[LUNI] Making my own PDA

[Curt Crandall]

Ok, this isn't really related to Linux (although my
end product will hopefully run Linux).  But I'm
curious to see if anyone has any helpful hints to give
as I try to create my own PDA.

I recently bought an old Apple Newton MP100 for a few
bucks.  Works perfectly, but I have no way to sync...
so it's only really good for taking notes... and it's
AWESOME at doing that.

I love the form factor of the Newton and feel that it
is far more rugged than any PDA, tablet, or laptop
I've seen.  The probably, of course, is that the
Newton is obsolete and not as useful as a
tablet/laptop.

I want a Newton-like device to use as a full-feature
mobile device.  The size is perfect as the screen is
large enough to have a decent terminal window, play
regular games, browse the web well, etc... and I can
toss it in a backpack and not worry too much about it
busting.  Then I could pop a keybd/mouse, monitor on
it and use it as a mobile desktop.  OQO has a device
that's similar to what I describe, but so far it is
vaporware.  Rather than wait, I want to build my own.

What I envision is this.  I'm thinking of dropping $10
on a gutted Newton 2100 case.  I'd like a color touch
screen, G3-400 processor, one SODIMM slot, 2 USB, 1
Firewire, DVI or VGA out in addition to the 2 PCMCIA
and IR the Newton already has.  Ideally, I'd love to
run OS X on it and use InkWriter to interpret stylus
input (admittedly, though, I know very little about
InkWriter)... of course, if it could run OS X it would
be able to handle Linux/*BSD.

These are what I see to be the biggest challenges:

* Where would I find a mobo that'd fit the form factor
and work with the G3?  It'd probably need integrated
video and sound too.  Is these even realistic... if
not, what about Intel based boards?  Has anyone seen
one that'd fit the Newton case... I have not found
any.

* How would I get the OS to recognize the touch
screen?  Am I looking at having to create my own
driver?

I admit that I really don't know what I'm doing,
probably will never finish (if I do... they'll
probably be shipping G9's in the Mac), and I probably
sound like a nut for even considering something like
this.  I'm interested in trying something like this
because it seems fun, hopefully will give me greater
insight into the nuts and bolts of a computer, and
it'd be a pretty cool hobby to keep me busy for many
many many months.  Besides, I really should put those
2 sophomore level EE courses from 10 years ago to good
use.

I'll continue my google search for answers, but any
input from the group would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Curt

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