iamdigitalman
Posted: Sat Jun 23, 2007 3:54 am
ok, I was crusing around the (now working) PPCMLA galleries, and I came across this:
http://www.ppcmla.com/gallery/v/Collection/?g2_page=3 what is a freestyle, and how did you manage to get one? The closest I have heard is the penLite, unless this is some later version of it...
we're waiting...
-digital

The Macster
Posted: Sat Jun 23, 2007 4:51 am
I seem to remember a posting on the old 68kmla where someone discovered that someone was selling about 4 of these in one go on eBay, so I don't think they went for huge amounts. I'd have loved one but they were over in the US, and still didn't go really dirt cheap anyway. I think they were said to be tablet versions of the PB 5300.
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alk
Posted: Sun Jun 24, 2007 7:25 pm
Explain myself, eh?
Freestyle is pretty much what The Macster thinks it is. It is a customized PowerBook 5300 in a new case with a touch screen, CD-ROM, stereo speakers, beefed up IR, and special I/O ports connect to assistive devices such as electronic wheelchairs, etc.
I bought two on eBay, but I can't remember how much I paid for them. Somewhere around $100 each sounds about right.
FWIW, they aren't all that great as far as Macs go. The touch screen is terrible, and calibration is poor. And it seems that on one of them, the touch screen is completely kaput beneath a certain line on the LCD, so half of the display cannot be used in touch mode.
I'm more interested in the software they used, but mine didn't come with any original disks. At some point, I'll hook them up in SCSI disk mode and make an image of their hard drives.
I have gotten wireless working on them with an ORiNOCO Silver, so it makes an interesting and tantalizing (though not exactly satisfying or satiating) Internet appliance.
Peace,
Drew
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Power to the PowerPC!