What is the T100X?

How old is the T100X?
I think the answer lies in this old excerpt from an old Toshiba web page. This page no longer exists; I pulled this PR excerpt from the Infoseek search engine.

"Urgent--do not release before 8 a.m. on Monday, Nov. 2, 1992! FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact:Howard Emerson Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc. 714/583-3925 Bob Maples Hill and Knowlton, Inc. 714/752-1106 TOSHIBA ANNOUNCES THE DYNAPADTM T100X PEN ..."

This implies my machine was probably manufactued around early 1993. Out of curiousity, I called the phone numbers shown above. Both phone numbers belong to Hill and Knowlton which is a public relationship company that handles the Toshiba Senior Classic. I assume that's a golf tournament, not a computer for senior citizens. The operator told me that they no longer support consumer electronic press releases.

Any ex-Toshiba engineers out there familiar with the T100X?
One old news release about the T100X mentions Keith Comer. He is (was?) a Senior Product Designer at Toshiba America who wrote some documents related to issues concerning pen computers. Supposedly it was compiled and edited in June, 1994.

Does the T100X suck?
I admit the T100X is not a perfect machine. Read the the excerpt posted in comp.sys.pen replying to a post:

"Re: Toshiba pen-based--do they suck?"
Additional unsavory aspects of this device include: No FDD, virtually no way to upgrade memory beyond 4mb (although I read a couple months ago that Toshiba was liquidating their stock of T100X memory cards), if you want to use a real mouse, you'll tie up your only serial port. The HDD is unspeakably slow, and small (40mb). As for using it as a notebook, you'll need to device your own way to prop the unit so it sits vertically. It was an exercise in futility trying to hold it in your lap and type. The HWR just plain SUCKS. Graffiti is so superior. If you don't plan on using it with a keyboard, don't expect to enter data in any timely or accurate fashion.

If you're going to want to use a PCMCIA modem, be prepared for a peculiar configuration experience. Good luck figuring it out w/o help! (The pen digitizer assumes COM 2. If I recall, you have to set COM2 IRQ to something unused.)

Jay

(Yeah, I bought one about a year and a half ago. Took about a $75 loss when I dumped it, too.)

Here's my rebuttal:

• It's a hobby PC. If you want a productivity machine, consider a high end Newton, PDA, or something which runs Windows CE. These gadgets are pretty expensive.
• The lack of a floppy disk drive sucks but most machines at this price and size don't have one. You can share a floppy from another PC with a ten dollar lap link cable.
• I upgraded my memory to 10mb for about $40.
• Why use a mouse when you have a pointing device?
• HDD is slow, but hey, this is 1992-3 technology and a $200 386-machine
• I bought a book holder for $5.00 which hold my computer upright when I am using an external keyboard.
• It's nice to lay it flat, like a piece a paper, instead of having it upright once in a while.
• Re: handwriting recognition. Yeah, it sucks. I tend to use the virtual keyboard (10%) and a real keyboard (90%)
• Modem config was tough, but I have the settings available at my page. Easy to change to COM port settings
• Like most computers, over time they depreciate in price. I bought mine for $175. ONSALE is still selling them for around $200.
• The worst feature, which was not mentioned, is the short battery life. (See, I'm not biased)