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PDA and Subnotebook Killer?
Purdah writes "I found this site with a description of a new type of palm sixed PC. It runs windows and would be great for mobile uses like music and movies (says it can store 3 movies).
Extracts below are from the official website: complete Windows XP wireless handheld computer, cradle to dock with a keyboard and monitor, transforming the OQO to a full feature desktop machine, media player mode with enough memory for 1000 songs or three feature length movies, optimization for cool running and miserly power consumption" Looks a little vaporous to me, as well as thick.
But there's an awful lot of potential if they get it right.
How many times are we going to see this spiffy site touting vaporware posted to slashdot?
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
"a palm sixed computer"
The person who typed this needs a BIGGER keyboard, not a smaller one!
...
this would be awesome... I recently took a 5 day road trip with some pals of mine, in that five days there were 26 hours of driving (eek) with 3 full length movies, it would make the time go by much quicker! however what we ended up doing was taking four laptops, a 1200 watt power inverter, and some wireless cards, made an ad hoc network and played some games
--fetch daddy's blue fright wig, i must be handsome when i release my rage
That was the quickest /. effect I've ever seen - no page after only 3 posts!
-raph
http://slashdot.org/articles/02/04/16/1732252.shtm l?tid=137
OQO resources
My team often travels and have to set up office in different places. We all have laptops as our main desktop machines and wireless cards. We have discussed before taking a file/print/web server with us which we travel but we've yet to find any hardware which is appropriate. This looks like it might be suitable.
Someone needs to put a leash on their PR people.
"Introducing the world's first ultrapersonal computer"
Computer: How are you today?
You: Fine.
Computer: I noticed that your morning bowel movement deviated from your mean by 170 grams. What happened last night?
You: Um, you know, I was out with this girl, and... hey, get out of my face!
Computer: Your face has 7,230 pores today.
You: Ahhhhhhhh!
Creepy.
Why not just have a shitload of BLINK tags and be done with it?
That's got to be the most annoying website design in the history of history.
Hokey statistics and ancient misconceptions are no match for a good thought in your head, kid!
Apart from being way too big, it's not a cell phone.
I still insist that the ultimate device would be an iPod with a screen that runs the full length of the device with cell phone and pda technology.
sig.
There is an informative article on the OQO "Ultrapersonal" PC at http://sg.biz.yahoo.com/020702/15/304wm.html
Quote from their web page: "ubiquitous personal computing in a wallet sized device". Is this referring to wallet size before or after you buy the thing?
* Powered by Crusoe 0.13 micron TM5800 processor at up to 1GHz
* 10GB hard drive with storage for thousands of songs or three full length movies
* 256MB memory
* four inch, high-resolution super bright VGA color LCD
* Synaptics touchscreen
* Advanced lithium polymer battery
* 1394 FireWire, USB, audio out, OQO-link docking connector, microphone
* Built in 802.11 and Bluetooth wireless networking
* 4.1" x 2.9" x 0.9" / 105mm x 74mm x 22mm; less than 9 oz. / 250 grams
i have a hell of a lot more than three movies on my 10 GB drive. of course they aren't dvd quality, but who needs that? not on a 5" screen!
besides the fujitsu B series looks better than this...
Looks like the OQO website is on the verge of being slashdotted, so here is a photo gallery of the OQO.
Short review (reads more like an advertisement, actually) also here.
This company orignally announced this product a couple of months ago. A write-up on it and some pretty pictures can be found here and here. What is really cool is that the company was started by people from Transmeta and notebook designers for Apple and IBM. Their plans are to release this thing by Christmas, and with that kind of background I highly doubt they are just blowing smoke up the public's ass.
Dude, these things look pretty sweet, and I'll be sure to get one....if the price is right.
"It's not available yet, and Oqo doesn't expect to manufacture its devices on its own, so it has said nothing about a ballpark price for the units."
Does anybody have any realistic estimate for what these will cost?
(That quote is from the Forbes.com article here, btw)
I belong to the ______ generation.
.. before it runs *nix? I'm sure it could, it has a Crusoe processor, vga screen (generic vga should drive it if not fbdev. Probably pretty standard... now the question is what is the cost? If it is to much then it will not be worth it. In order to compete with palm / pocket pc it needs to be selling for around $400 - $500. To compete with subnotebooks it needs a slightly larger screen and / or keyboard IMHO.
Only 'flamers' flame!
This story appeared for about 60 seconds at around 10:30 this morning, and then disappeared. (Look at my journal for details and note the timestamp.) Now it is present again.
there is not all that much to think about
transmeta SOC
RAM
hard disk
LCD
battery
so in terms of board layout its nowhere near as had to do a motherboard
the real thing is the battery life and screen because large screen needs more batterys and personally I could not live under 1024/768 if I had to run normal windows
regards
john jones
I discovered this site some months ago and was awestruck. Finally a portable computer/workstation/storage capacity/web browser/music listening device that would make sense for me to buy. I think a standard PC-compatible device like this has the potential to wipe out, or at least replace, the PDA industry. Why bother having a PalmOS device? Why would you need a laptop? What use is an iPod that can only copy one-way? Just have this little computer, with a big enough screen to view a standard desktop with, and bring that around where ever you go.
On the site they mention you'll be able to get a Laptop shell accessory that you slide the oQo into, instantly making it a full-keyboard full-monitor laptop. In the corporate world it may be cheaper to buy everyone one of these rather than buying everyone a full blown desktop workstation, laptop computer, and PDA device.
Also it's built by some former Apple engineers (probably ones who worked on the iPod) which makes me hopefull that it won't be just vapourware.
Well ignoring the first part, lets get some perspective on this:
The OQO is:
- 0.1" higher than the 10 gig iPod
- 0.5" wider than the 10 gig iPod
- 0.06" thicker than the 10 gig iPod
A little thick ? Christ, you have a 256 meg product with a 10 gig HD running up to 1 gigahertz and you're a little worried about it being a paltry 0.15cm wider than an iPod!!??My only concern is the battery life? What do you reckon? 45 minutes tops?
And of course the insane price this will be.
Avantslash - View Slashdot cleanly on your mobile phone.
Xybernaut makes a similar system.
They also sell a wearable.
And this is bettern than a Compaq iPaq becuase? Or a Palm? Once again, another company makes a product too big to be a handheld and too weak to be a laptop.
Unless it is priced very competitively against PDAs, it doesn't have a chance.
https://www.accountkiller.com/removal-requested
At least that's the guestimated figure. Add up the price of an iPod, and a top end iPaq, and the oQo's already a good deal.
Now go to news/press, and read the article with a nice high-res monitor. You'll find that the text of their press release is inside a borderless box that doesn't offer a vertical scroller. Instead you have to put your mouse over some up and down arrows, and wait for the text to slowly scroll into the visible area.
It's a nice idea, but if they can't make a usable website, what are the odds that they can make a usable PDA? Anybody who ever counted themself as a Palm user knows that the key to a good PDA is quality interface design, not speed or memory.
Found here yesterday.
If we don't fight for ourselves no one will.
I know -- off subject -- mod down if you like. I was really interested in the story, but 5 seconds into the website I had decided it was not worth the price.
Flash must die. This website is a good example of why flash is a bad, bad, thing. As a matter of fact -- the only time I see flash as a good thing is for kids games. IE -- PBSkids.org where my kids can play games with cookie monster and such. But if you are a company trying to peddle a product and you build your whole site like this --- the web Gods must strike you down.
(+1 Funny) only if I laugh out loud.
If you look closley at the high res image, you can most certainly tell that the case is a machined alloy, with bead blasted finis, you can also spo a hair on the unit to the left middle of the screen.
:)
This isnt rocket science guys, its a Transmeta Cursoe proc, right for power consumption, and a 10 gig HD, nothing special there.
I think its slick, anywhere under 1500 I'd buy in a heartbeat.
Beside, you know its real from ONE SIMPLE ting in the high res photo, its got Quake on it, what developer at a company wouldnt just have to see how it quakes
Sig went tro...aahemmm.....fishing........
This thing is definitely and obviously useless as a PDA.
It would be a cute toy however and might be useful replacement for a laptop if you're going to plug it into external monitor, mouse & keyboard. Assuming it had a decent battery life, it might make an awesome personal media player too.
I don't have a PalmOS device, but I do have a non-Windows PDA (an apple Newton). I wouldn't trade my Newton or a PalmOS device in on this thing. I used to have a Windows PDA, but I got rid of it. Why? Because a PDA needs to be FAST -- not just fast in terms of CPU power, but fast in terms of data entry and fast in terms of the number of "taps" required to do a given task.
My Windows CE PDA was SLOW on these fronts... To get anything done, I had to go to the start menu. To make a note I had to to Start -> Programs -> Note application -> File -> New note, and then after I was done entering the note, I had to do File -> Save note, then enter a filename. To retrieve it, I had to start the application the same way and then do a File -> Open -> [file dialog] -> Ok. People would be giving me information and I'd be saying "hold on --" while going tap, tap, tap, tappity, tap. Plus, the damn thing crashed all the time and had to be rebooted, which is not only embarrassing ("hold on, my PDA froze, I need to reboot") but also required turning the unit over and stabbing at the recessed reset button with the stylus.
I don't know if Windows CE PDAs have evolved since this (CE 2.11) or not, but this device that has such "great potential" is actually running a full-fledged Windows operating system (XP). That's too much going on, too many menus and settings, and too much room for something to go wrong for any PDA I care to carry. I'll keep my Newton.
For replacing laptops... Maybe. It does have an XGA screen according to the site and my eyesight is pretty good... But on the other hand, if you're writing a book, you'll still have to carry a keyboard. And if you're going to carry a keyboard, you might as well carry the entire laptop so that you can get the nice, large screen.
So if I were to buy one, I'd probably end up with FOUR computers -- desktop, laptop, Newton, and this thing. Arrrrrgh!
STOP . AMERICA . NOW
"Flash must die. This website is a good example of why flash is a bad, bad, thing."
Please STOP BLAMING THE TOOL!
This is like saying "I know this really annoying website... and it's made from HTML, so HTML must suck." You even said in your original post that you have found a great Flash site ("PBSkids.org [pbskids.org] where my kids can play games with cookie monster..."), so what is the problem?
Yeah, the linked site is ugly: puke-green coloring and big blinking annoyances. But this isn't Macromedia's fault. Please stop blaming Flash for bad site designers. Bad site designers will be bad site designers, regardless of the tools you give them.
The best thing you can do is to contact the company's marketing department (obviously without using the webmaster@ email address, as this will likely go directly to the site designer) and tell them that you don't like their site. Instead of saying "it's ugly", give concrete reasons why you didn't want to buy the product: "the blinking text obscured what I was trying to read", for instance. In other words, instead of complaining on Slashdot, complain to someone who can actually do something about it.
*sigh* I have to wonder why this is such a hard concept...
Simpli - Your source for San Jose dedicated servers and colocation!
Every time I watch a movie on the small screens in airplanes, I feel like I'm staring through a keyhole. It seems to me that in order for a new product to be successful, (in general, discounting the monopoly and marketing advantages some companies enjoy) it has to offer something better by a noticable factor than previous products.
All the efforts to squeeze video onto palmtops, cellphones, and so on seem to be missing the point that the user experience is really crappy on these things.
The genius of the iPod, imo, is that it makes listening to music easier. Downloading, sorting, and selecting the tunes you want to listen to is easier than with competing players. It might not be by a huge factor, but the accumulation of slight advantages here and there results in a superior product.
Shrinking video down to such a small size may seem akin to putting video games on a Gameboy screen, but I think it's different. Movies are not made for such small screens, whereas Gameboy titles are specifically produced for the screen size used for display.
I'm skeptical that this will ever appeal to anything but a limited audience.
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
or three feature length movies, optimization for cool runnings
I can think of a few better movies to optimize a computer for....
But seriously, I like this idea, or at least the direction its going, and I don't think it really needs to be vaporware (if these guys don't do it, someone else will). As tech gets more advanced, smaller, and cheaper, more will be intergrated into a personal device.
Currently I'm happy with my laptop and palm, but I could see buying something like this if all these features were included:
A modern easy to use OS and interface that can read multiple audio/vidio formats, can view and modify standard spreadsheet and text documents, and a simple e-mail client.
A suite of wireless interfaces (8011x, digital cellualar etc) that allows voice and data communications to existing pay cell networks and the growing wireless networks.
Easy and inexpensive docking hardware that allows you to have access to more triditional PC input/output devices.
Decent handwriting interpritation software to take notes on.
Make it small enough to fit inside a coat pocket, give it a realistic 12 hour battery life, and sell it for less then $200, and I'll buy it.
I really expect something like this to come about in 5 years.
The Internet is generally stupid
I still insist that the ultimate device would be an iPod with a screen that runs the full length of the device
If the screen's that large, where are you going to put the controls?
You don't want an iPod with palm/phone, you want a palm/phone with an MP3 player. Go talk to Sony.
In the screenshot where they actually show the device running, you can see on the desktop that they've already installed DivX and Quake II. The real use come out! Gaming and movies on the road! Woo!
Of course, that's all laptops are used for anyway.
I'd love to see something like this with a
cell phone on a PCMCIA card.
Maybe it would have a headset & boom microphone I'd wear while the computer clips to my belt.
Then again, with Linux hitting the cell phone market, who would need the PCMCIA part? Maybe my dream computer really isn't that far away.
As cool as this is, I think I'd have more use for a portable phone/Internet than an expensive portable movie player. I'll give them credit though. They realize the hassle involved in syncing up your devices - elimating the problem by only having one device.
This is going to have all the same old problems, that every other ultra-small laptop/pda has either the handwriting reconition is lame or carry the keyboard is too difficult. The Palm folding keyboard is nice but almost the same size as this device. The VGA screen probably looks good, but XP is going to be pretty cramp on 640x480, it may run MSWord but by the time the start bar, window header, tool icons etc ... fill the screen ther isn't going to be much room to read or write a document. If you want to watch DVD's get a DVD player, if you want hours of MP3s get an I pod, a VGA screen with hadwriting just isn't going to fly. MS's tablet computers with 1024x768 are going to be expensive ~$2000+ but you could actually use it as a coputer. Don't get me wrong I love small boxes but Windows/Linux can't ever happily exist on such a device. This isn't the first miniPC, there have been lots, but they are too expensive, too hard to use, and when people don't buy the price goes up and the company dies.
Either you need a superPDA (people will still compain abou the cost) and target it at things that are approriate to a small device, MP3, camera, portable video etc... Mini PC will never fly, laptop will always be cheaper and more useful, PDAs SHOULD NOT be PCs, or try and use PC OSs.
//...port the kernel over to it?
oh, right. port the kernel. great idea. let's get minix up on this thing as quick as possible. er, wait, did you mean that other kernel? well, okay, if you want ultrix instead.
honestly, there's a pair of kernels i'd like to see running on this thing; i'm pretty sure neither are the one you meant (Plan 9 and Inferno). there is more to the world than Linux.
anyway, porting the kernel (any kernel running on 386 chips) isn't likely to be the big effort - dirvers are. based on the (minimal) tech info on their site, it sounds like they're using a "special" display and touch screen, and they may or may not be keen on giving out info on those. plus whatever other funky stuff they've done to the AT spec.
as you pointed out, these guys left Apple to build a Windows XP device. that says amazingly bad things to me about their understanding of building real systems (as opposed to hardware boxes), which is an important and overlooked skill in general that becomes even more important when dealing with handheld and/or specialty systems.
i speak for myself and those who like what i say.
What I'd like to see is something like the Cappucino get an LCD touchscreen and battery installed on it. This little subnotebook, as far as I can tell from the website, needs to be hooked up to a PC for software to be installed (unless you do it over Wireless). The Cappuccino, though larger and heavier could, with a screen and battery, be an actual fully functioning PC. If you hook a keyboard up. You know.
Tiqit's 83 Palm-held computer. Nuff said.
--
# Canmephians for a better Linux Kernel
$Stalag99{"URL"}="http://stalag99.net";
against inventing a term, and then claiming you are the first to have one. "Ultrapersonal computer". Christ, many peoples computers are already as personal as anyone would want. How many have seen the um...side effects...of viewing porn?
-- Who is the bigger fool? The fool or the fool who follows him? --
given the choice of one or the other, bluetooth/wifi is definatly preferable to a micro-CDRW. ignoring questions of how useful a micro-CDRW is (compared to a normal CD[RW]), you can use wireless to get to such devices in other systems; you cannot go the other way around. the wireless access also has much broader uses; the CD-style devices are useless for anything interactive, for example.
i speak for myself and those who like what i say.
Maybe I'm odd or something, but all I want in a PDA is something that can hold addresses, remind me of things, play a few games when I am bored, and perhaps run a lisp interpreter or something similar. I have no wish to carry movies around on a little screen everyplace I go, nor do I want something that drains batteries as fast as a full sized laptop. That's what I like about palm devices. My Visor (Manos, the Handspring of Fate) is wonderfuly simple, Just Works(tm), and lasts 2 to 3 weeks on rechargable batteries. Seems like the perfect setup to me...
Posted from the wireless couch.
Man if you put this 1 gigahertz in your pocket you'll really get some sweaty balls. My laptop, with a fan cooks my desk and its maybe 5 times larger. I saw no ventilation on the case. Forget sweaty this thing will be just damn dangerous.
he never commented on the site not working (as your reply seems to think). he commented that the use of flash was crap, and poorly designed.
so IMHO, your post is Off Topic, or troll, or both.
I want my money back.
fifth sigma, inc.
According to this new (ok week old) dow jones article, the OQO will be out by year-end and range in price from $1200 to $1500
Sign me up!
Whine mode: When I submitted an article on this and IBM's entry two weeks ago it wasn't interesting:
2002-07-03 17:22:22 Your Next Desktop: the Size of a Deck of Cards? (articles,news) (rejected)
There's a teaser at Business 2.0. Another fluffy article is at TechExtreme. The best coverage, on C|NET, came out in April.
Envy my 5 digit Slashdot User ID!
you must realize this is not going after those with PDAs, you cant slip this nicely into your pocket like a sony clie. this is for those who want to carry a pda, an mp3 player, and a cell phone (there is an option for GMS and GPRS supposedly). with that in mind, many will like this. especially if you get a bluetooth headset and mayby bluetooth headphones to listen to mp3s while this little thing just sits at the bottom of your bookbag or saddlebag or whatever if its under 1500 id probably buy one
If I can't trust a company to preserve the sanctity of my browser's back button, there is no way in hell that I am trusting them with my schedule and most important phone numbers.
Ergonomica Auctorita Illico!
9 ounces isn't going to fit in my shirt pocket unless I'm wearing a John Popper Geek-o-vest.
The size is slightly larger than portable especially if your're going to drag it to a meeting to do some powertyping.
Once you add all the gunk - uh I mean add-ons you're going to need a gig bag for it.
So here's what I think:
This thing was built to support XP applications. That's it. You need a keyboard and a touch screen because that's how all those XPish applications are written.
It'l be pitched as the ideal mobile platform for people who can't live w/o that business criticial paradigm winning logistical Siebel CRM whatnot application in the field for one muthafuckin degree o seperation. All hail OQOdotnet!!
Or I was cynical which of course I'm not I'd say this is XBox 3.1.
I truly do. If it isn't vapourware then I will eventually get one. If this actually establishes itself inspite of it's pig ugly design (army meal trays look similar) it has the specs to beat the iPod (same Toshiba drive), iPaq (much better processor and a full OS), and all the PDA's out there in later iteractions. Good on them. The screen alone is amazing in having 200 dpi. What's more Linux will run without any problems on it, and application designers will not have to make specialised PDA versions anymore.
And the size is just right.
I'm not saying that the designer wasn't skilled, he just obviously didn't care very much about the user experience - not a very good sign for their product as a whole!
Whenever I see a unit like this, I think of my garage.
... well generator). I've often wondered why I have to buy three motors, why can't I use one motor and just attach it to the what I need to run at the time. I rarely need to use any three of these things at the same time. (OK Einstein, I know that each has different power requirements, don't go all techinical on me here. This is a metaphor. Remember that from Literature class??)
I'm sure you are thinking, "WTF is he talking about."
Well...let me tell you. I look into my garage and I see a snowblower, a lawnmower, and a generator. Each of these does the same thing, burn gas (petrol) and create mechanical motion. One thing cuts grass (circular motion with a sharp blade), the other throws snow (circular motion with a reel), and and the third makes electricity (circular motion with a
What can't someone make a device that that does nothing except process inputs, store and retrieve data, and play CounterStrike everyday at lunchtime. (I love my job!!!). Why can't they create a keyboardless, monitorless 'computer' with only a CPU, memory, and a disk drive (maybe a small battery so I can move it from one device to another w/o powering down) that I could plug into my desktop, laptop, PDA, or even my cell phone. I would think that would be pretty damn small. I rarely use any of these items at the same time.
Now I can have my high-end video card in my desktop, a small color LCD panel for my PDA, or a smaller B/W for my phone and not have to transfer data from one place to another.
Remember, you saw it here first!!!!
I rarely read replies, it's my opinion and if you thought about your opinion a little more, I'm OK with that.
I can see vertical market uses, for folks like real estate agents, salespeople, and so on, but it still seems like a technology in search of a use. My guess is that if a fantastic new use for small screens pops up, it will be entertainment-driven.
Someone must have ideas for a killer application of small screen technology. Comments?
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
Even obnoxious PR gets the product noticed. And getting noticed is the name of the game.
Not bad in other respects (size, speed, storage, Bluetooth, USB). If it runs something other than Windows, that's good too. I'm not sure that portable HDs are the way to go, though; flash technology is getting bigger all the time, and gives greater speed for much less power.
Ceterum censeo subscriptionem esse delendam.
Even if it is a screenshot of the OQO in action, I wonder about the visibility. Scroll over to get the size of one of those icons and the compare it to the size of the headphone jack in that monster image. I mean, that's one tiny screen!
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").