We have a fondness for innovative "dead" platforms. For a cheap,
Newton-like internet terminal that does broadband as well as phone line,
check out the Audrey at www.tigerdirect.com Remember, you can use
a Palm to act as a conduit to get names from Newton->Palm->Audrey
To refresh everyone's memory, this Internet appliance from 3Com - part
of their now dead "Ergo" line - came out 10/00, and was cancelled 3/01
(yikes). Possibly for a host of reasons, the $550 unit never caught on.
Kind of a desktop color Palm on steroids, it runs a version of UNIX
(hence the inherent hackability mentioned later).
Pro
1) easier to set up than a Mac - first rate interface. My 4 year old
send
recordings to his grandparents daily.
2) if nothing else, perpetual calendar - with alarms - and address book
for under $90 (see TigerDirect.com)
3) due to Palm connectivity, easy to import names/addresses
4) Web browser pretty good, I threw some challenges, including my Co's
secure Outlook Webmail page, worked fine
5) E-mail can be a typed note, a voice recording, or a sketch. Not a
mixture however.
6) Web browser button - if pushed when browsing - hides upper menubar
7) wireless keyboard, also can act as power switch (I wonder if this IR
keyboard
could work with the Newt?!)
8) pulsing LED for clear pen for alarms or mail received
9) scheduled auto mail receipt. I had sent a test message, and after
diner noticed the light flashing.
10) The unit is s-i-l-e-n-t. No fan, no moving parts, silent keyboard.
You don't even hear the eee-awwww-eeee of the modem.
11) Address book has plenty of spots for multiple e-mails, custom
fields, pictures
12) retro neuvo-Jetsons styling.
13) support for cable/DSL connection with optional USB adapter
14) supports certain USB printers as well
15) Browser supports most HTML tags, JavaScript, Flash, and RealAudio
Con
1) only 1 e-mail address account per unit (I wonder if this helped kill it)
2) supports a lot of services like Earthlink and ATT, but not AOL (see
#1 above)
3) doesn't do much else. No spreadsheet, no painting program, no word
processor. Just dates, names, basic e-mail and basic browsing.
4) Browser lacks Java support
5) E-mail can only be one of 3 types, no typed note with a voice
message. E-mail received doesn't handle attachments well.
6) No support for QuickTime, .PDF, MP3 music, and PNG graphics on Web pages.
7) hard to set up "unusual" e-mail accounts. We have a domain mail
server "mail.mrollins.com" that really doesn't exist, it's part of
"mail.neca.com" took a bit of figuring to get the e-mail sending to
work. Receiving worked fine.
8) The "channels" rotary browsing button - while amazingly innovative -
doesn't work, as 3Com has dropped their page that used to provide these
URLs. There are some Audrey hacking sites that are working on a fix for these.
9) The Palm connectivity is great, except that the names don't just
appear in the address book. They appear in a separate Palm address book
file, that's readable by the built-in address book as a separate
directory. You have to manually copy each address to the default address
book file.
10) of course the biggie, it's a dead platform. No system updates, no
future. Of course, see #2 in "Pro" above. There's also plenty of Web
sites devoted to hacking Audrey (http://www.audreyhacking.com/), which
include software updates, MP3 players, etc. And it does work fine, as-is.
11) Flashing e-mail light causes dog to bark at 2:00 AM!
Future Plans - all available at www.audreyhacking.com
1) Hack in the latest 3Com system software update
2) hack in MP3 player
3) increase clock speed by 33%
4) use empty card slot for memory upgrade.
5) install VNC (Virtual Newtork Computing) client
--Mark Rollins mark_at_mrollins.com www.mrollins.com
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