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.
Nit-picky, but apparently this thing is Wi-Fi only, not cellular?
Right you are! I mistook the optional SMS subscription to mean it had a Peek-style cellular connection.
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.
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.