Nokia's Cellular GBA - The N-Gage

An anonymous reader writes "Hold on to your Game Boys, folks! It appears that the Finland cell phone manufacturer, Nokia, will be throwing in its lot in the handheld gaming industry with its N-Gage. Not only is this critter capable of playing games, but other noticeable features include a cell phone, radio, and MP3 player. Game companies such as Sega, Taito, and Eidos have already expressed support for it."

Comments

Re:all-in-one technology

[n1ywb]

What do all these devices have in common?

• handheld game system
• pocket pc/palm/etc
• MP3 player

Thats right, they all have a microprocessor, some buttons, and an LCD, and take batteries! Whats the real difference between an iPod and a pocket PC with a big microdrive? Not a lot.

And furthermore, what do all of THESE devices have in common?

• Cell phone
• GPS receiver
• Ham radio
• 2 way text pager
• FM radio
• Scanner
• CB radio

Thats right, they have ALL of the same traits as the aforementioned devices, with the addition of an RF DSP chip. Again, a lot of overlap

So whats my point? Sure you could carry one of each of these devices, but do you have enough pocket room? Or room on your belt? Do you want to fuck around with all those batteries and no convenient way to interface the devices to each other? You COULD merge all of these devices into one single SUPER DEVICE.

Sound crazy? It's not. A PocketPC already can do most of this stuff. MP3s (DiVx to boot), games, PIM, whatever other software you want. They've already squeezed cell phones into pocket pc's without adding any (significant) bulk. There's no reason why the same DSP chip that is used to modem the cellphone signal couldn't be used to also demodulate FM broadcast, GPS signals, etc, all just by running a different program. That is the beauty of DSP. Yeah you might need to switch in and out some final amplifier or mixer stages but thats easy enough and it can all be integrated into a single chip with only a few external components. SHit they already have ham radios that are smaller than some cellphones that operate on 50mhz, 144mhz, 440mhz, and 1.2ghz. If THAT isn't a wide frequency range then I don't know what is.

So my point is there is no TECHNICAL reason NOT to integrate the HELL out of devices. There are many practical reasons why integrated devices rule.

Will this ever happen? Of course not. Well then again, insert $10M and I'll make it. Does anyone want to fund my startup?