They're still a little overpriced, given history, at Amazon and - quite infrequently - EBay, but no longer through Sony. I just checked and there are some at the $75 level, and many at $150, which I think is too much. My bet is that there is SOMEBODY at Sony who (a) knows of a corporate adoption that (s)he'd like to convert to Sony/Ericson phone or (b) could find a cache of overstocked and fully depreciated, ready for a non-traditional adoption. My own is a PEG-NX70V/u, with a PEGA WL100 wifi card, and it was particularly the NX and NZ series that had this extraordinary range of capability.
And Steve's right that they are heavy and bigger - but ONLY to the sleekest of IPODs. For that matter I've also got an old Newton that makes the Clie's look very sleek indeed. When I taught delinquents in lockup, the clie was perfect - it was both enough "gee wiz" to exceed the capacity of the clunky desktops available and, with sound and video recording, had just the right capacity to catch kids doing what they thought no one saw - their work! I could lend it to them for writing and check their speed at tetris. The value of these older toy-like palms is that they can do so much more than some of their successors, even if they do it less well. With a keyboard, the Clie is almost a laptop; with a wifi card, it's almost a phone; plugged into a projector, it can play powerpoints or MP3's. And it is very sturdy, uses micro power, and recharges superbly. Finally, although Negroponte's got tenure at MIT, I can't think of a hardware or software need that a $100 computer would fill that couldn't be done better by this old warhorse. It may not be the sleekest linux box, but it's got lots more than an IPOD. Joe On 7/13/06, Stephen Snow <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
But Joe, et. al., The Clie is so much bigger. I mean for what I am thinking. But then, my thinking might be too small!! What appeals about the ipod is its diminuitive size compared to other things. It slips right into a pocket and disappears. The use threshhold is very low because the functionality is limited...that is a good thing, I am thinking, if the use is primarily for sharing training videos and information. The Clie can do a lot, maybe too much. I don't know. What do others think? Steve Snow ----- Original Message ----- From: "Joe Beckmann" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "The Digital Divide Network discussion group" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, July 13, 2006 11:50 AM Subject: Re: [DDN] Nicholas Negroponte- ISTE NECC Speech > While I certainly sympathize with ipods as micro-supercomputers, much > older > - and thereby much cheaper - Sony Clie's do all the same thing, including > video, sound, mp3, text, still, flash, and even internet. What they lack > is > phone, but that is what distinguishes the smartphones. In the meantime, I > wonder that people haven't collected old Clie's from Sony and EBay and > created whole computer classrooms able to do most of what a full scale lab > can do, with much more flexibility, at much less than Negroponte's > projected > computer, with much more software capacity. > > Joe Beckmann > <context snipped for space> _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
-- Joe Beckmann 22 Stone Avenue Somerville, MA 02143 617-625-9369 and Search for a Cure 17 Worcester Street Cambridge, MA 02139 617-945-5350 [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
