User Review of Transmeta-Based Aquapad

An Anonymous Coward writes: "Remember when dot.com's were profitable and webpads were these cool little toys that were going to explode? Well that never happened but it seems like at least one company has actually come out with a Midori Linux webpad...called the Aquapad - looks kind of cool but only uses flash memory, so no storage :( I don't know if it would really be worth getting, but it looks like fun."

Comments

No storage - but Wireless access point.....

[Sonicboom]

"A developers kit accompanied this AquaPad which included an 802.11b WLAN Access Point, and 802.11b Cisco Aironet 350 Series PCMCIA card.
"
It can be effectively used as a dumb term - all storage would be on the server side.

The Aquaman of Web Appliances.

[Lemmy Caution]

Just like Aquaman. Pretty much useless in almost every environment.

No Storage... wrong.

[Arimus]

Actually reading the review they say that the CF slot does support the IBM Microdrives... <OT> wonder if IBM remember the Sinclair Spectrum Microdrives?</OT>.

Looking at the device it does look rather nice and given it's underlying OS is Linux the potential for getting to do things its not designed for probably won't be too much effort.

Suggested use, tie it in with a RF locator and web based map of large campus style corporate headquaters and visitors (or employees) need never get lost again ;>

the conclusions...

[bob@dB.org]

if you have better things to do then to read 7 long pages of review...

We have presented a lot of information about a relatively simple device, and as there are not really any mobile devices on the market, we have largely been comparing the AquaPad against computing solutions consumers are likely to be using such as notebooks and desktops. In that regard, the Midori Linux based AquaPad has its limitations, but they are not unworkable. As a mobile platform to browse the web the AquaPad functions well - most major websites that deliver content, or news, are built using the most widely acceptable programing. With the exception of Hotmail, we had no difficulties exploring CNN, or TransmetaZone for example.

Multimedia or artistic websites that make use of Java or Shockwave present a hurdle for the AquaPad, so that is something to be aware of. However, support for RealAudio applications like streaming audio or video, and Flash5 is superb, so I guess it's a bit of a trade off.

With its 500MHz Crusoe processor, the AquaPad seemed well equipped to handle the variety of tasks we threw at it, and users who have never used Linux before will be comforted by the Windows-like user interface. The screen size is good for most of the websites on the web at the moment, but as webpages move away from the 800x600 pixel screen support to the larger and more common 1024x768 resolutions, the AquaPad may find itself outsized. For the moment, this is not a problem however.

Probably the neatest thing about the AquaPad was its ability to remotely update the OS over the internet. Battery life is good at just over 3 hours for average web surfing, but placing the DC power port (along with the USB and headphone jacks) behind the small door was awkward. I personally would have preferred to see these ports in a recessed area or along one edge protected by rubberized covers than the fold-down hard plastic port cover used.

The unit is comfortable to hold, and the magnesium alloy casing offers a tough alternative to what would otherwise be plastic. I especially like the little spot to hold the stylus, and found the on screen keyboard acceptable in terms of speed for entering in URL addresses.

Memory is one area I think FIC could improve upon. Including a Compact Flash card with the AquaPad would be one step in the right direction, but perhaps switching out the OS's CF card for an IBM microdrive would be even better, even with Linux. FIC tell us that the versions with Windows 98/ME/2000 make us of an internal microdrive however.

While we used the AquaPad extensively for web surfing and streaming audio playback during our evaluation, the problems gaining access into Hotmail limited its use to us a mobile platform for email. An integrated email client would be an interesting addition for the device to support, especially if the memory card was included.

There really is no one line summary that we can make about the AquaPad because its uses are so varied and depend on what each individual user requires. In terms of surfing, 80% of websites we tested it on had no problems and the pages were displayed correctly. Audio quality through the speaker was so so, but via the headphones excellent. The LCD panel was easy to read and bright enough for an office environment, and the touch screen is quite user friendly once you get accustomed to it. Whether or not the AquaPad is right for you, and your intended applications is up to you, but FIC definitely have something interesting here with this little blue magnesium device, and it is sure to turn heads!

Midori Linux?

[ukryule]

Is this the only current device using Midori Linux?

It's all gone rather quite since Midori first was announced last year - and the In Use page on their website has only 2 broken links and this device.

It seems a bit odd that they seem to be ignoring the (large) potential PDA & Mobile phone market in favour of webpads.

Incidentally, the Familiar Project is chugging along quite nicely producing a decent Linux PDA OS (for the iPaq only ATM)

Re:Midori Linux?

[dublin]

Pre-production versions of the SonicBlue/FrontPath ProGear webpad ran Midori Linux, but that may have changed. (I tested one of the preproduction units and worked with the people doing the Linux work - I know they considered Slackware, too, and am not sure what they finally settled on.)

It was a nice unit in many ways: it even supported an internal 2.5" HD, so you could cram 20 GB or so into it if you wanted to. The major problem (at least with the early units) was that it was relatively fragile - not really tough enough to survive the treatment such a unit gets in the real world, and it nneded help on the input front, as most such Linux-based devices do. (Why the various companies working to do this don't pool their resources an do it RIGHT, I still don't know - as it is, everyone hacks up thier own pretty much useless rehash of bad on-screen keyboards and, if they're ambitious, text recognizers.)

Still, I want a webpad far more than I want a new laptop: The simple fact is that even a mediocre webpad is 10x more useful than a good laptop for the things most people do, especially if outfitted to provide "instant-on" access via wireless networking. (Sadly, the "instant-on" part is one area where CE has a decided advantage, even as totally brain-dead as it is...)

I think most of the problem here is that web pad manufacturers are trying to build devices that can be both a wireless browser *and* a laptop replacement, driving up costs and ensuring that they do neither job very well. A wireless, browser-only box (or even a remote Terminal Services box using Microsoft's RDP) would sell for those many of us that would like to treat the web more like a book and not be tied to a desk while reading. Sorry folks, but Microsoft's RDP is a FAR better protocol choice than something like VNC for a device like this. RDP is actually excellent, and it would be nice to see open source RDP servers and clients for other OSes. Try the two side by side, and you'll see what I mean. I've done just that with my Epods webpad: RDP is quite usable, while VNC is far slower than dialup (although in fairness the CE VNC client is pretty bad.)

Pricing? Midori Linux vs. WinCE?

[GregGardner]

I find it interesting that if you follow the link in the review to a place where you can preorder one of these devices: www.aquapad.org, the pricing is $700 for both the Midori Linux version and the WinCE version. Doesn't it cost money for the WinCE license? And does it not cost money for the Midori Linux license (GPL)?

I guess this is just one reseller's version of the pricing. Maybe they are just taking a bigger margin on the Linux version. Too bad they don't pass the savings onto the consumer.

hmm, sounds good for...

[supernova87a]

So you say the aquapad has no hard drive, or document storage system?

Sounds perfect for the busy Enron executive on the go...

Fujitsu's Pen Tables

[Redking]

Now, these machines look real nice!

Me,

What's the use?

[boopus]

I had to admit I didn't make it all the way through the review of this particular model, but... The question that always comes to mind is what people are actualy going to use these for. UPS uses a "web pad" of sorts, and it seems to work very well for them, but that's a single use machine. The only real use I can see for these is when they are going to be deployed to do one thing, and have custom applications designed to do their one thing well.

Why? Because there isn't any decent way to get text into them. You can tap out characters on a screen, but that isn't the same as typing, and gets frusterating quickly.

Would it be cool to grab your web pad out of it's charging cradle and relax on the couch? Yes. Untill you decide you want to respond to the guy badmouthing the whole webpad concept on slashdot and try to type a response.

That being said, the lack of storage seems like a good thing, as there really aren't any uses for these that don't involve a network, that's why they're called a webpad.

In the end the geek in me will win, and I'll probably own one... But not untill they're on tigerdirect/ebay for $150.

Re:What's the use?

[aussersterne]

...there isn't any decent way to get text into the them. You can tap out characters on a screen, but that isn't the same as typing, and gets frustrating quickly.

There are very nice handwriting recognition systems for other operating systems, just not for Linux. I used Calligrapher for Windows CE (now bought by Microsoft and renamed to Transcriber) and used it to take notes all through college. I was able to scribble fast enough to keep up with professors and accuracy was better than 90-95%, more than enough to make readable notes. When I got my BA, I had >300 printed pages of notes which had been written by hand and recognized in real-time into Pocket Word documents.

My current PDA is a Newton 2100, which I would say gets about 99.5% accuracy for me (it actually "learns" your handwriting as you use it, getting better over time) and I e-mail and post to Usenet with it all the time. I don't even think about it; I never have to bring up the tap-tap keyboard, even for punctuation or unusual symbols like umlauts in German.

For Linux, unfortunately, there isn't anything comparable to either of these handwriting recognizers. I owned a Fujitsu Stylistic and installed Linux+KDE on it on a 12GB drive for a brief moment. I thought I was going to use it as my main computer, only plugging a keyboard into the PS/2 port when I needed to to extensive data entry. Unfortunately, I gave up and sold it because the only Linux-based pen input I could find at all was xscribble, a horrible implementation of Palm's Graffiti, and much less helpful for serious use than Calligrapher/Transcriber under CE or Rosetta/Paragraph under Newton, meaning that with the Stylistic+Linux, I had to have the keyboard plugged in all the time to be useful.

Natural handwriting recognition exists, and it works, quickly and accurately. Just because Palm users or Linux users have never seen it doesn't mean it's not there.

GPS!

[Perdo]

This thing is dieing for GPS. Current GPS handheld's maps are too small and no on likes to mount their laptop to the dash. Imagine Taxis, UPS, and Fire/Police with these including the connection so dispatchers could remotely tag the drivers map.

Writing a flame hard, pushing a button easy

[stud9920]

Would it be cool to grab your web pad out of it's charging cradle and relax on the couch? Yes. Untill you decide you want to respond to the guy badmouthing the whole webpad concept on slashdot and try to type a response.

Modding you down using my Aquapad ain't that hard, though.

Possible Uses

[Selanit]

This could be very useful in a large networked environment, for monitoring system status on your servers remotely. It wouldn't even require modification of the system, if your server has "statu page" accessible by web browser. Alternatively, you could use VNC and get the added benefit of not only monitoring your server remotely, but being able to perform system maintenance remotely.

I suppose the VNC scenario would depend on a couple of things:

1. Input problems. Can that stylus/on-screen keyboard be used quickly enough once you get used to them? Having to carry around a USB keyboard all the time would put a serious dent in its usefulness for remote administration.
2. Using the VNC server's built-in web server, which has permission to serve up one single page containing a Java applet that hooks into VNC to allow web-based control, might be a problem. Looks like the review had a hard time getting Java to work properly in Mozilla.
3. Using VNC like this might open up some security concerns, particularly if you're a large company. Under ordinary circumstances, you can tunnel VNC through SSH to increase its security, but I don't think that would work in this case without modifying the aquapad in such a way that Mozilla could understand SSH. Still, if you have the know-how that can be done -- ain't open-source great?

If you're a bit more daring, I bet you could modify this in such a way as to make it a nice, portable media outlet. It's got an MP3 player already. It'd take some doing, but you could make it capable of streaming movies over the network also. 802.11b's 11-megabit pipe is fine for DivX-encoded movies. (Note: the thing's OS is flash-based. If you try making modifications and screw it up . . . it wasn't my idea! Unless you are a Linux Guru, capable of causing device drivers to rewrite themselves by sheer force of will, it's probably best to leave well enough alone.)

One hopes that future versions might include 1) a hard drive, for example an IBM microdrive, which would make fiddling with the OS's guts a lot simpler and safer. Note that the article says the Windows CE version already uses a microdrive -- so maybe you could get a windows version, wipe it, and install Linux? 2) USB 2.0 instead of 1.1. 3) *Integrated* 802.11b, so you could use that PCMCIA slot for something else.

Finally -- that green-haired chick that serves as Midori's emblem is cool. I wonder what she's looking at. Perhaps she is looking down at Tux, and wondering how it is that she came to be co-starring with a penguin.

Since when?

[Agent Green]

An Anonymous Coward writes: "Remember when dot.com's were profitable...

Where was I when this was happening???

I don't understand the point...

[FastT]

I don't understand why manufacturers spend so much time and effort making bad design choices with pad-type mobile computers. Why not just take a standard high-end laptop, put a touch screen where the keyboard is, and bundle a top-flight handwriting recognition package with it? Why is it any more complicated than this? I see great opportunities for people who are in the laptop market to buy such a variant--it makes much more sense if the machine will be used in social situations, or in vertical markets.

build your own

[Lumpy]

Go to ebay, search for tablet pc or pen pc.

get one of the toshiba models 1000,2200 perferabaly
install linux
install a 802.11b card.

get the same thing for less than 1/2 the price of this webpad, and run kde with an aqua theme.

you now have something better, more configurablem and massively cheaper.

sorry but webpads are never going to sell until they can get one in my hands for less than $199.00 and no service charges, works with your own home network.

and we all know that will never happen.