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New Communicators from Kyocera and HP

Posted by timothy on from the not-cheap-but-nice-looking dept.

An anonymous reader submits: "Here are two links to articles about the new HP iPaqs and Kyocera's new Communicator .... Both are pretty sweet pieces of hardware."

9 of 111 comments (clear)

  1. THIS is cool by Frank+of+Earth · · Score: 2, Interesting

    http://www.voicestream.com/pocketpc/default.asp

    PocketPC and Cellphone combined. Nothing against Palm, but I an TS into my windoze boxes remotely using the Terminal Services for CE client along with our VPN client which is also ported to WinCE.

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  2. it'll never fly by tps12 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    These are pretty cool, just because of the "holy shit that's a little phone + PDA in one" factor. But, really, the market for these is limited, and shrinking fast.

    These were the Next Big Thing during the www.dot.com boom, when everyone wanted as many things clipped to their belts as possible. Nowadays, a more sobering economic client has made all those technophiles look more than a little bit...goofy.

    Yes, phones are useful. And it's nice to be able to store a phone number or ten. But 16MB of memory and a web browser? Video, for heaven's sake? No one needs this. Hell, no one even wants this.

    All anyone is looking for in a cell phone is small size, good battery life, a strong signal, capacity for storing maybe 20 numbers, and mp3 playing. The rest is just nerd candy, stupid features that basically no one will pay for. These companies need to hone their market research skills, or they will go the way of the Amiga.

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  3. 400 MHz by colmore · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I've heard that the move from 200 to 400 MHz on these devices has barely changed noticable speed, while adding a good $200 to the pricetag.

    I'll wait for reviews to cement the decision, but I'll probably be going with an older, not that much slower, 200 MHz device.

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    1. Re:400 MHz by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

      The word appears to be although the Xscale chip runs at 400 MHz when running code for the previous generation Arm chip, it runs it about as fast as a 206 MHz ARM. Multimedia is said to actually perform poorer than with the previous generation of PocketPCs.

      Microsoft says they will only support the Arm ver. 4 code base, Intel says you really ought to be compiling for Arm ver. 5. So we the users, will suffer.

      I speculate that Microsoft is hoping that pads kill pocketPCs so they can kill PocketPC development and support a single Windows code base.

  4. Battery eater .... by Mr.+Mai · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Hope they did something about the battery, for erlier versions of the IPAQ they didn't last long. More MHz and capabilities = more power consumption.

  5. kyocera | qwest | obsolete by must+be+hard+to+spel · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Okay, so I'll admit that I have been drooling over the 6035 smartphone for some time now. And I've been toying with upgrading my current phone, especially since Qwest appears to have an "unlimited data for $10/month" deal. However, I just went to check out the Qwest webpage and the 6035 is gone. And, since the 7135 is not out for a bit yet, there is a definite gap in their product line. Did Kyocera discontinue the 6035 (still on their webpage) or is this simply Qwest (or Qwest's webpage, since doing a search on www.qwestwi reless.com still finds some 6035 literature pages) issue? Is there anything like a firm date on the 7135 being released (other that Q4)? Is there any indication of whether Qwest will be using the 7135? Why is the sky blue? (Yes, I am asking questions that there are probably not answers to. Shame on me.)

  6. Yawn.. When will they deliver with the Linux port? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Goodness knows how many people Compaq fooled into buying their iPaq handhelds because of the promise of the Familiar Linux port [ http://www.handhelds.org ], but I don't see them delivering any time soon.

    Goodness knows how many Linux devotees paid the M$ tax in their rush to try familiar and it still seems as far away as ever from a commercial release.

  7. VNC Pad by AVryhof · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I want a pad with VNC burned into ROM....so I can display my desktop from anywhere and interract with it using just a pen!

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  8. Re:other kyocera products by mesocyclone · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I am a longtime owner of the Kyocera QCP-6035 and I find it a surprisingly lousy product compared to what it could be. The integration of the Palm PDA and the phone is almost non-existent. I want an integrated device, not just two devices in one package (although I have it because the latter is still better than the same two devices in two packages).

    I would be much more careful next time, as Kyocera has not demonstrated to me the ability to create a good user interface that integrates the features properly.

    Maybe I'm just missing something or didn't RTFM enough times, but just calling someone in the Palm phone book is a real pain

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