Philadelphia Area HP Handheld Club Meeting
Tuesday, March 30, 1993 - Drexel University
Educalc Catalog #59
A new catalog (#59) has been released from EduCalc and it contains some new and interesting products for both the HP48SX and HP95LX. The one that many HP48 users had been waiting for is "Goodies" Disk #8, with over 240 new files of useful material and shareware and public domain programs. (I have a copy of Goodies Disk #8 and am making copies available at our meetings.) A new book called "An Easy Guide to the HP48" by Thomas Adams looks like a good starter for those just getting on board. Also, the disk-based HP16C Emulator library for the HP48 appears in the catalog for the first time. This is the project that Rick Grevelle and I have worked on over the past two years.
HP95LX Products
On the HP95 front, there are also a handful of new entries. ACE Technologies has introduced "DoubleFlash" flash memory plug-in cards, with sizes up to a whopping 20 megabytes. Several versions of Sparcom's "SmartDock" docking station(formerly called "Station 95") are now for sale, one with a standard serial port for connecting to a PC, one which adds Centronics parallel I/O for printers and still another which includes a send-only fax and modem. There are still rumors of another version with a built-in hard disk drive to be announced in the future. A company called Dataviz now sells a connectivity product to connect the HP95 to the Macintosh. In addition, some new HP95 software products appear for the first time: The Golfer's Edge - a golfer's on-the-course companion; Antibiotica PC - an infectious disease analytical software package; QC-Link/HP a quality control package; and Maclean Mailer - an automated MCI Mailer for the HP95 to name a few.
HP Announces Kittyhawk II
The much-touted 1.3-inch, 1-ounce, 21-megabyte hard disk drive from HP, dubbed Kittyhawk has just gotten a "bit brother" in the Kittyhawk II. It doubles the memory capacity without changing the size or weight. With over 40 meg of space plus the capacity to handle up to twice that using over-the-counter disk compression software, this version will probably handle some serious applications in the palmtop and handheld world. Supposedly, HP has a couple of dozen manufacturers signed up to incorporate the drives into their products. For us oldtimers who still have a calculator perspective,we can ponder all the uses of cramming 42 meg into a space the size of the HP41 card reader! Check out the articles later in this handout.
The London Group Recovers
I recently received a new double-issue of the Handheld and Portable Computer Club's Datafile Newsletter, dated November-December 1992. This 60-plus page issue is full of programs and articles for several present and previous HP calculator models. This issue is the first that the HPCC group has released since the untimely death of their editor (and long-time member and enthusiast) Mark Cracknell. Another member has taken over the thankless job of newsletter production and it looks like they're back in the swing of things. There are nothing but fond memories of the trip to London last September to attend HPCC's Tenth Anniversary conference and we look forward to the conference that the Dutch group, PROMPT, is planning for 1994.
A Visit From an HP95 Developer
I recently received a call from Lew Thomas, longtime HP user and hardware developer. He has recently moved to the east coast and expressed interest in visiting our group on a Saturday afternoon to demonstrate his new HP95 products.Two of his recent developments have been an HP-IL interface device and also a "port doubler" for the HP95. A new project on Lew's drawing board is an adapter to allow PCMCIA version 2.0, type III devices to plug into the HP95 in place of the current version 1.0 cards. This would allow card-sized devices up to 10.5 millimeters thick to be attached. An example of a recently announced PCMCIA 2.0/type III device is maxtor's 1.8-inch, 105-meg hard drive in a plug-in card. AS soon as Lew's plans are firm, I shall make them known.
Summer CES / Chicago meeting Approaches
Before too long, it will be getting close to the upcoming Summer Consumer Electronics Show time at McCormick Place in Chicago on June 3rd through the 6th.The Chicago CHIP HP group has already planned their annual special users meeting for Friday evening June 4th, with Paul and Brenda Hubbert's annual CHIP picnic on the following Sunday. Perhaps there will be some new HP toys worth seeing by then.
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