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To: KevRupert who wrote (43655)	7/4/2000 2:07:35 PM
From: KevRupert	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 45548

Palm/Pocket PC/Sharp Article AWSJ TM: Thanks for the email! This is from an email I received that is from the Asian Wall Street Journal. AWSJ:As Palms Get Jazzier But Bulky A User Turns To Antique By JEREMY WAGSTAFF Staff Reporter You'll forgive me if I don't get that excited about all these palmtop devices. You see, I've seen it all before. About nine years ago, to be exact. It was then that Sharp unveiled the perfect computer: the PC3000. The size of a small book, it sported a 17.78-centimeter screen and a keyboard with 77 keys that you could really type on. Plus, it would run more or less any DOS program you threw at it (one guy said he got Windows running on his). You could hook it up to your computer, a modem or whatever. And best of all, it ran on three common AA batteries. I remember writing and sending stories from some exotic locations on it, long after other people's laptop batteries had died or the power had gone out. I whipped it out of the mothballs earlier today: It still works perfectly. Sadly, Sharp appeared to lose faith in its product, dumping it within a year or two of its launch. Now, the era of the palmtop has truly arrived. From 3Com's Palm Pilot to Psion's Revo, the personal digital assistant is ubiquitous. And recently, Microsoft and its hardware partners launched a new line of handheld computers. Dubbed the "Pocket PC," it's an impressive piece of engineering. So why am I not that excited? Well, a lot of it boils down to personal taste, but I'm not convinced that any of these products are moving in the right direction. In short, the palmtop is getting bigger and fancier. And further from what I suspect was its original appeal: portable and basic. For example, when the Palm Pilot wowed the world a few years back, it was in no small measure because of the simplicity of the product and the ease with which users could keep it going. Batteries running low? Grab two AAA batteries from the corner store. At 170 grams, the unit was light enough for you to put in your shirt pocket and not rip the stitching. Now there's a color version - the Palm IIIc - which is great to look at, but has undermined the entire concept of portability. For one thing, it's heavier, weighing in at 250 grams, and it requires a charger, which is an added 350 grams. Oh, and just in case you thought another key attraction of Palms was neat handwriting recognition, you can now buy a keyboard to type in your data. Once again, the product is beautifully put together, and folds to a tiny size, but am I missing something? What's the point of doubling your weight (not to mention the charger), if the whole idea of palmtops was to keep you mobile? OK, I know some people still would prefer a palmtop with all the peripherals rather than lugging a notebook about with them. But that's missing the point. If users have to carry chargers around with them, and find their palmtop sacrificing portability for whizz-bang features, who's going to be carrying one further than the local 7-11? Still, I suppose it's not all bad. I really think Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates has it right with this generation of palmtops. The operating system no longer feels like a poor relative to Windows, and the handwriting recognition is even more intuitive than Palm's. And to have your Microsoft Money, Excel or Word files transferred painlessly from your desktop computer is a real treat. You can listen to MP3 files, record conversations, and, if you've got an infrared phone or modem, surf the Net. Also, Hewlett-Packard's Jornada 540 Pocket PC is sleek, with a razor-sharp color screen, and I was extremely reluctant to hand it back to HP. Cheaper versions of Palms are getting wheeled out as well. And you can type on Psion's range of keyboard-driven palmtops, including the Revo ($400), without needing an extra pocket to carry it. Or, you could always hunt around for a classic old Sharp PC3000. I think I may have a spare one in the basement somewhere.