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First Thoughts On The Cybiko?
codepawn asks: "I saw an article in the Australian newspaper this morning that was about a handheld originally out of Russia that is apparently becoming BIG with kids in the USA. The article suggests it has potential to become BIG with bigger kids, too. The device, called Cybiko, communicates on its own network using short wave radio. Once enough people in an area have it they can communicate over a larger distance because their signals will make up to 10 hops over other people's cybikos(which in the USA appears to be about 1km radius but in Europe will be up to 10km radius because regulations allow a stronger signal). I've downloaded the free SDK for Linux (there is a Windows SDK also available) which is available from their Web site as an rpm but I haven't looked at it yet. Anyway, it sounds super cool and I was surprised that I hadn't heard about it on here. So what's the story? Does anyone have one? What is it like?" Last I checked, they were selling them for about $199 at the local Wal-Mart and I have seen commercials for these on American TV. I almost broke down and bought one and it looks like I may have to since I never mind playing with new toys (and the Linux SDK may make for some fun hacking...)
Now, pardon me for asking, but if somebody were to post this to an article talking about Puerto Rico or something, would they be marked as Flamebait, Troll, or wrose? What the fuck makes CmdrFucko think that we want to listen to his racist bullshit if we aren't even allowed to be racists ourselves here? Fucking free speech if you can afford it. Now the American way is the Slashdot way! Great, another fucking crumble.
Not recalled, just having a problem with market penetration. Think of it, you introduce the product at $149 and slowly drop the price to $99.
Retailers are gonna pull you of the shelf because you ate all their profit.
The product is good once you learn what to expect. The support is better than good. It's a fun thing to play with, but anyone that thinks it's a palm replacement is a bit "touched" (mental).
My hope is that they continue and find a way to licence the RF technology.
Here's a Moscow Times article on it
But you have to consider that they're mostly marketed to teens, especially girls that love to chat and have parents with lots of disposable income and little supervision (the parents, I mean).
So, you do end up wirelessly chatting with lots of teenage girls in your immediate vicinity. Some consider this a detterent, I consider it a feature!
P. Naughton
So now we need someone to code Bipedal Transfer Protocol.
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
Hilary Rosen's speech was about her love of money and her desire to roll around naked in a pile of money.
As everyone else here as said, they're more around the 99 dollar mark (USD of course). I've had a dialogue with of of the VPs of the Company about it and he let slip (?) that they also plan to offer an RF PC Linkage, so it can communicate wirelessly with a PC, 'surf the web', etc. And another guy at the Company hinted at a colour Cybiko using the same screen (or same type) as the GameBoy Colour -- if the units popularity warrants it.
I was also have an interesting discussion with some friends about making a relay protocol for the Cybikos, similar to Gnutella. If the unit you wanted to contact wasn't in you driect range, it would use shared routing tables to ping-pong the message through several Cybikos and relay it until it got to the one it was looking for.
Hilary Rosen's speech was about her love of money and her desire to roll around naked in a pile of money.
I just went to three stores - Best Buy, Office Max, and Office Depot. All three were out - and they were not sold out either.
Apparently Cybiko has recalled all the products. The people in each store confirmed this.
As to what is going on, your guess is as good as mine...
Went to yet another Best Buy and they were in the process of stocking them when I walked in. These were the new version 2 units - the ON/OFF switch is also the ESC key. I asked the guy stocking them if he knew what was up with this store recall thing and he said he had no clue - just that they were told to pack up all the units and send em back.
Oh well.
Anyway, you are right - it is aimed at kids - big time. But it is also just a pretty neat little hacking toy too. I have decided I need to get another one to play with the CyWIG. Not exactly sure how THAT will work, but I figure if I get enough of the things placed around, it will give some folks nearby some sort of email access. Could be a hoot...
I bet that if the Cybiko catches on, a patch will soon appear to allow the 'hop through my palm' feature be blocked. I, for one, would block it right away... why would I want other people to use my bandwith (potentially abusing it), and eat up my batteries with transmisions?
Don't get me wrong... I *know* that the same concept allows the internet (or the GNUTella network, for that matter) be what it is today... But if I'm away from home and have the need to access an email, check the news, or write a memo,
it'd be no good to have slow net access or run out of batteries because a couple of kids wanted to play Cybiko-Doom through my PDA.
As a Slashdot discussion grows longer, the probability of an analogy involving cars approaches one.
Palms are VERY overpriced devices. That's the reason why Handspring is selling so many Palm clones, as their organizers are sold with a reasonable profit margin.
Heck just compare : for 20% more than the price of a big Palm Vx (lowres gray scale screen, 8 MB),you can get a Pocket PC device with 32 MB, 65535 screen with a big resolution (240x320), CompactFlash slot, 16 bit stereo sound, etc... Palms are just plain overpriced, but people keep buying because of the brand.
Cheap, tiny handheld computers aimed at teens, with wireless capabilities... I think Lain had a pocket Navi like this, but with color :)
My main question is: if this thing can do all that and cost $99.95, why does a Palm (whatever, V? VII?) do the same stuff and cost 3x as much?
Take a look at the specs. Let's compare with the Handspring Visor. ($179.00)
The Visor uses a 16MHz Motorola Dragonball EZ.
The Visor quadruples this, with 2MB.
None built-in on the Visor, but 8MB and 16MB flash modules are available.
Visor's screen is 160x160, 53.34mm square, 16-level grayscale
Visor uses IR to communicate between units. In my experience, this is limited to a 4-foot line-of-sight between the units' IR lenses.
Springboard slot, lots of gizmos available.
Visor's USB cradle is faster.
Visor is 4.8" x 3.0" x 0.7"
Visor is actually heavier, at 5.4 oz.
The storage capacity seems to be the big factor. 512K isn't a whole lot of room to work with.
I still want one. I can see a lot of nifty applications for this, particularly once the Cybiko Wireless Internet Gates are available (see Xunker's post below).
--LordEq
Tho' your promise count for nothing
Perhaps Palm does need to watch out. I'm not sure if the threat is from Cybiko or not, though. Although the Cybiko has the features you mentioned, I don't think it's as quick or easy to use as my palm. In my opinion, it is not appropriate to carry around as a replacement for my Palm Pilot. For about a quarter of the price, though, it may be close.
regarding the expandability, there is a slot in the botton of the cybiko to insert upgrade cards. I think the only one available is a 1MB memory upgrade. (that helps). The slot looks a lot like PCMCIA, so perhaps soon we can start sticking all kinds of stuff in there.
There is a linux C SDK for the Cybiko, so as you mentioned, maybe if these things get into the right hands we'll have lots of cool apps and hacks for it.
I don't mean to talk the Cybiko down, I just don't think that it is an effective organizer, and of course there is not nearly the amount of software for it.
All your dangifiknow are belong to us.
If you want an organizer, get a Palm Pilot. If you want a toy, get a cybiko.
All your dangifiknow are belong to us.
And I like it, dammit! I've got a Palm IIIxe as well. I like the Cybiko a lot more than the palm for a lot of subjective reasons. I like the interface a /tad/ more. I like the keyboard. I was punching out poetry and stories like a madman (bus trips to/from work are boring :) once I broke down and used the little pointer thingie instead of my finger. I've not had a chance to try out the wireless networking, yet. The SDK is downloadable and apparently they're using gcc for it. I can't remember offhand. I got mine at Wal-Mart for $99.
That's the price listed on their online store. Maybe the walmart version comes with more crap. :-) It does look like a cool device. My main question is: if this thing can do all that and cost $99.95, why does a Palm (whatever, V? VII?) do the same stuff and cost 3x as much? (struck by insomnia, reading slashdot, urgh...).
--
Fuck Censorship.
News for Geeks in Austin, TX
The Japanese have a little hand-held device that they also marketed here, I do not know if it was successful. But using signal strength or some such, it allows people with similar interests to home in on each other in a crowd! Good idea. But the gadget had a very limited vocabulary.
The basic idea is, it transmits a code (or codes) and other units alert their owners when similar codes come within range. This could be enhanced with a signal-strength meter. You could have a screen full: a list of codes on the left with a bar graph of signal strengths.
With something like the Cybiko, it could just be one more minor feature. All that is necessary is a standard code. You know, SWF seeks WHWM or some such... or something very different... Science Major looking for like-minded people... the basic idea being that a standard code allows it to be automatic.
What else can we think of? I am sure there are MANY uses for something like the Cybiko.