Palm OS Laptop Replacement Coming for Students

The problem I have with it though is that the screen is still too small (tho I like the expanded width) and the price is still too high. I would have preferred to see at least a five-inch diagonal (landscape orientation) with Sony's version of hi-res. If it had that -- even if it were monochrome, it would have been a much more marketable device. In its current form, it should be $100 cheaper...

But, I also have to commend; as the first Palm device with integrated keyboard and USB ports, this thing is really a kick-ass first-gen device. I look forward to the price coming down, the screen getting bigger, and the eventual integration of a basic color screen. Two thumbs up for concept and execution!

If you introduce handhelds in a classroom, the first two weeks have to be on learning Graffiti. If you spend a similar time learning to type, it will be useful on all computers.

While a small size is great for executives, it can be a disadvantage with kids, who lose things more easily and drop things a lot more.

The main advantage over a regular laptop is price. Not just the purchase price. Recent studies have shown that the Total Cost of Ownership of a handheld is less than $500 a year. It is about $12,000 for a laptop, once you factor in support and software.

Don't ignore convenience. It is much easier to support a Palm than a laptop. Backing up data is far easier, which is important as students are likely to be sharing these things.

This won't be marketed to students, so its hipness isn't important. It will be marketed to schools, who are perpertually short on money and are looking for low cost solutions.

Don't ignore support issues. If you think it is hard to find someone at your company who will do good tech support, imagine how much harder it is for a school, who can pay 30% less, if they have a budget for a tech support person at all. I'd much rather do support on 30 Palm OS devices than 30 laptops. Just keeping my one laptop going is sometimes a full-time job.

i think this would be good for a few people. i dont know how good this would be in class and i carry my dell laptop with me to school... and i know by the end of the day my shoulders hurt some, so maybe this could be the good laptop replacment for schools like said before. i know if i didnt care that it was as ugly as handeras new handheld coming soon, i would probably get it if i didnt already have an NR70 and a new laptop.

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Proud owner of the NR70v and a new sexy Dell inspiron 8100... GO DELL!!
www.handecomputing.com

I hope they've made them pretty "bullet-proof" (and made screen-replacement reasonably easy for the inevitable accidents!)

Once you factor in support and software costs, a handheld costs about $500 a year and the laptop much, much more.

When you are supporting your laptop, it doesn't cost you anything. But if you are a tech support person at a school, you have to be paid. Spending three hours reinstalling Windows 2K for the third time is irritating for you. It costs the school at least $50 to pay someone to do it. That's why simpler is better. The worst that can happen is you have to hard reset a Dana and it is ready to go again. That's 3 seconds verses 3 hours.

An expensive Palm app is $30. An expensive Microsoft app is $300. If that weren't bad enough, imagine buying 30 of them for a classroom.

If you don't think keeping students or employees supplied with computers is expensive, you haven't been paying attention.

1. School systems can barely afford 300-600 a pc for the classrom
2. School systems cannot buy microsoft office for less than $60 (maybe if you buy site licenses by the hundreds). We pay @70 bucks per license thats at 25-50 licenses
3. As most in public education know most school systems don't have licenses to cover the computers they have.
4. I have seen all-in-one units of all os's come and go they have all been junked within months of use and are costly to fix.
5. The only thing that will catch on is something in the $50-100 price range that is so damn easy to use that even principals/teachers with their Phd's can use without calling a Tech everyday. And can easily print email, browse the net and have what is required by the state curriculum.

This might work in small classrooms with closely monitored students or as a easy way to take a computer home to type with. But what I would like to see catch on more than anything else is USB removable media(thumbdrives).

PalmPilot-Series (160x160, 1-Bit-monochrome)

Palm III-Series, (160x160, 4 Grayscales)

Palm IIIx-Series, Vx-Series, m10x, Handspring Visor-Series (160x160, 4-Bit)

Handera 330 (320x200, 4-Bit)

Palm IIIc (160x160, 8-Bit)

Handspring Treo 270, 90 (160x160, 12-Bit)

Palm m5x5, m130, Visor Prism (160x160,16-Bit)

Handera 330c (320 x 240, 16-Bit)

Sony Clié PEG T-410 (320x320, 4-Bit)

AlphaSmart Dana (560 x 160, 4-Bit)

Sony Clié PEG N-710 (320x320, 8-Bit)

Sony Clié PEG N-770, N-760, T-610 (320x320, 16-Bit)

Sony Clié PEG NR-Series (320x480, 16-Bit)

So that's 13 different resolutions and colour-depths for operating system that does not even offer built-in support for different resolutions.

Some may say this proves the versatility of the OS. For me this is a nuisance. For a while I used a Clie N770, but a lot of the older software did not support the hires-screen, some even crashing the system. Of course you can set the preferences to exclude certain apps from hires-mode, but this does not work, when you run the apps form memory stick.

On another note: This Dana reminds me very much of the Psion Netbook and Series 7.

Now all we need to do is add OS version, amt. of RAM, type/speed of CPU and a few more pertinent details and submit it to PIC to keep as a regularly updated table of every device from the Pilot 1000 to the Sony NRs and beyond. Ed, are you listening?

You can get an excellent overview of the development of all Palm-powered devices at:

www.deeptec.com/palmevolution/milestones.html