Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Handhelds Hardware

Psion Releases A Rugged, Water-Tight PDA 106

Posted by timothy from the 8-hours-of-life dept.
Moghedien writes: "This time a sturdy PDA, without a keyboard, but a big hi-res screen and it's designed for work in the field. Still runs the EPOC OS, 8 hour battery life time, probably a 200MHz StrongARM, 64MB RAM and MMC. It measures 215x85x28 mm. It has an IP rate of 67, meaning it's capable of lying under water for hours, and it can put up with a fall of 1.5 meters against concrete. According to Psion, its purpose is to fill the gap between powerful PDAs for the industry and handheld machines for the professional consumer market." There's a blurb describing this device on Psion's site -- but does anyone see pictures? Update: 10/01 13:35 GMT by T : An anonymous reader says: "Here is the page for the NetPad. It has a small picture, but it's better than nothing."
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Psion Releases A Rugged, Water-Tight PDA More

Psion Releases A Rugged, Water-Tight PDA

Comments Filter:

  • Huh? (Score:1, Offtopic)

    by SilentChris ( 452960 )
    "the number of physical machines hosted by Windows is at about half."

    I don't see how the two correlate. So if a system is running Windows, it's physically more inclined to break??

    • i think you can mark that down under the "accidentally hit CTRL-V while typing and got a little piece of a previous slashdot story interjected in the new blurb" category.

  • caffine rush (Score:5, Funny)

    by spacefem ( 443435 ) on Monday October 01, 2001 @08:54AM (#2373146) Homepage
    PDA's don't need to take water, just coffee. They should really be tested that way: just fire-hosed with gallons of boiling expresso or something. I'm sure this one could take it.
  • So now I can play NetHack in the bath - excellent!

  • Oops! (Score:1, Offtopic)

    by riggwelter ( 84180 )
    the number of physical machines hosted by Windows is at about half

    Copy 'n' paste disaster? :)
    • I'd understand if there were "Reply to this" links on the front page (the one for this story would be nice and close to the headline for the last one).

      Hmm, I guess the same happened with "Read More...", someone's brain was on autopilot to click reply, not looking at the story at all...

      Oh well, it _is_ Monday morning =)

  • Toilet Savior (Score:5, Funny)

    by MrNovember ( 310587 ) on Monday October 01, 2001 @08:55AM (#2373154)
    Handy for when you have your PDA in your shirt pocket and bend over the john to pull your pants off -- plop.

  • specs & small photo (Score:5, Informative)

    by jamner ( 37206 ) <jamner@gma[ ]com ['il.' in gap]> on Monday October 01, 2001 @08:56AM (#2373155)
    This appears to be Psion Teklogix NetPad(r) Main Page [psionteklogix.com]. A small photo is included.
    Here is the spec sheet [psionteklogix.com] (96.6Kb.pdf)

  • Heise article had a picture (Score:5, Informative)

    by mbyte ( 65875 ) on Monday October 01, 2001 @08:57AM (#2373162) Homepage

    See the c't article from heise:

    Heise [heise.de]

    Your comment violated the postercomment compression filter. Comment aborted

  • Netpad (Score:3, Informative)

    by smaughster ( 227985 ) on Monday October 01, 2001 @08:57AM (#2373164)
    Here's a picture [fieldworker.com] of netpad. (http://www.fieldworker.com/HPC_Pics/netpad.jpg for those not interested in goatse.cx) Finally safely browsing from the bathtub.
    • Finally safely browsing from the bathtub.

      Oh? And how do you plan to attach it to the Internet? That cable could be a problem. Hmm... No, actually it wouldn't. Perfectly safe! Nothing to worry about! (Say, could you put me in your will? :^)

      Of course an IR connection would be fine, but will your bathroom fit a PC?
  • is that people buy 4 wheel drive SUV's to drive on paved roads. If it ever gets dirty it's washed right away. Now what is your average suit going to need a ruggedized PDA for? Throwing it at others in the boardroom?
    • PDA's aren't just an execs toy.. theyre quite popular amongst FAE's (Sun even made their own PDA for their FAE's.. didn't use their own processor naturally, but that's another matter). There's also industrial application, there's a good market for that as well, though the traditional intdustrialized PDA is a lot more durable than what psion is peddling.

  • Droppables (Score:5, Interesting)

    by mmaddox ( 155681 ) <oopfoo@gm[ ].com ['ail' in gap]> on Monday October 01, 2001 @08:58AM (#2373166)

    Having owned droppable computers for some time, I'm really about ready for a computer that's capable of portability without the awful fragility. If this computer has some reasonable I/O method available (say, some form of attachable mini-keyboard, a la Targus), it might be usable, but it seems like just another data-collection device from its description.

    Why doesn't the ruggedized PC hit the mainstream market? Walkabout [walkabout-comp.com] has made a few nice PC's in tablet form, but their prices generally put off the buyer that has no specialized application in mind. I'd absolutely love a nice, sturdy, portable 'nix box like their HH3. Why haven't at least SOME of these ideas made it into the consumer models of laptops and the like?

    • Why doesn't the ruggedized PC hit the mainstream market? Walkabout [walkabout-comp.com] has made a few nice PC's in tablet form,
      followed by
      but their prices generally put off the buyer that has no specialized application in mind.
      ummmm... what was the definition of 'mainstream market' again?
    • The reason that ruggedized PCs haven't hit the mainstream market is the cost. Generally about twice a non-ruggedized version. They need to be sealed, so cooling is an issue, and they need lots of internal cushioning and reinforcement to handle high transient g's.

      That's also why some mil-spec equipment costs much more than the civilian equivalents.

    • Re:Droppables (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Snowfox ( 34467 )
      Why doesn't the ruggedized PC hit the mainstream market?

      Panasonic seems pretty mainstream. They have the ToughBook [panasonic.com] line of computers. My girlfriend stumbled across one at a bargain price, and I've been drooling over it ever since.

    • Walkabout has a nice machine....
      ....currently a 400 p3
      ....if you have $4,000 to drop
      ....and they ever ship you one(12 weeks and waiting)
    • You might like to know about Panasonics limited edition portable ruggable (try saying that 5X fast!). Its just as fast but is limited to 32mb RAM. However, it has a color LCD screen; a qwerty keyboard; touch screen; and an SD card to boot. I don't know if there's a headphone out or a size limit on the SD card, but its meant for use in the rain, plus its upgradable to GPS, if your in to that sort of thing. Price? $999

      There is a catch tho. It runs Win CE 3.0 and a minimum 500 unit order. Looks cool tho.
    • Oh yeah, here's the link : http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-200-7285736.html? tag=mn_hd

      Sorry - don't know the html to abbreviate the link.
  • Now I can use my PDA in the bath!
  • At $300, I'd buy one. If it ran Linux, I'd pay a little more (although the fact that it runs Java rather than WinCE is a plus). At $1000, I'd rather have a laptop or one of the upcoming Tablet PCs (running Linux).

  • IP Rate and Ruggedization. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Sawbones ( 176430 ) on Monday October 01, 2001 @08:59AM (#2373170)
    It has an IP rate of 67, meaning it's capable of lying under water for hours, and it can put up with a fall of 1.5 meters against concrete.

    Does anyone remember the Panasonic Toughbook [panasonic.com] - they had similar toughness (though I don't think they could sit underwater). You get a whole real computer and some of the models even have built in wireless/GPS capabilities. Granted they cost upwards of 5 grand and probably only have about 4 hours of battery life (though 8 hours doesn't seem like much for a PDA to me), but still sweet.

    I'd be interested to see what an IP Rate of 100 (or zero, whichever is better, also assuming a 100 point scale) could handle. Elephants can sit on it while you work maybe?

    BTW, whats with the random "number of physicial machines hosted on windows" bit at the end of the post there? Do all slashdot articles now automatically include a little MSFT bashing - hidden in the PERL soup somewhere? :)

    • How IP ratings work (Score:5, Informative)

      by dingbat_hp ( 98241 ) on Monday October 01, 2001 @09:17AM (#2373226) Homepage
      I'd be interested to see what an IP Rate of 100 (or zero, whichever is better, also assuming a 100 point scale) could handle.


      IP ratings don't work quite like that. Rather than a 0..100 scale, they're actually a string concatenation of three 0+ scales. High numbers are better. First number is dust rating (0..6), second fluids (0..8), third mechanical impact (0..9). IP67 means "no ingress of dust", "short-term water immersion to 1m" and no description of mechanical impact strength.

      There's a few on-line resources [freeserve.co.uk] around with the full list [switchingtech.com].

    • I'd be interested to see what an IP Rate of 100 (or zero, whichever is better, also assuming a 100 point scale) could handle. Elephants can sit on it while you work maybe?

      It's not to do with shock resistance, but with the seals.

      It's two scales - the first digit is relating to dust ingress and the second to water, IIRC. The first goes from 0 to 6 and the second 0 to 8. The IP is for ingress protection.

      More Here [chalmit.com] (I did RC)
    • (and another thing...)

      The first ruggedised machines I can remember are the Husky portables and the GRiD Compass (not waterproof or anything but solid!).

      The Husky series were Z80-based, and ran CP/M I think. I believe the US Army had some.
      Old Pic of that [obsoleteco...museum.org], and it seems they are still going [itronix-europe.com].

      Going further back, the original IMPs used on ARPANet were ruggedized Honeywell DDP-516 - designed to be dropped from the cargo bay of aircraft.

  • i'm not so sure about this... (Score:3, Informative)

    by turbine216 ( 458014 ) <turbine216@NosPAm.gmail.com> on Monday October 01, 2001 @09:01AM (#2373174)
    1.5 meters, if you think about it, is not that much of a drop. I've dropped a Palm M100 from a fifteen-foot ladder before, and it kept ticking. That's the beauty of solid-state electronics. No moving parts means nothing to get jarred loose or broken off. Now if these guys can put something together with a TOTALLY scratch-resistant screen, I'll really be impressed.
    • 1.5 Meters is "rated", meaning, they practically gurantee it won't break at that height. Your latter "anectdote" is just that, an anecdote.
      • You're absolutely right, but i think you misunderstood my point...my problem with the concept is the lack practicality in spending so much money for the "lab durability," when a $100 device nearly matches it in "real-world" durability.

        I'm not saying "gee, my crappy Palm M100 is better than that thing!!" Because believe me, my M100 IS a piece of crap. But it's a durable piece of crap, and it only cost a hundred bucks.

    • Scratch resistant? (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward
      I have a Tag Heuer watch (cost more than my first car) which is practically indestructable. Not sure if a saphire crystal screen would work too well on PDAs where pressure sensitivity is required. They guy in the jewellers dared me to try and scratch the glass with a screwdriver - and I did try.
    • ... and then a short drop from the side of your bed will cause it to lock up tight...

      Just because something is "solid-state", doesn't mean it can survive a drop any better than tube or mechanical designs. The entire inside back of a Palm is covered with a layer of conductive foil (shielding? ground plate?). Just the right kind of sharp hit can, and will, cause it to short out the device.

      Back in the valve days, there was military-grade equipment made to survive considerable shock and other environmental stresses. Of course, having to design for +100 VDC may have had a factor in making equipment safer when it got wet...

      Dropping your consumer-grade PDA from the top a ladder without breaking it means you were consumer-grade lucky.

      jdv
  • Here's the page with the pics and a spec sheet:
    http://www.psionteklogix.com/main/netpad.htm [psionteklogix.com]

    Personally we already use ruggedized Windows boxes that are like this so I don't see much use for a PDA that can do the same.

    liB

  • Even better! (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Arminius ( 84868 )
    I just got an email from Sharp. Looks like they are getting ready to sell (in limited amount) the ARM based Linux PDA with the built in keyboard real soon. I hope I can get one, if I do I'll give an exclusive /. review!


    * JavaOne Promotion Update -

    Those of you who were among the first 1,000 that 1) had your badge scanned at JavaOne and 2) registered on the developer web-site are eligible to purchase a Sharp Linux/Java PDA production unit for $399 (or equivalent price outside the US) when it is available (availability of initial model is limited in some European countries, due to the product safety standard
    compliance.)

    We originally promised production units for this promotion would be available in September. Some exciting additions and changes to our platform have unfortunately caused some delays. We apologize for the delay in satisfying this promotion, but think a few weeks more will be worth the wait.

    • does anyone find this funny ?

      yes sharp have been developeing a ARM based PDA which looks like a apple newton

      yes psion have been developeing a arm based PDA which looks like a newton

      infact with palm switching to ARM powered solution all PDA's and Phones (name a recent cell phone that dosent use an ARM) means that APPLE did the right thing (ARM was created when APPLE and ACORN needed cash so ACORN spun off those people and they worked to create a proc for a PDA which became the newton)

      funny thing is about 7 YEARs ago I saw the gas man come round to do a service and he carried a newton which did all his schedualing he pluged in the modem and told them the job was done and got messaged the next job address and details

      apple canned it now its taken 7years to people get back to that concept !

      also the irony is that INTEL manufactor the StrongARM and StrongARM2 (aka Xscale) so between IA64 and StrongARM they have the microprocessor market

      history repeats itself make sure you remember the good ideas !

      regards

      john jones
  • I'll be curious as to how it holds up to being left overnight in a car in January (up in the northeast US) and whether it still works or just has a horrible wait-to-be-used time as the Palm's do.

  • Casio has been there, done that.... (Score:4, Informative)

    by cyborg_munkee ( 525540 ) <cyborg_munkee@yahoo.com> on Monday October 01, 2001 @09:10AM (#2373204)

    Casio has offered these type of devices [casio.com] for quite some time now.

    • ... and Psion hasn't? The original Psion Organiser (1984, regarded as the first PDA ever) had a sturdy design, and the Organiser II was/is widely used in tough environments. Later, the Psion HC (~1990) and Workabout (~1995) appeared. The Netpad is just the latest incarnation of Psion's long tradition of industrial PDAs.

      The development of Psion's personal products is even more interesting, but Psion has unfortunately decided not to develop this product line further. Let's hope some other company takes up the glove and produces PDAs using Symbian's EPOC operating system(s).

  • yeah, ok - - (Score:2, Interesting)

    by SGDarkKnight ( 253157 )
    I'm glad that it can run underwater for hours and take a 1.5m fall and still work great but, what happens if the 300pound owner sits on it? Will the screen still crack - voiding the warranty - putting the consumer out on thier ass spending $200 bucks to have it replaced? Or will they finaly make a more resiliant, shatter proof, glass plate for it? Just curious...
    • If you weigh that much, don't put it in your back pocket. Hell, don't put it in your back pocket at all. They aren't designed to be sat on. You know that little note in the airline safety stuff about "the seat cushion can be used as a flotation device?" Well, no PDA that I've seen so far has a note that says "this PDA can be used as a seat cushion".

      Or do you mean accidentally leaving it in your chair? Well, the manufacturer shouldn't be held responsible for people being absent-minded and clumsy.

    • actually i was being sarcastic... i work for a computer store and we get people comming in all the time asking us to send their palm (or something similar) back to the manufacturer to get the screen replaced becuase it got cracked (most commonly due to people sitting on them by accident). Hopefuly they can develop a stronger screen for them.

  • Note: this is from Psion Teklogix (Score:4, Informative)

    by biglig2 ( 89374 ) on Monday October 01, 2001 @09:17AM (#2373225) Homepage Journal
    This division of Psion is seperate from the division behind the series 3 and 5 - it makes industrial PDA's. You see their very sucessful Walkabout device in shops over here in the UK a lot - mostly the models a barcode scanner is used in stock control.

    They do quite well. For all Compaq's adverts of someone walking thru a factory with an iPaq, there are places where the environment is just too nasty - freezers for example.

    I always fancied their netbook, which is a corporate variant on the Psion series 7 (the one that's an EPOC handheld in notebook form-factor, with a full size color screen etc.)

  • picture of the thing in use (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    http://www.psionpage.ch/netpad.jpg
  • Nothing like making a PDA for the professional consumer market who like to compute _in_ the swimming pool. Way to go Psion.
  • I'd love to see something like this encorporated into a shower screen; assuming that one can have some wireless connection to a local transmitter, it would be great to have something that you can read news and surf the web while you shower (at least, given that most people I know spend upwards of 20 minutes in the shower...).

  • Finally.... (Score:2, Funny)

    by valen ( 2689 )
    Something that my girlfriend won't kill when she decides that my shirt needs to be washed...
  • The device itself doesn't need to be ultra sturdy or water-tight. Instead, you can have a normal device protected with something that can withstand a nasty environment, including coffee, Mountain Dew, and CmdrTaco flatulence. While the PDA-Pak [the-gadgeteer.com] isn't the perfect answer, it should get you thinking.

    • Its called a plastic zip-lock bag... perfectly water proof, and if you blow in it like a balloon, it can survive big drops.
  • Perhaps a condensation resistant rating should be included. We had an executive leave his bleeding edge laptop in his car overnight. By morning, every external and internal surface was slick with condensation. It booted eventually (after drying at room temperature for an hour), but I wondered what permenant damage was done.
  • Okay, it can "lie under water" for hours...

    Can I take it scuba-diving with me? I'd love to have something like this that I can play with while sitting bored-to-tears on a deco stop after a long dive.

    For that matter, does anyone have any recommendations for inexpensive pressure housings for something fun like a computer chess game, to take along diving? I don't want a $1000 housing for a $99 chess game... Maybe a GameBoy or something...

    I can't be the only one wanting this, can I?

    Tim
  • Casio released a WinCE device similar to their e-125 with very similar ruggedness specs (and yes, you COULD hack it to run Pocket Linux. Not that you'd want to). They also released a wireless model and a bunch of other cool stuff that nobody has ever seen, because Casio didn't market ANY of these. They were mostly sold through catalogs for commercial applications and in Japan (BTW, japanese handwriting recognition software has to be seen to be beleived...no crummy "Jot" notation there!)

    Links to casio: EG 800 Ruggedized PC http://www.casio.com/personalpcs/product.cfm?secti on=145&market=0&product=1880

    By the way, I love Casio's name for these devices..."Personal PCs," the connotation that these machines are not mere "assistants," but real PCs that are always handy and could someday replace the desktop (or at least heavily offset it). And as the machines get smaller and more rugged, we get closer to the geek ideal of "wearables" that will run our lives: reminding us to feed our cats, telling us if our outfit matches, and generating fractal pickup lines that work every time.
  • why is it that so many small devices seem to use the StrongARM chips -- and what are their real advantages -- heat/power/cost/size/other? And, what is the performance compared to x86? It seems like a 386 would be overkill for what a palm does, so what is a 200Mhz StrongARM equivalent to?
    • The StrongARM processor is an ARM RISC processor, originally developed by Digital, and now manufactured by Intel.

      According to some old documentation I have here, @200MHz, it delivers 230MIPS, consuming <900mW. However, there are other variants in the StrongARM family, and it's unclear as to which it is.

      It's been quoted that an ARM processor @14MHz is roughly equivalent to an x86 @40MHz, so you're looking at the equivalent of around 600MHz in x86 power.

      Since it's a RISC processor, it isn't too expensive - unfortunately I haven't bought any for a while (last ones I bought were about 2-3 years ago), so I can't quote a figure.

      I can't believe you're saying that you don't need power ;-)

      It's been superceded by Intel's XScale processor, which FWICR is 1GHz and greater.

  • And I remember someone's comment or .sig once that said something to effect that while the Palm is the right size to carry around, the Newton was the right size to use ...

    Very true.

  • For what it's worth...

    images.google.com [google.com] yeilded a nice 300x400 images of the Netpad here [psionpage.ch]

    There were some other, smaller pictures too, including an outdoorsy yellow model as well.

  • Nice backwards movement. First they are too big, now they are too small. Pretty soon you will be able to telnet from it and change the screen from portrait to landscape. Too bad the newton failed so miserably. To think it was made fun of because of the hand writing recognition, later rectified beautifully, and the palm pilot you have to write in special letter, that isn't handwriting recognition, that is a stopgap.
  • At Symbian's [symbian.com] site.


    Your comment violated the postercomment compression filter. Comment aborted

  • ...with decent pictures here [psionteklogix.com].

    ...stupid lameness filter...

Slashdot Top Deals

No man is an island if he's on at least one mailing list.

Close