other Psions and I wonder if you are able to answer three quick questions -

- we have had problems getting 802.11 card/drivers set up for another .net device - is this sorted?

- can you give us a clear yes/no for Epoc option on this machine?

- will a MacOS sync option exist?

Thanks again - very public-spirited of you.

Steve

[harveyr]

Hi Steve...in answer to your questions...

1) We have not had many issues with getting drivers for .NET. I am currently accessing this site with the Lucent 802.11 PC card and my NETBOOK PRO but have also used it in the office with the Cisco card - neither have any problems I am aware of. We have tested with lots of different cards/peripherals and things seem pretty good. The Option GPRS card for example works and in North America we have also done testing on the CDMA / 1XRTT networks. For Bluetooth we have tested with the Toshiba BT SD card as well as a number of CF BT cards.

2) Re the Symbian version. All I can say at this point in time is that we have no plans to provide a Symbian OS version. (please do not barrage me with emails - we are well aware of everyones view on this and the petition etc!). Our customers are currently demanding the product running .NET, and should we see a high demand in our market place for alternatives we will evaluate those at that time.

3) Sync'ing is performed via ActiveSync which does not itself support Mac. I am aware of additional software which allows this to happen such as PocketMac, however we have not as yet performed any testing of this solution. Again, if we saw a demand for this in our market and from our customers we would seek a solution.

Hope this answers your queries to some extent...

Regards

Harvey

[Steve Moore]

Thanks Harvey

Of course I know you're getting plenty of flak regarding the OS already - didn't mean to add to it.

The Siemens Simpad thing we have been playing with has a .net image and it is that that we have had 802.11 problems with. I use the Option card with my current netBooks and love it. Glad it sounds like there will be full functionality on the SD and CF slots.

To be honest I quite liked .net on the Simpad (much better than HPC) but it just took ages to get into an app (search for a contact for example) compared to the netBook - will you be using the transfers on the side of the screen to make this process easier?

Steve

[dushaw]

HARVEY WROTE:
"(please do not barrage me with emails - we are well aware of everyones view on this and the petition etc!). Our customers are currently demanding the product running .NET, and should we see a high demand in our market place for alternatives we will evaluate those at that time."

Was I the only one to notice the irony of these two sentences? :) (Just kidding...I know that .NET is the 500 lb gorrilla out there...)

I wonder if, now that the netBook PRO is out, Harvey would be able to provide some of the technical specifications for the netBook that are so desparately needed for developing linux on the netBook?? We have a booting linux kernel for the netBook, but for lack of information we can't get compactflash and other hardware working. Our discouragement/frustration with PSION on this point is profound. This development work is all done for free, and I remain surprised that Psion has not capitalized on this chance to broaden the userbase for the Psion. There is a sector of customers that love linux, and a linux netBook would be the cat's meow. See http://psilinux.org

Hopingly Yours,
B.D.

[MartinMaxwell]

2) Re the Symbian version.....should we see a high demand in our market place for alternatives we will evaluate those at that time.

Dear Harvey,

Is there any way you can give us an idea about the required market demand in your market place for PT to consider a netBook Pro Symbian?

5000 units? 10000 units? 25000 units? 50000 units?

This would be extremely helpful for our business planning.

kind regards
Martin

[harveyr]

Hi Martin

Difficult to put an exact figure on it...but I would imagine somewhere in the region of 40-50K

H

[hammera]

Does anyone know how this figure stacks up against sales of Series 7's and private user netBooks?

Adam

[MartinMaxwell]

Originally posted by harveyr
Difficult to put an exact figure on it...but I would imagine somewhere in the region of 40-50K

Thank you very much Harvey. This is very helpful.

cheers / Martin

[Davidish]

I'd be interested in a NBpro demo in London - le me know time and place and I'll try to come.

D