On Tue, May 4, 2010 at 11:34 AM, Rik Tindall <[email protected]> wrote: > 1. Economy - can be new / 'on special' or ex-lease.
Trademe or an auctioneer ... new machines are $1000+ in general. > 2. Wireless that goes (bluetooth too? - have yet to cross that bridge). Wireless is important; check the chipset support and test first if possible. Don't worry about bluetooth; there are perfectly functional USB dongles to provide this if it isn't built in. > 3. Infrared - because that's how I connect my cellphone, having not got > bluetooth functioning yet That's not so common, but might be provided by a USB dongle. However I'm not so sure you'll be able to talk to (random cellphone) over infrared without having their PC sofwtare ... > 4. Low data quantity needs mean that any other modern hardware spec will > probably suit ok. Modem? External modem over a serial port I hope :-) otherwise you may well end up with a winmodem and have to test carefully for support ...
