More Student Computers
I just learned about a new product coming to the market that should be interesting to try out. It’s called the Nova 5000, and it’s a Windows CE device designed specifically for education.
It has a 7.5 inch screen, weighs 1.8 pounds, and variety of other necessary items such as USB 2.0 ports, Compact Flash ports, and others. It’s supposed to come in at a price point in the $500 range.
It looks like sort of a Super PDA. I like the idea of a stripped-down machine that can be used for a lot of core applications, such as word processing and web browsing. The downfall for PDAs has always been that despite being simplified devices, the syncing and other operational chores made them almost as costly to maintain as a full computer. From my perspective, quick and easy syncing will be one of the three make-or-break issues for these little devices.
The other two will be battery life and network connectivity. If they can last most of one day on a charge, and can surf the web with appropriate responsiveness (and the CE version of Internet Explorer is robust enough to handle Flash and other important plug-ins), then it could be a real winner. If it misses on any one of those, it could just be the reincarnation of the NTS Dreamwriter, which should have been a winner, too!
