I think this is along the right lines, however maybe rather than
disk, closer to those new Japanese machines--dial in
and download by plugging it in and clicking some kind of 
dial n' download key.  Or alternatively some kind of little
mike  held up to a phone rec'ver which picks up the
digital data via audio signals and translates it into text and pics
so people can use it from a pay phone or hard-wired phone.
Small, light, cheap and durable.  However, this begs the question
to what degree this becomes mere fetish--we can buy a newspaper
from a corner store or tune in news radio with a walkman.  The
real beauty of online news is it's powerful potential for multi-media,
databasing and interactivity with newspaper staff.
Rick

At 10:45 AM 96/03/28 GMT, Christian Darkin wrote:
>Right now, I don't think we need something with 32,000 colours, a keyboard,
and 
>video capability.  Ok, we'd all like a machine that would do everything,
and we 
>can assume that once people get into the idea of a newspaper PC there will
be a 
>chain of development and a range of prices.  
>
>However, that stuff is going to need not only a big market willing to pay high 
>costs, but also a media industry based around it from the word go.  I think
that 
>a more modest device would be far more likely to kickstart that market.  All 
>you'd need is a big B/W flat screen (foldable, perhaps), a modest processor 
>capable only of displaying hypertext and the odd picture, and doing primative 
>searches (even an 086 could do that), and a slot for a floppy disk.
>
>If you could do that for under $200, and bung in a couple of programs for 
>storing phone numbers, appointments, and reading ascii files,  I think
you'd be 
>onto something.
>
>You'd then have a market among anyone who wanted to read anything while on the 
>move.  They'd use it for purusing reports, files, etc. from work and for 
>generally posing with, and then they could also get their regular daily on
disk 
>from selected newsagents.    
>
>What do you think?
>
>
>
>> 
>> --
>> Steve Yelvington 
>> Editor/Manager, Star Tribune Online, Minneapolis-St. Paul
>> http://www.startribune.com/
>> 
>> 
>
>-- 
>----------------------
>Christian Darkin
>---------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>



__________________________________________
Richard Andersen
Calgary, Alberta  CANADA
http://www.canuck.com/~andersen/


------------------------------

End of online-news-digest V1 #579
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From owner-online-news-digest@marketplace.com Sun Mar 31 08:11:03 1996
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