In its simplest configuration, the basic Joey
was about the size of a slender hardback book and almost as
light, and it slipped easily into a briefcase. It worked as
either a traditional notebook computer, or as a keyboard-less
slate computer, and its built-in modem made it easy to access
on-line services and the Internet, or send and receive faxes.
Users interacted with Joey using either a stylus by "drawing"
directly on its color active-matrix screen, or with the full-size
keyboard and trackpad that stealthily slid out from its
underside. Or with a combination of both stylus and keyboard, if
they preferred. That was what made the Joey so unusual and
compelling - its flexibility. Especially when the owner returned
with it to the office, or took the Joey home. There, the Joey
attached easily to a variety of snap-on peripherals that turned
the base unit into a more powerful desktop system. Expanded
keyboards. Mice. Monitors. Printers. Scanners. CD-ROM players.
Stereo speakers. Enhanced network peripherals. And most any other
peripheral device available for ordinary personal computers.
But the machine had its faults. Though it was technically
superior to ICP's portable computers, software developers
hesitated to invest the costly technical and human resources
required to create new programs for it. Because its design was so
new and different, many software developers were fearful of
straying beyond the safe boundaries of developing programs for
anything but ICP's series of computers, regardless of their
plain-vanilla functionality.
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