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Review of the Cybiko Xtreme
Levendis23 writes: "We've just posted our latest review: the Cybiko Xtreme. Pretty slick little gadget, with RF networking and ability to set up bluetooth-like clouds so that other units can talk to each other, play games, or swap files. You can can even use another unit at as a repeater to bounce your message to another unit out of your range."
Just a couple days ago my father related to me how he was telling his students about Fidonet - sending a message across country by having it hop modem'd servers in the good ol' days - and the kids saying "Why not just use the internet?"
So having these little babies spread across a country could easily lead to a "Cybiko across America", eh? An alternative to the U.S. gov't filtering all our packets? Hmmm...
Since the article is long on hype and thin on substance, here are some details:
2 NiMH Rechargeable Batteries - Not Removable
Power Adapter
USB
Installation CD
I don't have the hardware specs on the new "Xtreme", but here is the previous model:
CYBIKO COMPUTER MODEL CY6411.
Hardware specifications
Main Processor: 32 bit, 11 MHz Hitachi H8S/2246
Coprocessor: Atmel AT90S2313, 4 MHz
RAM: 512 KB
Flash disk: 512 KB, extendible up to 1 MB
LCD display: 160x100 dots, 59x40 mm, 4 level grayscale
RF transceiver: RF2915
Expansion cartridge slot: 68-pin
PC connection socket: RS232 serial port
Size: 5.7" x 2.8" x 0.86"
Weight: 4.3 oz
Software specifications
Operating System: CyOS v.1.2
Software: CyOS v.1.2 compatible apps
Communication Protocol: CyDP x.30 (Cybiko RF Digital Protocol)
Dynamic Wireless Local Network: automatically provided by CyOS v.1.2 and CyDP x.30
RF communication features
Frequency: 902-928 MHz
Number of channels: 30 digital channels
Communication Rate: 19200 bps each channel
Transmission and Receiving Range: 150 ft. indoors, 300 ft. outdoors (environment dependent)
Max. online Cybiko units: 3000 (100 units on each of 30 channels)
The Gardener
--
I had one of the original "classic" cybiko's. Why did I have it? Because they gave them away by the boatload in a contest on their website where everyone who signed up won one pretty much. A lot of people who got them took them right back to Best Buy/CompUSA/Staples/Toys R US etc. and got themself a $100 return credit. I wonder how many of these give-aways they're including in the "half a million" they claim they sold.
.com/tech company down the tubes. Their new one seems pretty nice though, the size was one of the kickers with the original, maybe they'll make it this time.
That aside, it was really a pretty neat toy for any one in school still. It was no PDA, but it wasn't meant to be one either. They eliminated features that you can live without in a device targeted towards school kids (touch screen, high res screen, size, etc.) and they added some really nice features (wireless networking which could chat, play games, check email, etc). It would supposedly automatically network with nearby Cybiko's so you could chat, and play games with them, and if one of them was plugged into a computer, you could use that one to access the internet to check email and stuff, though I dunno how well these things actually worked as I never met anyone with one besides me.
I was a little surprised these things didn't catch on more. I'm guessing that's why they gave so many away, because this seems like the sorta thing with a critical mass. On its own, it sucks (not much fun to chat with yourself), but the more people who have it, the better it becomes. Add in the school mentality of the more people who have it, the cooler it becomes as well, and I thought this thing had a lot of potential if they could have gotten the spark started.
But in their giveaway they screwed up big time by not including an age limit at that time, so the wrong people ended up with these things, and those people took them back to the stores, thus taking away even more sales for them! I'm surprised to see that these guys are still around, I was sure at the time after that mistake, and giving away 1000's of these things that surely they would be just another
Though this also seems like exactly the sort of thing where just as it starts to get popular, school administrators will start banning it, so I don't think they're out of the woods yet......
I can't wait for the day when this sort of technology (the ability to communicate with/through other units) comes to the PDA. Palm Pilots and Visors are on just about every desk here at the office and the ability to schedule meetings, send messages and (play games) over wireless would be very useful and widely used.
Wooden armaments to battle your imaginary foes!
Specs are on the web site...
http://www.cybikoxtreme.com/support/specs.asp
http://windows.scares.us
Don't forget, AOL is directing the development of the Cybiko. The Cybiko will be AOL's Palm Pilot.
Look away from the light.
Software Wars
Said you can now get a MP3 player with purchase of a cybiko extreme. It plugs into the expansion slot. It also adds the SD/MMC slot and can take cards of any size. Not a bad idea to get sales going! The more Cybiko's the better.
Gorkman
With these PDA-alikes becoming more and more powerful, I wonder if these couldn't be used as a weapon for cyberterrorism/espionage.
Let's see you have a small, decent computer. Networking capabilities. Easily hidden and, hey, would anyone expect an assault from these things ?
The keyboard comes in handy for mission critical scripting etc.
Just go into desired building, h4x0r their nets (or aquire confidential data - when you are working for govermental bodies) and leave.
And you'll get away because noone will notice that YOU did anything. Might work with laptops, too, but laptops are more difficult to hide and may raise suspicion.
Owner of a Mensa membership card.
A quick perusal of their website doesn't reveal any thing that would allow someone do their own coding. Toys like this are only worth having if they are hackable :). Anyone know of any projects to hack them or provide dev. tools. Heck does any SELL dev tools for the sucker?
Anybody else thinking...graphing calulcator?
Look at the shape of it. And where the buttons are placed, and the screen itself.
I used to be active in the cybiko community. Here are some links:
www.cybla.com
www.cybimunk.com
www.devcybiko.com
Hope you find these useful
I'm a bit skeptical about this. I had the VTech "phones" expecting to talk with all sorts of people and exchanging voice mail with other people, but upon buying 2 of them, I quickly realized they had almost NO range whatsoever. Boy did I feel ripped off.
And the best thing about the new cybiko is that the market for the old ones have dropped like a rock. I've had one of the old ones for awhile now, and they are fairly nifty(you can get a C devkit and write you own tools). You can only get the MP3 player for the old one second hand but it is pretty good.($20 cybiko, $40 mp3, $40 memory upgrade=$100 mp3player+wireless). Now that they are going for so cheap, I think I'll finally buy a few extras so I can set up a WAP gateway for mine.
Although, the new one's look like they are barely worth it, if the keypad is truly better... The #1 crappy thing about the old cybiko was the POS 1 piece rubber keypad.
Oh, and if anyone actually paid the quoted price of $150, they were suckers. They had a 2 for $100 deal for quite awhile, when you could sell the second on ebay for $60-80
These things work right smack in the middle of the 902-928 MHz Ham radio band (it's a shared allocation). There are a number of ham radio folks looking at boosting the power and modifying the antenna system (legal to do only if you have a Tech or higher ham license). It shouldn't be too difficult to pump the power up to the point where the usable range is something on the order of a mile or so. Then, things ought to start getting interesting.
...phil
"For a list of the ways which technology has failed to improve our quality of life, press 3."
Are these "compatable" with the older cybiko?
Specifically in wireless connectivity and data sharing.
That is a very important issue.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
I bought a couple of Cybikos a year ago. I felt that they were actually pretty good value for the money but I could see where there were some shortfalls and I predicted that it wouldn't be long before they released a new version with some of the better features. Cybiko denied they had anything planned and a lot of people said it wouldn't happen but *smug*.
Seriously though, these are cool devices. The SDK is open and free although documentation was a little lacking last time I checked. There is a whole host of games and apps for them (as with the palm) and a thriving developer community. Also, one of the coolest things is that if you have two of these things, you can use one as a tunnel, connect to your PC and have wireless internet on the other one.
I was planning on writing some apps for mine but unfortunately, events overtook me this year. Now they have this new one out, I shall have to have another look (I hope the Xtreme has a serial port like the classic)
Rich
Before you jump to any conclusions as to who "controls" Cybiko, find out all the investors, who owns what percent, and what shares have voting rights.
The article repeatedly states that the cybiko came out a year ago. I remember two years ago when I saw someone playing on one though.
One, what's inside it? I dind't see processor or memeory specs on that site..
Two, I tried to look for that info on
cybico's us website
and guess what? It gave me this error.
Sorry, to access to the page you need to enable "cookies" in your browser settings.
A "cookies" is a small amount of information that a web site copies to your computer.
If you use Internet Explorer 5.0, you have to do the following to enable "cookies":
Press 'Tools' on the top bar of Internet Explorer. Then press 'Internet Options' -> 'Security' and set medium or lower level of security. You can also press 'Custom' button in 'Security' options and set 'Allow per session cookies (not stored)' in 'Enable'.
If you use Internet Explorer 6.0, you have to do the following to enable "cookies":
Press 'Tools' on the top bar of Internet Explorer. Then press 'Internet Options' -> 'Security' and set medium or lower level of security. You can also press 'Advanced' button in 'Privacy' options and uncheck 'Override automatic cookie handling' box.
If you want to be notified when Internet Explorer accepts a cookie, check 'Override automatic cookie handling' and set 'First-party Cookies' & 'Third-party Cookies' in 'Prompt'.
If you use AOL 5.0:
On the 'My AOL' menu, click 'Preferences'. On the 'Preferences' window, click 'WWW', then press 'Security' tab. Set medium (or lower) level of security (or press 'Custom' button and set 'Allow per session cookies (not stored)' in 'Enable'). Click 'Ok'. If that does not work, please update to AOL 6.0.
If you use Netscape Navigator 4.7 or higher:
From the Edit menu, choose Preferences. Click the Advanced category. Click one of the radio buttons. If you want to be notified when Communicator accepts a cookie, check "Warn me before accepting a cookie."
Home © 1999-2001. Cybiko, Inc. All rights reserved.
can you belive the nerve of them? Not to mention their incredibly bad coding standards to make a site that can't handle these things graciously!
Bastards.
You are only young once, but you can stay immature indefinitely.
Has Quake been ported to this? I wonder if you could use the wireless networking for a Beowulf cluster?