Is there such a product as this?

pompeystato

pompeystato

New Member
Hi all

I do voluntary work for records offices and libraries.

I copy old books and documents and I save the work to disks and pass the disks back to the owners so the original book or document gets a longer life.

Most of the work covers genealogy sources that have a big demand such as Trade Directories and Electoral Lists.

What I need to make the job quicker is a handheld computer which has:
1. Microsoft Excel installed.
2. A rechargeable battery which gives me up to 8 hours of use.
3. Can be plugged into my PC and import/export spreadsheet documents.
3. Has either a ‘qwert’ keyboard or a touch-screen.

What I don’t need:

A Camera
A Mobile Phone
An Internet connection
A Microphone & Speakers

Is there such a product out there? The nearest I’ve found from asking around is a HP iPAQ 514. This is nearly £200 and a lot of money to spend for me.

Or should I be thinking of using a digital camera instead?

What are your views?
 
Not sure if you meant to say digital camera (considering cameras dont normally use spreadsheets) but even if you don't want a phone, there is software for a blackberry that equates to pretty much having microsoft office on your blackberry and of course the blackberry does have a qwerty KB. Many PDAs today are inside a phone because its just as easy to make a PDA/phone as it is to make just a PDA considering the cpu power of most modern cell phones.

Of course, the eeePC has a 7.5 hour battery life... but its a bit much ($350-400 USD)

Any kind of small, portable device with PC-like capabilities will cost you a good bit of cash.
 
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Let me explain about the digital camera!

If I take my camera instead of a handheld computer I could take shots of the documents, go home to my PC, put the memory card in that, read and copy the work that way – if it’s feasible?

Then it wouldn’t be necessary to buy anything.

(To be honest, the camera thing came to me while I was composing the first post)
 
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Well if you could build a simple rig with two lights and your camera in the middle suspended above the book it would work.

The lights would provide a lot of illumination to the pages making it easy to record the page without any shadows. Two are needed to make sure no shadows are present, making a better quality image. Also, you will need to set your cameras ISO to a low setting (ISO 80 is good) to ensure its not grainy.

Here is a pic i threw together as an example.

hhur2.jpg
 
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Right! It's a public place so the camera's a no-no!

It's back to spending money. $400 is way too much. If mobile phones are the most popular they should be the most inexpencive too. I can live with a phone if I have to.
 
Well a phone would be the best option because, being the most popular option, they have a lot of software support and if anything breaks, you are more likely to find a solution with a popular product. I have friends who couldn't live without their Blackberry's so it must be pretty useful so its probably not a bad investment.

I already assumed you had a scanner...
 
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Yup! Got a Lexmark all-in-one.

I've been looking at Smartphone's and the Nokia E71 gets good write-ups battery wise but again, its too expensive for me.
 
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