smithj@jacobs.CS.ORST.EDU (Jeremy Smith) (01/16/90)
HP Handheld Meeting
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The regular, annual Saturday evening meeting of HPHH types at Las Vegas,
coinciding with WCES, organized by Richard Nelson was held this year at
7:30pm Saturday January 6th 1990 at Denny's on Boulder Highway, Las Vegas NV.
The meeting was attended by a dozen people: Joe Bell, Dave Causey, John
Hanson, Joe Horn, Fred Lipschultz, Richard Nelson, Adam Parsons, Debbie
Parsons, Jake Schwartz, Jeremy Smith, Carl Volkmar, Brian Walsh.
After our dinner Richard gave his regular spiel, this year pointing out
(and we discussed) various new machines of possible interest. Also, EduCalc
might be offering trade-ins of various machines such as old 17s & 19s, and
also 41s; details would be in the next catalog due for printing at the
beginning of February.
o Laser PC-3 ($200) introduced Sept 1989, & Laser PC-4 ($300, $M ROM), to
be introduced in May 1990
o TI-78 (~$1000) run only VAR machine (custom program), introduced at
comdex in Nov 1989, proprietary cpu, battery backed up RAM, easy
communications, I/O & wand port, fluorescent keys & backlit display for
dim light viewing!
o TI-81 (~$110) to be introduced in February 15th 1990. Competition to
Casio FX-7000g.
o Sharp PC-E500, been available in Japan for some time, introduction in US
soon ($299), same microprocessor as sharp wizard, 512K ROM 32K RAM, 40
x 4 LCD, no clock, 11 pin printer (and cassette via CE-126P interface)
port, 15 pin I/O (disc, etc.) port, horizontal format, awesome graphic
capabilities, new model on its way ($249).
o Charlemagne is currently scheduled to be announced around the beginning
of April (<$300) to replace the 1.5 million? HP-41s. The collective
rumors suggest that it will have a saturn processor, clock & software,
6 x 2n (n=0-5) LCD screen, serial interface, like a long 42 but 3/4"
thick, 2 ports.
o HP-17bII & HP-19bII were announced this week in US and everywhere else
(for instance Australia), except Europe which has to wait till March
1st. They _replace_ previous models and have a list of $110 & $175.
o The new HP Infrared Printer, HP-82240B, with automatic shut-off, was
also announced, codenamed Visine - 'get the red out', and also
_replaces_ the original HP-82240A IR printer, codenamed redeye. (Visine
is, like Optrex, a brand of eye drops)
Richard also had news of a new HP-28 user club:
Eric Toonen
Chairman of HP28GG
Djept-Zuid 6
5502 RP Veldhoven
The Netherlands
Richard proposed a conference in Chicago during the summer because of
the impending new machines, and the following will appear in the next EduCalc
catalog:
HP Handheld User's Conference
June 2, 1990 - Chicago IL
Everyone eagerly awaits the machines of the 90's. The power of
handhelds is increasing dramatically with larger displays,
graphics, BIG memories, and lots of built-in software. This
conference will detail the latest models and promises to be the
most exciting ever. Sponsored by CHIP in conjunction with the
summer Consumer Electronics Show, CES (June 2-5).
Brian gave an honest and pathetic recounting of HPX. The two salient
points were: HPX continues and members will receive their money's worth (six
issues), how ever long that might take. He admitted that excuses were no
excuse, and went on not to spare us numerous details. The current double
issue of 60-64 pages has been half completed for quite some time. It is just
a question of completing it...
Jake handed out copies of comp.sys.handhelds highlights from the last
few months. It was a good collection. It was done not only to circulate the
information more (Jake has always been good at this), but also because HPX
hadn't!
Meeting with HP
---------------
HP were originally going to preview Charley to a select group of people.
This did not happen, but someone in marketing contacted Richard and asked him
who might be in Las Vegas and would be worth getting opinions from about the
future marketplace of handheld computers. Thus a number of people received
a letter from HP inviting us to a two hour meeting with a couple of HP
marketing people, held at Ramada Suites, Las Vegas NV at 4:00pm 1/7/90.
The following 13 were present at the meeting: John Beaton (HP), Joe
Bell, Roy Breslawski (HP), Joe Horn, Fred Lipschultz, Richard Messeder,
Richard Nelson, Adam Parsons, Jake Schwartz, Jeremy Smith, Carl Volkmar,
Brian Walsh, Dave White.
A brief, one page questionnaire was handed out, asking for occupation,
field of work, what computers do you currently use? and what will you
purchase or acquire in the coming year, and after?
The main data gathering (body of the meeting) consisted of five
questions. It was stressed that this was not an opportunity to point out
current deficiencies of existing HP or other machines, though these were
acknowledged. That although HP was running the meeting and, of course, would
use the results, it by no means excluded full consideration of all other
vendors computational products and how they impacted the marketplace.
1. What systems and software are you using.
2. How have your systems changed, and your relative usage of the systems
changed.
3. What kinds of computation needs are _not_ met by current technology.
4. What kinds of personal computation problems will need to be solved in 3-
5 years?
5. What kind of computer environment will be around in 3-5 years.
The questions were answered, sometimes each person giving a response,
sometimes randomly volunteered, occasionally discussions on particular
topics, always the HP folk writing furiously. I could not hope to remember
all the responses, but they were indeed interesting. Certainly, each person
had quite diverse needs, perceptions, and expectations. Nonetheless, there
was surprising consensus on many of the major issues that arose.
Folks have moved to desktop systems, but still have their handhelds, and
expect to be using them in the future along with desktop and portable
computers of all kinds.
Functionality, as found in many separate machines now (number crunching,
word processing, calendar/scheduling, graphics, database, etc) would begin to
migrate into the one handheld machine, with input still being a plug-in-able
full sized keyboard and output via access to a full sized screen, these
latter accomplished by any suitable method (stand alone devices, docking into
laptop/desktop, whatever).
Further down the road it would be expected that a person would have on
e computer which could be a handheld cpu, with other functionality, as found
in desktops etc, to be available as peripherals. Machines would not only be
intuitive to use, but also assist in education in any field.
Many details were discussed, such as the importance of having machines
interface seamlessly (both hardware and software) with any other machines.
Computers, especially handhelds, need a help key, to obviate carrying around
the manual which often weighs more than three machines.
Further (HP & other handheld computer) information: Contact:
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about this meeting: smithj@jacobs.cs.orst.edu
about meetings and conferences: mier@spva.ph.ac.uk.bitnet
about clubs and their publications: mark.cracknell@f159.n253.z2.fidonet.org
about Chicago conference, June 2nd 1990: Richard @ EduCalc (714) 831-2637