PDA newbie question

[eric_wan]

I'm tired of lugging my laptop for simple onsite configs, and am wanting to get a PDA to do what I need to do:

serial connections
10bt enet
modem

basically need telnet/ssh2/web/mail, and a text editor. I don't know if 1 of these models accepts full size PCMCIA cards? or rather if there is a CF card that will do modem/10bt? I know there are unique serial/modem/10bt cards, and I'd go that route if I needed to.

Anyway, don't have a ton of other 'must have' features---rest is mostly bells/whistles. Since I will need to type on this thing, should I consider one of those mobile, fold-out keyboards? or ? I'm mostly hot after 'instant on' and less weight to carry around!

Thanks in advance, Eric.

[diem]

Hi Eric,

I am diem, I am one of the moderators of the Psionplace forums here.

I use a Psion netBook as my laptop replacement. I'll address your 'must-haves' first:

The netBook has one RS-232 serial port, with both a wired and an IR interface to the outside world. The wired connector uses a proprietary 'Honda' connector, but the device comes with a cable that converts this to a standard 9-pin D-type. Hardware and software flow control are supported; baud rates up to 115200.

The netBook's PCMCIA slot supports Type-I and is 16-bit only, so no Cardbus support. It does however support both 3.3V and 5V PC Cards. Both modem, 10Mb ethernet, and combined modem/ethernet PC Cards are available. More recently, the latest OS rev includes support for 802.11b wireless cards...

The latest OS comes with the Opera browser built-in, plus a very capable POP3 email client. An IMAP4 plugin is available. The only feature missing from the client is SMTP authentication.

There are a variety of 3rd party (mostly freeware) telnet clients, plus the netBook includes a Java VM (Java 1.1.4), so there is the option to use Java client software too.

I mention this specifically because the only SSH (not SSH2 AFAIK, sorry) client I am aware of is Mindterm from Mindbright Technology. There is also a VNC client for Java, and a native Citrix client...


Beyond your must-haves, I would also mention that the device has a VGA screen, a CF card slot, and a vibrant 3rd party software community! You'll get up to 8 hours from one battery charge; this drops to about 4 hours with heavy wireless ethernet usage.

Despite the stories you may have heard about Psion exiting the PDA market, the truth is that they have exited the consumer PDA market. They (through their sister company Psion Teklogix) are still very active in the corporate/industrial markets; thus netBook is still very much currently in production and supported.

What doesn't it do? Well, no USB, no CDROM, no floppy drive and limited multimedia (12-bit audio and no moving video, although there is an MP3 player!).

Now obviously as a netBook user I am going to paint a fairly rosy picture, but I have to say that the netBook has become not just my laptop replacement, but my PC replacement in general. It does not run Windows, and is therefore immune to the vast majority of viruses (no EPOC viruses have yet been seen in the wild). It'll even run Doom!

Nuff now - please post if you'd like to ask any more questions.

[eric_wan]

Excellent stuff man!----hits all my major points that's for sure. I love having pcmcia support vs. just cf support. It'll mostly be used for wired work, so this sounds like an excellent option!

Thanks very much!
Eric.

[netBookBabe]

Eric

The netBook is a great machine! I absolutely adore mine, and wouldn't even consider a laptop as an alternative.

diem has covered most of the technical points that you wanted to know about. I must just add that the keyboard is superb - a dream to touch-type on (there are no compromises here), and the machine itself comes with a whole raft of PDA-type apps, should you happen to need them.

If you have more questions, do come on to the Psion Place forums - we have a netBook specific area - and there is lots of help, advice and experience available there.

Julie

[eric_wan]

sweet---will do!
Thanks, Eric.