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Credit Card Sized Concept PDA from Citizen

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the incredible-shrinking-handhelds dept.

chris writes "Citizen has unveiled a miniature PDA concept considerably smaller than existing PDAs. The 60 x 90 x 9.3mm 16-colour grayscale PDA is just a bit bigger then a credit card." A bit too large to stow in one's wallet, but it's still a slick form factor, easily hid in a pocket. It runs ITRON4 for an OS, and the battery life is rated at 30 hours.

6 of 199 comments (clear)

  1. Oxymoron alert! by cliffy2000 · · Score: 5, Funny

    "16-colour grayscale"
    I know what they mean, but it's a little misleading.

  2. Whoops by r_glen · · Score: 5, Informative

    The company link is wrong. Correct address is here

  3. Re:Sure it's small... by eidolons · · Score: 5, Funny
    ...and how long before you lose the damn thing? As electronics get exponentially smaller, we're shelling out more and more loads of $ for tiny little gadgets.

    What happens if you get your pants stolen (I don't want to imagine the scenario where this would happen, but bear with me) when you're carrying your mp3, your cell phone, and your pda and who knows what else? Soon our laptops will be the size of credit cards (that unfold or something for the screen). We don't need house insurance anymore, we need pants insurance. You know what? I think I'll invest in pants insurance. Listen, you heard it here first.

  4. I Can Wait by cmacb · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I STILL think all these things are overpriced. Heck in the 80's I got hold of a calculator that was credit card sized..literally in every dimension. flexible like a credit card too so it fit into my wallet and got sat on just like other credit cards with no ill-effects. I think I paid about $5 for it on a boardwalk in CA, but I never saw the things widely marketed in the US. Instead I saw much thicker devices that would crack if flexed at all and they cost several times as much. Palm devices are the same way. The technology exists to build the thing for $15 and have all the standard Pilot functionality. As long as people will pay $200 for every new tiny incremental improvement you can't blame the hardware companies for taking your money.

    If my Palm III ever dies and goes to heaven (doesn't show any signs of it) my plan to is go to Walmart and see what Casio has been up to. I have a sneaking suspicion that they already have all the functionality I need for a carry-everywhere device. I'm a bit more picky about laptops however.

  5. Hopefully well designed by killerkalamari · · Score: 5, Insightful
    I bought one of those Oregon Scientific mini-PDA's (credit card size, but 1/8" thick).. it was only a few bucks brand new on E-Bay, so I decided to give it a shot. It was really fun to play with, but the lack of a keyboard or handwriting recognition made me quickly realize it wasn't much more than a toy. I just couldn't keep up trying to punch things in on the onscreen keyboard so I often ended up with various notes in my pocket thinking "I will enter that later" (phone numbers, appointments, etc). Later, of course, never seemed to come around. I finally quit carrying it when certain cells of the touch screen stopped working (on/off comes to mind).

    I'm still hoping for a programmable PDA calculator watch with the form factor of my Casio Data Bank DBC-61[0] (I'm not talking about those clunky new wannabe data banks with impossible to press keys). Here's a pic:

    Casio DBC-610

    Notice the smooth keypad? This is perfect for quick entry. Raised buttons are harder to press and slow me down. The battery lasts at least 3 years. Now, add PDA features and predictive text input, and you have a winner (the screen doesn't need to change much, it can display text and numbers). Of course it will never happen, but I can dream :) Jeff

  6. Cold fusion discovered, or...? by Timmeh · · Score: 5, Funny

    So what are you hoping for, about 37 seconds of battery life?