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Hewlett-Packard announces Jornada 680

HP released its latest Windows CE handheld, a pocketable, color-screen H/PC called the Jornada 680 Handheld PC. The 680 is about the size of the earlier 360LX, but comes with a 256-color 1/2 VGA touchscreen and a 76% full-size keyboard. The keys are not the usual calculator buttons found on the smaller HP Palmtop PCs, but look and feel like desktop PC keys.

The Jornada 680 sports a 133 MHz Hitachi CPU, 16 MB of RAM (upgradeable to 32MB), 16MB of upgradeable ROM, a 640x240 color touchscreen, a built-in 56kbps modem, serial port, fast IrDA port, PC Card Type II slot and CompactFlash Type I slot. It has a built-in speaker and microphone and is powered by a rechargeable Lithium-Ion battery that gives the user up to 8 hours of use between charges.

The Jornada 680 is in the H/PC Pro class and comes with the Windows CE 2.1 operating system, and H/PC Pro Pocket applications. To the basic Windows CE software, HP has added HP Jornada viewer, dialup, settings, backup, hot keys, quick pad, and macros. The Jornada 680 also comes with bSQUARE's bFIND and bFAX Pro built in. The 680 also comes with a number of excellent programs on CD ROM.

The Jornada 680 may be the best compromise we've seen, between a small, color-screen H/PC you can carry in your pocket and a touch-typeable keyboard. We'll review the Jornada 680 in the next issue. It will retail for around $899. For more information, contact your local HP dealer or visit HP's Jornada Web site at www.hp.com/jornada/index.html. 

Trogon Paume color-screen Palm-size PC

Trogon Computer Corporation has announced that it will market a new 256-color-screen Palm-size PC powered by a Lithium-Ion rechargeable battery. The Paume comes with a CompactFlash backup and restore utility and ART handwriting recognition software. For further information, visit Trogon's Web site at http://palmpower.trogoncomputer.com 

Phillips Nino 500 color-screen Palm-size PC

Shortly before we went to press, Philips Electronics announced the introduction of its new Nino 500, based on the second generation Microsoft Windows CE operating system for the Palm-size PC. According to Phillips, the Nino 500 has a bright, transmissive, backlit color touchscreen display that supports 256 colors (320 x 240 pixels). It comes with a 32-bit high performance MIPS-based RISC processor, 16MB of memory, and additional software including downloadable audio support.

The Nino 500 will retail for about $499. For more information, contact your Philips Nino dealer or visit the Nino Web site at http://nino.philips.com/.