Quote:
Originally Posted by zdevil
The thing is, at the price of an iLiad, one has a wide range of choices of inexpensive laptops, an UMPC (such as the Kohjinsha, and the upcoming Asus Eee PC), and a high-end PDA plus a bunch of accessories. And also iLiad does not have a keyboard/thumbboard, which is a standard feature of current PDAs/smartphones. I don't just feel like checking emails on the road, but also feel the need to write something on the spot. Tapping on a virtual keyboard or using handwriting recognition is no big fun at all. (And that's why iPhone doesn't appeal to me that much, despite the Apple fad.)
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I agree with you on pda functionality. I think for a e-ink device to suceed it will have to have a lot more functionality or come way down in price. E-books should have real advantages over print to make them a more attractive alternative. Ability to look up word definitions just by tapping on the word, ability to search are two I'd like to see. And why shouldn't it have PDA functionality? Its already running linux. Is a calculator and notepad app too much to ask? Throw in Sudoku and theyd be flying off shelves.
As for the iPhone I'm using it now to type this reply. It's not as fast as a regular keyboard but I'm already much faster than I ever was on any of my three Palms. I love the way it guesses the correct word after only a couple letters- A real timesaver once you get used to it.