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HP Jornada 560 Series
Blanche writes: "infoSync has got a photo and confirmed specifications for the new HP Jornada 560 series of handhelds, which will be the first PDA to be delivered with Pocket PC 2002 OS - also known as Merlin. On top of this; the savvy gadget are also rumored to be provided with speech-recognition technology."
This unit looks very good indeed!
Does anyone know the size? The only things I dislike about PocketPCs is that they're waaay bigger than my Palm Vx.
If HP has managed to reduce the size to something Palm like, they'll have a winner on their hands.
It looks really cool! I just hope its more stable than HP's printers..
Great, two weeks after I buy my cassiopeia someone else makes up something new.
Guess this will always keep happening anyway.
But speech recognition? I've tried quite a few speech recognition things and while most of them were fun to play around with fun usually turns into frustration when some browser decides it needs to open 20 new windows if you cough. Besides, most commands are achieved a lot faster by keystrokes than by trying to convince the computer you want to do something useful for a change.
-- Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes.
Another thing to consider is that HP handelds are reasl guzzlers, a fact that is more important than most people realise.
One of the major reasons why I chose the Handspring was the fact that I can get up to a month between battery changes. THis means less chance of losing my data if I'm away from my home computer for a week or so. (The downside is that it uses AAA alkalines, so it's not as green as I'd like).
Unless HP, Casio and Microsoft address these issues, I'm sticking with Palm-based handhelds.
I need some money. Stupid school.
I had a momentary fit of sickening capitalist greed. It passed. Ok i feel better now.
--I assume full responsibility for my actions, except the ones that are someone else's fault.
now i will have to trash my ipaq like i had to trash my m505, palmIII and Pocketviewer before...
as far as i can see the market for PDA will never be saturated enough to prevent companies to throw new tech on the market...
and waht about this merlin. i am perfectly satisfied with the wide array of applications for PalmOS (and WinCE - although its a crappy OS there are plenty of apps). Will Merlin be as well supported as these to OSes or will it be as proprietary as Casios Pocketviewer where the sync function was only used for syncing Outlook (no Linux support) for there were simply no apps i could sync? Oh yeah.. speech recognition... i think that changes EVERYTHING...
".Sig Stealer" was here
Why not buy some NiMH AAA batteries and a charger? I picked up a couple of sets on eBay for the price of pizza delivery and a charger at Wal-Mart that does 8 batteries at once for $20.00. I also picked up some AA size for my Nikon digicam.
I'm no longer buying batteries, at the NiMH sets last much longer than alkalines or even lithiums.
STOP . AMERICA . NOW
Did infoSync verify all specifications? And how thoroughly did they verify them?
I just heard sad news on talk radio - Horror/fiction writer Stephen King was found dead in his Maine home this morning. I'm sure we'll all miss him - even if you didn't read his books you've probably enjoyed one of his movies. Truly an American icon.
If it uses AAA alkalines, you can buy then in many places, and ou don't have to carry any charger with your PDA.
But chalk up another vote for dragon, assuming you just dictate with it. And I wouldn't be surprised to see whatever comes after XP to come with voice recognition.
--Jimmy has fancy plans; and pants to match.
This is /., and it's reporting on a WinCE based PDA without any windows bashing going on ?
/. has grown up ? I aplaude this, because although Win has absolutely nothing to do on a Server/Workstation/PC, WinCE, is AFAIK actually a pretty good OS, unlike its bigger brothers.
Could someone please wake me up.
Or does this mean that
hmmm....the new Pocket PC OS is codenamed 'Merlin', and will contain speech recognition technology. that sounds exactly the same as OS/2 Warp v4.0. OS/2 lives! undoubtedly the Pocket PC OS 2003 edition will be based on CP/M, and feature floppy disk technology.
Intern (in cracking pre-pubescent voice): Yes sir!
2 hours later
Intern: I'm done sir. What do you think?
HP executive: sniff I can smell the cow shit! Good job! Now get cracking on some ugly PC cases!
Intern: No problem sir. This just comes natural to me.
saru mo ki kara ochiru
From the /. front page link:
By now, the screenshot on the left side probably has you quite geared up - and you're dying to know why it looks so fancy if Pocket PC 2002 isn't supposed to be all that. Well, the truth is that this screenshot is not taken from Pocket PC 2002, but instead is an XP skin running on top of Snoopsoft's Dashboard application which alters not only the appearance but also the function of the Today screen of the Pocket PC OS. The Dashboard skin is created by web designer Ard-Jan Barnas, and additionally, a free application called wisBar adds functionality to the title bar.
And the reason for why we've mislead you a bit? Well, this is how we - and probably numerous others - would like Pocket PC 2002 to look, with increased functionality compared to the Today screen as it is today. Hopefully, Pocket PC 2002 will have this kind of functionality built-in, but it's hard to say exactly what will be in the new operating system as Microsoft has done its best to keep the lid on it.
It is rumoured that the next iPAQ will have BlueTooth built in, as well as a host of other features. I currently work on evaluating Compaq gadgets for the executives of one of our clients, and we've been told to hold off on giving them the current iPAQ with all the addone (Nokia BlueTooth) because the new model du late tis year will have it built in. They will also include a better performing battery.
...Gee at Java One we were told it was the code name for the JDK1.4 beta that is currently out. Looks like another Sun - MS lawsuit in the works!!
As always HardOCP comes through with a great review here They put the P4 up a notch (OF COURSE) and also put it up against an A4 @ 1.4GHz. Basically a lot of the same, but you can see that this is by no means a "win" for intel as some reviews have put it.
The ultimate network admin tool needs HELP!
Sounds like a good Palm competitor, except this thing will actually be able to playback mp3s with software. But hasn't Sharp or someone already released unit like this?
Flash back to the Newton. They put all the buttons on the bottom of the screen. The close-box? Bottom right (or left for lefties). Why? Because you can tap the buttons without your hand obscuring the screen. Hey, maybe it was slow, but at least they thought about the interface.
This is something that so few palmtop developers can get right. Another example (just to be ecumenical) is the truly beautiful Palm app DrawIt... the toolbars are inscrutably along the top of the screen, so you can't actually see your drawing while you tap a new tool.
Come on, guys... the palmtop is not the desktop, the stylus is not a mouse (thank heavens!).
Microsoft often abuses popular names and words that have some established meanings in some nearby area to confuse the heck out of users -- bright example of that is "Digital Nervous System" that seems to "share" an acronym with Domain Name System that happens to predate Microsoft's definition by a decade, and, while mentioned a lot, probably isn't clearly to its target audience.
Now where have I seen the word "Merlin" very close to PDAs, but not exactly a PDA-related item last time? Wasn't it a PC version of a popular Minstrel PDA CDPD modem, made by Novatel? Indeed, it is! And, just like with "DNS" and other cases, I don't think that it's a coincidence -- it may not be illegal, but it's hijacking someone else's trademark with the goal to make users think that Microsoft's product is related to something they have heard about.
Contrary to the popular belief, there indeed is no God.
So you're theory is that the code name for the next WinCE OS was purposely named after a modem that 99.9% of people have never even heard of? Wow.
the thing is that the whole "START button" is silly
why is it silly ?
because really does the user start multiple process's ? no not really they just start apps up and then refer to another then back again there is not really all that multitasking from the point of veiw of the user
its not like you can open 12 xterms a watch the progress or even watch a video and write a document at the same time
and this is why palmOS is not multitasking at the moment there is little need to (soon people will demand and the power will be there to listen to MP3 and look at the address book/browse web) and the hardware has for a long time been able to do this
the StrongARM that this uses has been out for a long time 3+ years (guesstimate) how long is a processor in the desktop around for ?
linux has been running for a long time on the stongARM the netwinder used it before they tried transmeta and went bankrupt
but the point is that the start button is not a good memonic a start page (like palmOS) with all the apps is a good idea this could be expanded to showing you emails where in the inox (much like a today page) along with news and such
the real thing would proberly look much more like the Microsoft stinger mockup
regards
john jones
I always thought that Merlin was a code name for the new Java 1.4 release. If you don't believe me, check the specifications.
http://dtum.livejournal.com
They need to make a Linux version before you should even
consider buying one.
It is annoying to have to give money to Microsoft to buy it,
even though the first thing you'll do is remove WINCE and
never use it again.
this looks to be a better bet get rid of START or even app altogether and just use a voice enabled
for a linux one
http://www.infosync.no/en/news/n/289.asp
and phillips plus a japanese company have done this well
I was at a tradeshow and they had a huge fan and a BMW dash and seat you could talk to the MP3 player and radio even when the fan was on and lots of background noise (the fan simulated being in a car with the roof down apparently)
whatever it was V cool
regards
john jones
They "NEED" to make a Linux Version?
Why?
Making sure that BSD or Linux doesn't void the hardware warranty, sure.
But "NEED a Linux version"?
Unix on a handheld is all nice and goodly, but without userspace apps, who will care? No one.
And, given the bloat of GNOME software, needing umpteen other files, the authors of 'new' code seem to not take into consideration portability to older, more constrained environments.
I believe it was Warp version 4, but it was called Merlin. I was a beta tester.
Man, talk about creativity...
Let's see.... is XP their new operating system, or is it Extreme Programming?
...its was given to me by my boss, supposedly to replace my Vx.
It lasted less than a month before I had them return it.
It was slow, it was trying to do FAR more than anything I'm going to drop in my pocket rightly should, the stylus was ludicrous and fell out of the case a couple of times (fortunately I always managed to find it), the WinCE/PocketPC platform is just a mess, and overall it was just nowhere near as elegant as the Palm.
Nobody sneeze I'm going to turn on my PDA!!
Something that also should be mentioned is that the SD Card slot doesn't support the SD Memory card security function.
This is good news for all of us who oppose copyright-protected media. It is also nothing new, of course. Casio made the same wise decision to employ the SD technology (with its potential advantages over the existing MMC spec) minus copyright-protection. On devices that feature MP3 playback and e-book viewing as key selling points, restricting use of MP3s and e-books would be a hard move to justify.
My site should have a review of it here pretty soon. My site link is in my signature.
OK, given that ViaVoice currently takes up about 300MB of disk space and needs a minimum system of about 450MHz and 128 RAM, I wonder how accurate the speech for a PDA would be.
Not only do they claim to have just about all the features ViaVoice has, they also claim to be able to run in speaker independent mode - something no other software has been able to do reliably. This will be interesting.
I've been lucky enough to get a sneak look at HP's new entry-level PDA - called the X25 (at least on the test unit I looked at) - which is a much more interesting device as far as I'm concerned.
It runs a 133MHz StrongArm, CFI storage, hardware MP3 player, monochrome screen. It's fully Linux/Java powered and runs pretty nicely. The screen, though monochrome, is quite clear.
The handwriting recognition is good, battery life is likely to be very good, and the units are likely to be amongst the cheapest PDAs around, as they're being aimed sqaurely at the student market. Plus they look cool!
Unfortunately my friend won't let be get my hands on another test unit for myself, so hopefully HP realese it soon. Mind you I hear they're only releasing it in the US, so I prolly won't be able to get one here in AU anyway, 'till they start appearing on ebay....
huh.. Hasn't microsoft already lost the handheld PC market to PalmOS? Why bother.
Size matters ? But code too: www.palmopensource.com
1. It is not that pretty.
/. My boss (without my consent or approval) bought a HP Jornada. With Windows2000 and Windows98 (fresh installs), he consistently has numerous sync problems and os problems with the unit. Needless to say, it sits on his desk, inside the sync cradle.
2. Running crappy windows os! Yippee!
My brow is all scrunched trying to figure out why is this on
Please. I will keep my Visor Platinum and PalmOS... thank you very much.
ChozSun
ChozSun.com