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Handtop PC Announced Using Transmeta Processor
Cyberllama writes "Like many people on Slashdot, I've been wondering when all those transmeta-based products we were promised were finally coming out -- then I saw this. It claims to a be a fully functional laptop-like device with a 5.6 inch screen that can fit into the palm of your hand -- smaller than many laptop batteries. The specs are a bit last year (256 megs of ram, 1 gigahertz processor, 30 gig hard drive) -- but the size of the device is still pretty impressive. Unfortunately it looks like they won't be shipping until the end of the year."
what do i possibly need 256MB/1GHz with a 5.6" screen for? not a troll, im honestly curious. thats what i have at home in my desktop and it does all i need, sure. however, most of what i do coudl not be done on a 5.6" screen. maybe its just a little to early for this kind of tiny power or are there really pda-style apps that need this?
use your turn signal! you people act like it's divulging information to the enemy
I want to get such a system for $450-$600 brand new tops. Doesn't have to be the fastest, but with the price of such small laptop like computers, it is never going to happen. Even used Toshiba liberttos are expensive.
------ Curiosity killed the cat. {satisfaction brought it back | it didn't die ignorant | lack of it is killing mankind
I recently purchased a Fujitsu P Series Lifebook that uses a TM processor (see their site for details). It's pretty slick. Don't have a CD/DVD drive, but I'm using my unit for remote admin work so I love being able to go wireless, grab a wired connection, or even use GPRS via a PC Card. The touch screen is great as well.
"2-3 hours running Windows(R) XP operating system and Microsoft(R) Office applications"
Really, we'd need more than that. A spare battery or two, perhaps, especially if you plan to do anything hardware-intensive on it (Office, Windows, anything involving Half-Life... sweet, Counter-Strike on a palmtop PC).
Striking fear in the authors of godawful fanfiction, I am here, appearing in darkness, Tuxedo Jack!
Sorry guys, but this simply looks very much like a geek toy to me. Not really useful for anything than show-off.
sick of sigs... *sigh*
No, but Sharp Zaurus runs linux, as well as being much smaller/cheaper/better supported. Even has a full keyboad.
/waiting for his 5600 in the mail :)
hey, let's not slap a negative connotation on the word 'geek' now :).
I think the best definition of geek I've ever heard is courtesy of phessler on BSDForums: "The difference between a nerd and a geek, is a nerd will skip a party to do homework, and a geek will party, then do homework while drunk/hungover." I think I fall into the geek category, minus the drunkenness.
This is nothing new... this kind of stuff exists since 1989!
The main reason is that it runs XP, and not one of the light weight "Windows Powered" hand held operating systems. It's not a PDA, but a full blown PC.
"Full Windows XP Home/Professional operating system"
This is not a Pocket PC, but a full blown PC at the SIZE of the larger clamshell Pocket PCs. You're getting close to the low end of XP's recommended hardware specs with this device. It'll probably be a bit sluggish with that hardware.
"Live Free or Die." Don't like it? Then keep out of the USA
I own a Toshiba Libretto C110. I still use the heck outta it - I never bothered with buying a PDA, I use my Libretto instead. It's small enough to drop into the pocket of my trench coat when I head out on a startup, or go to gaming on the weekends.
PDA's have a very confining feature set - very little storage, low processing power, etc. For instance, I hate carrying my books to gaming - so, I have scanned versions of my books (and some that I bought from TSR in .pdf format) When I need to look up something, just pull up the document, hit find, and I've found what I need - more convenient than a dead trees version (for searching - there's still something I prefer about dead trees for normal reading). Plus, it beats the heck outta carrying 5 books. Sure, I could convert to plain text for a PDA, but then I loose most of the table formatting. Plus I also keep my characters on there in Excel (I'd run OpenOffice, but, the Libretto is too underpowered for OO - it works fine with the fairly old version of Office that was included.)
It's also great on a startup for similar reasons - just throw all my manuals on it, and when I need to look up something, pull that sucker out. Also great for times when I need to upload a program to a PanelView, connect to a PLC, etc. It's small, and I can hold it in one hand while connecting to the PLC - no need to have to set up a table or rest it on a rack.
For any serious long term use, it requires an external keyboard and monitor hooked up - I've used it that way a few times, but more often than not I just suffer through 15 minutes of typing on the itty-bitty keyboard it has.
This thing sounds like a perfect successor to my Libretto. The Libretto has 32Mb RAM, 166MHz processor (I overclocked mine to 233Mhz - there's some nice sites out there about hackin' the Libretto), and a 6Gb HD in it at the moment. 1 Ghz, 256MB, 30GB HD, and 802.11g? Sounds like a great upgrade to me :-)
Now if I could only get: Same thing with a G4 in it (what ever happened to the idea that Transmeta was going to be able to emulate any processor?!) running MacOS X, a touch screen that can be rotated around like some of the (way too large!) TabletPC's, and a decent 3D card in it (for when I'm bored at the airport, car trips, meetings :-) I'd REALLY happy :-) (And my wife would too - while I don't have a PDA, she does. She also has a Mac, and if she had her choice everything would run OS X / work like a Mac :-)
Davis Ray Sickmon, Jr - looking for something to read? Check out my three free novels at MidnightRyder.org
Mars? Solitary confinement? Where?
"I've been wondering when all those transmeta-based products we were promised were finally coming out"
So you missed the tablet PCs then? That had Compaq and MS behind it. If anyone was going to help TM make a dent in the market, I think it would've been them. Sony have done TM palmtops too. In fact, it's been around a bit now in buyable products...
As it is, my TC1000 runs on a TM 5800 and it's awfully slow, even with 768MB ram. As the Fliptop has pretty much the same hardware/software combo - except the Geforce 2 Go, which was vital for good video performance - I'll give it a miss thanks.
So, is one palmtop going to help Transmeta out big time? I don't think so...
I covered this last week for Forbes.com, and got to play around with a Flipstart for about 60 seconds.7 flipstart.html
http://forbes.com/technology/2004/02/17/cx_ah_021
Imagine, if you will, one of those DVD players with the brain of a Zire-class device; color screen (5" LCD - TV resolution, but that didn't stop us in the olden days), internal data storage (5GB?), a usb port or two, CF or CardBus, and maybe a bottom-of-the-barrel Realtek or ADMTek 802.11X chip.
Email, address book, DVD, MP3, and computer functionality in your (large) pocket, or backpack. Plug in whatever USB mouse/keyboard you want, or use the integrated joystick-thingy on the bus/subway/plane/go.
Hell, you could even play Commodore 64, Atari, and GameBoy games on the thing..
Hellllo Amiga..Which does go some way to explain the heavy use of the word Microsoft and their associated (tm)(r)(c) lettering in almost every page.
Information here.
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Remote Desktop. I could see using this thing to access my home PC running a remote desktop through Wifi. Who cares how fast it is as long as it has the ability to push my commands through and display the graphics on the (small) screen. Right now I've got a 12" Sony VAIO that I can contect to running as my main desktop PC that is connected to my wireless router. I simply fire up remote desktop from the laptop and now I'm effectivly running at P4 2.8GHz speed with a Gig of RAM and plenty of hard drive space, not to mention access to the programs on that computer. This applies to any "under powered" pc networked to a nice box.
"[Q:]How do I back up my data on my FlipStart if it's my only computer?
[A:]As they do today, computer users should back up their data when they are connected to their home or office network. That said, we have constructed the hard drive to withstand rugged conditions to prevent data loss." -- From the Faq on the site.
Does anyone else see this as not answering the question? WHO posts a faq, and doesn't vene answer the questions correctly? This just CAN'T be good marketing.
...storing and reviewing digital photos on the road. In my opinion the current hard-drive based portable storage devices are a one-trick pony, which limits their usefulness. On the other hand, notebooks are currently too big for a device whose primary purpose is to store photos and maybe review some on a screen. Sony and IBM have some ~3 lb. wonders that come close, but at around 1 lb. this thing is exactly the right size.
What remains to be seen is how much this thing will cost. If it's priced like a 3 lb. notebook, forget it.
Cheers,
Jeremy
Specs are here:
Celery 600, $2,000.00 price tag.
Didin't say it was cheap, but then I don't expect this thing to be less than $1000.00
Jon Acheson
All opinions expressed herein are my own, and not those of my employers, who are appalled.
I'll bet pretty much anything it's either complete vapor or we'll never see anything like it. The fact that not even Toshiba has released such a device doesn't look promising for this company. I know that major PC manufacturers aren't always right about everything, but they do essentially determine what we are allowed to want and what the market is allowed to carry. Sony's Picturebook (I think) series is the closest to this I have ever seen, and with those machines' low usability and fairly lame specs for a price well over US$2000, why bother? Frankly, this is the direction we should be going with computing. John Dvorak predicted something like it years back, where we have a palm-sized device that is the core computer and offers some functionality on a portable level, but then we dock it into it's docking station and we have a fully functional, powerful desktop machine. The problem is this is years from becoming reality, but it is what will happen. Right now, the best you can do is a combination of devices. Grab a Sidekick from T-Mobile (or something like it), a laptop from Apple, and a Shuttle box, and you will have achieved bliss. (Wait, shit, no.... but you get the idea)
I am feeling fat and sassy
Would anybody buy this? We're increasingly reading about the lack and declining interest in PDAs and more of a move to cellphones. So the question is what woudl one do with this? I find it hard to thing anybody would be doing any serious work on it and the cellphone is replacing much of the core functionality provided by PDAs. The only place I see there being a demand for this is in some niche market.
"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." - Martin Luther King, Jr.
It can be done because it was done in 1994..
I still have my IBM PC110. Its smaller than a paperback book, weights about 800grams. Yes the display isnt ideal and the keyboard is very much two-thumb but its *incredibly* useful because it lets you take a "real" computer with you all the time.
Its also better than PDA because the apps are the same as your normal ones, so its easy to maintain and flexible. I guess Linux on zaurus is changing the equation a little.
Personally I wish someone would just hurry up and ship the damn things at a sensible price cos the PC110 is wearing out...