DOS Palmtop: Sharper Image Palmtop PC Details and specs
Sharper Image Palmtop PC
About this machine:
Finally a Tidalwave clone that is not from Germany. Sharper Image was kinda weird US company, founded in 1977 by
Richard Thalheimer. He originally sold cheap jogging watches through magazine ads and quickly made his first million.
He soon started to form "The Sharper Image" into a mainly catalog based distributor for "consumer products", mainly
cheap household items as you see them on TV shopping chanels. With the help of the "Ionic breeze" air ionizer and
various other weird products that malicious people might label as "Snake oil" or "crap from china" the company made an
impressive 760 Million USD revenue in 2003. But like all companies that distributed Tidalwave clones "The Sharper Image"
just had to be struck by that mysterious curse that got all those companies to either go bankrupt or being sold.
Interestingly Thalheimer was booted as a CEO from Sharper Image in 2006 as greedy stockholders believed the stock
value could be increased much more without him and his old fashioned ideas. Not even 18 month later Sharper Image had to file
for bankrupcy. Otherwise the palmtop is a quite generic branded Tidalwave clone with english keyboard and software.
Specs:
CPU: NEC V30 @ 7.15 MHz
Graphics: Monochrome CGA, 80 x 25 character text mode, CGA 2 color monochrome graphics mode
Display: 640 x 200 monochrome Supertwist LCD , 4 grey scales, 7.2 inch
Memory (RAM): 1 MB
ROM (Software): 1.5 MB
I/O ports: RS232 Serial (proprietary cable was included accessory), PCMCIA 1.0 Type I slot, Parallel port (proprietary cable included)
Sound: PC Speaker - Piezo
Operating System: MS-DOS 5.0
Software: MS Works 2.0, RacePen PIM (File manager, scheduler, phone book, etc), Microsoft QBasic
Size: Length 11.5 cm, Width 24.5 cm, Height 2.5 cm (4.5 inches x 9.7 inches x 1 inch)
Powered by: 2 AA batteries - rechargable or non-rechargable or AC adaptor (optional accessory), CR2032 Lithium button cell as memory backup
Weight: 590 gram (21 ounces) including 2 standard AA and CR2032 batteries
Special features: None
Released: 1992
Originally retailed for:: Unknown (Probably around 600 USD)
Clone of: Tidalwave PS-1000
Similar models: Tidalwave PS-1000, Highscreen Handy Organizer and all other clones
Pros:
- Fully CGA compliant, so most CGA based DOS appz and games work
- Excellent keyboard
Cons:
- No support for flash cards
- Not really the smallest Palmtop ever
- Power management is rather average
- No way to boot a different OS and no way to bypass loading the drivers for cards and keyboard
Collector Value:
8 of 10
Usage Value:
7 of 10
Verdict:
One of the rare american Tidalwave clones. Otherwise pretty much like the German ones besides the english keyboard
and software.
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