Comments on: Pomera portable note-taker: folding keyboard and not much else

By: Al

Al — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 20:09:42 +0000

Great form factor but it needs to be a full Windows OS with decent memory and expansion slots then it would easily sell for $600 to $1500.

By: James Kendrick

James Kendrick — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 10:58:08 +0000

I remember a writer who uses a Pocket PC with BT kekyboard to do the same: http://www.jkontherun.com/2006/10/writing_on_wind.html

By: vm-01

vm-01 — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 10:55:21 +0000

The price is high but this is actually a good idea. I’m surprised no one has done a Windows Journal device.

I’d pay for a digital notepad that only did that. But I wouldn’t pay much. My N800 with Xournal is close but I wouldn’t mind being able to use journal instead.

By: Brian Hollar

Brian Hollar — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 10:51:22 +0000

If you're comparing this to the power of a laptop, it's obviously not going to compare, but that's not the market it's going after. I'm a student working on my PhD and law degree and bought an AlphaSmart Neo for $219 earlier this year. The Neo is a fantastic word processor that can get ~ 700 hours of battery life on 3 AA batteries. It types text and does nothing more which is what makes it great for writing. The lack of Internet access is actually a feature and not a bug. I take it with me everywhere, taking notes in class and writing papers, blog posts, and e-mails. I expect it to help out tremendously in writing my dissertation. Besides the battery life and instant-on, the other killer feature on the Neo is the ability to write outside. (It has an LCD screen.) I can also beam notes over to my Treo to e-mail or post to my blog. I expect the Pomera to compete in a similar market. Here is an overview of what I like the about Neo: http://thinkingonthemargin.blogspot.com/2008/02/alphasmart-neo-sophisticated-simplicity.html Here are all of my posts on the Neo (about 10 so far), including my thoughts and experiences after purchasing one: http://thinkingonthemargin.blogspot.com/search/label/alphasmart%20neo

By: olly

olly — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 09:16:27 +0000

$270 is way to expensive for sure — for not too much more, you can grab an N800 and a bluetooth keyboard off of ebay, and have 800 times the capabilities.

However, I’d love to see more MID’s using this folding keyboard concept — there was one that came out a couple years back, Korean only if I remember, that had a similar fold out keyboard… the form factor always looked great to me, though I’ve never used it.

-olly

By: Brian Goodwin

Brian Goodwin — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 08:35:34 +0000

I want this form factor in my next smartphone! We have seen it before in other machines in other markets but can't seem to get it here in the US. Here is the similar form factor but far more powerful Samsung Butterfly: http://www.techeblog.com/index.php/tech-gadget/samsung-sph-p9000-butterfly-hands-on