Jake-S@cup.portal.com (Jake G Schwartz) (05/31/91)
I have received a couple of new inquiries about the HP95LX tape since the posting about the relatively small number of copies of that tape requested so far. As a result, I'm posting the message again: New HP95/ HP48 Videotape Available For those of you who are fans of the HP95LX or HP48SX, this newest tape might be of interest. On Monday, April 29th, 1991, Eric Vogel from HP Corvallis was nice enough to stop in our area to give a presentation on the HP95LX. This talk/demo was very well received by the twenty attendees. I videotaped the three-and-a-half-hour meeting and am making it available to those who are interested. Along with the tape will be included a copy of our Philadelphia Area HP Handheld Club meeting handout from that evening which includes HP95 articles from Byte, PC Computing, PC Week, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, as well as a the text of the HP official press release. Just two days later on May first, our "regular" weekday evening meeting was held. Karl Smith gave a detailed presentation on Sparcom's Personal Information Manager (PIM) ROM card for the HP48, followed by walkthroughs of Sparcom's Chemistry Applications and Electrical Engineering Applications cards for the HP48. This two-hour meeting was also interesting and was also videotaped. There was also a multi-page handout distributed which included copies of the tables of contents from the three Sparcom cards' manuals. For those who are interested in a VHS tape containing both of these talks (totalling around 6 hours) along with both handouts plus a photocopy of the 16-or-so-page official HP95LX brochure, please contact me. I'm asking fifteen dollars (which includes postage). (NTSC-format tape only at the moment) Jake Schwartz 135 Saxby Terrace Cherry Hill, NJ 08003 609-751-1310 home 609-866-6268 work ==================================================================== Below is a list of topics discussed in Eric Vogel's presentation/Q & A session: 1. Introductory remarks by Jake Schwartz 2. Introductory remarks by Eric Vogel 3. HP48S features/differences from HP48SX 4. Why was the HP48S product released? 5. Three generations of the HP32S - the differences 6. Has the 48SX LCD changed from early days to the present? 7. HP95LX - Palmtop PC with Lotus 123 - introduction 8. Lotus is the best selling software package ever 9. Lotus on a laptop/notebook computer versus on the HP95 10. Owner's manuals - the quick-start guide and reference manual 11. Overview of HP95 features - Lotus 2.2/Datacomm/Appointment Mngr/Phone Book/Memo Application/Financial Calculator/Filer Application 12. Built-in 512K RAM divided into RAM disk and system RAM 13. System RAM/ROM memory breakdown & and "drive" letter allocations 14. All applications remain open unless manually closed ("one-key access") 15. System manager documentation & tools will be provided by HP for 3rd party software to become "system-manager compliant" applications and be one-key accessible 16. The Filer application - the "funnel" to DOS 17. Connectivity Pack - has Filer/Appointments/Phone Book/Memo/Calc. apps for PC 18. Connectivity Pack will allow data translation from PC Tools, Borland Sidekick or Lotus Metro formats to HP95 format 19. Memory-full messages keep the user aware of applications that need to be closed in order to proceed further 20. Multi-tasking on other machines versus context-switching on the '95 21. Two AA batteries plus backup battery versus AC-adapter power 22. How will the HP95 function with a mouse? 23. CONFIG.SYS, AUTOEXEC.BAT files and how the '95 reacts to them 24. 123's "slash" key also marked as "MENU" 25. 95-to-PC comm with terminal emulators 26. Running DOS applications on PC's versus "execute-in-place" (XIP) applications on the HP95 27. Plug-in cards - the new mass-storage commodity 28. PCMCIA and JEIDA plug-in card standards: hardware, software 29. XIP tools/docs will also be supplied by HP for developers 30. Current capacities of RAM and ROM cards 31. Why was the LCD only 16 by 40? 32. Hardware decisions along the life of a product's design phase 33. HP95 display is the best LCD ever in an HP handheld 34. ROM/EPROM/FLASH/RAM memory relative production costs 35. OTP versus EPROM versus EEPROM versus FLASH memory 36. Built-in RAM and ROM in the HP95 37. HP95 keyboard production/ key nomenclature 38. Foreign-language keyboards coming for the HP95, along with "localization" message ROMs built-in 39. Keybaord reliability has been very good with latest technology over the last 4 years for HP 40. Circuit board about 2 inches square with surface-mount chips on both sides 41. IBM compatibility means many more things beside Intel and DOS 42. Third-parties working on card applications for intro this year 43. Serial cable for 48 & 95 now has a ferrite inductor in order to conform with EMI standards 44. Why does varying HP95 documentation differ in listing the maximum possible data transmission speed as either 19.2Kbps or 57.6Kbps? 45. The NEC V20H CPU and its prior usage in HP handheld products 46. What abot an HP95 for Macintosh users? 47. Is the flexible circuit in the hinge reliable? 48. Will the HP95 compete with the HP48? 49. Will HP be able to compete with demand for the '95? 50. Industry alliances with HP for the HP95: the Motorola DataStream radio pager accessory 51. Motorola pager cradle configuration: no ports are occupied 52. HP75 Visicalc was years ahead of its time 53. HP will be supporting third party developers to do products for the Motorola pager cradle 54. HP95 rumor propagation and the New York press conference 55. Bank-switching on the 95 with ROM/RAM cards 56. Character set usage in the 95 57. Why is the calculator application awkward to use? 58. What parts of the 95 will be hardware-upgradable in the future? 59. Which microprocessors will HP use in future handhelds? 60. Will the HP48 PDL appear for the HP95? 61. HP handhelds and printer products sell individuals on larger HP equipment down the road 62. Intel versus Motorola processors 63. Power consumption considerations in handhelds and laptops 64. Why wasn't a spreadsheet built into the HP48? 65. What happens with 25 by 80 displays running on a 16 by 40 LCD? 66. How well does graphics work on the 95? 67. Developers support will probably appear on the HP BBS 68. Why does the 95 have only 1 card port? 69. Virtual disk drives on the 95 70. Developer support may come as soon as Summer '91 71. HP48 advanced system RPL support - what's coming? 72. HP95 demand: low price dealers versus high-support dealers 73. Phone-in tech support from HP =============================================================================== Other Available HP48-related HP meetings/conferences on VHS (NTSC-format) videotapes and related materials 1/12/91 Las Vegas HP handheld user's meeting in $15. conjunction with 1991 Winter Consumer Elec- (including tronics show. Approximately 4 hours. Also postage) included is a lengthy set of handouts (70+ pages). 11/11/90 Philadelphia Area HP Handheld Club meeting. $10. Bill Wickes guest speaker. (including Approx 4 hrs on one VHS tape, plus the postage) 18-page handout given to attendees. 1/12/91 Combined tape of Winter CES and Philly $15. and Area meeting on one 8-hour T-160 VHS (including 11/11/90 tape. Includes both handouts. postage) (THIS COMBINES THE FIRST TWO ITEMS) 6/1/90 - Chicago HP Handheld User's Conference. $15. 6/6/90 Several meetings and speakers including (including Bill Wickes and Eric Vogel of HP. postage) Approx 16 hrs on two 8-hour VHS tapes, plus a 3-page synopsis of contents. 6/2/90 - Chicago HP Conference proceedings. 110 pages $12.50 if including HP48 programs and several diagrams. ordered with any (Ten dollars sent back to Chicago CHIP group of the tapes; for each set sold) $15.00 if ordered separately.