Content area
Full Text
Or is it, perhaps, the perfect PDA for the Jolly Green Giant? By Russell Kay
I'VE SEEN PEN-BASED tablet computers before, but the Qbe Cirrus from Irvine, Calif.-based Aqcess Technologies Inc. [Technology, Nov 29] is the first one that really intrigued me as a computer. The Cirrus is the biggest tablet computer yet - as big and heavy as a laptop - but it's still designed to be carried in one arm and used with input from a cord-attached stylus, voice recognition technology and a built-in digital camera
This is no limited-functionality personal digital assistant (PDA) like the Windows CE-based handheld computers typified by NEC Corp: s MobilePro 800 and 780. No, the Cirrus is a full Windows 98 PC with a 400-MHz Pentium II processor, 128MB of RAM, a 12GB hard drive, a built-in CD-ROM drive and a 13.3-in. active-matrix touch screen. Thus it can do nearly everything your laptop can do and some things it can't do as easily
Ideas vs. Implementation
To simplify using it on a desktop, the system comes with a small-footprint keyboard, a mouse and a kind of easel, called a porticle, that includes ports for all the usual serial, parallel, Universal Serial Bus, external monitor and other connections. There are also Ethernet, 56K bit/sec. modem, IEEE 1394 and S-video ports on both the Cirrus and the porticle. The suggested price is $4,745.
Last fall, I gave the...