Re: [NTLK] HandEra Review

From: Bill Davis (newton_at_ecity.net)
Date: Sun Aug 26 2001 - 01:12:19 EDT


>
>Been reading the HandEra review at Pen Computing:
>http://www.pencomputing.com/palm/Pen40/handera330.html
>
>and I'm amazed at all the WOW features they mention - they've
>been available on the Newt for years! It is really sad to see how far
>behind these PDAs are when compared to the later Newts and
>Apple should have some obligation to 'bump up' the technological
>advances in the PDA industry - by at least showing people what could
>be done and allowing other PDA developers to learn from it.
>
>The HandEra looks pretty good compared to the current crop of PDAs
>but one cannot help wondering how many Newts their developmers took apart...
>kudos to them!
>
>If anybody was really serious about developing a practical and useful PDA,
>I'd recommend getting the best features of the later Newts and combining them
>with some of the best features of the later PDAs. It is pretty clear that the
>there's a HUGE demand for a killer PDA - not necessarily based on the Palm.
>What do you think?

I think that Handera has finally succeeded in making another PDA good
enough for me to replace my Newton 2100 with. And I have.

As good as the Newton is.....it's too damn big to carry with you
everywhere easily (by which I mean, without some sort of carry-case or
really ridiculous looking belt clip or man-purse. I'd gotten started
(pre-Newton) with shirt pocket sized electronic organizers from Casio and
Sharp, and always missed that portability about the Newton. Of course,
there were other benefits to the Newton. But those are pretty much
incorporated in the HandEra.

And the HandEra fits in my shirt pocket, one of the major reasons the
Palm has been so successful. And why cellphones really took off when
they got small enough to always carry with you in your pocket.

They also do have most of the features I found useful about the 2100
except for the HWR.

Doesn't hurt that they are a local company for me, either. I can see
their offices from where I work; they're the next block over....our local
PDA group is trying to get HandEra to host a meeting on site, and the
founder of the group is married to an exec at Handera. Perhaps I'll get
a chanced to ask how much the Newton affected the HandEra design, but I'd
have to guess little or none. You see, the HandEra 330 is not the first
PDA they've made. It's older brother, the TRG Pro, is a Palm IIIx with a
CF card slot. The HE 330 appears to me to be a natural evolution of
that. It's just a coincidence that they have a lot of Newton-like
features. So do the PocketPC's, in some ways. It's hardly surprising
that some PDAs would have the same features others do. I have to admit
that my firt reaction to the HE 330 was "how Newton-lilke" too. But I
doubt it's intentional.

 - Bill

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