Dauphin ?
You're not talkin about the Dolphin ?
A kit system from the late 70's from Swizzerland ?
No, I'm talking about the Dauphin DTR-1, a cute little 486-powered,
pen-and-keyboard-capable portable computer. The "DTR" stands for
"desktop replacement," which was overpromising a bit. As far as I
know, there was no "DTR-2."
Yes, I have a DTR-1. It's a 486SLC25 with 6 megs RAM, built-in
ethernet, modem, 40 meg 1.3" (!) hard drive, an RF-based pen (the pen
emits RF and it is detected by crossing circuit board traces), and a PS/2
style keyboard. It all fits in a leather case about probably 7" x 10" x
3".
The machine itself without the keyboard is a bit bigger than a Newton.
It shipped with Windows for Pen 1.0 (based on Windows 3.1) which has the
ability to do handwriting recognition into any widget which accepts
text. You can also use the pen as a mouse. The drawbacks are slow booting,
small hard drive (Stacker is a must), and terrible battery life
(2 hours in theory, in my experience, you're lucky to get 20 minutes;
I suspect the charger in mine isn't charging long enough.) It doesn't
get a lot of use mainly because of the battery life; but there is a cute
little AC adapter and it will run off 12 volts as well.
If anybody is lusting after one of these gadgets I'd trade mine for a
Newton 2000 or something similarly useful.
Yes, there was a DTR-2; I believe it added color, sound and maybe a
faster 486, I forget. Their latest one is called the Orasis and has a
P133, and a rather astronomical price.
--
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