Wednesday, October 22nd, 2020

Sagemcom Spiga
==============

I was always fond of clamshell pocket computers with proper QWERTY
keyboard, preferably touchscreen and as much full operating system
as possible. Almost twenty years ago I used Psion Series 3a. It had
an 8086 class CPU only, but thanks to SiBO (Sixteen Bit Organizer)
or EPOC16 if you wish, it was capable of true multitasking, had nice
a GUI, and was very responsive. It had a spreadsheet, text editor,
serial terminal and OPL programming language built-in, TCP/IP stack
was available as an add-in, I even installed an e-mail application
and had a 20-meter cable from our router (i386 PC with Linux) which
was pretending to be a modem via pppd for me. Funny stuff - I could
do whatever I wanted just from that small computer without even
leaving my bed.

Then I switched to Psion Series 5mx. Almost the same form factor,
just a much better keyboard, touchscreen, ARM CPU, and EPOC32 (which
later became known as Symbian). With networking built-in and POSIX
compatibility installed (EMX environment) nothing could beat that
system. It was a true universal computer to go, with 20+ hours of
life on pair of 2500mAh AA batteries.

After 5mx there was just one way to go - Psion Series 7 / netBook.
It was twice the size, so not pocketable at all. But with color LCD,
WiFi drivers, four times faster CPU and more RAM. When I had it,
I used my iBook G4 as a desktop computer and netBook on the go, as
there was no important thing it couldn't do. It was my note-taking
device for most of my college.

But then WEP privacy became obsolete and so did my netBook. For me,
that was the end of the era of pocket/ultraportable computers because
none of the so called "netbooks" that appeared around 2007 was as
good as the original netBook. You opened the lid, it was ready to
roll, you closed it, it was already sleeping. Eight to ten hours on
a single charge of its Li-Ion battery. Opera, SSH, ICQ, mail.

Even though I know there was some revival from Planet Computers with
their Gemini, Cosmo, etc. devices, I decided not to go that way.
Last year when I visited Jirka[1], I tried his Gemini and didn't like
it. It's because it almost looks and feels like the Psion, but it
isn't one. The keyboard is not that good, the display jiggles if
you put the device on a table and try to type with more than two
fingers and the OS is Android. I know you can go with Linux or
Sailfish OS, but neither has as much support from the vendor as
Android does. This is not the Psion experience I had for almost ten
years every day. And if I can't have that experience, then why
waste such an amount of money?

So I bought second-hand Sagemcom Spiga[2].

Spiga is the so-called UMPC (Ultra Mobile PC) or MID (Mobile Internet
Device) from the time when it appeared there is a market for such
devices, from the era of small cheap notebooks, from 2009. It's just
a little bit bigger than Psion Series 5mx, in fact, I was able to fit
it in a leather case with a belt clip that was originally for 5mx.

Specs are as follows:

- CPU: Intel Atom Z510 @ 1.1 GHz
- RAM: 512 MB DDR2 RAM
- LCD: 4.8", 1024x600, resistive touch (stylus)
- GPU: Intel GMA 500
- storage: 8 GB SSD + microSDHC (I have 32 GB)
- connectivity: 3G/HSPA, Bluetooth, WiFi, miniUSB (host)

It's in fact re-branded UMID M-BOOK M1, which was sold at the same
time with a bigger SSD for more money. The operating system is
Windows XP, which I always hated greatly, but they work quite well
on the device and for what I use it is more than enough. I have
already installed several apps:

- FAR - file manager
- NetSurf - very lightweight but still capable WWW browser
- PuTTY - SSH client
- RealSpec - ZX Spectrum assembler
- AS - multiplatform cross-assembler

I have the device always on my belt. It was with me as a sole
"modern" computer on two summer retro computing events, where I used
it for assembler coding, I even connected USB floppy and wrote
several images to real media, everything went smoothly.

Yes, it's not as quick to be used as Psion was (it has to be always
de-hibernated because just sleeping the device depletes battery in
few days and it doesn't always wake up correctly), the OS is neither
Unix-like nor POSIX-compliant and I don't intend to make it so (for
example with Cygwin). The keyboard is just big enough to be used,
but nowhere near the 5mx keyboard and it has an AZERTY layout, which
is not exactly good for Czech or English typing (though it's much
worse, that many keys have multiple meanings with Fn, Ctrl, Alt,
Shift and combinations of these and labels do not correspond to it,
but that would happen even with English keyboard when switched to
Czech layout). But it's probably the best thing you can buy second
hand for about $100 if you wish to have such device.

I can use it with just my thumbs when commuting and standing in train
or subway when there's no place to sit. I like noisy places to
actually work, code, write a post, because the noise makes me focus
better somehow. I always did that, I even wrote parts of my thesis
while commuting. But you can't do such things with 14" laptop or
tablet. You can do them with Psion. Or Spiga.

[1] gopher://sdf.org/1/users/jirka/
[2] gopher://i-logout.cz/I/phlog/posts/2020-10-22_sagemcom_spiga.jpg

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