Z4648252@SFAUSTIN.BITNET (Z4648252) (05/10/89)
Part of Greg Csullog's Portfolio contribution is:
" I applaud the Portfolio concept since a lightweight notetaker is great."
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One question that I do have, in spite of the ease of transport of
the Portfolio, is really how practical the small-width keyboard is? What
also would be the advantage of the Portfolio over the Tandy Model 100?
No flame, folks. I think it is slick but would it work for a touch
typist. I like the full-width keyboard of the 100 series. But would my
hands fit? Is it capable of being used for touch typing?
Ahh, I love these new products that are coming out!!!!
Larry Rymal <Z4648252@SFAUSTIN.BITNET>c60c-3ds@web-1b.berkeley.edu (John Kawakami) (05/10/89)
In article <890509.17325439.078728@SFA.CP6> Z4648252@SFAUSTIN.BITNET (Z4648252) writes: > One question that I do have, in spite of the ease of transport of >the Portfolio, is really how practical the small-width keyboard is? What >also would be the advantage of the Portfolio over the Tandy Model 100? > >Larry Rymal <Z4648252@SFAUSTIN.BITNET> In the May ST Informer: "...a FUNNY QUOTE from an Atari employee about how The small keys are not a problem since he 'hunts and pecks anyway' brought a few frowns to the Atari booth." And more about how the press are to deal with the marketing dept. and not the now supposedly tight-lipped non- adpersons. Apparently Atari is aware of the small keyboard. This does not seem to be a serious bother to 'hunt and peck' bizzness execs, who will probably use this thing as a notebook/datebook/calculator. At 7.5" it's about the size of a Filofax(tm) Organizer. Maybe the little speaker can generate Touch- Tones(tm). I'd suggest to Atari (or anyone) to build a Writer's Notebook, with a full size keyboard, at least 10 inches wide, with an 80 column screen (at least six lines should be fine). It would fold over, like the Folio. Plus, it would come with a simple word processor, and some way to get data to the outside world (probably an RS232-C port). No drive is necessary. This Notebook would not be as compact as the Folio, but it would be easier to use. I looks to me like there's a built in market of writers, power user execs, and touch typists :-> who would go ga-ga over this. John Kawakami The 80's were old before they were new. c60c-3ds@web.berkeley.edu
trb@stag.UUCP ( Todd Burkey ) (05/11/89)
In article <24235@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> c60c-3ds@web-1b.berkeley.edu (John Kawakami) writes: >I'd suggest to Atari (or anyone) to build a Writer's Notebook, with a full >size keyboard, at least 10 inches wide, with an 80 column screen (at >least six lines should be fine). It would fold over, like the Folio. >Plus, it would come with a simple word processor, and some way to get data >to the outside world (probably an RS232-C port). No drive is necessary. >This Notebook would not be as compact as the Folio, but it would be easier >to use. I looks to me like there's a built in market of writers, power >user execs, and touch typists :-> who would go ga-ga over this. You basically described the Epson Geneva which has been in the DAK catalog off and on for the last few years. I bought one for my wife for around $400 and that price included a NLQ printer, an internal 300 baud modem, nice keyboard, 80x8 screen display (virtual 80x24), 12-18 hours on the rechargable batteries, built in microcassette, clock (features that let me use it as an alarm clock/meeting reminder, RS232, analog, bar code, and bus ports. The Geneva easily fit in any briefcase (with room to spare for other things). It used snap in ROM chips (the configuration that I got from DAK supported 3 ROM chips at a time), so I could have Wordstar, Basic, and a spreedsheet program all instantly available for use. The unit also had a 128K ramdrive, more than enough for what I or my wife would ever type on a trip...besides, the microcassettes support file names, so although slow, they fill in the gap if you do need more than the ramdrive allows. One bad note if you are a PCDOS lover...the Geneva is CP/M. The Geneva base unit used to sell for $900, but that was 6-7 years ago. -Todd Burkey pwcs!stag!trb
cjp@aber-cs.UUCP (Chris Price) (05/14/89)
John Kawakami writes about portable word processors: > I'd suggest to Atari (or anyone) to build a Writer's Notebook, with a full > size keyboard, at least 10 inches wide, with an 80 column screen (at > least six lines should be fine). It would fold over, like the Folio. > Plus, it would come with a simple word processor, and some way to get data > to the outside world (probably an RS232-C port). No drive is necessary. Apart from folding over, this machine already exists - the Cambridge Z88. Jerry Pournelle reviewed it in Byte a few months back. He lost all his work on a trip through doing silly things, but still said that he was going to try it again and would write some more about it (I haven't seen the follow-up). I took one on a three week business trip some months ago, and wrote a book chapter. I also produced a 7 page trip report on the day I returned (an unheard-of occurrence at our institution). The Z88 has a full-sized keyboard, but is the size of a pad of A4 paper (11x8x0.5 inches). Where most portables are an extra piece of luggage, I carried the Z88 in my rucksack without even noticing it. It's a shame that they seem to cost twice as much in the States as in Britain, or I think they would be a lot more common over there. Cost in the UK is 200 pounds for the basic machine, 400 pounds for a serious system with 128k of RAM, 128K EPROM, EPROM eraser, carrying case, transfer software to run on your non-portable machine etc. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chris Price, Department of Computer Science, University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, Dyfed, SY23 3BZ, United Kingdom. email: cjp@uk.ac.aber.cs (within UK) cjp@cs.aber.ac.uk (rest of world?) Telephone: 0970-622444 -------------------------------------------------------------------------