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Excelbian
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The NETBOOK PRO handheld
computer.
Psion
en PsionTeklogix
In
the now already famous last years of the forego century, in which the
Internet hype was on its highest and many companies thought they had a
splendid future before them, companies were bought as if they where
hotdogs. Also
the Psion firm, the inventor of the PDA en very well known because of
its series 3 and series 5 PDA’s took over a number of companies. In
general these were not successful takeovers. The takeover of the
Canadian firm Teklogix, active in the area of Wireless LAN for
warehouse and industry was the exception. When
Psion came itself into rough weather
a few years later and decided to stop the development and sales
of PDA’s it was the Teklogix takeover, because of its healthy
business in the development and sales of wireless solutions for
enterprises, which kept the company alive. One
of the handheld computers in the portfolio of PsionTeklogix was the
netBook, a computer based on the Psion series 5 but with a color
screen, a large keyboard and approximately half the size of a laptop
PC. This equipment was successfully sold to small businesses and the
education market en is still a part of the PsionTeklogix portfolio. A
number of months ago PsionTeklogix announced a successor of the
netBook, the Netbook Pro. De
Netbook Pro Hardware.
The
use of Windows CE makes the equipment instant on en it can be used
intensively for a day without recharging the battery. A
large number of expansion slots is available: PCMCIA, Compact Flash
(for both type I and II), Secure Digital and MMC. Communication is
possible by means of an IRDA, USB or Serial port and with the aid of
PCMCIA or CF cards also communication is possible with WIFI, GSM/GPRS
or Bluetooth. The
standard memory is 32 MB flash and 128 MB RAM but expansion of the
memory into the gigabytes can’t be a problem with this large number
of expansion slots. The
Netbook Pro’s Intel Xscale PXA255 400 Mhz processor gives the user a
very quick reaction on its input. Also more calculation or graphics
heavy tasks are done in a snap. NetBook
Pro software.
A
significant difference with the older model is the use of Windows
CE.NET as the application platform instead of the Symbian system. A
correct choice, in my opinion, taking into account that Symbian, a
company dominated by Nokia, has its focus solely on mobile phones and
because of the fact that by using this Microsoft platform the
functionality is and can be expanded with a large number of services
and applications. The
Netbook Pro comes standard with viewers for Word, Excel , Powerpoint,
images and pdf files. The enclosed word processor is WordPad and also
Media Player, Windows Messenger, Internet Explorer 6.0 for Windows CE,
Terminal emulation and Remote Desktop Connection are included in the
package. These standard applications for Windows CE.NET 4.2 are
supplemented by PsionTeklogix with
Pocket On-Schedule from Odyssey Computing and the Jeode Java
virtual machine from Esmertec. The
first application has more functionality than its big PC brother,
Outlook. The Java virtual machine makes it possible to execute Java
applications on the Netbook Pro. Of
course an ActiveSync client is incorporated in the device to make
synchronization and backup with the PC possible. Third
party applications.
Because
of the fact that Windows CE.Net is a member of the Pocket PC 2002
and the Windows Mobile 2003 family a large number of
applications is available for the Netbook Pro. It
should be taken into account that applications developed for the
Pocket PC will in general only use a part of the screen. Applications
developed for CE.NET 4.2 or earlier versions of Windows CE will make
better use of the screen size of the specific functionality of Windows
CE. To
name some applications: Textmaker, an excellent wordprocessor from the
company Softmaker and MobiPocket Reader from the company MobiPocket,
which makes the reading of Ebooks and Internet news sites offline
possible. Even
more important than of the shelf applications are the possibilities of
development of bespoke software. By using Windows CE.NET as the
application platform for the Netbook Pro the developer community is
suddenly enlarged by a number of factors and tools like Visual
Studio.NET, including Visual Basic and C#, with its extensions for
mobile device development are
now available for use. The
incorporation into the device of a versatile Java virtual machine not
only makes the use of Java applications possible it also gives the
possibility to develop applications for the Netbook Pro in Java Doing
your work remotely
The
expansion slots, the Windows CE operating system, the included
applications make this handheld computer very suited for working
remotely from the office, which can be connected by GSM, GPRS, WIFI or
when in short range by Bluetooth or IRDA. The Windows CE application
platform makes a large number of network services available of which I
will name a few: IPv6 The
standard for IP in the near future. LDAP To
query databases SNMP The
Netbook Pro can be used as a netwerk management agent Virtual
Private Networking In
order to communicate privately with the office without giving an
eavesdropper the change to listen in. FTP To
manage files remotely Telnet To
manage a computer remotely Kerberos,
Certificates For
authentication and authorization purposes Potential
users of the Netbook Pro.
Properties
like small size and weight, robustness, the quality keyboard, at
daylight readable color screen, connectivity, instant on, long battery
life make the Netbook Pro pre-eminently suitable for workers in the
field, or the mobile business man or woman with emphasis on the
following categories of users:
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