HP Jornada 728 Palmtop Handheld PC $99.90 shipped

[Radeck]

sorry, cant compare the two...besides the hundreds of dollars for the overpriced iPhone to line Steve Jobs pockets with, the monthly cell phone fees will eat you alive...

this is a good cheap solution for simple needs, email, minor MS office documents, on the road computing.

[Shadow_Watcher]

Quote from firstrival : I thought about buying this 8 years ago for nearly $1,000.

...and my parents thought of buying a c-64 for about $2000 20 years ago.

[mozillafirefix]

I recall about a couple of years ago buy.com had it for $75. A bunch of people bought it just for fun, and then made the eBay price of an old CISCO 11Mbps PCMCIA card sky-rocketed because this little guy takes only a limited selection of WiFi cards with hacks.

IMHO you really cannot do anything serious with this unit now, particularly due to its obsolete, un-upgradable HPC 2000 OS. It is probably much less powerful and much less versatile than any hackable PNA devices in the market. -- For example, Mio C320 has a 400 MHz CPU, windows ce 5.0, 64M RAM, 1GB NAND flash, SDHC & SDIO support and can be found for around $100 as well. But if you still have $100 laying round and want to have some fun with this vintage toy, it is another story...

[easypowerseller]

this is for a docking station only??

sorry it is complete

[Riuski]

Quote from Snuff : Piece of junk. In its day, it was decent. We have a box full of these at work we use to hold the door open.

I'll buy those off your company for $10/each!

[Calesta]

Quote from ManiacDC : Wow that's an old one. TBH unless you need the media capabilities it'll work pretty well... except you can't sync contacts, etc with it on Vista.

Heh. I'm not even running Vista yet- at home or at work- so hopefully it won't be an issue. It's not going to be used as a PDA anyway.

Quote from RedWhiteAndWHO : I wont lie, I use my Jornada 720 probably 2 or 3 times a week. I can type all my stuff out, sort through lab data and etc. . . then just pop out the CF card and everything is peachy. Best thing is I get about 8 hours if I'm using my regular battery and 20 hours on the bigger one. They are rated for 9 and 24 hours respectively. The keyboard takes a while getting used to but is pretty comfortable. If you need no frills typing or minor Microsoft program usage, this buddy's the man. AFIK, you might be able to use it with vista, it uses activesync on the device, so you should be able to get it through that or some third party solution. If you need help with one, PM me.

Thanks for the offer! I'll look you up when I get it. I know that I'll probably be hunting for some software... I think this one is rated for 14 hours. The 720 was supposed to have about 40% less battery life. My wife has really small hands (wears a size 3.5 ring) so hopefully the keyboard will work ok for her.

Quote from Radeck : dont forget cashback http://evreward.com/store/go/5864

Are those good after the purchase? I guess if they aren't, I saved 20% off my cancelled order by going here anyway, so another $2 isn't going to make too much difference.

Quote from Radeck : sorry, cant compare the two...besides the hundreds of dollars for the overpriced iPhone to line Steve Jobs pockets with, the monthly cell phone fees will eat you alive... this is a good cheap solution for simple needs, email, minor MS office documents, on the road computing.

I definitely don't want to pay $45 a month extra for data/texting on an iPhone that she's going to get mad at while trying to type a story. iPhone = no good for long periods of data entry. I love mine, but I wouldn't want to write a story on it.

She also specifically wanted a device that would NOT have internet capabilities built in so that she wouldn't get distracted surfing when she needed to focus on writing.

Quote from mozillafirefix : I recall about a couple of years ago buy.com had it for $75. A bunch of people bought it just for fun, and then made the eBay price of an old CISCO 11Mbps PCMCIA card sky-rocketed because this little guy takes only a limited selection of WiFi cards with hacks. IMHO you really cannot do anything serious with this unit now, particularly due to its obsolete, un-upgradable HPC 2000 OS. It is probably much less powerful and much less versatile than any hackable PNA devices in the market. -- For example, Mio C320 has a 400 MHz CPU, windows ce 5.0, 64M RAM, 1GB NAND flash, SDHC & SDIO support and can be found for around $100 as well. But if you still have $100 laying round and want to have some fun with this vintage toy, it is another story...

True, but the Mio C320 is a GPS unit, not something you'd want to use for typing...

Quote from Riuski : I'll buy those off your company for $10/each!

I'll offer $11.

[Stimpus]

Quote from Snuff : Piece of junk. In its day, it was decent. We have a box full of these at work we use to hold the door open.

I'm calling bulls**t on this one!

[mozillafirefix]

Quote from Calesta : True, but the Mio C320 is a GPS unit, not something you'd want to use for typing...

Believe me or not, you'll greatly regret if you buy this unit even just for typing. But I have no objection if you just want to go ahead with the purchase and let time tells you the lesson. After all, it is your money...

Now regarding your particular purpose for $100 budget -- "The wife wanted something to write poetry / stories / novels with on the road that was compact and had a full keyboard," -- you may consider a more decent PDA with CE 5.0 and above OS, plus an external keyboard (e.g. this one [amazon.com]), or a full-screen software keyboard like Resco Keyboard Pro (http://www.resco.net/pocketpc/keyboard/). Or maybe just some handwriting note software like Phat Pad (http://www.phatware.com/index.php...ls/phatpad)

[dannomite]

does anyone think the battery that comes with this is new?

[daregan]

If the netbooks weren't so cheap I'd be all over this, but you still get a thumbs up as I was looking to get one of these before the netbooks.

[RedWhiteAndWHO]

Quote from mozillafirefix : Now regarding your particular purpose for $100 budget -- "The wife wanted something to write poetry / stories / novels with on the road that was compact and had a full keyboard," -- you may consider a more decent PDA with CE 5.0 and above OS, plus an external keyboard (e.g. this one [amazon.com]), or a full-screen software keyboard like Resco Keyboard Pro (http://www.resco.net/pocketpc/keyboard/). Or maybe just some handwriting note software like Phat Pad (http://www.phatware.com/index.php...ls/phatpad)

Or they could get a single thing and not have to worry that on screen keyboards really aren't useful for typing a lot. Neither is a keyboard you have to setup.

[Calesta]

Quote from mozillafirefix : Believe me or not, you'll greatly regret if you buy this unit even just for typing. But I have no objection if you just want to go ahead with the purchase and let time tells you the lesson. After all, it is your money... Now regarding your particular purpose for $100 budget -- "The wife wanted something to write poetry / stories / novels with on the road that was compact and had a full keyboard," -- you may consider a more decent PDA with CE 5.0 and above OS, plus an external keyboard (e.g. this one [amazon.com]), or a full-screen software keyboard like Resco Keyboard Pro (http://www.resco.net/pocketpc/keyboard/). Or maybe just some handwriting note software like Phat Pad (http://www.phatware.com/index.php...ls/phatpad)

So for your first option, she would get a full keyboard and a tiny screen with horrible battery life- normal PDAs don't last long at all when they're on 100% of the time... the second option would require a pocket PC which again would have horrible battery life and then give a screen that's even smaller than the Jornada to type on with zero feedback, and then the third option- well, same thing again. I do like Phatware's applications though- they have some really cool stuff.



As far as keyboard size, I don't have any problems typing on some of the smaller keyboards, and I have almost a 9 inch handspan. My wife has maybe 6 inches to work with, so she won't have any problem with the smaller keyboard.

The $100 price point wasn't really too much of an issue- I was just trying to find an economical solution that was right for her. If I was looking for the same type of device for myself, I probably would have just pounced on a 10" eee and been done with it, but for her- she wanted something even smaller, withOUT internet so she wouldn't be tempted to hit the blogs and be able to stuff it into a small bag or purse. For what I've found online, this seems to be a pretty good choice.

Quote from dannomite : does anyone think the battery that comes with this is new?

I doubt it, but reviews of the "recertified" units that I've found sold recently seem to be ok on battery life. They're supposed to be rated for 14 hours new.

Quote from daregan : If the netbooks weren't so cheap I'd be all over this, but you still get a thumbs up as I was looking to get one of these before the netbooks.

Thanks!

Quote from RedWhiteAndWHO : Or they could get a single thing and not have to worry that on screen keyboards really aren't useful for typing a lot. Neither is a keyboard you have to setup.

Exactly.

[dannomite]

Quote from Calesta : I doubt it, but reviews of the "recertified" units that I've found sold recently seem to be ok on battery life. They're supposed to be rated for 14 hours new.

Thanks. 14 hours seems pretty good. Wonder how many charge cycles people are getting before the battery starts to go.

Also, do you know if these recertified units feel/look used? Or are they cosmetically identical to new units?

I agree about the internet thing. I know it's easier to just have a device that doesn't have internet than be tempted to hop on with a netbook or notebook. some people have better self control, but when i hit a writer's block, bam, surf-time.

and these jornada units are great because you can touch type on them, making typing on them pretty fast in relation to how you would type on a normal sized keyboard. i think i might wait and see some other options, but rep to you for a good deal and sticking around to answer questions.

[zpeedster_m]

Even refub Dell Axim X51V PDA is faster , more capable etc etc

[halzeimers]

stay away from this device........no wifi and has an issue with the cable leading to the lcd screen. Once the cable goes bad, the touch screen is useless. I had one that I threw out with the trash.