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...of this. Unfortunately, those guys have probably patented some of the basic ideas. I worry that it may be very hard to build an open-source PDA that works that way. They seem to have some very cool, original ideas though. At least, I assume it's original for Jackito.

>> This sounds extremely familure to the already-on-market TDA (Tactile Digital assistant).
>> Is this a Microsoft copycat?

This idea is similar but not a copycat. From TFA ...

"Current handhelds generally require the use of two hands: device in one hand, stylus in the other. Microsoft hopes to allow future devices to be used with a single hand."

The two UIs created and their research takes into account the limited range of motion of your thumb and designs a UI that can be used with one hand.

The Jackito-TDA is simply a normal PDA with bigger buttons so you can use two thumbs to operate things.

Besides, the TDA is still not "already-on-market" as you put it. The article that you linked to mentions that it was considered vapor ware. Even the buy it now page on the Jakito wesbite still lists it as only taking pre-orders.

>> This sounds extremely familure to the already-on-market TDA (Tactile Digital assistant).
>> Is this a Microsoft copycat?

This idea is similar but not a copycat. From TFA ...

"Current handhelds generally require the use of two hands: device in one hand, stylus in the other. Microsoft hopes to allow future devices to be used with a single hand."

The two UIs created and their research takes into account the limited range of motion of your thumb and designs a UI that can be used with one hand.

The Jackito-TDA is simply a normal PDA with bigger buttons so you can use two thumbs to operate things.

Besides, the TDA is still not "already-on-market" as you put it. The article that you linked to mentions that it was considered vapor ware. Even the buy it now page on the Jakito wesbite still lists it as only taking pre-orders.

the Jackito (aka Tactile Digital Assistant). You can't help but wonder why in the world someone would buy one of these devices when you can get so much more hardware for less cost. I guess it's a matter of national pride with these "homebrew" products (Jackito = France / Simputer = India).

Dan East

These people actually have the nerve to tell you the blatant lie that the DRM incorporated into Jackito is a good thing.
E.g.: "A major advantage of this chip is that software can be freely copied." - link
Hah! That actually means that you can't copy software freely. That's right, they're actually saying the exact opposite of the truth.

If you buy DRMed software for Jackito then this software will only play on one particular Jackito. So, what if your Jackito breaks down? Well, I guess you just have to buy all your software again. How great is that?

Granted, the review article is of poor clarity and contradicts itself often.

There's more information about the device at the company's own web site, www.jackito-pda.com. Addressing some of your issues by using the Jakito at a glance guide [PDF, 275kb]:

• Yes, it does run on a single AA (double-A, not triple-A). They quote battery life as ranging from "a few hours to a few months."
• The screen is 4.5 inches, 320x240 (QVGA). It is available in black-and-white LCD (hence "a few weeks" battery life), 16-bit colour TFT LCD (giving "a few hours"), or bistable black-and-white (sounds like e-Ink/e-Paper tech, giving "a few months")

Considering what it does and its incompatability with either Palm or PocketPC, I don't think I'd be paying $600 (B&W) or $738 (colour) for it either.

Granted, the review article is of poor clarity and contradicts itself often.

There's more information about the device at the company's own web site, www.jackito-pda.com. Addressing some of your issues by using the Jakito at a glance guide [PDF, 275kb]:

• Yes, it does run on a single AA (double-A, not triple-A). They quote battery life as ranging from "a few hours to a few months."
• The screen is 4.5 inches, 320x240 (QVGA). It is available in black-and-white LCD (hence "a few weeks" battery life), 16-bit colour TFT LCD (giving "a few hours"), or bistable black-and-white (sounds like e-Ink/e-Paper tech, giving "a few months")

Considering what it does and its incompatability with either Palm or PocketPC, I don't think I'd be paying $600 (B&W) or $738 (colour) for it either.

Relive your 80s glory days with the Jackito's "Touch-oriented BASIC"! (Of course, "Professional-grade applications for Jackito are developed in 'VISUAL C++' on a Windows PC", so don't get too excited.)

actually... I think that was a typo. I think they meant 4.5" (inch) color display...

check here on their website: http://www.jackito-pda.com/hardware/specs.php

and oh, I also happen to use a p900 with my thumb. =p

Hmm. June. I'm surprised this hasn't moved along a bit more since then, it looks like a nice little device. However, it does actually seem possible to order the thing, now, from their rather naff website, although the price ranges from 600 USD for the cheapest version to a staggering 3500 USD if you want all the accessories.

There's a good collection of add-ons, though --- anybody actually thinking of ordering one?

From the Legal Terms on the website:
ARTICLE X : FORCE MAJEURE

Novinit will not be responsible for the non-execution of its obligations if this non-execution results from an independent act, if it is independent from its will and if it is escaping to its control. Will be considered as a fortuitous case or force majeure, all facts or circumstances which are irresistible, exterior to the parties, unpredictable, unavoidable, independent from the parties' will, and which cannot be impeached by the latter.

If something should happen to Us(Novinit), we aren't responsible for delivering.... Riiiiight...


PS: Who's "the latter" who cannot impeach, anyway??

Although this machine translation has been handled by a human at some point, that human didn't speak English, apparently

Then again, Slashdot's "editors" accepted the "story".

For a good laugh, read the developer page. "The main component of ACTIL OS is its System Functions Library, whose call syntax (i.e. function names and list of arguments - variables, parameters, and so on) and comments have the same format as the functions in Microsoft's VISUAL C++ library." Wow.

slight alignment errors where the "author" was cutting and pasting bits of the image.

Also, the floating cubes look very suspicous. I think they may have been put in after the picture was taken.

So according to their innovations page it has 7 cpus at 10 MHz in parallell, of which one apparently is used for screen management. I'm kind of guessing you'd use one CPU per application, unless you're doing a lot of specialized programming that can run one application in parallell, so you'd look at a performance of about 10 MHz for one program.

Bank Switching is also something I don't think of as innovative, it seems like it is something of a side effect of their power management.

The jackito really seems like a step back in PDA development, you can control any other touchscreen PDA with a single finger or the stylus, having 2 finger control doesn't really sound all that innovative.

They claim that the developer tools are touch screen based... yeah - you code for the product USING THE TOUCH SCREEN!

But there is also a BASIC language interpreter... can you imagine coding BASIC with a touch screen?

"We have supplied this built-in BASIC interpreter, as it lets you code programs directly on Jackito, without having to use a PC. We chose not to include a Java interpreter, as you cannot code Java programs directly on Jackito - you need a PC for this."

What a dumb ass hoax

Scam? What are you talking about?

Didn't you see that it is both "the only one with a 'memory saver'" and "the only one featuring a Basic interpreter"?

Don't tell me the only TDA with a Basic interpreter is a scam.

I hope people realize how amazing this hardware appears to be, or at least the manufactoring of it. Look - it's a build to order PDA: , the first ever. I have been following this industry for 5 years (I run a large pda website), and never has a company made a true build to order PDA.

This company? Which screen you want, color, b&w, or bistable - a technology that I thought was still in testing! This may be the first use of bistable screens in a large device. (and how about the fact that it's turning the screen into a flat panel speaker - isn't this what synaptics wants to do with the laptop touchpad?)

And look, you can make the case whatever color you want, but also add many modules, like internal bluetooth, fm radio, add internal memory, internal mp3 player, internal microphone. This PDA will have exactly what you need, and not what you don't need.

It's a large device, but it has some cool hardware. I'm not sure about the specilized cpu's, I worry about the speed of this device, and who knows what is going on with the software, or data entry, but this company, at least in manufactoring techniques and componants used, could be changing the PDA industry as we know it. The battery life they claim is incredible! I am excited to hear and learn more about it.

And one more thing - the interfaces are all like the "3D" browseable interfaces we have heard about for awhile, they really are "tactile".. reading through their stuff, it's a huge jump in how we look at the GUI. This company is thinking so far outside the box. WOW.

it's not my cup of tea. reminds me of those grubby touch screen monitors libraries had back in the mid 80's. more importantly where's the compelling software that is easy to use ~ like my Palm 3 which I got back in '98 for about AUD$600?

• digital rights management ~ to restrict any content you might want to read
  
  
• operating system library based on MS VISUAL C++ libs ~ tried tested and buggy.
  
  
• got to ask for simulator (emulator) and its not ready
  
  

Technology looking for a solution that's already been partially solved? Makes me appreciate Palm (as a company when it originally released) a whole lot more

it's not my cup of tea. reminds me of those grubby touch screen monitors libraries had back in the mid 80's. more importantly where's the compelling software that is easy to use ~ like my Palm 3 which I got back in '98 for about AUD$600?

• digital rights management ~ to restrict any content you might want to read
  
  
• operating system library based on MS VISUAL C++ libs ~ tried tested and buggy.
  
  
• got to ask for simulator (emulator) and its not ready
  
  

Technology looking for a solution that's already been partially solved? Makes me appreciate Palm (as a company when it originally released) a whole lot more

it's not my cup of tea. reminds me of those grubby touch screen monitors libraries had back in the mid 80's. more importantly where's the compelling software that is easy to use ~ like my Palm 3 which I got back in '98 for about AUD$600?

• digital rights management ~ to restrict any content you might want to read
  
  
• operating system library based on MS VISUAL C++ libs ~ tried tested and buggy.
  
  
• got to ask for simulator (emulator) and its not ready
  
  

Technology looking for a solution that's already been partially solved? Makes me appreciate Palm (as a company when it originally released) a whole lot more

it's not my cup of tea. reminds me of those grubby touch screen monitors libraries had back in the mid 80's. more importantly where's the compelling software that is easy to use ~ like my Palm 3 which I got back in '98 for about AUD$600?

• digital rights management ~ to restrict any content you might want to read
  
  
• operating system library based on MS VISUAL C++ libs ~ tried tested and buggy.
  
  
• got to ask for simulator (emulator) and its not ready
  
  

Technology looking for a solution that's already been partially solved? Makes me appreciate Palm (as a company when it originally released) a whole lot more

"7 processors" = 1 microcontroller (M30803) ("Logical processor") @ 20MHz and 1 DSP (MSP 430) ("Analog processor"), both released in the 2001 timeframe + 5 "Automata" inside an FPGA (write protection/addressing windows, main timing control, access control, button control, and LCD processor ... or touchscreen process control, graphic control/LCD clipping, memory optimation/bank switching, main timing control, and main bus interfaces, depending on which page you check.

Pretty bad when you're not even self-consistent.

"7 processors" = 1 microcontroller (M30803) ("Logical processor") @ 20MHz and 1 DSP (MSP 430) ("Analog processor"), both released in the 2001 timeframe + 5 "Automata" inside an FPGA (write protection/addressing windows, main timing control, access control, button control, and LCD processor ... or touchscreen process control, graphic control/LCD clipping, memory optimation/bank switching, main timing control, and main bus interfaces, depending on which page you check.

Pretty bad when you're not even self-consistent.

...take some time to learn how to read.

SCREEN
See options :
- Color LCD

I'm guessing you saw the "ultra contrast (black and white)" and decided to post a furiously 3dgy comment rather than to keep reading the page. While I agree this unit looks useless, it is useless and color.

and has to be paid 123USD (bw) or 138 USD (color) extra
jackito-pda.com buy site