Slashdot Mirror
OQO Ultra-Portable Impresses At CES
carpoolio writes "One of the most-talked about gadgets at CES last week was the OQO ultra personal computer (uPC). TechTV gave it a Best Mobile Device award, and deservedly so. It's a fully functional PC that fits in your pocket. Running on a 1 GHz Transmeta Crusoe processor, the uPC packs a 20 GB hard drive, 256 MB of RAM, and has a color screen that slides up to reveal the keyboard. The price? Sub-$2,000. Photos available on OQO's Web site. Similar devices have come and gone in recent years, but this one really looks nice." OQO seems to be slowly migrating from vaporware to a release date - a CNET News article notes that "OQO said Thursday that it will begin selling the device in the second half of 2004."
We must have skipped vPC (very personal computer) and hPC (hyper personal computer). I'd still be interested in a sPC (semi-personal computer). Just don't show me the aPC (anti-personal computer).
A programmer is a machine for converting coffee into code.
Oh, yes, it is. Nevermind.
Isn't that called Windows XP?
Test your net with Netalyzr
OQO 1.0
The only real change I noticed from the original spec was a 20Gb HD, vs 10Gb in the first.
--H
the server must be on an OQO :-)
I am the Alpha and the Omega-3
RS-232 is an extremely useful interface. If I had to choose a port to jettison from PC laptops, the parallel port would be my first preference. I don't understand why this huge and useless connector is still included on most PC laptops.
Data acquisition and sensing is one of the Really Cool Applications for an ultraportable. It's a hell of a lot easier for Joe Labgeek to h4x0r something together that talks RS-232 than USB. I'm glad there's at least one "legacy" port.
Here is another site which shows the uPC -- with pics.
:)
Soon to be Slashdotted too, I'm sure.
Right is wrong when left is right.
It's vaporware. Oqo has announced previous versions of this product several times, none have ever made it to market. I'd love to have one of them, and many people have been waiting for it, but at this point I'm not holding my breath. I'll believe it when I see it.
/. in 2002 for best vaporware:/ 12/22/022821 7&mode=thread&tid=126
It made
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02
Slashdot should not be promoting hype from any vendor that has a history like OQO until it's actually released.
It does look sleek and sexy, but not the most practical. It fills in where a power user needs a PDA, and it seems to have the function built in to become a desktop. But the problem is that it's filling a pretty small niche of people who want more than a PDA but less than a laptop. It's not practical to use this as you primary work travel PC as the keyboard is a thumb-board and isn't good for quick entry. It is an ultimate PDA... but you've got to be a pretty high-roller to spend two grand on your glorified PDA.
Sadly it's probably a niche market item. I hope they find a way to make those innovations really work with a practical product, but I fear they'll be innovating in the field but not financially leading it. I'd love to try one out but don't see it as a practical addition to my tech tool belt.
CharlesP
wordtrip.com
Neat idea, but the company really sucks at delivering. At least update your webpage. They are only 3 months away from not updating it in 2 years. That's just pathetic. They need to invest in some more resources and a PR team.
You can still get pictures of it from google image search.
In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice, in practice there is.
Really, what are the uses of these kinds of tiny devices? Heck, for PDAs as well. They're nice toys but they lack power, easy of use and most importantly, a good use. I've only encountered a FEW situations that made me think "Yes, a PDA would be a good tool for this job." and that mostly involves truck drivers and route planners. For the rest I can't seem to find a use for these things. And I'm supposed to seel em for crying out loud.
As I see it, TINY computers ( PDAs and these toys alike ) are like solutions waiting for a problem.
Hate me!
No it's not an RS232 port. It's a propritary port. The unit comes with a cable that's about 3 feet long that breaks it out into other ports such as Ethernet, USB, VGA (and some others, I don't remember the details)
This thing is AWSOME! I saw it at CES and I'm seriously thinking of getting one when they come out. It is truely amazing. The only thing I'm not sure of is the screen seemed prone to getting damaged. They also claimed they had it running off the same battery at CES all day and it was still running (so several hour battery life)
Not sure if the pictures on this site show it (it's slashdotted) as none of the other pictures I've seen show this, but the screen slides up about 1/2 way to reveal a little QWERTY keyboard.
Second of all, it runs linux just fine. The designers have tested it with Red Hat 9 with no problems. They haven't tested BSD, but don't see any reason why that wouldn't work as well; there's some discussion of testing Darwin on it.
Third, I just asked one of the designers about ports. The reponse:
"We've got USB, FW (4 pin), Audio (stereo with "extra" feature lines), 2 docking ports, external 802.11 antenna port and Power. USB is 1.1, FW is 400Mb. On the docking connector, we've got: VGA, LVDS (for digital interface to LCD), Serial PCI (for external PCI chassis/devices), same FW, 2 USB lines, Audio, Power. On the docking cable, we've got a USB -> Ethernet converter with RJ-45 plug, male and female VGA connectors (for flexibility of plugging into devices without additional cables), and so on." There is no serial port on the device.
Fourth, the theory behind the device is to have a box that will convert from a PDA to a desktop machine and back again. You use it in the office, undock it, use it on the train, and redock it to use it again once you get home. No syncing required. It's not really meant just be a turbo-charged PDA.