A cheap little cellular WiFi handheld, Zipit does instant messaging in similarly single-minded fashion to how the Peek does e-mail. Unlike the Peek, however, the Zipit now has a real Linux distribution that turns it into a cute, ingenious, and nearly-useless laptop. From Lilliputing:
You might be interested in running Linux, installing DOSbox, or maybe an NES emulator. The Zipit has a 300MHz XScale processor, 32MB of RAM, and a Mini-SD card slot for stroage. It has a 2.8 inch QVGA display and a 1000mAh Li-Ion battery. It connects to 802.11b/g WiFi networks. And if you follow a series of steps from hacker Hunter Davis, you can install a working Linux operating system with the Fluxbox window manager.
“The speakers are remarkably underpowered,” says Hunter Davis, creator of this neat how-to video.
Right you are! I mistook the optional SMS subscription to mean it had a Peek-style cellular connection.
I find this surprisingly awesome. Instead of lugging around my super heavy (1kg) netbook, I can use this to twitter and IM from the café.
Now, if only there was a touch screen model…
That’s awesome. Interesting applications for developing places, too- one handheld per child? pretty awesome, cheap communication tool.
We’ve been using ZipIt’s for school applications for 4 years now (www.learningsoft.net). They’re nearly perfect handhelds for K-12.
Cooool! always liked the peek idea, but never wanted to deal with or budget for another service and just wifi is free all over the place in cities.
Nit-picky, but apparently this thing is Wi-Fi only, not cellular?