ePods is a lightweight touch-screen device running
WinCE. Originally it was designed as an
internet appliance but since it's release it has grown to be much more.
It was produced by a company called epods which has since gone
out of business. These units were originally sold for $199, and required a
2 year contract for the dial-up service provided by epods. This contract is (debatably) void now that the company has gone
out of business.
Shortly after the company went out of business, a
hack was released which lets you completely remove the epods shell and leaves you with a 2.2 pound, $199
WinCE 2.12 machine with a 7"
touch screen, a
PCMCIA slot (for
wireless networking or any other WinCE PCMCIA device), and a
compactflash slot for adding more storage.
The adopted home page for the hacked device is http://www.geocities.com/epodsfiles/, and there is an active discussion board for this device at http://www.kenseglerdesigns.com/cgi-bin/UltraBoard/UltraBoard.pl?Action=ShowBoard&Board=EpodsOne&Idle=0&Sort=0&Order=Descend&Page=Session&Session=.
These devices sell for more than $199 now (
ebay, on the discussion board, out of the trunk of the
guy on the corner).
Most users use the device with
wireless networking and
Terminal Server for Win2K to use the device as a remote display, for fast web browsing and controlling
X10 devices.