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Fully-functional Miniature Notebook Planned

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the better-faster-smaller dept.

florin writes "Check out this upcoming extremely cool micro-sized notebook from Microsoft-cofounder Paul Allen's company Vulcan (who were previously mentioned on Slashdot some time ago). Despite being small enough to fit in the palm of your hand, this is a fully blown x86-compatible computer capable of running Windows XP - or, presumably, a Unix of one's choice. Featuring an 800x480 pixel display, 256 MB of memory, sound, USB2, WLAN and optional Bluetooth, GPRS/CDMA or Firewire, this is far more than just another PDA, yet still small enough to carry with you at all times." Looks really cool, but I wouldn't plan on using full typing speed on it's tiny keys.

7 of 225 comments (clear)

  1. Fujitsu already have one by bleh-of-the-huns · · Score: 4, Informative

    The Lifebook series by Fujitsu, and much better specs. http://webshop.fujitsupc.com/fpc/Ecommerce/buildse riesbean.do?series=P1

    --
    I came, I conquered, I coredumped
    1. Re:Fujitsu already have one by Trejus · · Score: 4, Informative

      I just got one a few weeks ago, and the answer is, I'm not really sure. I think the answer is probably, but it will take some time and tweaking on the user's part.

      The problem is that the newest model, the P2120 (I can't speak for the P1000 series), only has support for ACPI, which means that all your powermanagement is controlled solely by your OS.

      Unfortnately, ACPI is not quite there yet on linux and the controls it does have are somewhat hard to configure. I don't think there are any gui's that make it easy. It is also in experimental status. The 2.4.x series has it, but it's not that good. I hear 2.5.x is better, but I haven't had time to try it yet.

      As for the other things, Mandrake 9.1 workes reasonably well right out of the box. It comes with a 40 gig harddrive, and the keyboard feels prety natural after a few hours of use. X requires some tweaking because it has a funny resolution, 1280 x 768. And USB devices crash the kernel, but I think that's because USB shares an interrupt with the buggy ACPI.

      --
      "To save the planet, I had to go to the worst spot on Earth, and that was Philadelphia." -- Sun Ra
    2. Re:Fujitsu already have one by csnydermvpsoft · · Score: 4, Informative

      I've had a P2046 for almost a year, and have been running Gentoo Linux on it the whole time. Here's my observations:

      - I've been running the 2.5 series kernels (currently staying with .60) because of increased speed. I've tried experimenting with ACPI, but it never suspends right, so I've stuck with APM.
      - USB works a lot better in 2.5 than 2.4
      - The integrated WLAN also is a lot better in 2.5, though it still has some problems (every once in a while the driver hangs, and I have to rmmod and modprobe it again)
      - Lately, it's been hanging a lot when coming out of suspend

      Other than these issues, it's a great machine. It's certainly not a speed-demon, but is great for what I got it for (taking notes, web browsing, etc.). Battery life is great - 10 hours with the screen brightness up all the way with the extended and bay battery, and over 15 hours if it's closed and I'm using it for MP3's.

      If you're looking for more info, check out the P-series forums.

  2. Re:Dunno... by isaace · · Score: 5, Informative
    From a USA Today article on the Vulcan:

    "Though pricing will be left to the companies that ultimately put their name on the device, Vulcan estimates its cost at $1,200 to $1,500."

    Full article available here.

  3. IBM already did it by soupforare · · Score: 5, Informative

    Bow down to your one and true Master, fellow nerds
    The PC110 was, and until this M$ thingee comes out, is the smallest laptop ever made.
    Now, they go for insane amounts of money on ebay. As a 486, she goes for more cash than the pentium Librettos do
    I'm a huge palmtop fan (HPLX/Amity/Libretto/etc), and if this new thing is priced right, I'd be interested... but it'll probably suck :/

    Yet more proof that anything anyone has ever done, IBM did first

    --
    --- Do you believe in the day?
  4. As a former Psion 5mx owner... by OwnerOfWhinyCat · · Score: 5, Informative

    I can state for a fact it is possible to learn to touch-type on these little keyboards, but this is greatly affected by keyboard travel and the keyshapes giving good positioning feedback.

    On a regular keyboard I can break 80 words per minute pretty easily (up until about 2 a.m.), and on the Psion I was able to average about 25 w.p.m. with some considerable practice. The Psion however was designed with good keytravel, and the chopped pyramid keystyle gave comfortable tactile feedback as to how my hands were positioned.

    The essential ingredient to getting the speed up was increase one's (right to left) hand tilt to about 45 degrees and learn to stike the keys a little more with the outside edges of your fingers. The extra tilt works like the arms of an old manual typwriter letting typing elements that are normally to fat for the space they have to share swing into each other's flight paths to share (in the typewriter case a single spot) a smaller space.

    I would strongly caution anyone who needs typing speed against purchasing this online. Go to whatever computer store might stock such a thing and make sure that the tactile and positioning feedbacks are going to be sufficient for your needs. This will probably be at least a $1000 toy, so no-one is going to begrudge you a few 30 minute sessions standing in their store playing with it.

  5. some alternatives by rewdy · · Score: 4, Informative
    with devices becoming smaller and smaller like this i give it a decade before these pda/laptop hybrids are so small you have to surgically attach your retina to the screen to see them. that's why i don't like devices like these, they're just too small.

    the ibm pc110 started it all back in the mid-90's. i have one actually. it's tiny, a pain in the ass to type on until you're used to it and terribly underpowered. i can imagine one of these things being more powerful, but even smaller? speaking from esperience, it'd make it useless to most every user (though i do admit, the server room maintenance idea was good). that's why i've been keeping my eye on similarly powerful machines of a usable size.

    the sony vaio u-101 is the brand new update to the vaio u series. most notably to the speed and memory enhancements it adds a lay-flat design and a display that rotated to landscape with the push of a button which is nice for reading e-books or any long document.

    and my favorite the jvc interlink mp-xp7230. also the latest in it's series. it's much larger than the vulcan and u-101 placing it at the smallest end of the sub-notebook category rather than a real mini-pc. i've used one of these and typing isn't even an issue. the pointing decive is a tried and true, blue, rubber nipple in the center of the keyboard with laptop-style mouse buttons along with a touch pad below the keyboard. no proprietary mega ports here. everything is seperate so there's no need for an expensive port replicator or converter dongle which we will all eventually loose.

    both of these devices have been mentioned before and linux runs perfectly on both aside from some yet to be reproduced proprietary features you'll never miss anyway. and for those of you worried about jvc's first forray into this area, i can tell you it ran rock solid both on and off ac power for three months wile the friend i borrowed it from was away at basic training.

    if the ink weren't still wet on my mortgage papers, i'd sure as hell have a jvc interlink mp-xp7230, fully expanded with an external cd-rw/dvd-rom.