Body Design

[BarryW]

Naa, I'm talking chronologically.  I'm pretty sure the first Newton came out before the first Palm.

The Psion Organizer was released in 1984. The Series 3 (has all the features of a modern PDA) came out in 1991 - couple of years before the Newton.

I never even saw a Psion untill the Newton's were discontinued.  So I don't know a whole lot about them.

Not much of a market for PDAs in the North Pole . Seriously, Psion were big in Europe but never did crack the US market. Only with the the launch of the Series 5 did they begin to enter the US market, by then it was too late - Palm had got there already.
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Huh, see you learn something new every day.  I still like the keyboards the last couple models had.

[Ferret-Simpson]

Heh? And back on topic. . . ?

Apparently the Screen no longer rotates? Which post was that?

[Da_Blitz]

i would love to get my hands on a psion, the oldest i have is microsefts attempt at a PDa running windows CE 1.0 (its a casiopeai and its a shame but i lost the ram stick for it and havent built a replacment)

thats one of the problems bieng where i am, we just dont get any of those things over here because we arn't considered a large enough market

[Ferret-Simpson]

DB? The screen?

[desertrat]

Sorry for continuing with the OT

i would love to get my hands on a psion, the oldest i have is microsefts attempt at a PDa running windows CE 1.0 (its a casiopeai and its a shame but i lost the ram stick for it and havent built a replacment)

A colleague of mine had one of those early Casios and I remember comparing it to my Series 5. The 5 had a better keyboard, better screen, better OS, better apps, well you get the idea. My favourite way to show how much superior the 5 was was to print [Epoc] Word documents over IR to the office Laserjet

thats one of the problems bieng where i am, we just dont get any of those things over here because we arn't considered a large enough market

Strange, I know for sure that the Psion stuff were on sale in places like Singapore, HK and even Malaysia.

If you do decide to get a Psion then I recommend the 5mx or the Ericsson MC218 (basically a rebadged 5mx with a bit more bundled software) - as opposed to the original plain old 5. It's got better screen, better case (the 5 suffered from peeling paintwork), more memory, faster etc.

[systemparadox]

I have a few suggestions. I've been looking for a really PDA for me for ages. I originally had clamshell style organisers, and only ended up with portrait PDA's because there weren't any good clamshells available. The main thing that I really hate about my 6000 is the stupid screen protector.

I assume that you've already decided on a clamshell. Can I request that it doesn't rotate like the C series Zaurii?
My reasons for this are:
1) More to design- more expensive?
2) Makes the device much less robust
3) It makes the proportions of the device all wrong. Allow me to elaborate...
The C series Zaurii are blocks. They are too square. They just aren't wide enough for their depth (front to back)- this is even more exaggerated by the C-3x00 models which have a rounded hinge and are much thicker. Take the footprint of the 6000 and make it a clamshell. No more block like than that (prefferably slightly less). Much better.

Perhaps the screen needs to be widescreen? Or make some use of the already much wasted space either side of the screen on the C series Zaurii. Speakers might be good. What about a number pad?

I personally very much like the idea of a Nokia 9x00/ROAD 101 style device- with the phone layout on the cover- but make sure that (unlike the Nokia 9500) you can make use of it for applications like mp3, etc. Could be very powerful for quick information.

Concerning USB: definately at least one full size host port somehow. There is nothing more annoying than that host cable we have to use for the Zaurii.

Who is designing/building the body?

Just my 2 pence
Simon

[Da_Blitz]

i dont mind droppin the otating screen, it does create mechanical problems and i never used it, however it has been requested that it be made to swivel, from an electronics point of view i only have to make sure you can detect what state it is in and you can just get the case you want

i hate the host cable and dont really belive that client is worth it, if it worked without drivers under windows XP (networking) then it owuld make senese, but at the moment there will have to be capabilities for client even if we dont include the socket in order to allow easy downloading of the firmware on first boot, or if you have a serial cable i could drop it all together

i am sure that someone may be anoyed with droping it so i am still working out the best solution to the problem, a usb port (full sized) that can be used as a cleint with an adaptor (supplied) or just tell them to use networing exsclusivly and get a usb to usb pc ot pc network connector as it will have driver support under windows

[MONVMENTVM]

I also do not really need a rotating screen. I never use it and I think that it makes the pda less robust, more expensive and too complicated.
A simple Notebook-like style would be best. I do not really like the ROAD pda as it is too round. The Cxx00 look definitely better. But I would like it thinner and with a better keyboard.

1 SD-Card would be enough
1 CF-Card would be also enough (and one internally)
 

What about a battery which is very slim but has a large area (for example fills the whole bottom of the body)?

Also I dont know if a fingerprint reader is necessary. I think that it just makes more costs and maybe not everybody needs it.

[Da_Blitz]

there is a hardware limitation on 1 CF card, itsa hardware thing that i dont want to have to work around

[adf]

a 6000 footprint non-rotating clamshell would be a great size. ....and having a 16x9 rather than a 4x3 screen wuold be awesome!  

If this were to be considered, it would also make a bigger "fixed" keyboard an easier option, or a folding keyboard that scaled closer to full width.

[systemparadox]

A simple Notebook-like style would be best. I do not really like the ROAD pda as it is too round. The Cxx00 look definitely better. But I would like it thinner and with a better keyboard.
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I agree about it being a bit too rounded. We can't do that here anyway because we've got CF, SD, USB, etc ports to fit in. Think Nokia 9500. The C-3x00 were too square, especially as the part where the screen attached was rounded. The C-700 and C-720 weren't too bad, but could probably do with being wider, and shorter front to back.

[speculatrix]

these people do some interesting boxes "off the peg", but can also do relatively low volume custom enclosures.
http://www.bafbox.co.uk/

[Antikx]

these people do some interesting boxes "off the peg", but can also do relatively low volume custom enclosures.
http://www.bafbox.co.uk/
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Very cool. It makes me want to start on my Zaurus Docking Station project.

[Da_Blitz]

very nice however they seem to have some technical limitations. i wish they had better pictures of more of thier products so i can geta better feel for what they offer

[speculatrix]

very nice however they seem to have some technical limitations. i wish they had better pictures of more of thier products so i can geta better feel for what they offer
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I believe that they are happy to sell their standard enclosures in ones or twos, and will even give samples away if you represent a company of any size - I got a couple of samples of some tiny boxes from them a number of years ago when I was designing some small IR communications devices.