iPaq IA-2

#1 Thu, 17 Jan 2008 - 18:19 68kMLA

I found a Compaq iPAQ IA-2 Internet Appliance at the local thrift store for $15. Apparently it boots from ROM and has a spot for a hard drive. So far that's about all I know about it.

#2 Thu, 17 Jan 2008 - 22:06 68kMLA

That thing looks cool! How well does it do internet?

#3 Thu, 17 Jan 2008 - 22:20 68kMLA

I'm not sure yet. At the moment the main unit is in my office but the keyboard is in the car. Also you have to turn it on with the keyboard - a standard PC keyboard won't work.

Also there is no ethernet port and only 32MB RAM.

#4 Thu, 17 Jan 2008 - 22:40 68kMLA

I had 32MB of ram in my iBook 300MHz blueberry and it made DSL like Dial Up because of the low ram.

#5 Thu, 17 Jan 2008 - 22:56 68kMLA

Does it use dial-up or does it use some obscure connector?

#6 Thu, 17 Jan 2008 - 22:57 68kMLA

Does it use dial-up or does it use some obscure connector?

It looks like dial-up. Supposedly it runs WinCE but can be hacked to run something else like linux.

#7 Thu, 17 Jan 2008 - 23:09 68kMLA

What are all the connections on it? This thing sounds very interesting, if this thing would be able to connect with Ethernet or something easy to connect I would find one and use it for my alarm clock.

#8 Fri, 18 Jan 2008 - 05:19 68kMLA

sounds sweet. I was just looking at some compaq evo t20 thin clients and thinking of getting them. Legacy free goodness.

I am also trying to hunt down a Virgin Webplayer. It is an internet appliance, 2 USB ports, integrated 10" LCD, but it runs a 200mhz geode proc, and is essentailly a x86 machine. People have gotten win 98 and ME running on it. It has a nice little laptop IDE header on the board, along with traces for VGA, serial, PS/2, etc. The keyboard/mouse uses IR, and it runs a stripped version of QNX I think, or some other Lin/unix.

-digital

#9 Fri, 18 Jan 2008 - 13:09 68kMLA

I finally got the keyboard and main unit in one place and so far it appears to be DOA.