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Pogo Phone/PDA Quietly Launched
labourstart writes: "Carphone Warehouse, one of the largest mobile phone retailers in the UK, this week quietly began selling the Pogo device, which claims to offer greater than 56K connection speeds to the Internet without waiting for 3G mobile phones to come into use. It's also a PDA and web browser using a proprietary operating system and data compression software that, they say, allows very fast downloads of HTML (not WAP) web pages." This one's been mentioned before, but now it looks like it's really and truly available.
To me, the shape of the the thing is a bit awkward to carry around. I don't want a giant squarish thing clipped to my belt.
According to the specs it comes bundled with Macromedia Flash Player 4. This brings to mind the recent stories about Flash virii. Are they also going to bundle it with anti-virus software, or give the user the ability to uninstall Flash?
Review can be found here:e 71 11404,00.html
http://www.zdnet.co.uk/reviews/rstories/0,3040,
Ciryon
So it can download at greater then 56k speeds.. but can it compile a kernel? :-P
Honestly, I want a PDA that I can use to hack at the latest kernel on the go..
I have to admit that I hadn't heard of this device before, but according to the specs it uses standard 2.5G technology (GPRS/HSCSD) in which case its claims of 56k transfer rates are highly optimistic.
Also, I don't which mobile networks they are expecting you to use this on, but unless they have been opened up recently, they didn't have a general GPRS->Internet bridge available that would let you use the Pogo to browse web pages via GPRS.
The last time I looked at GPRS in the UK you could only use it to connect to the networks own WAP and messaging gateways and the authorised WAP servers operated a "walled garden" policy.
WOW! This looks like something that Apple (sh|w)ould do. It looks as big as a Newton 120 (which I currently use) but with a good screen and lots more horsepower. It plays MP3 (what about OGG?), renders real HTML in full color, and the price seems right (300BP). Too bad it's not available in the US, I might be tempted to get one. After all, my Newton 120 is getting quite old and I need something to stand out in the sea of Palm & WinCE devices.
KangarooBox - We make IT simple!
well, it has some very good technology, but its hideous!
a very very very good idea though, glad someone did it
Is it just me, or does this thing seem a little vapourish? I mean, it sounds good, and all, but where o where are the close-up product shots? All I see is tiny mockups in the models's hands, and some graphics. No close-up pix. What's up? Can't they afford a photographer? Or is the hardware still beta?
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Er... it has an MMC card! I agree about the Mhz being fairly meaningless though - if its fast enough to play MP3s and render websites then what else do you need?
Man, the pogo website blows. From the pics that they got on there, I can only get a cursory idea of what this thing looks like. It would be really nice to get some nice hi-res images of the thing.
Anybody out there got some links besides the pogo website?
When these guys release their product we will all be surfing at cable modem speeds over 9,600. In fact, since"Everything in an N-member set can be expressed in an N-1 set." we wont even need a network connection, we can just reconstruct our webpages by uncompressing /dev/null!
From the article:
Meanwhile, all your data is stored on a centeral server and backed up everytime you go online, so there's no need to sync your Pogo manually with your PC.
Wait. OK, so all my personal info is being synced with some company that has root access to that said info? Does anyone see a problem here?
What about the servers? Let's just say this device really takes off, what's gonna happen when the un-avoidable upgrade happens? What if the upgrade goes boom? Does that mean all my data is MIA? Is there ANY WAY I can sync my info with another PERSONAL computer?
To speak quike frankly, if this wasn't actually being sold, I'd call it Vapor-Ware(tm).
I'm not a prophet or a stone-age man,
I'm just a mortal with potential of a super man.
Bring on the unfair moderation. I'm capped and need room to grow.
CEE5210S The signal SIGHUP was received.
While the Pogo phone/MP3 player/PDA/Web browser/underwear changer is, like many others, trying to fill the "convergence" void - I think I'll stick with this Pogo, which seems to be a lot more secure and reliable.
From the Review
link mentioned elsewhere:
"There will be support for programmers who want to write their own Pogo
programs using the API known as Boing, with a Flash-based Software
Developer's Kit."
It's clear this is a proprietary subscription oriented device.
So until someone identifies the OS as other than this AmigaDE/Taos intent
thing.....
This is indeed a pretty sweet device, and at £329 it's comparable to (say) the latest Visor models. However, in typical UK fashion (I live here; I know) CPW has loaded unreasonable ongoing costs on the back of it: data and voice calls are 10p per minute (14 US cents), calls to phones on other networks are 35p (aargh! why?!), and on top of that there's a £7.99 (US$11.50) monthly charge for the Internet access, etc.. That can really add up if you use it pretty regularly. Other than that problem, I'd get it tomorrow! :-)
From the ZDnet review Pogo is essentially a mobile thin client. The problem with using a thin client over the GSM network is that bandwidth is limited to 9.6Kbit/s, compared to a standard wired modem at around 40Kbit/s. Pogo has got around this with some very clever compression software. Pogo Technology's server takes the Web page you want to access and strips out animations, reduces the colours to the 256 the Pogo can display, and swaps the fonts for those that look good on the Pogo screen. Then it compresses the data -- typically to a sixth of the normal amount -- and sends it to the handheld device, where it's uncompressed and displayed. Some file downloads and Web pages are still painfully slow, but in general using the Pogo over GSM feels good -- akin to a wired modem, and very much better than a Nokia 9210 using HSCSD (High Speed Circuit Switched Data) at 28.8Kbit/s. Of course, what would be even better is the clever compression and more bandwidth, and that may yet come. The hardware in the Pogo uses a standard radio module from Wavecom. In fact, it's the same module that Handspring uses in its new Treo devices. The Wavecom module has all the hardware necessary to do GPRS, so you may see a 30Kbit/s upgrade for the Pogo in the next few months.
The ultimate portable device, as I see it, will like the Pogo, be reliant on the Internet. Why have in-unit storage if you can have unlimited storage potential through the use of the Internet? Also, another barrier that must be reached is faster wireless internet connections through these devices (plus cost coming down). However, once these are reached, think of the possibilities-- :) better yet, multiplayer online gaming
- unlimited MP3 storage anywhere
- picture frame w/ unlimited storage - everywhere you go
- graphical internet surfing/chat/etc. for those long trips
- document retrieval anywhere
- PDA functionality without space/storage concerns
- gaming
and more that I can't come up with right now...
Right now, I have separate (or no) devices for each of these things. I, for one, would like them combined.
If they have a big tough guy on there web page geting tatooed (pogo home site: PDA section) then I know that from know on I'm going to be safe from represion by bikers. I'l be able to walk into a tatoo parler and say, "look I have a Pogo some people who get tatoos have pogos. Do you want to be my freind?".
PDAS ARE COOL
HELLS ANGELS ARE SCARY TO ME
NOW WE WILL BE FRENDS
So it uses doubled up gsm (i.e. 19.6k baud). That's been on offer from Orange for over 18 months now in the UK.
;-)
The optimisation and shrinking page stuff is new, and necessary on a 320 pixel wide screen. Bet a lot of pages become unreadable tho'.
I'd beware of the faster than 56k modem claim too, the optimised page might come down quick, but only after the soon to be heavily loaded servers have retrieved and optimized the page, assuming it's not already cached.
My humble psion 5mx with the double bandwidth deal from Orange and a 640 pixel wide screen does a pretty good job of sites written with narrower screens in mind, and the opera browser offers 3 zoom levels too. AND it'll run java and ssl
Nice toy, think I'll wait for a linux/crusoe device though.
What makes them think I don't want to hold the device to my ear? I don't want to have to hunt for a headset everytime the phone rings.
Considering all the crap I already have crammed into my pockets and laptop case (Cell phone, Palm, mp3 player, RIM) this thing is a godsend. To have all that stuff combined into one unit is spectacular. Add in an HTML and Javascript enabled browser and you'd have one very happy techboy. Might be a little expensive, but that's what tax write-offs are for. Can't wait till it hops the pond.
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Its using GSM 900/1800 (GPRS for internet) which is Euro-specific. US GSM networks are 1900, so it'll probably be at least a year before we see a US version.
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