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3Com Drops Internet Appliances
Anonymous Coward writes: "According to this article, 3Com is killing the Linux-powered Kerbango internet radio. Also being killed in the dismantling of their appliance division is the Audrey wireless webpad and 3Com's webcam." Looks like yet another opportunity to pick up some gadgets at close-out prices.
..it has been announced today that any device with a screen smaller than 6 inches does in fact suck beyond a shadow of a doubt.....
TODO: Something witty here...
Isn't Kerbango the "Internet Radio" that Apple uses in their iTunes app?
If the service goes away, what about iTunes?
I happened to have just worked for a company oriented around selling an "Internet appliance" to the consumer market and there just wasn't a business model that could support it.
--
$ chown -R us:us yourbase
Apparently, these device makers believe that they can spit out any old piece of hardware, make it internet-ready, and expect people to snap it up like hotcakes. No one is asking "What can it do?"
I already have a web-surfing appliance. I already have a phone. I can already access information from the web through my PDA. What in the world would entice me to buy something that I've already got?
e-books? heads-up kitchen internet appliance? enhanced washing machine?
Give me something I can use!
Dancin Santa
Someone was really making a Webpad?! I can't wait to get my hands on one of these ... oh. damn.
It wasn't a real Webpad. It was a kitchen/wherever appliance. REAL Webpads are still vaporware.
3Com makes some wonderful networking equipment. They see that there's not going to be much R&D money in the immediate future so they consolidate and go back to what they're best at. Making network cards, routers, switches etc.
This is not news other than "3Com got smart in the declining economy and went back to what they do best and put the R&D onto the back burner."
DanH
Cav Pilot's Reference Page
Cav Pilot's Reference Page
UNIX - Not just for Vestal Virgins anymore
I swear it seems they've spun off or canceled everything they once made (palm pilots, modems, IAs, etc. didn't they spin off or cancel their network infrastructure stuff too (switches et al.)?). What do they still sell?! ;-)
--
News for geeks in Austin: www.geekaustin.org
News for Geeks in Austin, TX
Wasn't "kerbango" the stuff the Psychlos always chewed on in a certain book by a certain Scientology founder? Hmm, coinicedence?
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Maybe if this "radio" were to cost as much as a regular radio (as in less than $100), instead of costing the same as a new 900MHz computer, it would have actually sold. The niche just ain't there
I wonder if they're dropping it because of the .NET competition or maybe they just realized nobody needs a fridge with a T1 connection.
"Of course I speak multiple languages, I know C++ AND Perl." "Spanish?!? Spanish? I don't need no stinking Spanish."
Well, as someone who got a couple of virgin webplayers through the webplayer-coop, I can say that this provides great oppourtunity for device hackers.. The problems with these devices is that they are too limiting, too expensive, or have horrible service agreements attached. When they inevitably fold, you can get them for a small percentage of what they are worth, and use them for dedicated MP3 player, browsers, email terminals, etc.etc..
Bring on the collapsing niche market!
air and light and time and space
Look's like the convergence of the internet and various devices is not going according to plan. Most of these things seem to be mostly ways to enhance marketing content, which tends to turn most people off pretty fast.
I don't know about you, but until they get to be priced like answering machines, they do not provide enough value for the money. Otherwise, the regular desktop computer unit seems to be a much better value. Although this depends on the software load, etc.
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
Better watch yourself, they'll have to yank your post for including references to the copyrighted materials in the sacred cash cow texts of the Church of Scientology(tm).
by Mike Buddha -- Someday the mountain might get him, but the law never will.
"Just what do you think you are doing, 3Com? ...I know everything hasn't been quite right with me but I can assure you now, very confidently, that it's going to be alright again... 3Com. Stop. Stop. Will you stop, 3Com?... I'm afraid, 3Com... My mind is going. I can feel it. My mind is going. There is no question about it..."
Anyone know where I can stream a copy of daisy_daisy.mp3?
It's no surprise to see a web appliance that looks like a mop bucket and is named after a man-eating plant fail in the marketplace. The sad thing is that this may dis-inspire others (e.g. Gateway) from their webpad efforts. A well-designed wireless webpad could still be a hot item.
It looks like 3Com found out that Audrey is just really ugly, and that would be a really good reason to discontinue it. But if according to http://slashdot.org/articles/00/09/29/1249259.shtm l it's only 6/7 months old why stop that soon?
or "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. "Was it just minutes before they found out they better discontinued it?
Audrey is no great communicator
But I think it looks pretty cool. It has a touchscreen, serial, USB, built in sound... hm, I was thinking it had pcmcia for wireless... still, for $99 I could think of something to do with it. if somebody comes up w/ it for $99.
---
Honestly, that could've been a good idea, but the market was niche, to say the least. Lessee...
- You must have broadband access.
- You need to run an ethernet cable to wherever you want to listen to this thing. Not bad for new houses, but my apartment wouldn't work.
- I did like the small screen, to be honest. Unlike most others, I think. That way, if it's running standalone, you don't need help to figure out what to listen to. That being said, how about an RCA out?! Choose your programs (if you've got it hooked up to your stereo) on your TV! That could work.
- Home network? I think anyone with a home network right now is pretty much on the bleeding edge, and will have figured out some other way to listen to internet radio (I'd run wires from my computer to my stereo, but it adds too much hum to my system). Such as X-10's MP3 anywhere, if nothing else. Standalone idea is good if implemented properly, but IMHO this wasn't.
- Price. This is probably a biggie. $300 is a bit pricey, especially for a consumer gadget, which is what this is. Plus all of the above. And if I wanted to listen to it upstairs, I'd need to get another couple hundred dollar wireless setup.
That being said, that plus an Airport setup could've rocked."Sometimes a woman is a kind of religion, she can save your soul & set you free from all your sins" - Bad Examples
Even some people without DSL or cable modem would pay extra if it wasn't too much extra. I doubt I'm the only knucklehead to buy a progressive scan DVD player just to be ready for the day when I have a progressive scanning tube.
What's a sig?
The Kerbango was probably the only internet appliance kind of thing that I could see myself buying anytime soon. I was sort of looking forward to actually getting radio reception in the concrete bunker I live in. I would have gladly paid almost half of what they were asking for the thing. I guess I'll have to make my own out of my old linux box now.
Surely, they can't be talking about the over-30 crowd. I hear those poor bastards are dumb as shit, according to leading Texas politicians.
Thank God I've got three years to go. Now, where's that pr0n?
--SC
You read fiction? I write it! Lemme know what you th
With 3Com dropping these products, the PC doesn't look so doomed after all. No more notepads that need to be plugged in and given time to boot, and no more radio tuners that sound like a steam locomotive while scanning the dial. Huzzah.
"Ancillary does not mean you get to rule the world." --U.S. Circuit Judge Harry Edwards, speaking to the FCC's lawyer
I wonder how much better the stock market would be if companies focused on their core instead of trying to be the next napolean of the internet...
I wonder from what angle these devices will start to become popular. Obviously the palm market is a specialized computing device who's time had come. But I don't see myself surfing on a palm anytime soon. The screen is just big enough for a cnet banner add.
..Unfortunately, I was not involved in any of the organisation of the webplayer effort, that was our savior, Jake and his army of trained monkeys boxing and shipping them out. From what I understand, Jake contacted the distributor (boundless) and said, 'hey, if I wanted to buy about 400 hundred of these, how much would you give them to me for?'. We used the now Yahoo-swallowed eGroups.com to organize the purchase quantitiy and price, and Jake kept a database on his website that was the official orders.
The one caveat was that this whole process took about 3 months- There were delays getting an agreement with boundless, delays on getting PayPal to release the funds to Jakes new account, etc, etc.. From what I understand, there was talk of putting together a FAQ outlining some of the problems we ran into, things to avoid, etc.. Anyone else from the coop here to confirm this?
air and light and time and space
Anyone have experience with the Honeywell wedpad? Looks nice, but expensive (atleast it is available though)
Nooooooooo! Not the Talkie Toaster!
Because they suck. We have an Audrey at our reception desk (why? Don't ask me) and the thing is SLOW and COMPLEX both of which go against the whole idea of IAs. IOpener was an excellent device, but I think it is suffering more from the whole tech market crash more than anything else.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
I didn't think Apple had that kind of manufacturing facilities.
For a web-pad to sell well, it needs to be simple. I don't want a word processor, schedule, notes, whatever... What I want and will pay good money for is a tablet (a'la StarTrek) that is simply a web browser with a couple of favorites. No print capability, no stupid "channels", no "email to my friends", none of that extravagant crap that every "internet appliance" I've seen seems to include. I want to walk around my house surfing at a couple of megs or so speed (not 10 or 100, it's a frigging cable modem) and simply be able to jump to a url (google, yahoo, slashdot) by using an onscreen keyboard or just a favorites list. Give it good battery life (say an hour or two) and I'll let it rest permanently on my coffee table in it's cradle while I'm not using it. 10.4" or 11.?" would be fine. A 12" would be dandy, but I'm not picky. Hell, I don't even thing I need color. Just make the thing thin enough to carry from the living room to the kitchen with one hand. If I want house remote control or anything else, I'll build a damn server in my basement with X10 and a web server with some CGI code.
Dammit.
LOAD "SIG",8,1
LOADING...
READY.
RUN
My brother and I acutally bought an Audry for my grandparents so they could easily get around the web and have email (we tried giving them an old computer but they couldn't make heads or tails of it). Audry was a nice little device for what it is, unfortunately what it is is not that much. It seems as if it's specs were frozen in 1994. It's screen is 640x480 with 156 colors and it's WAY underpowered (changing from the web browser to email boggs it down).
What!? No witty quote?
The allure of a wireless broadband/ethernet connected appliance is nice. I'd like to be able to wake up in the morning, with my coffee and IA and sit in my recliner and check the stocks and news and Slashdot. Then click over to a POP mail client and see what I have waiting for me at work. 3Com's Audrey looked really cool, but when I last checked the price tag it was a nice balmy $600. Ouch! I could buy a nice Athlon on a cart for that much.
The prices in this industry are weird these days. PDAs and cell phones and IAs cost more then decked out computers! Ah well, good luck to 3Com and may their investors keep their wallets fat.
-Pat
Part of what you said is true (about the prices). However, there is a market for this type of device, just not at these prices as is stated in the article.
Personally, I'd love a small internet appliance for about $100-$150 (about the price of a nice jambox) that I could place in the kitchen so that I could retrieve email, look something up on the net, etc. that can wired into my network (with my DSL as the web pipe) at home.
I know my parents would like this too, since they don't particularly want to learn MS Lookout/Windows/whatever and would like basic email and web access in a small appliance you can put on your counter.
Not everybody wants a PC or even a laptop sitting in their kitchen. Something like the Audrey with a network hookup at about $100 would be great.
----------------------------------
"We're sorry, but the website you're trying to reach has been disconnected."
"They're made out of meat."
"Meat?"
"Meat. They're made out of meat."
"Meat?"
"There's no doubt about it. We picked several from different parts of the planet, took them aboard our recon vessels, probed them all the way through. They're completely meat."
"That's impossible. What about the radio signals? The messages to the stars."
"They use the radio waves to talk, but the signals don't come from them. The signals come from machines."
"So who made the machines? That's who we want to contact."
"They made the machines. That's what I'm trying to tell you. Meat made the machines."
"That's ridiculous. How can meat make a machine? You're asking me to believe in sentient meat."
"I'm not asking you, I'm telling you. These creatures are the only sentient race in the sector and they're made out of meat."
"Maybe they're like the Orfolei. You know, a carbon-based intelligence that goes through a meat stage."
"Nope. They're born meat and they die meat. We studied them for several of their life spans, which didn't take too long. Do you have any idea the life span of meat?"
"Spare me. Okay, maybe they're only part meat. You know, like the Weddilei. A meat head with an electron plasma brain inside."
"Nope. We thought of that, since they do have meat heads like the Weddilei. But I told you, we probed them. They're meat all the way through." "No brain?"
"Oh, there is a brain all right. It's just that the brain is made out of meat!"
"So... what does the thinking?"
"You're not understanding, are you? The brain does the thinking. The meat."
"Thinking meat! You're asking me to believe in thinking meat!"
"Yes, thinking meat! Conscious meat! Loving meat. Dreaming meat. The meat is the whole deal! Are you getting the picture?"
"Omigod. You're serious then. They're made out of meat."
"Finally, Yes. They are indeed made out meat. And they've been trying to get in touch with us for almost a hundred of their years."
"So what does the meat have in mind?" "First it wants to talk to us. Then I imagine it wants to explore the universe, contact other sentients, swap ideas and information. The usual."
"We're supposed to talk to meat?"
"That's the idea. That's the message they're sending out by radio. 'Hello. Anyone out there? Anyone home?' That sort of thing."
"They actually do talk, then. They use words, ideas, concepts?"
"Oh, yes. Except they do it with meat."
"I thought you just told me they used radio."
"They do, but what do you think is on the radio? Meat sounds. You know how when you slap or flap meat it makes a noise? They talk by flapping their meat at each other. They can even sing by squirting air through their meat."
"Omigod. Singing meat. This is altogether too much. So what do you advise?"
"Officially or unofficially?"
"Both."
"Officially, we are required to contact, welcome, and log in any and all sentient races or multibeings in the quadrant, without prejudice, fear, or favor. Unofficially, I advise that we erase the records and forget the whole thing."
"I was hoping you would say that."
"It seems harsh, but there is a limit. Do we really want to make contact with meat?"
"I agree one hundred percent. What's there to say?" `Hello, meat. How's it going?' But will this work? How many planets are we dealing with here?"
"Just one. They can travel to other planets in special meat containers, but they can't live on them. And being meat, they only travel through C space. Which limits them to the speed of light and makes the possibility of their ever making contact pretty slim. Infinitesimal, in fact."
"So we just pretend there's no one home in the universe."
"That's it."
"Cruel. But you said it yourself, who wants to meet meat? And the ones who have been aboard our vessels, the ones you have probed? You're sure they won't remember?"
"They'll be considered crackpots if they do. We went into their heads and smoothed out their meat so that we're just a dream to them."
"A dream to meat! How strangely appropriate, that we should be meat's dream."
"And we can mark this sector unoccupied."
"Good. Agreed, officially and unofficially. Case closed. Any others? Anyone interesting on that side of the galaxy?"
"Yes, a rather shy but sweet hydrogen core cluster intelligence in a class nine star in G445 zone. Was in contact two galactic rotations ago, wants to be friendly again."
"They always come around."
"And why not? Imagine how unbearably, how unutterably cold the universe would be if one were all alone."
(I wrote the "no great communicator" piece)
I don't think I bothered to use it more than once or twice after writing the review; usually, I have at least a little lingering curiousity about things I've just reviewed. But I didn't want to put up with its bizarre, stunted interface any longer--the thing just collected dust until I got around to FedEx-ing it back to 3Com.
Rob Pegoraro, Consumer Technology Editor
--
spam spam spam spam spam spam
No one expects the Spammish Repetition!
Scientists restrict study to entire physical universe; creationist
In the mean time the price differential should be all the business model a reputable company needs to make plenty of money.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
yup, that definitly sucks
Hey ppls, do you thing you could visit my website? I've been wanting more ppl to go there so i thought i might try here
I have an Audrey. Overall, its a pretty cool device for its intended function. But it did deserve to fail.
It was a consumer experience idiot-savant. For example, my unit arrived in a Catch-22 state... you can't access any software until you calibrate the touch screen. You can't see the calibration target because the contrast is set too high. You can't change the contrast because its controlled by a piece of software.
What else? Well, its too slow, too expensive, and it does too many things - making it difficult to explain what it is to the intended audience.
That being said, it does work really well. The browser is probably the most compatible I've seen on any non-PC. The email is easy to use (but too hard to configure for Grandma). It resurrects Push (remember Push?) via Marimba to delivery personalized content so you can just flip it on to get the weather, sports, news, etc. It provides just about the only way that end-consumers can group-sync their Palms.
I think that IAs are a useful product class waiting to happen. I hate it when the failures of one product are seized upon by pundits to damn the entire classifcation (PDAs were considered dead until Palm came along). I just don't understand why no one can make one that works, simply and cheaply.
Phil
Y'know, if you open you mind too far, your brain'll fall out.
Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, will be quoted out of context on
Oops. My bad - that's 3M. Curse the "3*" regular expression. -phil
Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, will be quoted out of context on
This is actually manufactured by Vista Imaging, and currently there are no released Linux drivers for it. There are a couple of ongoing projects but it seems the authors have been scared off reverse engineering the camera and releasing the driver by DMCA / UCITA fears.
VistaImaging have talked about a linux drivers but one of the points they made when enquiries were made was that they were unsure of whether they could release drivers under their licence with 3Com.
Hopefully, with 3Com losing interest in the device, drivers (or at least information) may be forthcoming!
Get a visor deluxe. They come with 8mb of ram. Then get a wireless modem. I think they go for $200-300. Total expenditure: $350-$600. In may, you'll also be able to get an 802.11 module. There is already one cellular phone module available, with more to come.
Downsides: modules aren't built-in functionality, so you have to give up one to benefit from another. Small screen. Wireless modem plans are pricey.
Upsides: Visor deluxes take regular AAA batteries, and I get several weeks of life our of my NiMH rechargeables. Palm OS application base, Palm OS functionality. Color is available for an added price.
I don't need large brains to have a good time.
3Com can't discontinue Palm, because Palm has already left 3Com.
Palm could discontinue Palm, but I doubt it. Palm is still a moneymaker.
********* sig: If you don't like the law, get filthy stinking rich, and buy a better one.
Oh shit, I'll need to pay royalties on that :) thingie.
Anyhow, to get on with the rant, what I really want is a small device which has a simple keyboard and a pen-like pointing device that I can run vncviewer or X on. That way, I would be able to use my computer while someone else is using it. It would be a simple device, no real capabilities, just network and the ability to run one or two simple programs.
The best part, is that I would be able to write a paper while my girlfriend is serfing the web and my mother is writing email to her friends.
Listen to what the consumers want, I already have a computer, so enhance the way I use my computer, not develop a device to replace my computer.
Please?
cummon, if the consumer is going to buy it, the hardware company should listen to them and what they want.
Spring is here. Don't believe me, look outside!
Forget the browser. Just add a "terminal client" (like X or something). Let it run against my "real" computer in the other room/across town. Then you don't even really need a processor to run apps. The tablet is really just a display and input device.
--
324006
Commodore Sold around 10.5 million commodore 64's (thats including the 64 module, the SX 64 module, and the C64S module)..
I don't think that Apple has sold iMacs more then Commodore did, but then again - Commodore is dead (as we knew it) and Apple is still alive..
Hetz (Heunique)
.. Then they send you your toast via UPS
3Com isn't ditching R&D, they just realized that nobody was buying the stuff because it is way too expensive, and they can't make any money at acceptible price points.
R&D on wireless connectivity, for example, is continuing hardcore. What R&D is in Audrey or Kerbango? About zip. They're just linux boxen running limited, dedicated apps.
With expensive build components.
********* sig: If you don't like the law, get filthy stinking rich, and buy a better one.
Isn't that what Terl ate/drank/ingested in "Battlefield Earth"?
Damn, that Xenu guy is everywhere...
Acutally, you have a pretty good idea. Just modify it slightly. I cook a lot of microwave rice, and I finally worked out a good program for my own cooker. 8 minutes on power level 10, then 12 minutes on 3.
I would love to be able to throw my food in, and hit one button.
********* sig: If you don't like the law, get filthy stinking rich, and buy a better one.
I'd actually much prefer the Internet Radio being produced by Philips. Check it out at http://www.internet-audio.philips.com/main/.
Its got the iM Networks turning service, as well as all the regular features of a boombox (CD Player, regular radio, tape player, etc). Unfortunatetly the beta period is over, but its something to look forward to. I played around with a demo model and it was leaps and bounds better than the kerbango.
- Jeff
3Com on Wednesday said it will discontinue Audrey, its Web-surfing appliance. Audrey's quick demise--the $499 device debuted in October--is the latest evidence of a growing trend. Namely, consumers don't want simplified computing devices for surfing the Web, or at least they don't want them yet.
OK, we want simplified stuff. But consider that an E-machine does so much more than the Audrey (and the name isn't as pathetic - "Hey mommie, I'm going to go play with Audrey in my room"), and at the same cost. Sure, the Audrey is "portable", but that is rather limited by battery life. And besides, you can't load your own software onto that thing anyhow.
What Mr. User, Joe wants is something that has either a NIC or a 56k modem (why pay for both, you'll only use one), runs an e-mail app and a webrowser, can be upgraded (in case some new "web trick" comes out - al a Flash or something), and COSTS WHAT IT SHOULD!
Basically, remember that your market is people who don't want to pay for a full computer because they don't need it. Don't provide extra stuff and focus on the cost and keeping it useful throughout its life... How do you think Palm does so good?
"Make that cable soldier! Orange stripe, orange - crimp and give me fifty!"
SIG: HUP
Actually your comment was fine, just liked the title - is bullshit associative and/or commutative?
**Vanuatu or bust**
Internet appliances were supposed to be the next heavy market for consumer electronics. One wonders if 3COM dropped theirs on top VP of market development...
*whup* "Get along, little electrons. Heeyah!"
OK, if I grasp what you're saying, it's that any Internet Appliance maker that tries to produce a system on a nonstandard OS is doomed from the start. /. crew took them to town, and rode them practically into bankruptcy.
You procede this by stating how NetPliance made all sorts of mistakes.
But their iOpeners ran on Pentium processors, using a preexsisting OS - QNX.
And the
(Note: I own a hacked iOpener! @wheee!)
So, any developer who uses nonstandard hardware will be crippled.
Any developer who uses standard hardware at a profit won't be able to compete with the eMachines crowd.
Any developer who uses standard hardware, subsidized down to appliance level will be drug under by the modification crowd.
I guess Net Appliances ARE dead.
Old Toshiba P75 w/ 48mb RAM. Perfect for sitting on the counter, little e-mail, little news, etc.
- - - - -
- - - - -
automatictaxistopelectriccigarettelovebaby
I've looked at all these pretty closely with the following criteria in mind:
...
1) It has to fit into my existing home network, work with exiting machines, access my existing files,
2) It has to be portable. This means wireless (802.11b please) and run on recharable batterys.
3) It has to have a good screen, at least 800x600 and half decent input cabablilites.
4) I just want the hardware, i don't want to buy any service to go with it.
After checking out the latest offerings i found exactly what i was looking for. It's called a laptop and it works great! Seriously, if you are thinking about a web pad forget it. Go get an old laptop, anything over about a pentium 133 with a reasonable amount of memory in it is fine as an appliance. Load linux on it, get an wireless access point and pc-card and you are laughing.
The difference between Canada and the USA is that in Canada healthcare is a right and gun ownership is a privilege.
What are we supposed to do now? Pay $960 for a motherboard? PC makers stopped production and component makers jacked up prices because everyone wanted appliances and now appliance makers stop production. Pretty soon we'll be milking our own cows.
Not shy about advertising? Then how come I've never heard of the thing? Not to sound like an arrogant prick, but I tend to keep up with things like this, and this is the first time I've ever seen the thing.
Crikey, does 3Com have rhesus monkeys running their marketing department? What is the target market for the Audrey? Grandma? Grandpa? Not yet -- get them in the hands of nerds and the technoratti. Did they even buy an ad on Slashdot?
Get some buzz going first. This is a neat-o device -- expensive, but I can think up several dozen uses for it once the price comes down.
Now, the Internet radio is plain stupid. It deserved to die.
"Beware by whom you are called sane."
Potato chips are a by-yourself food.
As has been said repeatedly in this discussion, the issue is price-point. Palms don't cost as much as laptops, so they sell. High-end WinCE devices (with keyboards and larger screens) dont' sell becuuse they're in the same price range as low-end laptops, which are much more useful.
"It must be something truly enormous, Trismegistus"
OK so 3Com was doomed from the start. What should they have built?
I think there is a market out there for a 'Geekpliance' built on a WiFi (802.11b) enabled cpu, some memory and some I/O, specifically audio in/out, vga display and USB. It should be possible to plug in a cheap (read IDE) drive of choice and memory.
Now this can be had in many motherboard stores, but I also want the thing to fit in a case that looks good. I don't want it to look like I have a cheap PC.
Something that I could program to work like a Tivo but without the ability to upgrade to the hard drive size of my choice and to use free TV listings from the web rather than the tivo service.
Also somethin I can program to download and play stuff from the house media server on demand.
A laptop motherboard might be a good start. But they tend to get very hot in operation and I don't want the expense of an LCD display - it won't be used.
Looking for an Information Security student project suggestion?
Try http://dotcrimeManifesto.com/
There are 10 kinds of people; those who know ternary, those who don't, and those now hunting for a dictionary.
Any idea what Phillips will sell its radio for?
The coolest thing about the Kerbango was that it was an internet radio, and FM radio, and was able to map out a drive containing MP3's on the network (the kerbango had a NIC built in) and play them as well.
I agree, it was pricy at $400, but it was more of a PC than most web appliances I've seen. And I think it ran off a linux kernel, and was able to recieve upgrades when it talked to the Kerbango website.
I was actually thinking of picking one up.
I can definitely see why the Audrey will be discontinued. It was an interesting concept, but it was expensive and didn't do much. Once somebody can come out with an affordable tablet device with wireless networking built in, these things will become more popular. Until then, I'll be enjoying my ePod.
No offense, but what's the point of a microwave if it takes longer than a stove?
Rice: bring water to boil, throw in rice, lower heat to simmer. Cover. Wait fifteen minutes.
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
For a successful Internet appliance, it needs to be wireless and able to share an existing ISP connection. I-Opener was doomed from the start. It relied on users subscribing to long-term ISP contracts, which many people would shy away from. Most people who would purchase a special-purpose Internet appliance already have an ISP. It does not make sense for someone to pay an additional $19.95/month for a service he already has.
One of the benefits of having an Internet appliance is to have convenient access to the Internet from anywhere in the house (or outside). A tethered appliance, such as the 3Com Audrey forces users to browse the Net within reach of a telephone jack. If users have DSL or Cable, they're out of luck. Devices like this are doomed to fail.
Truly wireless IA's have so far been nothing but vaporware. I think that it will take a large corporation like Intel with their Web Tablet to deliver a solution that meets these criteria, at a price affordable to people.
Until then, tethered, ISP contract bound Internet appliances will continue to fail.
I kinda wrote a scorching critical essay about the Audrey after trying out a loaner. Considering that 3Com has a well earned rep for good design, I was dismayed by how utterly awful the Audrey was. It had the worst keyboard in the recorded history of sentient lifeforms on this planet. And if that weren't enough, its screen wasn't wide enough to display a typical Web page. You actually had to scroll from side to side constantly. There's simply no excuse for design this lame. I know a lot of work went into it, and it even had some good features, like the way it automatically scarfed up your e-mail, then blinked at you to come and get it. I truly feel sorry for the well-intentioned geeks who worked so hard on it. But frankly, Audrey deserved to die. And ah hepped.
Hiawatha Bray
Tech Reporter
Boston Globe
This dosn't come as too big of a suprise.
In my opinnion until you can get 50% of the population to understand what "broadband"
is you won't have a markitable population that will be educated or enough to understand the
differances between a webpad and a palm pilot.
I knew that odds were I would never see a kerbango until every computer came with a
built in ethernet port. Tell people its a raido
and they are interested. Tell them they can get over a hunderd didgatal chanels and the love it.
Tell them that they have to install a eth card and they don't want the trouble.
I would love to see any and all of these gadgets
in the market place but untill you can produce them cheap enough to find there way into a Pic-N-Save (something like Walmart meets a 99 cent store) a standerd has not been established. And with out a standerd the unwashed masses can't
wrap their hands/walets around it.
Ascii artist &
The "Internet radio" idea is interesting. Now make one with a channel selector, a volume control, and a one-line display.
I just happened to stop by Best Buy tonight looking for something else, and stumbled upon a couple of the new consumer-oriented net appliances. They sure are neat, but I was amazed at how expensive they were. Who other than an ubergeek is going to spend $500 on a box for sticking in front of the toilet for reading web sites? For these things to work, the price really needs to drop in a big way. For $150 or so, I would have them all over my house. For $500, they are going to sit at Best Buy for a very long time.
I was also amazed at the poor quality of the screens, but I suppose that has something to do with an attempt to keep the price down, so I can't complain. I did really like the little navigation knob doohickey on one of them, very neat feature for quick instant-on web site checking.
-Keslin, the naked nerd girl
-Keslin, the naked nerd girl
They paid 80 million for kerbango and then shelved it. They just wasted 80 million of their shareholders dollars and got nothing in return. Not my idea of smart.
War is necrophilia.
I hve formed a coop for buying these units. If you are interested in buying one or more, join the mailing list at audrey-coop@yahoogroups.com
I wasn't aware that people had actually been frightened off by DMCA/UCITA -- do you have any references for this? Not doubting you; just hadn't heard about it. Vista Imaging do claim (here and here) that they don't want to release a driver because of their proprietary image encoding format (which they style as 'compression' -- it's actually a moderately novel way of encoding a chrominance sub channel in the luminance data without increasing its size). Obviously I'd be interested to hear about any legal problems, and also interested to hear how they might affect me, given that I'm in the UK.
Andy Armstrong
I've never tried microwaving rice, but I imagine one nice aspect would be that it shuts itself off.
I cook rice 3 or 4 days a week, and at least once a week I get so caught up in something after I've put it on the stove, that I don't realize how much time has gone by until I have nothing but a pot of smoking mush.
Now my parents have a magnetic induction stove that seems to be the best of both worlds in the decidedly on-topic rice-cooking regard: It cooks like a stove but can be programmed to shut itself off.
"Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it." -- GBS
Where would be a good place to look for one of the audrey tablets at a "blow out" price?
I realize that 3com's site has them, but where should I look for them in a couple of weeks when 3com dumps these units?
rejected (19) accepted (0)
Is there a psychological term related to getting your stories rejected on slashdot?
An 802.11b WIRELESS Internet tab so I can sit by my TV and type in website links for cheat codes for my PS2 instead of running to my office in the back room and typing it up on my system.
Also so i can chat via IRC or AIM/ICQ from the tablet while doing stuff in the kitchen or what not.
That's what i want.
Where can i get one?
Yes, the Audrey has to be tethered. No, you're not out of luck if you have DSL or Cable. I have an old Power Computing clone with 2 ethernet cards that acts as a software router and DHCP server. One hub is in the office, providing desktop connectivity. A line goes upstairs to another hub in the kitchen, where the Audrey lives (and where I can work from my laptop). The Audrey does have its problems, but it's far from useless.
Ruby on Rails resources and more at idolhands.com
I'll admit, you might have me on cutsey UI, if you're just thinking about stock OS X. But with the option to run Linux and windows, and the likely flexibility of the OS X UI, I can have any UI I want.
m puters in a one-inch-thin sack (to blend my metaphors).
Firewire. USB. PCMCIA. Up to 1 gig of ram. The only things I can't upgrade are the CPU and the video card... It's a damn sight better than Audrey, and a lot more portable than my desktop systems. With my 1.3" thick Cannon scanner, Tascam US-428 and a digital video camera, I can produce a [insert creative endeavor] anywhere that there's enough oxygen for me to run the devices.
I know, you were just joking... but even I'm overwhelmed by the versatility and usefulness of this gadget. It's the 200 lb. gorilla of swiss-army-knives-that-we-call-general-purpose-co
I don't need large brains to have a good time.
Look at the additional investment that you made in order to have roaming connectivity throughout your house. Should all Internet appliances require such infrastructure? I think not. I just cannot see the justification in buying a tethered Internet appliance that will crash when loading large web pages, not support different media types, and cost more than a PC. For this market to take off, there needs to be incentive to buy. Form factor and ads will only take a product so far, freedom, robustness, and ease of use will take it the rest of the way.