IPAQ (desktop Computer) - Internet Appliance

Internet Appliance

For a short time, around the year 2000, Compaq released a few models of an iPAQ that functioned as internet appliances. They did not have a CD-ROM drive and offered very few ports to connect to for very basic use.

There were two variants of the flat-panel iPAQs, a common Windows CE based version in a white case, and the less common blue version known as the 'Clipper'.

The Windows CE version was sometimes called the 'MSN Messenger version' and worked exclusively with the Microsoft Network over a dial-up connection using the Windows CE version of Internet Explorer.

The Clipper appeared to be designed more for commercial environments and used a compact operating system based on BeOS called BeIA. The built-in "Wagner" web browser application was a customized version of the Opera browser.

The Clipper also included a standard 10baseT ethernet port, and shipped with the ability for the end-user to access the command line in order to tailor the device to use a company logo on the start-up screen. It also included a Minitel client for use where Minitel was available (mainly Canada and France).