Audrey

Picked this up after seeing a post on Slashdot - 3com was selling out their left-over inventory for $50, plus $15 for a USB Ethernet adaptor! Pretty cool in and of itself, some folks figured out how to load QNX applications using compact flash cards, turning an "email appliance" into a full-fledged unix-like computer. Nice.

This is what I intend to use as the primary front end for this website. Sit on the couch, find anything in the house, or more importantly find out what's on TV, look up a reference in the library, change the MP3 that's playing, etc. It's also going to be useful for looking up Movie Showtimes when I don't have my palm handy.

So far I've installed a VNC client so I can control my desktop computer (or the server desktop), shell access, and a keyboard application. The IR keyboard works, but it's kinda small, and I'd rather be able to tap around the screen like it was a giant Palm anyway.

Here's the rough spec: 640x480 touch sensitive color screen running a modified version of QNX 6.0. It's got a built in web-browser, an email client, an addressbook, and a calendar. Pretty straight forward device. The "antennae" at the top is actually the stylus - it's lucite, and lights up when you've got mail. The knob on the front used to let you "change channels" before 3com shut down the service; the channels were just special web pages for Audrey users. snore.