Hewlett Packard HP 620LX

Technological improvement occurred rapidly during the late 1990's with regards to portable computing and the Hewlett Packard HP 620LX is a fine example of this (with some caveats). The 620LX was the follow up to the HP 300 series, one of which I reviewed here. Released in 1998, the 620 took the basic premise of the 360 and added new bells and whistles to make it the then go-to model. These included a new version of Windows CE (v2.11 compared to 2.00), a faster SH3 processor (75MHz instead of 60MHz), double the memory (16Mb), more ROM (10Mb) and most obvious of all, a colour screen. Now before anyone gets too excited, when I say colour, I mean 256 colour CSTN with the same 640x240 half VGA resolution as the 360, so nothing special even compared to the laptops of the time. However, colour was something new and it was a useful feature to add, certainly making the built-in Internet Explorer somewhat more user friendly. All this for a launch price of £699 ($899). In today's money, that's north of £1,200.00!!!

That's the extended battery right there. The case is nifty too.

First up, that new tech meant a bigger device, and, as you can see from the picture below, it’s a fair bit larger than the 360LX and the much older Psion Series 3. The card is for scale. That extra space didn’t entirely go to waste as the keyboard, whilst keeping the calculator style of the 360LX, has slightly larger keys and they are more widely spaced. This does mean that it is easier to type on and I got up to a decent, accurate speed with it. It's still not in the same league as the follow up Jornada series or the Psion 5's (yet to be beaten) exemplary keyboard. There are also some application softkey shortcuts above the keyboard and four to the right of the screen.

Yes, I still buy books from a high street shop! What's your problem??? ;-)

It certainly looks the business.

As the device has a colour screen, the keyboard and symbols have a splash of colour themselves and the unit itself is a rather tasteful black rather than the dark grey of previous models. Think Psi-Corps compared to the dull Earthforce Security...

Also doubles as a make up mirror. So I am told...

A note on that screen. It is very readable but uses that popular tech of the time, the resistive touchscreen. This means that you really need the included stylus to get any real use out of it and it’s reflective as hell, as you may have noticed from the pictures. Being CSTN, it does appear rather washed out but you can change to contrast to help out with that.

That reflection is me taking the picture. Told you it was reflective...

That extra bulk (1.29 lbs vs 1.01 lbs of the 360LX) meant that the newer machine was no longer a jacket pocket “whip it out when required” (oohhh-errr, missus!) device. Nope, the 620LX was just too damn big and that was with the smaller battery. The picture with the carry case also shows the extended battery that adds a smidge more weight and sticks out of the back of the device. That said, the extended battery does mean you can make it through a full working day with extra to spare, not something that could be said of the standard power pack.

As per the 360LX, the software is the usual Windows CE mix of office applications and utilities, with just what seems minor enhancements. There is the expected compact flash card slot for additional memory and a PCMCIA Type 2 slot for network, modem and VGA adapters (amongst other things). A word of caution here though: any use of the PC card slot means a dive in battery life, and the extended battery isn’t much help here.

What makes it useful to this day, removable storage.

You can also get a very fragile docking cradle that acts as a syncing aid, but in reality, is neither use nor ornament and its true purpose was to take up desk space at home when you weren’t being an always connected on the road net-warrior (how '90's!).

Even with two rather suspect batteries, the 620LX is still very usable today and, if using a rucksack or other large bag, would be the go-to device if I couldn’t carry the Alphasmart. That would also include a mains adapter as twenty year old battery cells are unpredictable, as well as a spare back-up battery as those coin cells get chewed up pretty badly when the main battery goes. And that pretty much sums up the caveats with this device. It's a bit too large as a handheld and the move to a colour screen meant ditching the ubiquitous AA battery for a lithium-ion pack that also meant carrying the mains adapter around for when the pack inevitably died. 

620LX, 360LX and Series 3 - at least the screens got bigger.

Upon its release, the 620LX was described as a laptop killer. Bigger and of more use than a PDA, smaller and more portable than any laptop at the time, it seemed to be the perfect middle ground. Yet, as time was to prove, it wasn’t. Practical use was hampered by the form factor (the keyboard too small for real touch typing, the screen too small for more than one person to view at a time) and the abomination that was Windows CE/Handheld PC – an operating system that never truly knew what it was supposed to be. Tech also improved with laptops and when you’re paying seven hundred quid for something, you want it to work well. Ultimately, business users (for that was who HP were aiming for with the 620LX) didn’t jump ship to the product and by the time the Jornada 720 was released in 2000, the writing was on the wall for the device format.

Pretty similar but the bigger keys do it for me.

That is not to say that some silly fools continue to try to get some use out of these devices and as I said above, it’s a handy machine and a good back up.

This will be the last of the retro tech pieces I’ll be doing for a while, the main reason being that I have pretty much bought the machines I wanted to and these cover pretty much everything I need (and there is no way I am paying that much for an Apple eMate 300!). You could say I am a fool for using this old tech but to be honest, it works for me. I am not a fan of touchscreen keyboards, adding a keyboard to a tablet is akin to adding a chocolate handle to a frying pan and modern day small keyboard devices are rather expensive. So with that, if you’ve missed any of my previous pieces, the links below will take you to them and below that, a picture of the collection:

SonyPEG-UX50

AsusEEE-PC 904HD (Catchy name, that)

AmstradNC100

OregonScientific Osiris

HandspringVisor

PsionSeries 3

Alphasmart3000
HP 360LX
Zodiac Tapwave

The Amstrad NC100 - portable perfection?

A new year has arrived and this being the first new post of the year, I thought I'd begin with a retro-tech post, forward looking and all that malarky. As some of you may have noticed, I have a bit of an interest in old tech. More specifically, the tech of the early 1980's to early noughties. This encompasses the period of first generation consumer computing tech hitting the market to the final generation before the homogeneity of today's smartphone culture, where two operating systems and an almost identical form factor have combined to remove almost any individuality from the market. Indeed, where there are modern day unique devices: The Astrohaus Freewrite/Traveller, the Gemini handheld and even the open-source Pandora-derived Pyro, these tend to be small scale production models with prices commensurate to their niche appeal.

In part, this interest stems from growing up looking at such devices and thinking they were the dog's danglies (and some actually were for their time). It's also in part in seeing how much technology has developed and whether or not the original device designers got it right at the time but no-one noticed. There is also the self imposed challenge of seeing if tech discarded as obsolete fifteen, twenty or even twenty five plus years ago can still cut it today. Obviously, I am not going to try and run Pocket Internet Explorer from a 1998 vintage Windows CE palmtop or lug around an Amstrad PPC-512 portable from 1988. That would just be silly. No, it's more a case of if the device and software can still be used today, can they be used in a genuinely productive manner.

As such, it's time to talk about the oldest piece of retro-tech (outside of games consoles) that I own: The Amstrad NC100. Launched for the princely sum of £199.95 in 1992 (that's about £406 in today's money), the NC100 is an A4-sized slab of plastic with a qwerty keyboard, mono-LCD screen and 64kb of RAM. Powered by the ubiquitous Zilog Z80 processor racing at 4Mhz, you could expand the memory via PCMCIA cards of up to 1Mb (wooooo!!!) capacity. Four AA batteries offered a twenty hour lifespan, you have an RS-232 serial port for PC connectivity and a parallel port for printers. Primary applications include a word processor, calculator, diary and organiser. It even has BASIC for any programming needs and a terminal emulator/XMODEM ability for file transfers - indeed, a reviewer at the time of launch typed her review on the machine and filed back to the office via a 300-baud modem link. Take that you youngsters with your high speed fibre :-). In short, this was a device I really wanted when I was a teenager and I finally have my hands on one now, including it's original packaging which has not handled the passage of time too well.

In not too bad a condition considering the age.

Back when packaging was practical and informative.

First things first, the look. It follows the design of the Cambridge Z88, another device that found heavy use in educational and journalistic circles due to its ease of use and portability. It's a slab of black plastic, yes, but livened up by brightly coloured function keys that allowed shortcut commands for the built-in software. Why? To make it easy to use. That was the design brief from Mr Sugar himself (to the point where he wrote the introduction to the manual - so the story goes). And by and large, they did it. True, a younger user would struggle (where's the screen to tap away on?), but within ten minutes of switching the NC100 on, I'd figured out pretty much every menu and that was just by trial and error.

Everything that came in the box.

Build quality is fairly good. There is a bit of creaking if you really try and bend it but otherwise, it's a solid machine. Less hollow sounding than the Alphasmart 3000 I am typing this one and, dare I say it, a bit more durable. The manual is very detailed and handy for perusal but I get the feeling that new owners of the machine were meant to switch it on and get on with it.

The main menu - simplistic and clean

Although basic, the screen does its job well

The screen is basic, very basic, with 80 characters per row and 8 rows visible on-screen. it's not going to win any beauty contests and the text is rather small, but it does the job, unless it's dark. No back-lighting here but that helps with the battery live immensely. The follow up NC200 offered a half-clam-shell design with a built-in 3.5 inch floppy drive and a bigger, back-lit screen. You also got a spreadsheet, database and some games. The downside here was the move to C-cell batteries and the inability for the device to access the floppy drive if the batteries were even slightly below a full charge.

Organiser applications.

Calculator.

What the NC100 does benefit from is the keyboard. It clacks reassuringly like a typewriter, it's not overly loud but the sound is pleasing and not overly plasticky like most modern keyboards. The keys have a good amount of travel and spring back with just the right amount of tension. Honestly, this is the best non-desktop keyboard I have ever experienced for its size. Sitting down and bashing out a couple of hundred words was effortless and rather enjoyable and the only fault I can mention with the design is the slightly iffy angle of the screen which made viewing it a little bit of a chore. Other than that, the NC100 is superbly designed.

This brings me to the major issue with using it today. Whatever I type on the machine is held in battery backed up RAM. Finding 1Mb or smaller PCMCIA cards has proved a tad difficult and where I have found one, the prices being asked are eye-watering. There is the option of a serial cable so that will probably be my preferred method of transfer, but that may take some playing about with terminal programs and the like. Sadly, the NC100 pre-dates plug and play (even the hated Windows 95 idea of P&P) and lacks the easy transfer option of the Alphasmart. If only there were a way of combining the keyboard of the NC100 with the slightly more modern tech of the Alphasmart...

In a way, it's a shame. the concept is sound, the tech is good enough and the implementation excellent for its time. Yet, because of its age, it's not easy to use today. However, there are workarounds and with a bit of care and effort, I can see the NC100 lasting a good few years yet. What would be really good is if instead of going down the big-business data collection route of Google with their Chromebooks, or the bloated and relatively poorly performing budget Windows laptops or even the tablet/keyboard hybrids that are neither fish nor fowl, someone put together a low cost typing device that follows the mould of the NC100/Alphasmart/Z88? Think about it, a decent low power screen (doesn't have to be colour - in fact it shouldn't be to preserve battery life), in an A4 format with an ARM chip, a couple of GB of storage and the ability to run off either removable lithium-ion batteries or AA's. Using a basic operating system with applications saving in modern file formats, I think there could be a market for this device. Less fragile and cheaper than laptops, a better typing experience than tablets, what's not to like?

It won't happen, not least when you have the likes of the Astrohaus Traveller which offers something similar but in a clamshell format and a price that's just scary ($238 when the Indiegogo campaign launched, $349 (£270-ish) now - though comparing to the inflation adjusted price of the NC100, that's not too bad). It also doesn't help that if such a mythical machine were available, it would need to retail for $150 or less, and that would have to make it a relatively high volume, low margin product and I don't think the volume would be there, not compared to Chromebooks and tablets. Of course, it would be a niche product and by its very nature, lack the "perceived" value competitors offer.
As for me, I'll keep using  the Alphasmart and, when I have the cabling, the NC100. They are specifically focused machines with cracking battery lives and decent (in the case of the NC100, brilliant) keyboards. For simple text entry, nothing comes close. Sometimes, it's true, they just don't make them like they used to.

Interest or Hobby?

Part of the joys of work is that you interact with people of different ages and this can lead to some interesting conversations. I got talking to a gentleman who is a few years younger than myself who has an interest in videogames. Aha, I thought, this could be enlightening. It was, but not necessarily in a good way. You see, whilst he has fifteen years of console and PC gaming to his name, he has very little awareness of the history of his chosen hobby and, more importantly, no interest at all in expanding his knowledge. His is a transitory hobby, whatever new thing is in front of him is either great or shit. There are no levels in between these two extremes, just a binary yay or nay. So me being me, I raised this question: "Is this a hobby or an interest that you have?"

Now we each have our own approach to our hobbies. Indeed, how we approach a hobby defines that hobby's appeal to us (so the history and design of console hardware is of particular interest to me as an off-shoot to actually gaming itself). In the case of this younger gentleman, his was almost proud announcement that he knew nothing of gaming before he started playing back in the early 2000's and had no interest in what had happened before then, even to the point of not playing games that were released on his first console before he started gaming. I wasn't particularly surprised but it was quite saddening to hear.

The gentleman's first console was the Sony Playstation 2. A fine piece of hardware that hosted some of the best games of its generation, but my colleague expressed a narrow minded view that other console hardware released around that time (the sublime Sega Dreamcast, Nintendo's under-appreciated GameCube and the ground breaking original Microsoft X-Box) didn't matter because the PS2 won the sales war and as the other three lost, they didn't matter. As he wanted the best (in popularity at least), all other alternatives were discarded. Once the PS2 was replaced by the PS3, the older hardware was discarded and the games collection sold on. They were now old and of no further use. The latest was now, in his mind, the greatest.

A classic of its time.

Horses for courses I suppose, but then I have always been a collector (or hoarder as my better half would have it). Since the last house move, I have sold on most of my collection due to space issues but I did keep a few titles that have never been replicated since their original release. For example, Sky Odyssey for the PS2. The aim of the game is to pilot your aircraft successfully from A to B, encountering various obstacles and challenges along the way. There is no shooting, no whizz bang explosions, just pure flying. This title was in some way a slightly more realistic spiritual successor to the "Pilotwings" series that had releases on the Nintendo SNES (1990), the Nintendo 64 (1996) consoles. That such titles are few and far between demonstrates their sheer niche appeal and since then, only the lightweight Pilotwings Resort, released for the Nintendo 3DS (2011) has offered anything similar in the flying genre. I know Pilotwings Resort is lightweight by the fact that I have played both of its predecessors. Sky Odyssey, by the way, is still a great experience today and well worth a try if you can pick up a copy and have the hardware to play it on.

But what really made me think was how shallow my young colleagues approach to his hobby was. I struggled to bring together the two ideas of loving a hobby but having no knowledge or interest in anything outside of your own sphere of experience. In fact, he wouldn't countenance any move to expand that knowledge - it's old and therefore it's shit. That attitude, it must be said, is not just limited to videogames. Wargaming also has a similar issue.

Now, to be fair, I am not going to be tarring everybody with this brush, but lack of knowledge seems to be a badge of pride, and not just for the younger generation. Without a depth of knowledge in your hobby, how do you put what is current market offering into perspective? How can you judge any perceived improvements when you have no background on the subject you are purported to enjoy? That was evident when, at a show a couple of years back, one guy wanted fighting camels for his forces. When told they weren't used for that during the period he was fighting, he replied "It doesn't matter, you can still put them on the table." Historical wargaming indeed!

Back to my colleague. As gaming to him doesn't exist prior to 2002, he has never, and proudly claims will never, play classics like Command and Conquer, any LucasArts point and click adventure, Super Mario 64, Goldeneye, Resident Evil, Half Life and countless other titles because they don't matter. Yet without those titles, we wouldn't have the games we have today. True, time has not been kind to most of these, but some have aged well and to miss out on those today, if you are a gamer, is a crying shame.

From a wargaming perspective, I'll use Team Yankee. I like them for what they are (and the chance to tinker with them at will adds some of the depth that a hobby needs), but subjectively, how different is the core mechanism from Operation Warboard? Or Featherstone's rules? Not much, but because TY has shiny hard-backed rule sets with lots of pictures, they are perceived by quite a few gamers as better - and that is a conversation I had at the Durham show this year where I ran a demo game. It also revealed that most of the people who asked questions about my amendments (which were based on my reading of texts both modern and contemporaneous) had taken what was offered in the rule sets as sufficient knowledge of the period - further reading was something that seemed like an anathema to them. Woe betide anyone (i.e. me) to use actual knowledge to dis-abuse them of their ignorance. Hey ho.

Take your pick...

Personally, I don't follow the "newer is better" mindset - after all, I am typing this on an 18-year old Alphasmart 3000. Yes, there are new niche text entry products (looking at you, Astrohaus) but I'm not willing to spend a few hundred quid on something when a more convenient (and cheaper) option exists. The same can be said for wargames rules - our recent attempts at playing Charge (I picked up a re-print at Salute this year for my own perusal after the first kicking I received) and other older rule sets have been interesting. They don't have lots of pictures or specialised kit, but they do the job and (this is important) they follow the historical period they model. Certainly compared to some more modern rules (Black Powder, Pikeman's Lament and others), the older set's adherence to history is refreshing, possibly demonstrating how far the modern wargaming market has lost its way from historical knowledge and focuses on rolling lots and lots of dice.

It does make me wonder if we are moving to a point where the history and context of any particular hobby no longer matters to the individuals partaking in that hobby. Whilst people may demonstrate a breadth of knowledge, there is so little depth that the individual misses out on the richness that makes a hobby enjoyable. Without that depth, could the hobby be classed as such at all? Is it not just then a passing interest? Also, without context, how do you judge whether the latest rule set/game/whatever is an improvement on what came before or just a money making enterprise by the creator and will it enrich your enjoyment of your hobby? As far as hobbies go, surely this is a bad thing? 

Old Tech = Useless Tech???

During my recent post about computers I wanted to own when I was younger, I spent a modicum of time on e-Bay, searching for those bits of old kit and seeing how much they were going for. As well as being a bit of an eye opener, it also dropped a couple of old pieces of tech that, whilst they fell out of the purview of that post, were interesting when they were released and might still have a use today. Since the prices weren't silly, I ended up buying two pieces of portable tech that I think still have a use. Today, I'm stalking about the AlphaSmart 3000.

The AlphaSmart 3000 was part of a range of battery powered word processors released by NEO Direct Inc. and the range was on sale from 1993 (the original AlphaSmart) until 2013 when the Neo model was discontinued. There were several models throughout the years but the one I bought appeared around the middle of the lines existence in 2000 and was discontinued in 2006.

Includes carry case, quick start sheet and manual

The 3000 I bought is in good condition and cost £40. I have seen them for a tad less but the condition, case and accessories made the price quite decent anyway.

Remember the Bondi Blue iMac? This was inspired by that due to the inclusion of USB connectivity.

The monochrome display shows four lines of text, the memory holds eight files of approximately 12.5 pages of text and connectivity is either by a USB port or 8-pin serial.

USB to the left, Serial to the right...

Power is provided by three AA batteries which have a life of around 700 hours(!). As a practical guide, I have had the AlphaSmart for two months and the first set of cells are still going strong. Whilst it would be nice to have a backlit display, I can certainly understand why one isn't present and with the use intended, it isn't needed. This also helps battery life.

The screen is very clear, but not backlit.

As designed, the AlphaSmart was meant for children in a classroom environment. The light, compact design and plastic case make it easily portable and quite durable. The keyboard is a tad on  the small side for an adult but still very useable, indeed, most of this was typed on the 3000 and transferred over to a Chromebook for posting and images. The keys are a bit clacky and lightweight but they do have a decent amount of travel and I have used far worse in my time.

Operation is simple, the functions keys are pretty straight forward and there is even a cheat sheet of key commands on the back of the device.

Handy help guide on the base of the device

Whilst earlier models used infra-red to transfer files, and later devices had memory card slots, it was either USB or serial port for this one and as a cable wasn't included with mine, I did wonder how I would transfer text over. I needn't have worried. You see, the USB port is of the kind found on most printers so that solved the cable issues. As for compatibility issues, not a bother. Once plugged into my desktop, the 3000 detected the connection and asked me if I wanted to send a file over (file 1 by default but you can change that with a couple of key presses). I opened Google Docs in a browser window and hit the Send key on the 3000. Within a few seconds, the test had appeared line by line in the document. It was that easy. Talk about user friendly. Incidentally, once connected, the AlphaSmart goes into keyboard mode and you can use it as a regular keyboard. Just watch out for the swap between " and @. That caught me out the first time.

So what do I use it for? Well, it's a text entry device, so typing on the go. The 3000 has been to Amsterdam twice and proved a boon each time. Okay, it's not as compact as a laptop and it's a one purpose device, but what more do I need? The battery life is not an issue, the storage is more than enough and the keyboard is far more comfortable to use than my Chromebook. It does for me very nicely.

That it's not sold today is a reflection of changes to the market. Ever since cheap (under £200) laptops became available, educational buyers have flocked to the more versatile option. That this plays to the big businesses like Google and Microsoft misses the point of having such devices. If all you want is text entry for classroom and homework use, then additional features just get in the way, but since the big corporations want you to use more of their features, of course they are going to up-sell. 

Is there still a market for text entry devices like this in the age of cheap Windows/Chromebook laptops? Well, kinda. You see, if you want a no frills portable electronic typewriter, you are limited to the second hand AlphaSmart market or the Astrohaus Freewrite. This started as a crowd funded electronic typewriter called the Hemmingwrite, based on the practice Hemmingway used to write on the fly and not edit. The Freewrite is a far bigger device but with a proper Cherry-switched keyboard and an e-ink display. The battery life is far shorter and whilst you can connect via USB, they promote cloud services to send the files you create to your service of choice. It only holds three files but storage is much larger than the 3000. To be honest, it looks okay, the major problem being the price: £383 as of the last time I checked. That is a serious wodge of cash and for a one task only device, that is not justifiable to me. Yes, it gives you distraction free writing that a traditional laptop doesn't but at a price. Plus, its portability is suspect. 

For me, and maybe others, since the AlphaSmarts on e-Bay always sell, these devices are certainly useful today and prove that just because the tech is old doesn't mean to say it no longer has a use. Yeah, it's a niche use, but compared to the Chromebook I have used for the last four years, the 3000 is much better at text entry and will continue to be used for as long as it lasts. After that, maybe another trip to e-Bay.