Bert Freudenberg wrote:
> 
> On Tue, 27 Mar 2001, Jochen F. Rick wrote:
> 
> > http://www.paceblade.com/
> >
> > I know we occasionally like thinking about hardware for dynabooks. This
> > is some nice hardware, though it may be vaporware.
> 
> Too bad I didn't know this *before* I went to CeBIT. Looks awesome,
> indeed. Since the company has a Santa Barbara office maybe the SqC guys
> can easily get one?
> 
> -- Bert

I saw the thing at CeBIT, however they had a sign there which basically said "hands off".
So I could not try how it feels. Since it has a larger display than all the webpads,
I fear that it gets a bit tricky to hold in one hand while you write with the other.
Apart from that, it looked nice.

There were a lot more tablet-style machines, but I don't know which will come to the
consumer market first.
The Transmeta booth had a couple of them, AFAICS all running WinCE or Linux on the x86
emulation. However, my colleague told me he'd talked to one technical guy who claimed
that they run Linux on the native Transmeta machine code.
However, their web page (http://www.frontpath.com) only talks about x86-compatible
processor from Transmeta.

The Siemens SimPAD (sorry for the long URL...)
http://www.ic.siemens.com/MySiemens/CDA/Standard/Frameset/0,2578,3_SIMPADCL4_0_1_0_0,FF.html
is a SA-1110 based device. That one comes in two variations, one with integrated DECT
and the other with a PCMCIA slot for GSM or whatever interface. These are presumably
consumer- and business-oriented. Price might be around 2000-2400 DM (1000-1200 US$).

Hoeft & Wessel showed their "skeye.pad" webpanel. I think it's a SA-1110 based system,
too, but their product sheet only says "high-performance low-power 32 bit / 200 MHz".
It has 32 M RAM plus 32 or 64 M Flash, IrDA, and either DECT or GSM.
PCMCIA and CompactFlash slots, and USB slave.
I played around with a dual-boot system which had WinCE and Linux.
No price info here. They are currently looking for or talking to a distributor
who could get it to the consumer market.

For a Squeak machine, these three would probably all be great. I would prefer a Linux
version, but as long as Squeak runs full-screen, I don't care too much.
If there were a native Transmeta Linux and development system, this could be the
fastest, I think.

Cheers,
Hans-Martin