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Hand-Sized Antelope Windows PC To Debut
securitas writes "CNet's Michael Kanellos reports on start-up Antelope Technologies' plans to launch its Modular Computing Core (MCC) next week. The 'full-fledged Windows [XP] computer that measures 3 inches by 5 inches' is based on the IBM Meta Pad, which Antelope Technologies licensed from IBM. Priced at $3,970, it's expected that the MCC will be primarily for corporate fleets, where mobility is a requirement. Antelope's MCC was previously mentioned on Slashdot, and it seems that the company has beat competitor OQO to real product status. Will the Nimbel V5 be next?"
The 'full-fledged Windows [XP] computer that measures 3 inches by 5 inches
That'd be the world's smallest space heater.
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
How big is an Antelope's Hand? Just a little bigger than a jackalope's buttock?
CTRL-ALT-DEL
Antelopes don't have hands.
And just how big is an antelope's hand?
Oh wait, I found it: 1 Antelope Hand ~= 0.067 VW Beetles
I had to read that title a few times - the first couple readthroughs had me thinking this PC was the size of an antelope hand (which they don't have anyway), and that didn't help me very much when trying to picture how big it was.
I thought we were going metric. First they start measuring storage in Libraries of Congress (LoC), now they're measuring PC sizes in antelope hands. And here I thought they had hooves. Anyway, what would an antelope need a PC for?
Probably not. Small, custom devices like this usually dont have a lot of options as far as driver support goes.
I was a huge fan of the Toshiba Libretto, way back in the day, so its nice to see somebody else pick up the mini-PC torch. Those things were an admin's dream; imagine having all your software installed on an easily portable system which can fit in your pocket; and this was in 1996!
That one was really hard to get drivers for as well, as I recall; its hard to remember, but it may not have supported Windows 98 too well.
Manipulate the moderator system! Mod someone as "overrated" today.
You have this small box thing which you put in a cradle to connect to a monitor -> This is your desktop. To become mobile you insert the small box into a PDA shaped thingie -> This is your notebook/palmtop. Why the hell did they not just integrate the small box into their PDA receptacle, making it probably overall smaller and then run the PDA in a cradle as your Desktop PC???
I have been following this off and on for a few months now. It is still a little immature for it to truely make big gains in the market (at least in my opinion). The system throttles performance of the processor down to pda speeds when on battery (i.e. about 400mHz). When on battery, it still only has an expected battery life of 3-4 hours. Laptops get easily as much battery power and they have a huge display as well as run at usually around 800 mHz or faster while on battery. Now grant it mHz doesn't mean everything in terms of performance, but a laptop's CPU is easily on par performance wise to the CPU in the Antelope, and the laptop's are running easily 2-4 times the clock speed.
So on the high end, if you are looking for performance, a laptop blows this away. If you are looking for portability, a PDA easily wins. PDA's will give you easily 4-5 hours on battery as well as WiFi and/or Bluetooth wireless access. As well as cost 1/8 the price.
I just don't see the market for this device at this time. It isn't very small, or very powerfull. And it is very expensive especially considering you can get a high end laptop AND a high end PDA for the same price (or less!) then an Antelope.
We were all warned a long time ago that MS products sucked, remember the Magic 8 Ball said, "Outlook not so good"
Seriously though, it's a good idea if it catches on. People are starting to accumulate data they want or need to carry around and use in different places in different machines. I'd much rather have people plug their own machine into a docking station at my house than constantly bug me "Can I use your computer to check my mail?" and have to worry about them screwing up my machine.
The main obstacle is getting enough power and storage without losing portability and compatability. PDAs seem to have a problem with the latter, most are very limited in what they can run. Laptops seem to have problems with the former. To get a decent battery life and features you often wind up having to haul around 5lbs more hardware.
The big problem I can see with it is there's no standard for the docking bay design. Which means proprietary systems that are no good. There needs to be a standard design for this kind of thing so they all work in each other's docks and you can just plug your base unit into anyone's keyboard, monitor, cd drive, sound system etc.
Introducing the new Occam Fusion! Now with sqrt(-1) fewer blades!
I've been reading in the news that PDA sales are plummetting. Most people attribute this to the consumer need shifting from the old style PDA to a smartphone.
However, that's just ONE aspect of what I see as the convergence in the portable space.
There are several portable devices, all of which can be duplicated by a conventional laptop:
1) portable MP3 player (ala IPOD)
2) portable DVD player
3) PDA apps
4) cell phone (well, I'm assuming it's possible)
The big problem with PDAs are:
1) No optical storage options, and microdrives are still too small to be able to serve a healthy dose of media.
2) CPUs still too weak for truly decent digital video playback.
3) Screen orientation sucks for the web.
4) have to use an external keyboard, or if you use a thumbpad you are still stuck with portrait mode.
The problem with the IPODs and portable DVD players are that they are single-purpose devices.
The problem with laptops is they are still too expensive and too bulky to be an everything-in-one solution. But it's still the best out there right now.
There is also a lot of corporate shortsightedness going on. PDA manufacturers are still thinking in terms of the "vertial marketplace" even though we're in a recession and corporations are not on any sort of buying sprees.
Computer manufacturers still look at laptops the way the big car makers look at SUVs. They can get more of a profit margin because of a perception in the consumers that the product costs a lot to manufacture.
So that explains why you have $400 desktops with decent specs and low end laptops are still close to a grand with sucky embedded graphics chips.
You've got Dell that is pushing the envelope in pricepoint on their PDAs, but they still aren't really marketing them to the average joe. They come out with yet another dead-end device, an IPOD clone, for that.
Now think what if...
What if PDAs could hook up to 1.8" hard drives or walkman-like CD/DVD drives to PDAs or sub-notebooks?
What I'm thinking is component-like devices all with their own power supplies that can interface with eachother. It's like if you chopped up a laptop into pieces you could decide how much you needed and when to deplete each component's individual batteries.
And the cool thing is that the individual components would still have a function separate from the core. A bluetooth-enabled IPOD is still an IPOD. But if you stored video files on an IPOD you'd only be able to play them back on a video-enabled device. An MP3 CD player can still play CDs on its own, but if you put a DVD disc in it you will only get audio out through the headphone jack. A cell phone is still a cell phone on its own but can also be used as a cellular modem. The PDA core boots off nonvolatile storage and doesn't require a hard drive.