Danger's HipTop Renamed and Released

FireMage writes "According to this press release from Danger, their cheap, cool, consumer targeted, cellphone/PDA "convergance device", the HipTop is now avalible nationwide as the T-Mobile SideKick, as in you should actually be able to buy one today. They've even revived one of their nifty-mysterious original flash splash pages to announce it. I'm all for clever hacks, but it's nice to finally see what seems to be a well thought out product in this arena. (The HipTop was first mentioned on Slashdot and again in a review .)" I have a review unit on my desk, and am super impressed. A larger impression piece will be coming out just as soon as I have time to write it.

Comments

More linkage

[slothdog]

More info, including reports of people getting activated and having trouble getting activated, can be read at the DangerInfo Forums.

Convergence device != answer

[plover]

For years, first as a Palm owner then as a Visor owner, I wanted a combination device so I wouldn't have to carry two different things on me.

Then I got to trying some of the available combo devices, such as the QualComm PDQ, the VisorPhone and the Kyocera. None were good enough at both tasks for me to ever want to use one again.

The screens are way too small on the dedicated phones. The PDQ was a great innovator, and a damn fine doorstop. The bolt-on radio made the Visor too big and heavy to fit comfortably in a pocket, and the speaking position is surprisingly clumsy. The Kyocera is just a very large phone with a very tiny PDA.

I've finally come to recognize that they are two different devices used for different purposes that have an occasional need for convergence. Any hardware combination is going to be a compromise that makes the usability of both suffer. I think the best answer now is going to be bluetooth communications between two separate devices. Bluetooth will also come in handy with future consumer controls (think TV remotes that don't rely on an under powered IR or a cordless phone base that talks to your cell phone's earpiece, etc.,) so it has the potential to be used much more widely than just pocket to earpiece communicatons.

Let's just say that the news of this device is two years late and mostly underwhelming.

Re:Convergence device != answer

[SirSlud]

One word: modules!

Until we have some sort of physical module standard, we'll never get to have all the best-of-breed things in one device.

But I imagine a time where you buy a 'display' platform - a screen and some input mechanisms (keyboard, speaker, mic). Then, you plug in the GSM-on-a-card, or the organizer-on-a-card, or the .. well, you get the idea.

There's no reason why there couldn't be one physical device if the tech industry could get it into their head that physical interoperability is going to be just as important in the future as software interoperability as consumers demand that they don't have to carry around 5 physical devices to get the best implementations of the various devices you list.

I think if you seperate the passive technologies (the screen, the inputs, outputs, storage), you could easily have these manufacturers competate for best-of-breed implementations without the consumer having to carry around X number of seperate devices ..

Or maybe this gets even easier, as you say, with bluetooth. You keep all the functionality in your bag or pocket in the from of bluetooth enabled modules that speak to the central display and I/O device.

That way the market diferentiates between your interface layer (the physical device you view and provide input to), and the tasks it can accomplish, and consumers arn't left compromising functionality for the interface, or the interface for the functionality.