Compaq iPAQ IA-1 Home Internet Appliance

The Home Internet Appliance has a small, elegant design that fits well into any room. Its cordless keyboard features 10 Internet activity buttons for navigating the Web with a single touch. It also has a built-in speaker for multimedia use.

It is backed by a three-year limited warranty.

Unforunately, the iPAQ IA-1s have been on their last support leg from Compaq for two years, and now MSN (which offered C-level support at best over those years--about what you'd find in Russia for service on an esoteric American sports car) is finally pulling out this month, Nov '03. The iPAQ IA-1 device itself hasn't even been manufactured for at least a year (although they keep sending my mother refurbished ones; you can't beat the warrantee).

Don't buy one. It's gulping its last convulsive breaths. Keep an eye on SageVision/MSU Devices and see if they come out of bankruptcy; it sounds like they were on the right path in 2001. For my mother, I'm thinking of getting a very simple computer, making sure it can't go off, and leaving it on all day, every day.

Good luck.
magraf in Richmond, VA


GARBAGE GARBAGE GARBAGE   May 20, 2003
IF YOU VALUE YOUR SANITY, YOU WILL STAY AWAY FROM THIS POS!!!!!!It never works, MSN won't do anything but tell you to plug and unplug to try and reboot, when that fails, you'll have to download the software all over again, but the problems come back, then they'll escalate your issue & you'll wait forever for a call that never comes, OR they'll send you a new machine cause of the 1yr warranty. I know that last part sounds great, but only up until your warranty expires, at which point, they won't even pretend to be polite. They'll tell you that if you're having so many problems with this machine, you should buy a computer. Even if you use your own ISP, you still need MSN to support the machine's software. THE KICKER: Once the warranty has expired and this machine is nothing but a dusty paperweight, MSN will continue to bill you $21.95/month for service you're not getting, and if you want them to stop, you'll have to pay a cancellation fee (70% of the monthly fee X number of months left on the contract). I KID YOU NOT!!!!!! I haven't used their service since Jan 2003, but every month they're billing me, I filed reports with every consumer advocacy agency known to man, to no avail. They said I signed a contract and they're holding me to it. They conveniently ignore the fact that they breached the contract first by selling me this piece of crap thats never (and won't ever) worked up to specs. My choices are to fly across the country and sue them in small claims court OR change banks to remove their dirty fingers from my existing account. What I really need is a good lawyer and a class action suit. STAY AWAY!!!!!!! TRUST ME WHEN I SAY THIS IS A HEADACHE YOU WOULDN'T WISH ON YOUR WORST ENEMY!!!!


Great, but a lot of trouble   November 1, 2002
 2 out of 2 found this review helpful

I have to agree with the other people, this is a really nice device, but a lot of aggravation. I bought mine on clearance, and right away started having trouble. Tech-support was great, but it never got fixed. First of all, it would not disconnect when I got a call. Then, my email address wouldn't work, and had to have a "temporary" one. I had it for over three months!! I finally got that fixed, but not before I couldn't get into my email most of the time. Every time I called, they said they were "working" on it. This went on the entire time I was using it. I would go days without getting into my email!! The final straw, was when it would kick off, then have to reload. This went on for a while, so called. They walked me through a process where they had to reload the whole hard drive. All this while doing it long distance. The call was over an hour!! AND, it still didn't fix the problem!!! I gave up, then when I cancelled, I was a day or two past my billing date, so still got charged for the entire month!!! That's MSN for you. Other than that, it is a great device. You can sit on the couch, and watch tv, while surfing the net. It doesn't use your tv, like the Webtv did. If you can put up with the aggravation, go for it.


Great No-Brainer!!!   August 8, 2002
I bought this and used it for 5 months. Decided to get a regular computer. Spent Way more money and put this back in a box. Just got it back out today. I am sick of complicated computers. My life is hectic enough without having to spend all day trying to figure out this and that on one. Having to delete files, defragmenting,etc. My point is it's not just the cost of a regular computer, its the headache if your not a computer wiz which I'm not. This is perfect for me- I never used all that other stuff on my full size. It does freeze up sometimes, but I've been on this iternet appliance for over an hour without getting kick-off, and my regular P.C. I can't stay on for 10 minutes. I say if you want something easy to understand, and don't want to have to delete files and all the problems that can come with an expensive computer, than this is great for you!!