4 Feb
1999
4 Feb
'99
4:56 p.m.
On Thu, 4 Feb 1999, Tony Duell wrote:
There were 2 other important differences IMHO. Firstly
the M100 keyboard
was a lot easier to type on than the HX20 keyboard. I would not want to
type much on the latter.
Last night, I whipped out my workSlate. The keyboard sucks! It's just as
noisy as the model 100's keyboard, but those weird round keys make
touch-typing impossible.
On the good side, the workSlate fits nicely on my flatbed scanner:
http://www.blinkenlights.com/classiccmp/convergent/ws.jpg
Yes, you could get text editor ROMs for the HX20. But
you couldn't buy an
HX20 and start using it to enter text in the field. That, IMHO, is why
the M100 was more successful.
And you could buy the M100 at just about any Radio Shack. I never said
the M100 was a bad machine -- it's the "little things" that make a
difference, but it wasn't a trail blazer either. The HX20 wins in terms
of "firstness", the workSlate wins in terms of innovative features and
coolness, but the M100 wins in terms of usability and market share.
-- Doug