[johnfowles]

I subscribe to a daily newsletter from tech republic.
Occasionally amongst all the uninteresting stuff it contains news of great interest to me
This morning on the onbnoxious talk talk talk New York radio station 1010WINS my ears had pricked up (what else could they
do??) at a report that HP had released a nine inch mini notebook
Those of you who have been absorbing my utterings in this blog will be aware (and I know ShaRron the MN Mouse is because I gave her a demo back in November 1999 at the Delta Chelsea) that I am ultra keen on an early HP "PC Companion" the Jornada 820.see my web page at:-
http://www.johnfowles.org.uk/jornada/

fortunately todays TR newsletter had as its subject linre
"TechRepublic] HP launches full-powered $500 mini-notebook aimed at business travelers"
and its main article had a link to:-
http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/hi...52&tag=nl.e019

which confirmed
"Hewlett-Packard, the world’s third largest seller of notebook PCs, jumped into the ultra-portable, ultra-mobile computer market today by launching its HP 2133 Mini-Note (below). The 2.6-pound notebook will go on sale on April 15 and is aimed at two specific markets: business travelers and schools"


The specs for the HP 2133 are:
8.9 inch screen with 1280 x 768 resolution
1.6 GHz VIA C7-M processor
512 MB RAM (upgradeable to 2 GB)
120 GB hard drive (160 GB optional)
Full QWERTY keyboard (just 8% smaller than standard keyboard)
Integrated 802.11a/b/g Wi-Fi
Integrated Ethernet port
Two USB slots
ExpressCard slot
SD/SDHC card slot
VIA Chrome 9 graphics chip
Built-in stereo speakers
Bluetooth (optional)
Webcam (optional)
4 GB solid state drive (optional with Linux only)
Extended six-cell battery (optional)
I left the following comment on the page

I am actually quite amazed that it has taken HP nearly 10 years to resuscitate the concept of a smaller notebook
They had introduced the wonderful first HP Jornada "PC Companion" the fantastic Jornada 820 back in 1998 but dropped it after their merger with Compaq meant that they decided to concentrate on the Ipaq and its miniscule button keys
The 820 form factor produced a similarly compact device with a useable qwerty keyboard 90% the size of a normal notebook's
I delighted with this news but at the same time have to say that is surprising that it has taken HP so long to return (more or less) to the formula they pioneered about 10 years ago with the first Jornada.That machine's spec and form factor was in many ways similar to the new model with a slightly smaller screen plus a man sized keyboard.Compared to this new announcement the 820 form factor produced a similarly compact device with a useable qwerty keyboard 90% the size of a normal notebook's.
its main drawback remains the lack of programs for its ARM processor plus Windows CE, whose development veered away to other mobile versions.
Used examples on ebay are however a real bargain
I started a web page at http://www.johnfowles.org.uk/jornada/