I just wanted to share with you what my new toy is. Its a new laptop if you could call it that. Here is the size of it compared to a CD. Actually that was a Laser Disc. Here is its actual size compared to a CD. Its still pretty small. This is a Kohjinsha PA series Laptop/Notebook/Tablet/Netbook/UMPC whatever you want to call it. Since this is only available from Japan I had to import it and it does have a Japanese keyboard layout which is not that much different from the standard qwerty layout. Here are some specs. 1.33GHZ Intel Atom CPU 32Gb SSD 512MB ram Webcam Touch screen that flips to be a notebook Optical mouse pointer on the screen and at the bottom of keyboard like a laptop. WiFi / Bluetooth Micro SD slot Standard USB port VGA Out with a dongle Real world battery life of about 5 hours and about 6 days on standby Mine is running XP Pro but I think I will install Ubuntu once I see that it can run it without issue. This also comes with a 1seg TV turner but that only works in Japan. Like with all my cool new expensive toys I just had to void the warranty and take a look inside. The TV tuner was USB and connected to the motherboard with an adapter. So what I did was buy the smallest USB GPS device I could find and try to stuff it into the tiny case. Here is my result. I found the Usg Nd-100 Usb Gps Receiver. So I was wanting a Viliv N5 since it has GPS, 1GB of ram, and a really good location for the mouse pointer when holding the device but I think the Kohjinsha will do. At least for now. The device works pretty well for what it is. Its still a little on the slow side but still much faster than the laptop its replacing. My laptop is an old 800Mhz Intel P3, 256Mb ram, 20Gb hard drive. The one issue I had with the PA was with Firefox. When FF was running the hard drive was being accessed all the time causing the system to become unresponsive. The cause for this is the block reported attack sites and web forgeries setting. Disabling these fixes the issue. It will play up to 720p video just fine but 1080p becomes choppy or just wont play at all. I think I need to get cyberlink drivers to get 1080p working smoothly. Everything else I have tried works really well. Google Earth runs almost perfectly and other apps like Open Office and GIMP start up pretty quick and run really well. If you want one you can get one here for about $900 Kohjinsha PA PA3KX32SA mini 400g PC [32GB SSD, XP] [ PA3KX32SA ] - -=- Conics.Net
How much does it weigh? I'm waiting for a one-pound computer. I'd accept an almost computer like the iPad if it came in below one pound including a cover of some sort. My weight requirement is because this would be strictly a travel computer. Right now, the iTouch is my travel "computer" for email and weather reports while away from home, as well as being my music player whether traveling or not. But a bigger screen and easier keyboard would be a step up, if it was light enough to carry easily in my backpack.
Since weight as space are an issue to you, get yourself a smart phone and you'll only have to carry one device instead of two. Or three, if you also carry a camera.
Exactly what I thought when reading Daniels post. Want a keyboard ?Get this Epic from Sprint. Its a mini laptop,with a lot more features. Samsung's Epic 4G for Sprint seems to live up to its name -- Engadget
My phone is light enough that I cannot justify the cost of a smart phone and accompanying phone plan. It just sits in the backpack when I'm listening to the Touch. The camera goes in checked luggage, so its weight is not an issue, and I don't carry the phone where I carry the camera (hiking, mostly). But maybe the biggest obstacle to buying a smart phone is just that I'm completely bollixed by trying to sort out which one would have the features I want. I really don't think a smart phone would do anything I need that the Touch does not, except make phone calls, and my phone does that fine. Short answer to your question: The phone is not heavy enough for me to feel the need to have the "computer" and the phone in one unit. "Neither pricing nor a launch date have been announced." --- The iTouch really does everything I need a travel computer to do, other than having a decent-size screen, so I'll probably stick with it until an iPad-size device weighing under a pound comes along, or until either it or my phone craps out.
Of course, it has to be said Daniel... the iPhone does everything the iPod Touch does... AND makes phone calls. Pretty much the same weight, too. Although i have to admit, if you have a working phone and a working iPod Touch, it doesn't really make too much sense to replace them with an iPhone, unless you're absolutely fanatic about the extra weight/size of a separate phone.
Sprint? That's one of the main reasons I went with the iPhone the minute my contract with Sprint ended. Everybody complains about AT&T (and not without reason), but AT&T is to Sprint as a Prius is to a Yugo.
It weighs less than a pound. Its about 400g or about .88 pounds. Its very light. The main reason I was wanting something this small is so I could carry it around and use it. My old laptop was too big and heavy to carry around and because of that I only used it a few times a year. So I figure since I was wanting a new portable computer why spend $900 on a large very powerful computer that I will only use a few times a year when I can buy this thing and get much more use out of it. I can bring it to bed, take it to the bathroom, or watch TV and surf the net on the couch. I have had this device for about a month now and so far I have got more use out of it than I did my old laptop in the past 5 years. Its not quite pocketable unless you have big pockets but I think its just about the right size.
i don't know how old you guys are, but i bought a dell X-1 a few years ago for just the same reasons as force. 12" screen, 2.2 lb's. after a couple years, i was feeling like bob wilson's dog with the glasses, had to go back to a 8 lb. 15" screen to get my vision back. but i'm on it a couple hours a day. i still wouldn't mind one of these pocket jobs if it would run my software.
