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To: Paul Engel who wrote (140490)	7/30/2001 10:30:31 PM
From: Paul Engel	Respond to of 186894

Another StrongARM design win for Intel - this time in a Web Tablet. A Celeron design win is also described for a larger unit. biz.yahoo.com Monday July 30, 10:00 am Eastern Time Forbes.com Viewsonic Goes Portable With Web Pad By Arik Hesseldahl It's a device concept that simply doesn't want to die: the Web pad. A hybrid of a PC and a PDA, it's basically a portable screen with a little computing power built into it, as well as a wireless connection to the Internet. And one day, its proponents hope, you'll use it when walking around your home or office as readily as you might with a clipboard and notepad. Among those getting in line with products in this emerging class of device is Viewsonic, the privately held maker of computer displays. It announced its ViewPad 100 and ViewPad 1000 last month. Weighing less than 3 pounds, the ViewPad 100 runs on the Windows CE operating system from Microsoft and contains a 206-megahertz StrongARM processor from Intel . It also boasts 32 megabytes of flash memory and 64 megabytes of SDRAM memory. The screen is a 10-inch thin-film transistor touch-sensitive screen. Included software lets you play MP3 audio files and record your voice. It's expected to sell for about $1,100 and will be sold by wireless-service providers like GoAmerica starting next month. The Viewpad 1000 will carry a little more muscle. It's basically a full-fledged PC built into the body of a 4-pound portable screen. Inside it's got an Intel Celeron processor running at 800 MHz, and it runs a full version of Microsoft's Windows 2000 Professional Edition. It's enabled for wireless-network access using the IEEE 802.11b protocol, also known as Wi-Fi, and it has a built-in six-gigabyte hard drive as well as a built-in digital camera. Accordingly, it will sell for a little more, about $1,800. It will be available through Viewsonic's resellers beginning next month. Both products are treading in territory that is well worn by more hype than reality, at least so far. The 1000 closely resembles a cool prototype product that caught a lot of attention as part of Microsoft's presentation at last year's Comdex trade show in Las Vegas. It's got all the benefits of a portable Web pad, costs about the same, and has none of the drawbacks that a similar non-PC device suffers from. Namely, not being a PC. The 100 is another story. If properly positioned for the workplace, it has a better chance for success than it does as a consumer device. But there's not much evidence that the portable Web pad that isn't a PC is anything more than an interesting idea that consumers have yet to show they really want. If it can make your job easier by letting you access data as you walk around the workplace, that's one thing. But the home isn't quite ready for these gadgets. At least not yet. Related Links at Forbes.com Ten O'Clock Tech: Sharp-ening Digital Audio Qualcomm Shifts Gears, Again Go to www.forbes.com to see all of our latest stories, or Subscribe to