Clio NXT unleashed on Duke University... kind of

It's been almost a year since the Clio NXT was supposed to ship -- so long ago in fact, that we sense the dull fog of disinterest descending upon you. See, the Clio NXT was (is?) the successor to the cult 1998-released WinCE laptop/tablet which is said to feature Windows CE.NET 5.0 (yes, CE), a 10.4-inch, 800 x 600 touchscreen LCD with 180-degree pivot, WiFi, 64MB SDRAM and 64MB Flash memory, a near full-size QWERTY keyboard, and a smattering of connectivity and expansion options including SD card slots, PCMCIA, USB, a headphone jack, mic, and video out. Well, out of the blue this morning we received a press release stating that Duke University's Fuqua School of Business will serve as "beta site" for the NXT and Data Evolution's other CE computing device, the Cathena ultra-light laptop. That's it -- no price (although we last heard $999 for the NXT), no expected start date for this beta program, let alone a revised ship date... nothin'. In a market now flooded with reasonably priced tablets, UMPCs, and dirt cheap laptops, we're feeling, well, a bit jaded ourselves.

[nullsmack @ Apr 14th 2006 9:55AM]

I hope they don't expect to sell many at that price. This is the age of the $500 x86 laptop.. it might not be a desktop replacement laptop, but it's still better than a silly embedded/pda system at a laptop form-factor. These things would sell better at around $300, then at least you could consider the battery life a competitive advantage.

$999? This isn't 1999...

[Nick @ Apr 14th 2006 9:59AM]

Ah, my Sharp Tripad.....I knew you well (at least in the space of the 90 minutes I got on the battery life).

[grammar nazi @ Apr 14th 2006 10:30AM]

UNinterest. Disinterest is something quite different...

[Stellar Developer @ Apr 14th 2006 10:45AM]

i really like to see a fully capable umpc in that form factor

[macstibs @ Apr 14th 2006 11:43AM]

Kind of like a non-story...

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

[rex howell @ Apr 14th 2006 1:34PM]

its a Sharp TriPad that came out 10 years ago ... I mean its the same exact shell! I did like my tripad ... but it was $999 10 years ago, i wouldnt touch it now unless it was under $650

[Cortland @ Nov 19th 2007 12:13PM]

$33 at the Fort Wayne Ham Fest this weekend.

Ah Johnny, we hardly knew ye!

Anyone got a manual?

FWIW... the TRS-80 Model 100 I bought new in 1984 for $840 I bought at a hamfest five years ago for $20.

[Greg Overland @ Apr 14th 2006 2:39PM]

The Vadem Clio C-1000 which was also marketed under the Sharp Mobilon TriPad name was a very cool system for the time when they came out. Yes they were $999 and sported a 9.4 inch 680 x 480 display, I still have one of the originals. The handwriting software was and probably still is one of the best on the market. The battery life was 10 hours! This thing caused heads to true when you brought it into a meeting. Instant on and off as everything was memory based, this thing rocks.

The Clio went to Mainstreet Networks and then came the C-1050, which I also own and still a grand to purchase. Down to 8 hours battery life, but more than enough for a plane ride. Then Pinax Group picked up from Mainstreet Networks. Update to CE was always promised and never came.

Finally they decide to do something with it. Same case, just a larger screen and updated software. Might to late with all the other UMPC coming out, but I'm sure this will find a niche market. I'd love to test it out.

[jr @ Apr 14th 2006 2:43PM]

Another vadem clio fan here, and I think it will find its place amongst those of us who loved the original.

Long batter life, instant on, great keyboard, small form factor... It's the device I measure all others against. My laptop's too heavy, to slow to turn on regularly for quick things. PDA's too small to read, too small for internet. Ebook device screens too small (although the e-ink devices look great) And the battery life...

I still think about picking up an old one off ebay. $1k is too steep though, $3-400 would be about right.

[Type-E @ Apr 14th 2006 5:28PM]

#4. Agreed. Windows CE is just not good enough. This can be perfect if it's a 1.1Ghz PentiumM

[Dale Jones @ Apr 14th 2006 6:28PM]

I'm the guy who released the story to this web-site.

Clio is not a ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ story at all.

The problem WITH current XP tablets is that, well, they are XP Tablets.

Windows CE is better in many ways!

Do any of you have an XP Tablet? I do.

Clio beats it in every way except for the optical drive.

Did you know that in most programs on an XP tablet you have to write on the very bottom of the screen for the
handwriting recognition? With a table/convertable
(as mine is) this makes handwriting recognition insanely hard in laptop mode!

Instant on, very little (if any) virus worry, all day battery life, only losing a copy of your info if the Clio is lost, excellent portability at prices waaaaaay under VERY portable XP tablets. (Other than pocket pcs their are no cheap tablets in the $300.00 dollar range.) Who came up with that price on this forum? Plus, Clio has no moveable parts! While
it is not a toughbook, it's alot tougher than an XP
notebook or tablet. You don't have to worry about
it near as much.

Anyone who has had a Clio (not the cheap sharp tri-pad version either) knows what I'm talking about here.

It was the PERFECT portable HPC, and now it's being updated to CE.Net 5.0 and getting a bigger, better screen, SD slots, and USB slots.

If it's so lousy (as alot of you seem to think) why is Dell still lined up to be a reseller when the product
is a year and a half late coming out? (This according to Robert Sowah, CEO of Data Evolution)

I'll tell you why. Clio was ahead of it's time by years before. This time it's coming out at excactly
the right time!

If you want to plug in a 80 gig hard drive, just do it in a USB slot! Want to view pictures, slip your SD
card in. Want wifi - you've got it, want to do real
work (on a decent size screen), you can.

I'm telling you this Clio NXT is going to be the cat's
meow. Why, there are simple web-tablets coming out
now for more than Clio NXT's price!!

At this moment, my XP tablet refuses to give me automatic updates. (I've tried everything microsoft
says to do with no effect.) I don't have time to waste three days on this junk. Just give me my Clio
NXT, a simple, intelligent answer to portable computing!

[Dale Jones @ Apr 14th 2006 6:35PM]

I tried to add comments and it did not work.

[Greg @ Apr 14th 2006 7:38PM]

The original Clio also had a compact flash slot. Although it wasn't in the most accessible location being hidden under the battery. Let's hope there aren't those types of design flaws in the new version.

[Dale Jones @ Apr 14th 2006 8:21PM]

According to dataevolution.com's Clio NXT specs there
will be one external and one internal SD card slot, so one could be located in the spot you are thinking about. This should not be a real problem because there will be another one that's "external."

There is also a regular pc card slot.

[AC @ Apr 15th 2006 7:31AM]

Release date? First it was early last year. Then the fall. Now no one knows.

[Steve @ Apr 15th 2006 11:08AM]

DUDE! i've seen that! i saw one last week at some training thing i had to go to for work. the microsoft rep had one and wouldnt talk about what it was... it had a centrino in it and was running a gay presentation off of it.. i think it even had vista runnning on it.

[Jozer @ Apr 15th 2006 1:57PM]

I owned a NEC Mobilepro 800, which had a similar form factor and specs to the old CLIO. I will tell you, it was nice to have something so small, but you couldn't do anything with it! It had a TERRIBLE 132MHz processor, so even viewing images taken on your camera was dog slow. The apps that came with it were half assed, Office was nice, but you couldn't use half of regular offices features, like having images or charts in word documents, or putting graphs into excel spreadsheets, or EDITING powerpoint presentations. Also, there were NO third party applications. The battery life was somewhere in the range of 2 hours. I replaced it with a similar form factor (but no touchscreen) ultraportable Toshiba Portege laptop that actually ran a REAL OS and had better battery life, plus a 600MHz processor. Recently, I replaced THAT with an even smaller Fujitsu P7010 with a 1.2GHz ULV Pentium M, 1 Gig RAM, and a DVD Burner. Buy a real laptop, CE sucks.

[Dale Jones @ Apr 15th 2006 2:51PM]

CE does not suck. It's just different. In CE.Net 5.0 everything is very close to the regular "office"
programs.

By the way Clio 1050 (the last version of the popular HPC) was very fast by the standards of six years ago (when it came out).

Don't compare it with some other computer you think was something like it. If you never had a Clio, well, you never had one! It's a beautiful, functional machine. If I take my Clio 1050 anywhere,
I still get comments on how great it looks, what a perfect size it is etc.

It could be argued that Clio was the first successful
tablet/convertable. As I said before, it was way ahead of it's time.

By the way, the "swing-top" design of the Clio still has no equal either!

[Stellar Developer @ Apr 18th 2006 11:56AM]

Here's the big problem. To be a truly successful product, you need to create something that is as convienient and mainstream as possible. Ive never used CE, im not saying its 'not great' it probably is... but it's not mainstream and people cant run a copy of whatever program they just bought. People need to be able to just download, install and run. Again, I think this form factor would be a winning umpc design, but leave it to the hardware vendors to 1. not do it 2. do it and screw up the hardware design or 3. do it and screw up the interface design :/

[Stellar Developer @ Apr 18th 2006 12:33PM]

Dale,
I have to agree about the arm/display design of this machine. Ive never even owned one or anything like it and I can tell that its genuinly a great design. why the hell try to create a new form factor when there's a great one right here, if someone can make a better one, have it critiqued and reviesed (many times) before you implement your product. Its like sony still trying to push memorystick instead of just placeing SD on their machines. someone else did it better, now just conform and build on a current great design

[Dale Jones @ Apr 18th 2006 2:07PM]

In regards to the SwingTop design, I believe Data Evolution owns the patent. I guess no one ever offered them enough money for the rights to it (or even just to borrow it for their own computer.

I had thought that another computer company had bought the rights at one time, but I must be mistaken. Because anyone that would just sit on that design has got to be crazy!

In regards to the other comment, yes, Windows CE can be a pain sometimes. But, for many of us who don't need to take our XP machines on trips (but need to do real work on the net etc.) the OS is perfect. I suspect anybody who wants everything a laptop can do at all times will never use a CE computer (unless it's forced on them by their employer.) That's OK.
I'm not trying to change you! Just don't knock Windows CE, because for some people it's perfect
for portable computing.

One thing to note: CE.Net 5.0 is very close to XP in a lot of ways. The browser, word, and more.

For pda people, alot of windows mobile programs are said to work fine. I admit to having no proof of this however.

Right now, I'm waiting for an e-mail from Robert Sowah
(CEO at Data Evolution) with answers to many questions from both others and myself. I will let everyone in on these answers.

[Bob O'Brien @ Apr 26th 2006 10:59PM]

As another former Clio user, the instant on feature, a screen big enough to write but a small enough unit to carry around, it really was great. With lots of folks with laptops and sharing spreadsheets, maybe the NXT won't be quite as useful as it was. I stopped using it after 9/11 when I had to put two computers through security.

Actually, I'm as intersted in Cathena. I would love to have a machine that was instant-on, that's program was in ROM to give to my mother-in-law. I'd buy just to get out of so many tech support calls.

[Dale Jones @ Apr 27th 2006 3:42PM]

That's very interesting. Cathena might be very good for a low-tech option. I personally like the handwriting recognition of the Clio, but if your Mom is used to typing it would not make much difference.

I travel for 4 months out of the year (I'm a performer)
and found Clio (and a pda) to be enough tech for me to take along. I've never enjoyed typing because I have a bad right hand (injured years ago). So, the
handwriting recognition that Clio came out with (it was the absolute best of the best) was incredibly
useful to me! But today, it's much, much better than it was 6 years ago -when the last Clio came out.

Anyone who ever needs to write notes, and have them converted to type, I'm telling you
Clio is the best thing since sliced bread!

I've been trying to get Robert Sowah to give me some more news about when release dates are for both computers, etc. Thus far, I'm still waiting..........................

[Dale Jones @ May 5th 2006 8:19PM]

Heard from Robert Sowah (CEO) at Data Evolution today.

Here's the news as I have it.

Clio will have 99% capabilities of "Word," "Powerpoint" and "Excel."

A 6 to 8 hour battery life.

USB slots that work for most anything.

The battery will be different and how you get to it will be different. This way the internal SD Card slot will be much easier to get to.

MP3 capabilities: yes.

They want models of both Clio and Cathena up and ready for the education conference (last year this was at the end of June). Delivery will be after that, though I cannot give you a date.

Currently the price is $999.00, they are doing their best to get it under that a little. Robert said that Clio will be an enterprise solution,
and companies will come on board (at that price) because Clio NXT will be cheaper to maintain than a laptop, yet offer many of the same benifits a full laptop does. That said, those who pre-ordered at $799.00 need not worry. Your pre-order price will absolutley be honored.

(Anyone who posts on this form thinking Clio's price should be $300.00, does not understand who Clio is really intended for.)

My thoughts..................................................

Will it be a success?

Well, let's put it this way, if you were going to buy 50 laptops for your employees and you didn't want to worry about the cost of viruses, fragile harddrives, etc., but you did want more abilities for your workers than a pda offers, where are you going to go?

Clio NXT is your answer. And, it will be the only answer!

Doctors, nurses, educaters, drivers, stockbrokers, salespeople, and you name it.

Note: I want it known on this forum I do not work for Data Evolution in any way.
(I have not said this in awhile.) Robert though, has informed me, (since I have been-
as he put it- "their biggest Clio flagwaver" on a number of forums) that they will be sending me the new Clio for my efforts.

Therefore, if you want to consider my views somewhat biased that's up to you.

[Dale Jones @ May 5th 2006 8:23PM]

Heard from Robert Sowah (CEO) at Data Evolution today.

Here's the news as I have it.

Clio will have 99% capabilities of "Word," "Powerpoint" and "Excel."

A 6 to 8 hour battery life.

USB slots that work for most anything.

The battery will be different and how you get to it will be different. This way the internal SD Card slot will be much easier to get to.

MP3 capabilities: yes.

They want models of both Clio and Cathena up and ready for the education conference (last year this was at the end of June). Delivery will be after that, though I cannot give you a date.

Currently the price is $999.00, they are doing their best to get it under that a little. Robert said that Clio will be an enterprise solution,
and companies will come on board (at that price) because Clio NXT will be cheaper to maintain than a laptop, yet offer many of the same benifits a full laptop does. That said, those who pre-ordered at $799.00 need not worry. Your pre-order price will absolutley be honored.

(Anyone who posts on this form thinking Clio's price should be $300.00, does not understand who Clio is really intended for.)

My thoughts..................................................

Will it be a success?

Well, let's put it this way, if you were going to buy 50 laptops for your employees and you didn't want to worry about the cost of viruses, fragile harddrives, etc., but you did want more abilities for your workers than a pda offers, where are you going to go?

Clio NXT is your answer. And, it will be the only answer!

Doctors, nurses, educaters, drivers, stockbrokers, salespeople, and you name it.

Note: I want it known on this forum I do not work for Data Evolution in any way.
(I have not said this in awhile.) Robert though, has informed me, (since I have been-
as he put it- "their biggest Clio flagwaver" on a number of forums) that they will be sending me the new Clio for my efforts.

Therefore, if you want to consider my views somewhat biased that's up to you.

[Dale Jones @ May 9th 2006 12:04AM]

Note to all you laptop users out there.

I dropped my Clio 1050 for the second time in six years the other day.

This was a hard drop and not on the arm of the unit (that is very strong as it controls
the "swing-top" designed screen).

I admit I had to recalibrate the screen with my stylus, and snap the battery back in place. I lost no files and the computer works perfectly!

No damage to the unit either.

[Luke @ May 31st 2007 11:07PM]

So now we have the Palm Foleo. Do you think Vadem will now release this to compete? Definitely reduce the price to $400 and Palm will be dead.