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Intel's 'Personal Server': The Handheld Killer?

Posted by michael on from the have-your-device-call-my-device-and-we'll-do-lunch dept.

markbaard writes "Intel is developing a wireless, pocket-sized personal server that may replace laptops and PDAs altogether. The 'personal server,' which is being developed at Intel Research by ubiquitous computing wizard Roy Want, is the size of a deck of cards, half the weight of an iPaq, and has no i/o, no screen, and no peripherals. The device never leaves its user's pocket or handbag. Pictures of the personal server and the story are at baard.com."

4 of 330 comments (clear)

  1. Wardriving in the subway! by exhilaration · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Let's see how long it takes our enterprising youngsters to crack the security on these things! If they become ubiquitous, then the average user will use them to transport data of great value; after all, what better place for ALL your e-mail, and ALL your documents that in your pocket? Imagine being able to break into one of those things from a laptop - or perhaps another unit reprogrammed to attach to all nearby units and grab anything available.

    Sounds like fun!!!!!

  2. Nice idea, but what about this... by pr0ntab · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Looks like a pen. Writes like a pen.

    But it's not a pen. It contains 256 MB (or so) of flash, which is shared via bluetooth. A 10cm high gain antenna is hidden within the length of the pen itself, and powered by a single AAA battery. Walk by an enabled PC, optionally type in a password, and all your documents, your keyring, etc. are available.
    Finally, as an added bonus, when you write on paper (or anything for that matter), you can choose to record your scribbles on the flash drive. Tiny gyroscopic sensors determine the motion of the pen across the page, and a pressure sensor determines whether the pen is against a writing surface. Each time you expose the ball point head it creates a new file, and when you retract it, it closes it. You can tell which file is which by the timestamps.

    THAT would kick ass. And as embedded logic gets more powerful, you could have a personal web/email/jabber server running in there too.
    A wireless iPod sounds nifty, but where's the innovation people?

    --
    Fuck Beta. Fuck Dice
  3. Network While You're Networking ;) by Taliesan999 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Makes for a whole bunch of interesting possibilites...

    How long before someone develops a piece of software that lets you swap files with other such devices in the area automatically, maybe even search for specific files on other's shares?

    Turn up to a lecture and just by being there you get a copy of the audio and notes streamed to your personal server.

    Add an access mechanism to a television/home entertainment system. Boom, instant portable TIVO!

  4. What's wrong with this picture? by Animats · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Let me get this straight. I'm supposed to carry around this little box with all my data on it so that when I get somewhere that has a keyboard and screen and knows how to talk to this box, I can log in and access my data.

    What's wrong with this picture? Why do I need to carry around this box? Why do I want to carry around data? That's what the Internet is for.

    Remember Java-enabled jewelry with onboard crypto? The RSA "fob" ID device? Dallas Semiconductor buttons? Same functional capabilities, less to carry. All you really need is an ID device.

    Ubiquitous computing looks more like "hurry up and find something that wastes compute power before we have to have another layoff". They need some better ideas over there.