I'm trying to figure out which is the best computer for my needs. I'm caught between three options. I want something very portable that's smaller than my Del Latitude 3120, and even than my Acer Aspire One D270! I would use all of these with an external keyboard. The MeLes can run off a power bank and needs speakers, while the Toughbook has its own battery and speakers. The MeLes have more usb ports, where as the Toughpad would require a usb hub (owned). Some of these come with more ram or storage. I tried to choose similar specifications when possible. All cost about $300, once you add in the power bank for the last two, though they may be on sale, due to Black Friday.
Panasonic Toughpad FZ-M1 MK3 with 7th generation Intel Core i5-7Y57 vPro processor with two cores and four Intel Hyper-Threads, 8GB of soldered DDR3L RAM, and a 128GB M.2 2280 SSD.
amazon.com/gp/product/B0DK7W87…
MeLE Mini PC Quieter 4C, 12th Gen Alder Lake-N100 - processor. Featuring 4 cores and 4 threads, with speeds of up to 3.4GHz, 8GB of LPDDR4x RAM (4266MHz) and 128GB of storage (128GB eMMC, M.2 2280 PCIe 3.0x4 3940MB/s).
(Note: the m.2. is just a slot, not an installed drive, so it's empty, and I won't be taking things apart to install it)
amazon.com/MeLE-Mini-Quieter-4…
MeLE PC PCG02 Pro, with Quad-Core Alder Lake 12th N100, 8GB 4266MHz LPDDR4 ram, 128GB emmc storage and a Micro SD port that supports expanding up to 2TB.
(Note: I think this is for a micro sd card, which I can insert and use on my own)
amazon.com/MeLE-PCG02-Pro-Comp…
If I chose one of the last two, and wanted to use it with a power bank and not the regular cord, it would have to be this one, as no others are accessible to the blind.
accessibility.energrid.us.com/…
These are the programmes I use.
screen reader: NVDA
Internet Browser: Supermium (modern fork of Chrome, works with XP through 11)
Text Editor: Notepad2 (11), Notepad (XP/7), with spell checker: Jarte (all)
Media Player MPCHC (all)
MP3 Recorder: Virtual Recorder v1.4.0.2 (all)
E-Mail Thunderbird (Legacy 102 (7/11) Icedove or Outlook Express (XP), considering Windows Live Mail (all)
Youtube: Accessible Youtube Downloader (11)
Friendica: site (all) TweeseCake, TWBlue (11)
Timer: Cook Timer (all)
Computer Cleaner: CCleaner 5.49 (XP) KCleaner (all)
Uninstaller: Revo Uninstaller (much older version, newer is not accessible) (all)
OCR/pdf converter: Openbook, Kurzweil 1000 (all)
Virtual machines: VMWare Player 6.0.4, VmWare Workstation 17 (11)
#accessibility #blind #computers #powerbanks #tablets #technology #virtualmachines #Windows7 #Windows11 #WindowsXP
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Hello, everyone. I am interested in using a mini pc with a power bank. However, my use case is a bit different from most. I am totally blind, so I don't need to worry about a monitor, mouse, or touchpad. My main goal is to get something portable and light-weight to carry in a fanny pack. I already do this with aGalaxy A15 and an iClever BK03 keyboard, but as good as Android 14 is with Talkback, I would like a truly small Windows pc. As much as I love umpcs, from what I understand, the current ones have strange keyboard layouts and many cost several hundreds or even thousands of dollars! I use Windows XP, 7, and 11 on both physical and virtual machines. I am interested in Debian Mate, but I can't seem to get it to work fully in a virtual machine, since it won't recognize shared folders or my thumb drives. Of the machines currently in use, the least powerful is my Aspire One D270 and the most powerful is my Latitude 3120 with a Pentium N6000 processor, 8gb of ram, and 128gb solid state drive. I want something that will at least equal or surpass this.
These are the programs I use. Keep in mind that I won't be using a monitor or mouse, nor do I engage in any graphically-entensive tasks or do any sorts of collaborations with others, use cloud storage, etc.
NVDA (screen reader, all versions of Windows)
Firefox (115 on Windows 7 and latest on Windows 11), Serpent UXP Firefox fork that works with Xp and up/still updated), Supermium (fully modern fork of Chrome for XP and up
Notepad2 or Jarte
MPCHC (light-weight media player)
Virtual Recorder v1.4.0.2 (very simple mp3 recorder)
Thunderbird (Legacy 102, Outlook Express
Cook Timer
KCleaner
Revo Uninstaller (much older version, modern one is not accessible)
Openbook (for ocr/used rarely)
VMWare Player 6.0.4 or Workstation 16
With that in mind, I am considering the MeLE PCG02 Pro with an N100 processor. Since it already has a 3.5mm jack, I wouldn't need to connect a usb adapter to use earbuds (Bluetooth audio doesn't work well with NVDA).
amazon.com/MeLE-PCG02-Pro-Comp…
I would pair this with a Energrid VS820PD 20,000mAh Power Bank.
accessibility.energrid.us.com/…
Would this computer and power bank meet my needs? If not, can you recommend others? Please do not recommend bare bones systems or converters/triggers. While I am comfortable with all sorts of software, I don't feel safe modifying hardware, since I can't see it and don't want to damage anything or get electricuted. At any rate, the thing I like about this power bank is that I could check the battery status, which is important, since the PCG02 Pro doesn't have an internal battery. At any rate, is 10,000mah enough for four to eight hours of use, or should I consider this one with 20,000 mah? The voltage and wattage seem to be compatible with the computer, unlike my current INIU power bank with only 22w output. Plus, it has powered USBc (pd 3.0) which esential for working with a mini pc, from what I've read.
#blind #computers #Energrid #MeLE #minipc #NVDA #powerbank #technology #Windows7 #Windows11 #WindowsXP #virtualmachines
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