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Sneak Peak: 3Com's New Audrey
neildogg writes "I had a second while 3Com's new Ergo site was up to save some of the images and screenshots from their new Web pad, the Audrey. I have put them up as a mirror at my site with features and specs as well, straight from the horse's mouth. Enjoy." Apparently the pics were up for just a couple of minutes, and then replaced with some boring "Coming Soon" graphics. So screw waiting, check it out.
There seemed to be some Mac widgets in there. They may all simply be mockups.
I do this now. I have an older sharp Actius (looks like a sony VAIO, less than an inch thick) that sports 64MB of ram and a 266 mmx CPU. Street price for a device like this is probably around $800.
:)
I added a set of wireless ethernet cards (webgear aviator 2.4Ghz) for another $150, and dropped the second card in my basement Red Hat 6.2 server (a 233 AMD system with 64MB ram and 20 gigs or so of hard drive).
Because both run X, I can export whatever graphical apps (including the whole display) across the wireless link whenever I want. It is (as you describe) very usefull.
Here's the rub. Even though my laptop is reasonably modest in capabilities (you could not buy a machine today with this small a CPU), it still runs for $800 used, and still only displays 800x600 pixels. OK for a laptop, but embarrassing for a desktop. For an XGA laptop, we are talking some serious money. Even assuming you could drop some non-essentials (floppy drive, hard drive, etc), you are still looking at $300 or more just for LCD screen, not to mention keyboard, glidepad, cpu, memory, etc.
That's why all these cheap internet appliances have a custom dedicated UI, to keep them cheap. Any kind of usable generalized access device for a desktop system is either going to be more expensive then your desktop (because of the more expensive portable components), or so inferior in capability as to be useless.
The displays are really the rub right now... it is pretty darn cheap to produce a big glass tube, and pretty darn expensive to produce a small LCD. Maybe once the lighte emitting polymers hit the real world this will change, but don't expect it inside of the next two years.
IMHO
Mathematically impossible requirements are technically not against policy.
I realize that this does little for the Nix crowd but it would be interesting to see the thing. Particulalry since many of the clients I have to work with use NT for everything. If you've never used Citrix, you can get a desktop on an NT terminal server from anywhere on the network. I've used it quite a bit at work and it seems to suck less than I expected it to.
Icebox
C'mon, this thing's supposed to be the phone communication center. It has a modem in it. Make it answer the phone, too! I'd love for my answering machine to wav messages and send them to my main machine. (of course, they'd be mp3'd when they get there to save bandwidth, but that's a minor detail) Wav is cheap, especially if you're on a LAN and have the bandwidth for the file transfer.
There is something about this product that smells of Micro$oft. Considering 3Com's recent deals with MS to release Windows-only ethernet hardware (like the HomeConnect series [the 405's] that are identical in everyway to 905's, but are specifically designed to be incompatable with Linux in very much the same way that LoseModems are). Do we have any specs on the OS this puppy is supposed to run or am I just blowing anti-M$ smoke?
My God, what is that thing? I'm not exactly sure what it looks like, but it seems to be more of a wastebasket than a high-tech email terminal.
Hmmm...then again, perhaps I could create the world's first net ready trashcan. Yet another reason to postpone taking out the garbage.
Why can't someone create a webpad that isn't a User Experience? Why not just create a simple "remote display" pad? That way the user can use whatever programs (and processing power) they already have on their desktop (which they have already customized or at least gotten used to).
The only answer I can think of is: distance. If it's just a remote display, you can't tote it around outside the house. I have two responses:
1) So what? It would still be a useful product--wireless will get you pretty far (the yard and maybe even next door).
2) Ubiquitous wireless: People say how great it would be if they could be "always on" but never mention the problems of synching up your palm with your car with your phone with your desktop. So why not integrate all these things: Your house has a "computer center" (a regular desktop would do) and all your remote devices are just displays from that center. Now synchronization in time (when I switch devies) AND in space (when I'm using device A and wifey is using device B) is automatic.
Of course, given that only Linux (with it's multi-user, multi-processing, remote display-enabled X server) is well-placed to provide this need is just a plus...
--
Non-meta-modded "Overrated" mods are killing Slashdot
(Hey Ryan! Here's your proof!)
good thing Jobs doesn't run 3COM, or he'd have your ass.
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
> Do they look obviously retouched?
Well, while I can't give the definitive answer on that, the interface on this image [http://www.onebahamas.com/audrey/ch_fullsize_03.g if] is absolutely identical to that of Mac OS. From the pull-down menu to the "Find" button to the text on the page, this looks exactly like a screen shot from a Mac web browser.
This says something about either the underlying OS of Audrey or the veracity of this information. I'm just not quite sure which.
It looks like it runs neither PALM nor WINCE like everyone seems to be saying. Take a good look at the pictures. That looks like QNX
(http://www.qnx.xom)(http://get.qnx.com)
QNX is a unix clone and the company just released it into the 'free' domain, meaning the base OS is free, as well as some applications. If I recall, the netappliance i-opener that was released earlier this year also runs the qnx platform, and people managed to hack into it and use their own isp's, also people were able to install linux (the linux install required a hardware hack though).
That would mean that this handheld would run a client similar to xwindows. This is a dream come true. Perhaps it is an easily hackable unit also?
Oh, if anyone wants to see QNX, look here QNX website
QNX is a realtime OS also by the way, and I believe is posix compliant....
[Something witty and intelligent should have appeared here.]
{Traicovn}
Ah well, enough whining...ErgoAudrey, meet Mr.Soldering Iron. I believe the two of you have a date for the voiding of your waranty this evening. (evil grin).
I just want to take over the world...Why does that automatically make me EVIL?
You can go to palmstation ( http://www.palmstation.com ) for more information, including more links to complete pages.
There has been discussion there about these links all week.
Mathematically impossible requirements are technically not against policy.
Mac Cube. Before it's announced, super-secret, fake looking pictures appear on websites. They all look obviously fake, then bam. They're all true.
Now I'm paranoid. How many people actualy saw this momentary images? Do they look obviously retouched? Whats the source? But wait, i thought the mac cube was fictional and was wrong, so then i start questioning my questioning...
The only way from here is down...
I just hope, for 3Com's sake, that they never release an "Audrey II".
I think that if 3Com entered the flesh-eating plant business, their image would suffer immensly.
I don't understand why people keep talking about voice email. This is about the most useless thing I can think of.
First, a voice email is always much larger than an ordinary one with the same content. That doesn't just affect the transmission time (that Audrey thing only has a 56k modem, so that does make a difference), but also the amount of space it needs when stored. My email archive is already in the thens of megabytes, and I store attachments separately.
And why do I need voice, anyway? What do we have writing for? And if I want you to listen to me talk, why don't I just leave a message on your answering machine?
I don't get it. Is this just so that people will not have such problem with the stylus input, or are they serious about this?
EagerEyes.org: Visualization and Visual Communication
So what if every company in the work has announced that they are going to have a webpad on the market next year? I found this nifty webpad, well ok it runs CE, (but linux and qnx will run on the processor), but it does have some cool features like wireless connection with a broadband base. The best thing is you can buy it today. Dsscube
I agree with you that modem-only connectivity is a loser, but I don't agree that Ethernet is necessarily the right way to go.
You have this ultra-portable pad thing, and you want to wire it to the net? That's insane. These things cry for wireless. And it's not even an option.
Count me out of this one. (And that's too bad, 'cause the first company that gets it right will have me stampeding for the checkout counter.)
jim frost
jim frost
jimf@frostbytes.com
Maybe they include drivers to talk to a USB Ethernet device.