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Japanese Pocket-Size PC Cube Demonstrated
rocketjam writes "The Japanese company, Personal Media Corporation, has demonstrated a prototype of a cube-shaped pocket-sized computer called the T-Cube (tentative name). The T-Cube runs the T-Engine OS, an operating system apparently being developed by a consortium of Asian companies for embedded devices and networked computers. The machine is about the size of an orange, uses a CPU made by NEC and sports a desktop written for the Chinese Market supporting Multi- and Super-Chinese Character sets. It is scheduled to ship in Q1 of 2004."
in all seriousness, imagine linux on that thing. your own desktop pc to take with you whereveer you go. and if you bought one of those pocket tv's, it could serve as a pda too, maybe
ok that would need some hacking, but you get my point
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End up going home in a pocket.
While it might be the size of a small orange it isn't exactly flat and I don't consider it to be conducive to fitting in my pocket. The other PDA to the left of the screen shot, while being quite a bit taller, is far thinner and would probably fit into a pocket easier than this.
;)
So the OS is some non-standard thing w/probably little or no support, the shape is not really good for "pocket PCs", there is no screen, and everything is in yen and Japanese
No thanks. I'll stick to my rarely stable PocketPC for now.
We've had PDAs for years, since the days of the Apple Newtons and early US Robotics Palms. We've had handhelds like the Casio handheld computer with the 200MHz MediaGX processor from Cyrix in it. We've had HP and Compaq handhelds that are powerful enough to play mp3s for about three years.
Another small computer is cool, but is it really especially newsworthy?
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
I know that it's a pain for the Japanese, Chinese, Arabic, Russian, et cetera speaking people in the world to use systems mainly built by and for people who speak English, French, and German.
It's a little scary, though, that the east Asian countries are developing their own track of OSes with which we in the west may have to learn to deal. It's also a scary thought that having a group of OSes for one set of people and another set of OSes for another set of people may slow or even reverse the growing commonality of international communication.
Of course, this is coming from an American spoiled by the fact that most of the world is willing to learn my native language. I know enough of two other languages to make do, and enough of a fourth to find a taxi, hospital, restaurant, toilet, and hotel -- enough to travel in a pinch I guess. So I'm not the average Anglophonic snob. But still, it's a bit scary.
Hopefully all the multi-byte character support and such built into the systems such as this can improve the same on other OSes. It' be a shame if we were to be separated by both language and platform from a substantial part of the world.
They're portable: but so are PDAs. And unlike the tcube, PDAs come with an integrated screen and some means for inputting data. These don't, so they're of limited use on the road. Even for telecommuters, you might as well stick with your laptop.
I suppose if you wanted to transport an entire data center to the other side of the floor, or even across town, these could be carried in a crate rather tna shipped on a truck. But, honestly, how often is this a consideration when choosing hardware?
I suppose they could come in handy for a home network or informal hosting operation out of your basement. But unless they're cheap, I doubt people would choose them over the eight too-obolete-for-gaming-but-perfectly-good-for-any- other-purpose desktops they already have in their basements.
What is the target market for these? People who like cute little multicolored boxes?
But...who actually wants this thing? And what are you using it for?
Seems like a natural for the wearable computing platform. This thing can be easily concealed inside a fanny pack, and still be hooked up to more traditional perhiperals when not on-the-go.
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
A teach of mine told me that, back in the old mainframe and terminal days, when mass storage and computing were costly, students would be asked to buy keyboards. Owning a keyboard permitted you to use the mainframe at any terminal on campus.
This seems almost like the reverse idea. Build docking stations to fit the cube, and you can carry the COMPUTER with you. No need to worry about the privacy of your data, or the expense of a monitor. I could see where this could become VERY popular in Asia, where the resources to give each person their own computer aren't there yet.
Hey freaks: now you're ju
that said, neato. looks way too much like a gamecube.
How does a box the size of an orange fit into anyone's apparel? Even with the emphasis on thinness in the PDA/cellphone market, we have to choose between cargo pants and bulging pockets.
Integrated ethernet port? I guess you can wear the computer as a necklace by using the ethernet cable that you'll also have to carry around. Why in the world wouldn't they build in an 802.11(something) chip?
Integrated audio? I hope but doubt that it's also got integrated speakers.
This is just about the low point in bad tech design. I am crazy about the idea of truly portable computing - schlepp your entire data store and OS on a high-density flash card; pop it into any computing device - handheld, notebook, public-access workstation, kiosk - and get instant and full access to your data, according to your preferred interface style, in a presentation appropriately scaled to the device. But toys like this represent a step back from that movement. They're totally useless for a dozen reasons, and they lead people to believe that buzzwords like "wearable computing" have no non-geek future.
- David Stein
Computer over. Virus = very yes.
Just working with something that is raw calculations, I wouldn't doubt that Linux can squeeze out a percent or two more than WinCE. What does this matter when the applications and libraries written on top of this perform poorly? No, the blame can't go to Linux, but as far as the majority of folks are concerned, it's irrelevant.
But when it comes down to actually using the thing, the whole WinCE package *feels* a ton faster (even using MFC, provided it's a newer machine) than using Linux/Qtopia or Linux/X11. Linux/PicoGUI is another story, though not far enough along.
Working toward a usable PDA environment in the spirit of Newton OS: Dynapad
How does a box the size of an orange fit into anyone's apparel? Even with the emphasis on thinness in the PDA/cellphone market, we have to choose between cargo pants and bulging pockets.
I've got cargo pants. Besides, it'll fit just fine in a backpack or fanny pack, as the post you're replying to stated.
Why in the world wouldn't they build in an 802.11(something) chip?
Then the antenna sticks you in the nuts. GENIUS!
Integrated audio? I hope but doubt that it's also got integrated speakers.
They're called headphones.
You go to all this trouble to come down on this guy about using this cube as a wearable computer, and you completely miss the obvious. It doesn't have a fucking battery and is designed to be plugged into an outlet with a power supply that's several times bigger than the computer.
I think the answer is simple: people who like cool, small, cute, things will buy them.
Maybe in the U.S. that wouldn't fly, but there are lots of people like that in Japan. Some of it is for a purpose (e.g., if your room is smaller, you may be less willing to have a big-ol' tower case taking up space and looking ugly), but in part it's also simply preference, and fashion.
A laptop can also satisfy this, but the integrated nature of laptops is an unecessary restriction for many uses, and let's face it -- laptops are rather Old Hat these days. A cute little brightly colored cube is something new and interesting (at least for a while!).
[If you going into any Japanese computer store, there's pretty clearly a bigger market for small computers than in the U.S. In japan, the coolest cars are small, cute, and emphasize design; in the U.S., giant hulking SUVs are king.]
We live, as we dream -- alone....
"There's an obvious alternative: embed the processor into the KVM kiosk, and into every other general-use device. All you carry around is your data, because that's the only component that is useful to personalize."
This was done back in the day. It was called the floppy disk. Of course these days we laugh at the capacity of floppies, but there was a time when the only storage computers had was the floppy disk you put in! It's sort of sad that we've moved away from this concept, but nobody can agree on a friggin standard. You might claim that CD-RWs are it, but most machines don't have the capability to write to them and even those that do can't do it nearly fast enough.
This is really a technical problem (don't expect to see a successor to the floppy disk, since if you don't make the heads part of the disk it can't be competetive in performance but if you do it will make the media cost too damn much). Maybe some sort of flash technology will do it someday, but right now flash is just too expensive and too small.
"There's a second alternative, too. You don't carry around anything, except maybe a general-purpose access device for reaching your home computer. Every device you use in public or carry around is just a gateway to your home server. It doesn't get much more elegant than that."
This can sort of be done today. I leave my computer running all day, ssh into it from the lab and even run X applications on it (and everyone bitches about the networking stuff in X...do you people have any idea how useful it is?), but I can't do the same thing anywhere because most places don't have the right software installed and don't have the bandwidth (I am lucky enough to have my computer at home hooked into the same campus-wide network as the machine in the lab). I don't see either of those problems going away anytime soon.
Processors are cheap (well, cheap processors are cheap...that doesn't mean that the latest Pentiums and Athlons are, but most people don't need that). If you can improve compatability and utility by putting the processor in there then I say go for it.
Physics is good