I agree that the small size of the HP Palmtops make it difficult to key in substantial amounts of text on them. However, that's not really what they were created for, or what most people do with them.
The most important Palmtop feature is that you can stick them in your pocket! This is the threshold, and in crossing it HP has produced a winner. The biggest complaint people have with notebooks like OmniBook 300 is that it's inconvenient to carry the darn thing around. Basically, if it's bigger than a pocket calculator, it's too big.
I think that docking station is a better long term solution than the notebook computer. The docking station could add four more card slots to expand PCMCIA capacity. This would open the Palmtop up to things like a plug-in external keyboard and an external color monitor.
I believe that it's only a matter of time until VLSI chips on Palmtops have 486 VGA capability. We're almost there with the OmniBook now. Combine this with a 64MB storage capacity (a doubled 32MB PCMCIA card) and we'll truly be at a revolutionary point -- your Palmtop will truly be the only computer you need. Then we'll begin to see things like battery powered external keyboards for travelers who can't wait to get back to the docking station.
This could be an interesting topic for an article.
By the way, I'm a 2 year subscriber and I love it. Keep up the good work!
Charlie McClain
Fresno CA, USA
[Very Interesting. We plan to do an article next year on what is available now to turn your Palmtops into a workstation. By the way, people can write HP with their suggestions, problems, or compliments. Write to the Customer Inquiry Manager, Hewlett Packard, 1000 NE Circle Blvd, Corvallis, OR 97330, USA. You can also put a note up in CompuServe's HP Handheld forum, which HP usually monitors -Hal.]