What portable computing devices have you had?

[MoridinBG]

Simple question. What have you used until now. What do you think of the devices?

My list is rather long with lots of different devices. So:
Tablet PCs
Compaq Concerto - Long, long ago. I think it was 1993 or 1994. 386, 4MB RAM, Greyscale. Win 3.11 for Pen. Laptops were a rare back then and nobody had even heard of tablets. I was astonished by the handwriting recognition, Notebook application (a real notebook!).
Toshiba Portege 3500 - More recent one. Awful case (it was cracking like a waffer)
HP tc4200 - My current laptop. Great for using as a notebook. I haven't used pen'n'paper in months

PocketPCs
Dell Axim X5 (400Mhz) - 3 years ago. Again I was amazed by the fact that I had a 400Mhz computing device the size of my palm.
HP rx3115 - First WiFi device. Astonishing. I walk around and browse at the same time! Otherwise really underpowered machine.
Dell Axim X30 Mid - PXA270 is still THE pda processor. Unmatched speed
Fujitsu Siemens Loox 610/BT Big device. Really big. And the BT abtenna made it look like a phone (a big phone :-D) Died from overclocking. AFAIK this is the only PDA that can die from overclocking. I have did it on at least 6-7-8 other, but as it turned out later (I know for 2 o3 dead from overclock too) this specifik model has some problems with the mainboard
Dell Axim x51v - 624Mhz CPU, 16MB 3D accelerator. Again fits in the palm. Quake 3 running while waiting for the bus. The CPU ran rock solid stable at 1014Mhz. In my palm. Lol.
Qtek S100 - My first and only PDA with GSM functionality. It turned out to be pretty handy.
Motorola MPx200 - Not really a PocketPC, but it runs Windows Mobile. It is invincible! You can flash it with a random series of 0 and 1 and it can be resurrected in minutes! Originally with WM2002 there are unofficial ROM all the way up to WM6.1

UMPC
Gigabyte U60 - My only (yet) UMPC. VIA C-7 is Slow. Really slow. It was a great machine, the idea is great, but the price... It's too big and expensive to be used as primary PDA, and again is too small (and slow) to be used for serious work. Entering something like one page of text with the built-in keyboard...

Internet Tablets
N800 - I had two of them for a few months each. Great machine. Big screen, and yet it is "pocketable". Linux (see the end), great for both browsing and multimedia. I would get another one soon!

Other
Privileg M800 - A wrist watch/phone. This is the device with the greates LOL-factor I have ever had. Nobody even suspects it's a phone until it rings! Touchscreen, Stereo BT, 128MB memory, stereo speakers, and is just a little bigger than a sports watch! (Picture (http://shopkami.com/images/stories/gsm_watch_phone_m800/m800-37.jpg)

Sony PSP (Phat) _ It has a CPU, Memory, Linux can run on it, so it counts. Astonishing graphics, alful web browsing, great screen. For games and movies - great. A little bit big for a MP3 player and I don't really like the music player.


I think that's all. Every one of them has it's own pros and cons, but the most usefull seems to be the HP tablet pc, as I use it is the most usable. Not the most mobile/cheap one, but I use it for almost everything I have used any of the other devices.

And about OSs, I have used Linux on all the devices that support it in usable way.

[geneven]

I had several cheap Palms.

My favorite portable computing device was the Rex 6000 -- Wikipedia article here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/REX_6000). I moved to Russia with it literally in the credit card pocket of my wallet.

I would buy something with that form factor again. Now instead of having a cradle it would be wireless, of course.

[JoeF]

I'm also a fan of the cheap palm. I still use my Zire 31 to listen to audiobooks. (Something the N800 can't do properly yet). I was given a Treo 600 that I used for quite a while, but the earphone needs special jack that I keep losing, so I went back to the Zire 31. I like the Palms instant on and off and its durability. If Palm had actually built and sold the Folio, I probably never would have bought the N800.

[debernardis]

In an obscure past, a TI-57 pocket calculator. It was amazing for me - I was a boy.
The venerable Sharp PC-1500 pocket computer - year 1982!
More recently, the whole nokia communicators and tablets series: 9000, 9110, 9210, 9500, e90 + 770 (sold), 800, 810.

[realitygaps]

my portable history:

tandy cga laptop -> psion series 3 -> amstrad NC100 -> psion series 5 -> zaurus SL5500 -> zaurus C860 -> zaurus c3200 -> nokia n800 -> nokia n810

also had some laptops and TI89/92's along the way...

[luso]

Sharp PC-1500 -> Palm m501 -> Palm T5 -> N800
Several HP laptops along these years

[JoeF]

If we are talking early stuff, I still have my Casio CQ-1 (1976)

http://www.voidware.com/calcs/cq1.htm

[Karel Jansens]

More or less chronologically: Psion Series 3a, HP Omnibook 425, Palm IIIc, Psion Series 5mx (2 pcs, 1 Pro), Newton MessagePad 2100 (2 pcs), Fujitsu Siemens Tablet ST3400, Sony Ericsson P910i, Siemens SIMPad SL4, Nokia 770, Fujitsu Siemens Tablet ST4120, Nokia N800, Pepper Pad 3, Psion Netbook.

That's about it for now.

[icebox]

well,

a 386 no name laptop, a 750p ibm thinkpad (486), casio gfx 9850g, handspring visor deluxe, sony clie sj22, toshiba m100, nokia e61, nokia n800.

[smackpotato]

cheap slide rule, ti33e, nokia 770 , nokia 810. I wonder where the border line for computable devices llies. I had one of those microsoft-timex watches that you could sink buy holding it up to the monitor. that was the weirdest.

[josiahg777]

@smackpotato - slide rule ?? :D

hmmm... My first portable computing device ever was a palm III, then a palm Vx. After that became too underpowered I bought a Zire 72 and used it happily for several years. The sound card died though and the battery was going downhill fast so I bought an N810, and I must say it's by far the best mobile computing device I've ever tried out :)

oh, and I also owned a powerbook G3 years ago that no longer works :D

[tabletrat]

Ignoring things that were designed as computers, but were small,

Casio FX-702P & a similar one
Sharp PC-1210
Something by casio with character recognition
These were all pretty similar, basic programming and not much more than calculator

Psion organiser II
This was getting better - good programming, but an alphabetical order keyboard! Also quite heavy
Psion organiser 3 & 3A
Like a proper computer. Programmable, decent battery life, could connect to a modem etc. 3a as the three but improved.
Newton OMP (not called OMP until later). Fantastic toy, not actually that much use
Newton 120 - getting much better
Newton 130 - proper handwriting recognition, decent battery life, fantastic operating system
Newton 2100 - The pinnicale of handheld computing. Damn that steve jobs!
Compaq iPaq 3600 - work gave it to me to write some software with. It worked and was the first thing I had a GPS on.
Compaq iPaq 3800 - Same but more memory
Zodiac Tapwave - Great little palm, could have been so much more if the company hadn't gone out of business, and the sony PSP hadn't come out at the wrong time
[COLOR="Purple"]Sony PSP. Not much to say - it is a PSP.
iPod Touch Well, I also had several previous iPods (back to the week the second generation came out), but didn't really count them as much as portable computing devices.
TomTom Go, TomTom 510 - great GPS devices.
Nokia 770
Nokia 810

Atari Portfolio

Those are the little things, then there are the bigger things:

Apple Powerbook 160, 190, 5300, G4 titanium 400, titanium 800, 12" 867
Macbook, Macbook Pro 2.3GHz
Sharp old win95 laptop, Fujitsu 700 laptop
Viewsonic v1100 tablet PC
Fujitsu Stylistic 3400
Fujitsu stylistic ST4110P
HP TC1000
HP TC1100


I think I still have most of these. Apart from the little machines that are all gone, and the older psions, I have the 3 (not the 3a), the tapwave,psp,both nokias, the touch (and two other ipods),the iPaq 3800, the newtons, all the powerbooks apart from the titaniums, the macbook (wife has), the macbook pro (typing on), the ST4110P & TC1100.

I should make a group photo of all this one day!

[zehjotkah]

Nintendo GameBoy
Nintendo GameBoyPocket
Sega GameGear
Gamepark GP32
Tapwave Zodiac (rulez)
TigerTelematics Gizmondo (börks)
Nokia N810 (wohooooo)


:D

[Karel Jansens]

cheap slide rule, ti33e, nokia 770 , nokia 810. I wonder where the border line for computable devices llies. I had one of those microsoft-timex watches that you could sink buy holding it up to the monitor. that was the weirdest.

Dang! I forgot my Timex!

[b-man]

My first portable device was a gameboy advance then a gameboy advance sp then a sony psp and now a nokia N800 and i will soon be getting a samsung q1 ultra-v with windows vista home premium

[Underscore]

My first portable device was a gameboy advance then a gameboy advance sp then a sony psp and now a nokia N800 and i will soon be getting a samsung q1 ultra-v with windows vista home premium

Movin' on up, huh? :D I started with gamin machines too, but my first real "portable computing device" was the n800.

[MstPrgmr]

Cassiopeia BE 300 - Great device! Windows CE based, but there was a community behind it and tons of free software. There were even different OSes you could choose form. It was cheap and you could add accessories as you pleased. Lacked CPU power and adequate ram though.


Zaurus SL3200 - Another great device. Linux based with tons of open source software and various OSes. It was PDA so it had a PIM suite that I now miss dearly. Expensive as hell, not sold in the US, and needs accessories to do every little thing. A wifi adapter here (b only!), a bluetooth adapter there... it was not pocketable at all. As it turns out, the Nokia IT's are really way better than the Sharp Zaurus line.

Nokia 770 - Excellent device. Can't say enough about this little thing. Only to be surpassed by the N800.

Nokia N800 - Excellent device, but I hated not having a keyboard and the fact that I couldn't read the screen in the sunlight. Will sell this soon.

Nokia N810 - Excellent device. I just got this one and love the keyboard and sunlight readable screen. I am still upset about the lack of a good PIM but I am relatively happy about most other things, especially the hardware. GPS sucks, but I don't mind. MiniSD is less common than microSD but it is actually a little cheaper and comes in the same speed and sizes so it's not that bad. A move to microSD will save space for the N900 though. Keyboard has flat keys, but it's really not that much of a problem. It sucks to type on with big hands and nails though. Software could use a major improvement.

EDIT: Oh, and the Nokia tablets are all way too unresponsive! How is it that Apple manages to make the iPhone so responsive even with all those fancy gimmicks? Is the iPhone really that much more powerful? Does it have that much more CPU processing power and RAM? Come on Nokia.

[kenroy]

Sharp Zaurus PI-3000, Apple Newton MessagePad 100, Sharp Zaurus MI-10DC, Sharp Zaurus MI-E1, Sharp Zaurus MI-C1-S, Sharp Zaurus SL-5000D (first Linux-based Zaurus), Sharp Zaurus SL-A300, Sharp Zaurus SL-C700, SL-C860, Nokia 6630, Nokia 6680, Nokia 770, Nokia N800, NintendoDS Lite, Nokia N70, iPod Touch 16GB, Nokia N810.

Best user interface is probably the Newton MessagePad although if "data detectors" makes it into the iPod Touch OS it'll be close.

[Jerome]

Well, if we are going to go back to prehistorical times...

TI-53, TI-57, TI-58C, Casio FX702P, Sharp PC-1250, Canon X-07, HP-41CV, Atari Portfolio (the one you see in the terminator 2 movie...), HP-48SX, HP-95LX, HP100LX, HP-200LX (I love those), HP48GX, HP Omnigo (junk), HP Omnibook (more a sub-laptop than a pocket computer), HP-48G, Olivetti quaderno (not used that much, a buying mistake), Toshiba Libretto 50CT (*), Palmpilot, Palm V, Garmin iQue, Sharp Zaurus SL-5500, Sharp Zaurus SL-C700 (*), Sharp Zaurus SL-C760 (*), Nokia 770, Nokia 6630, Nokia N80 (upgraded to Internet Edition), Nokia N800, HP-50G, Nokia N810, Nokia E51.

(*) imported from Japan.

[sondjata]

Powerbook 160
NEC something or other laptop
Newton 110. 130
Powerbook 520
PB Titanium 400
Fossil Wrist PDA (still going strong)
12" PB G4
N800

[Benson]

HP 48SX
HP 48GX
HP 49G+
HP Pavilion N3410 (500 MHz K6-2, 15.1" active-matrix)
Nokia N800
HP 50GNot counting the odd 4-function calculators (including a watch), and scientific non-programmable or non-graphing calculators required for some classes/tests (most recent & capable: HP 33s).

[sjgadsby]

My chronological list, not including gaming handhelds:

HP48G - used as calc and PIM; resisted buying a belt pouch from EduCALC, but only just
HP48GX - expansion slots!
Compaq Contura Aero (http://www.zenspider.com/~pwilk/aero_stuff.html) 4/33C - early subnotebook; established my maximum size for a notebook computer
Palm IIIxe - for which I did purchase and wear a belt pouch
HandEra 330 with CompactFlash WiFi - faster, QVGA, virtual graffiti, screen rotation, AAA or Li-Ion battery power, jog wheel, audio amp, dual expansion slots, and compatible with III-series docks, styluses, and peripherals--best Palm EVAR, except for near-guaranteed screen failure after a few years
Fujitsu Stylistic 500 - dual batteries (interchangeable with my Sony Mavica camera) plus internal bridge battery; expansion, hard drive, and RAM all on easily replaceable cards--should have started a trend
PalmOne Tungsten T5 - sole advantage over the 330: a working screen
Nokia N800 - my personal computer
Dell Latitude 1501 - bought as a desktop replacement & too big to be anything else; seldom used; less expensive than my N800

[brashley46]

I've had a Franklin eBookman, a Treo 90, a Zaurus SL 5500, and a Zaurus SL C-860. And now of course my N800.

[tabletrat]

Atari Portfolio

Oh well reminded, I had one of those too. Sold it though.

[phutterman]

Various organizers.
TI-83 graphing calculator, if that counts
Palm IIIx (got refurbished really cheap)
Palm TX
Compaq Armada M300 (old subnotebook, got used)
N800

I've always had something of an obsession with portability and computing...when I was younger I thought organizers and whatnot were really neat and always wanted a handheld pc. Also, I've had a desktop for a long time so until recently couldn't really justify getting a full laptop. I got the old Palm IIIx to see how I like palms and how much I'd use it, then moved up to a Palm TX. It wasn't that great but I got a pretty good amount of use out it. After a couple of years, it got extremely unstable, and I was finally able to justify replacing it, and that's when I got my NIT (though I briefly considered an iPod Touch instead -- I'm very glad I chose the NIT).

[HAC]

In order? Ok..

Newton OMP
Newton 110
Newton 130
Newton 2100 (stolen)
HP 320LX
HP Jornada 680
Casio Casseopia E-105
Ipaq 3970
Sharp PV-6000 Tripad (still have, still works!)
Oddball CE wireless tablet that I can;t rmember the name of..
Ipaq 2210
Ipaq 4355
HP Jorada 720
Nokia N800

Cheers
Harold

[Johnx]

Fun topic! :D

Visor Prism: A great solid little machine. The PIM was just great, apps started instantaneously, and Grafiti v1 was almost fast enough to take notes in class. Mine ended up dying after I overclocked it. :(

I replaced it with a Sharp Zaurus SL-5500, which had ok PIM apps and rather poor HWR, but made up for it by having a rather usable builtin keyboard. I really loved this formfactor for a PDA. As a bonus it played MP3s so I got to leave my crappy CD-MP3 player at home after I bought it. Mainly used for ebook reading, warwalking (all the rage back then. :D), and very light web browsing with the included copy of Opera. I still have it and it still works for the most part, but the battery is almost useless. If I can get linux 2.6 running nicely on mine I'll be highly tempted to find a used one in better shape and a way to put a bigger, newer battery in it. Also, it beats the N800 hands-down for both one handed use and sunlight readability.

I later sprung for a Sharp Zaurus SL-C1000 which added a gorgeous 640x480 screen and USB host to the mix as well as a better keyboard and a faster processor. I got several years of use out of this, but it tended to always be in a state of kinda-sorta-working. Just recently (as in, the last couple months) the open source distributions for it have really matured, and combined with midori for web surfing it has become much more reliable and useful once again. This is the shining example for how a handheld keyboard should feel, complete with a nice d-pad. Nokia, if you're paying attention, grab one of these and copy the keyboard in it part for part!

In March of 2007 a perfect storm formed: My C1000 was being unreliable (software it turned out) and my local CompUSA was having a going out of business sale. This lead to the (impulse) purchase of my latest Linux/ARM device: a Nokia N800 at 30% off retail! The maturity of the software and the speed of the browser amazed me, and though 3rd party software offerings were a little slow to get going, the N800 has proved a really worthwhile purchase.

I wonder where we'll be this time next year in terms of Linux handhelds?

-John

[Greg87]

I've had quite a few devices and I've yet to find the perfect one yet, (as if that could really happen). They have all had their ups and downs. I have most of the devices, although I've sold some too. Usually I've acquired each device at a significantly lower cost then you'd normally pay, simply because the device has had an issue or two. So far I've been able to work out the issues and use the devices successfully. It's not been anything too major yet, so I've been able to fix at a low cost and without too much trouble. I have bought at full price, some of the newer items you'll see. I have a tendency for collecting old and new gadgets :) if you haven't noticed.

Laptops/Notebooks:

Averatec 3200 H1 - sitting around collecting dust and requires a new power board, since the connector in the back of the laptop is broken
IBM Thinkpad X30 - loaded with Fedora Core right now
IBM Thinkpad T41p - mainly used windows powered laptop
IBM Thinkpad X41 Tablet - picked this up for extremely cheap, person thought it was broken and all it ended up being was harddrive, memory, and a new screen, all of which I nabbed off ebay for fairly cheap

IBM PC110 - I regretfully made a stupid mistake and sold this. I wish I had never sold it though.
IBM Thinkpad 701 - fails in comparison to todays laptops' specs but damn cool was that butterfly mechanical folding fullsize keyboard.
Hammerhead Walkabout - greyscale, ruggedized waterproof tablet

Apple G3 Powerbook "Pismo" - An amazing rugged Apple laptop. It's awesome for taking notes and web surfing, email, and other light needs, and with two high capacity batteries I get over 15 hours, full brightness and wifi on. I still use it to this day for that very purpose.

Apple 12" G4 Powerbook
Apple 5300c
The Apple Portable (if you could really call around 15 pounds portable :rolleyes:)
Apple 17" Macbook Pro

PDA's/Other Gadgets:
Palm m130
Handspring Visor Prism
Palm Tungsten C
HP Jornada 680e
HP Jornada 680 w/ ram expansion (essentially a Jornada 690)
HP Jornada 728
Mobilepro 900c - just bought this recently and really like the instant on/off of the device and the long battery life

Sharp Zaurus SL 5500
The original small Sharp Zaurus that was black and had the handheld pc form factor
Apple Newton Messagepad 2100
Apple Newton eMate
HP 50g - I'd consider this a computer with calculator software loaded onto it as powerful as it is
Texas Instruments 83 Plus Silver Edition
Texas Instruments 89 Titanium
8gb iPhone

Of course last but not least is the Nokia n800 I have recently purchased and really like alot.

[johnpad]

Psion 3a - Still going strong
Psion 5 - until the screen died
Psion 5mx - until the screen died
Psion/SonyEricsson MC218 - guess what ... the screen died
... (tumbleweed rolls across scene .. I survive with just a phone for a year) ...
Nokia 770 - So cheap I could hardly believe it.

Wish list - N810 in a clamshell design (see Psion). To be honest I really miss the Psions. Solid PIM, great spreadsheet, simple cardfile database, good PC sync, excellent phone management (over IR), I could go on. Still my 770 is a lot of fun and will get at least a few more months usage before my next toy.

Cheers,
John

[Jaffa]

Mine are similar to johnpad's:


Casio digital organiser - was very young, but a very limited computer in my pocket :-)
Psion Series 5 - sold it to get a 5mx
Psion Series 5mx - worked really well for years, until an incident with a door knob in a crowded corridor cracked the glass screen
Psion Series 5mx - worked really well for a year or two, until an incident with a small drop cracked the glass screen
Sony PEG-UX50 - my first experience with a PalmOS device for longer than a short play. Nice enough hardware, crappy OS. Very disappointing after a Psion.
Psion netBook - well, a Series 7 which I upgraded. Very nice, but by this time the limitations of EPOC were becoming apparent (poor SSH, poor web browsing)
Nokia 770 - very exciting, sold to buy...
Nokia N800 - sold to buy...
Nokia N810 - ...still wanting the productivity apps from over 10 years ago in EPOC :-/