3Com Audrey Web Appliance

by HP

Product Details

Product Manual [1.53mb PDF]

• Shipping Weight: 7 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B000051JUL
• Item model number: 3C8300AUWHT-01
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes
• Date first available at Amazon.com: September 4, 1973

Product Description

Amazon.com Review

The 3Com Ergo Audrey is part of the new breed of Internet appliances designed to get you connected with e-mail and exploring the Web with as few extraneous hardware features and as little hassle as possible. The Audrey certainly fulfills that end of the bargain, and it adds organization tools that can help a family keep track of busy schedules. But it's important to remember that it is a simplified appliance--it's limited in the scope of tasks it can perform and thus can be frustrating to savvy Web users.

To the credit of 3Com, the Audrey looks unlike any other Internet appliance on the market. It reminded us of magazine articles from the 1950s that imagined what it would be like to live in the 21st century. Its simple, cool curves fan out like a T-bird, and it has a chrome top (with two speakers) and oversize buttons that help you navigate between calendar, Web browser, e-mail, and Audrey channels. It also has a nicely compact body, ready to fit right into the kitchen of tomorrow, today.

The Audrey comes with just a small keyboard (which connects via an infrared port), a power cord, and a clear plastic stylus that sticks out of the top of the device and is used to tap commands and browser buttons on the touch screen. The docked stylus also doubles as an e-mail alert, flashing green whenever the Audrey connects and collects e-mail. You also get a serial port and two USB ports for connecting Palm or Handspring docking cradles (you can synchronize only with Palm OS handhelds). The Audrey is also broadband ready if you use an optional USB-to-Ethernet adapter.

Setting up the Audrey was really quite simple. We entered the user information to our existing dial-up account and connected immediately. Happily, the Audrey is one of the few Web appliances that enable you to choose your own Internet service provider (ISP). If you don't have one, the Audrey defaults to suggesting AT&T WorldNet for $15 per month--but doesn't force you into the choice.

The Audrey's e-mail center isn't very robust, offering only New, Old, and Sent sections. You can't receive attachments, and there is no option of storage folders. But this is part of the Audrey's elegant, minimalist philosophy, targeted to users with a full-powered computer to use as their main online communications center (where e-mail can be stored and sorted and attachments viewed). That said, there are some fun features to the e-mail application, allowing you to doodle a message (sent as a GIF image) or a recorded message of up to 3 minutes (sent as a WAV file).

We also found the device's screen frustrating; its small size caused many Web pages to scroll horizontally, and the contrast was too dark unless we sat in a precise position. Even more unnerving was the small keyboard, which inexplicably features punctuation keys half the size of the letter keys. These tiny keys caused us to continuously make typos in our Web addresses--strange, for a device supposedly designed for Internet use, where Web addresses feature many "/" and "." strokes.

The browser isn't stacked with plug-ins, but it does feature Macromedia Flash and RealPlayer for streaming audio, allowing you to use the Audrey as an Internet radio. Unfortunately, you can't surf the Web or use other applications and listen to audio at the same time. We also found that once the Audrey's cache memory was filled (after Web browsing and listening to BBC Radio 1), the audio got choppy and we had to restart the unit.

In addition to Web content, the Audrey also features a set of channels that download content at specified times of the day and night (so you don't have to connect each time you want to read news from ABC). To access a channel, we turned the TV-style knob on the front and selected ESPN, which delivered about three of that day's top headlines. Unfortunately, only a few channels are available at this time--others include CBS MarketWatch and Mr. Showbiz.

The other main component of the Audrey is its organizer features, borrowed from the Palm OS. We synchronized our calendar information and e-mail and phone contact information from our Handspring Visor, but that's all that's stored--no addresses, no notes (unless attached to calendar items), and no to-do list (a big disappointment for an appliance meant for the kitchen). However, it does allow you to have two tracks of calendar items--one for the parents and one for the kids.

Of all the Internet appliances available, the Audrey is truly the most appliancelike--and that's a compliment. It's a very functional product for your busy family kitchen. Just don't expect the whiz-bang technology you take for granted on your Pentium-class PC. Still, we hope that future versions of the Audrey do become more robust, with added online and organization features. --Agen G.N. Schmitz

Amazon.com Product Description

Make e-mailing and Web browsing easy and convenient for the whole family with the 3Com Ergo Audrey, an Internet appliance that works with your current ISP to deliver one-touch Internet access.

The Audrey's innovative twist dial allows you to flip from Web site to Web site for easy surfing, and the 12 preset sites (or channels) offer everything from weather to news to stocks. The Audrey can be programmed to grab e-mail and Web channel content at specified times.

Use the included wireless keyboard to write e-mail messages and the clear, acrylic stylus to navigate around the color touch screen (6.25 by 4.75 inches). An LED within the stylus cradle lights up the stylus when you have unread e-mail. With the snapshot function, you can capture images from the screen to attach to e-mail messages. You can also attach scribbled notes or drawings (saved as GIFs) and voice messages that can be recorded through the internal microphone (and played back via the Audrey's stereo speakers).

Keep your family in touch with the scheduling functions, which allow you to color-code a daily schedule for each family member. Use the serial port or two USB ports to synch with up to two handhelds so every family member can link up. The Audrey works with Palm OS devices including Palm handhelds, Handspring Visors, and the Sony Clié.

The Audrey features a built-in 56 Kbps modem with two standard RJ-11 telephone jacks, a serial port, 2 USB ports, and an audio output for external speakers. It is broadband capable if using the 3Com USB Ethernet adapter.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

52 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Start, December 12, 2000

By 

Rob Bailey (Paden, OK USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: 3Com Audrey Web Appliance (Office Product)

We have had our Audrey for about two weeks now. Our overall impression is a good one. The unit is sturdy and goes well with the decor in our kitchen where it is kept. The name is a bit odd, but you forget about it after a while. We believe that while it is not perfect, it is a good start for this type of product.

Installation is very easy and fast. Audrey was connected and running in a matter of minutes. User's guide is large and easy to follow. It is very non-technical. User's who have any technical questions beyond how to plug it in and set up a custome ISP will have to look elsewhere.

Browsing- We did not purchase the Audrey for the purpose of browsing the internet. We thought this was a job better left to the computer in the upstairs office. Our reason for Audrey was to have quick access to email, a common shceduler, and a common address book. As it turns out we use it to surf a lot more than we ever thought. It really pales in comparison to using a PC for browsing, but the ease and speed of getting on the net, and the location in a central family place has caused a lot more use in this fashion than we ever expected.

Email- This is where Audrey really pays off. Email that is simple,quick, and accessible. We have begun to really use email a lot more because of this. Audrey lets you know if you have email waiting by flashing. It has become second nature to look for the flashing light on Audrey just as we would our telephone answering machine. Email program is very simple and stripped down compared to outlook, but it serves its purpose and gets the job done efficiently.

Address and Datebook- Once again, simple and effective. Pick an email address from the address book, tap it, and up pops the email program addressed and ready to go. We find it very useful to have all this information located in one central area for the whole family to use. Audrey will sync to two different palms, but we haven't had a chance to try this feature yet.

Nothing is perfect. We have had a few problems with our unit. Twice it has locked up after an automatic download and left the modem connected until we arrived home in the evening. We only have one phone line in our home, so this could present quite a problem if someone is trying to call and leave a message. There are also channels that are updated online and then you are able to view these without connecting back to the internet. It is only fully successful here about half of the time. We are able to get the weather channel on all occasions, but things like ABC News, ESPN, and CBS Marketwatch are very unreliable.

Overall we are very pleased with our purchase. It serves our needs well when we want it to, and fits nicely in the background of the kithen when not in use. We purchased Audrey over the other choices of web appliance because it was smaller and you are able to choose your own access/email provider. No regrets at all. The only caveat that we would add is that we didn't buy this appliance as our only source to surf the net. If that had been the case our choice may have been different.

123 of 133 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Soneone Finally Got It Right, November 21, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: 3Com Audrey Web Appliance (Office Product)

I've been interested in Web "Appliances" since people first started talking about them a couple of years ago. But everything I've seen -- until Audrey -- has been a stripped down PC that does nothing more than surf the web (and tie you to MSN for $21 a month. AARGH) This Audrey is easy to use, fun and much more than just a browser. My wife and I can both sync our Palms into it, so we can view our schedules side by side. The internet channels give us instant access to weather, sports, etc. so we don't have to boot up the PC to get simple info. And having email always available is so convenient, that we all use it more. Thanks, 3Com!

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Shot in the right direction, but 3com missed the target., December 29, 2000

By 

W. Macaluso "bmac" (Chicago) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: 3Com Audrey Web Appliance (Office Product)

My family purchased an Audrey for the holidays. We plugged it in and got it set up. Set up, by the way, couldn't have been easier. We just hooked up th broadband adapter and turned it on. Set up took roughly 15 minutes. After that, we set up all the porgrams. Thge internet works great with one problem; NO JAVA SUPPORT! The other problem we had was that our Palm V's wouldn't sync. We had to reboot to get it to work. It's a good product for what it does. Now some of the less "techy" people can acsess the net with ease. However, 3com shouldn't have rushed it, cuz she has her quirks.