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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."
It won't be out till next year and it is already pretty unimpressive. Time to market in the PC world is king.
Stay tuned for new sig...
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
if you had the money.
www.antelopetech.com/
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.
The article simply says "pricing is not yet available."
Argh, what does it matter. Whatever it is, it won't be worth it because laptops are getting more and more prevelent. This will simply be more geek eye candy, something geeks will show off to other geeks.
It's a good thing I have a big hand :p
Anyway, my main grip with this (it's not the only product I see doing the same) is still keyboard design. You are supposed to write with your thumbs while grabbing the thing, why not arrange the keys around the thumbs then? It's not like anyone will be able to touch-type there anyway with that size.
Also start using some fucking trackballs again, I'm sick of these useless annoying touchpads. It'd be specially annoying in something that size.
---- Take the Space Quiz!
That seems a bit short. Considering you can buy a 15" scrren laptop that gets 4 hours life. I guess they have a tiny battery powering that thing. Too bad, it looks like a nice halfway between PDA and laptop.
Moderation: Put your hand inside the puppet head!
The Compaq T-1000 TabletPC has. And I can tell you from experience that WindowsXP on that thing is A DOG. Pack a lunch if you plan on using this thing for anything more than IE and Freecell.
Haven't we all seen this before? I remember back in 2002 when OQO claimed they would ship something very similar (an "Ultra Personal Computer" or uPC) by the end of 02. Haha. What a laugh. Here we are 1 1/2 years later and nothing yet.
I'll believe it when I have one in my hand.
What will matter is the price they can bring these units down to. The big deterrent to a lot of companies that could use PDA's (construction companies, stores, etc) is their high cost. If this machine can help lower the prices of other machines, it is good, even if it is not the fastest or most impressve device in the world.
stuff |
The porn on it would be so small I would have eye sore from squinting all the time. I'll pass.
Evolution or ID?
In the world where laptops are getting smaller and smaller.... I like this handtop. It is a good bridge between my ultraportable Averatec Laptop and my Palm PDA. This would be great also in the business environment. It won't fit you all and it is nice that you have your opinions, but we don't need to hear about it not running something you want or being too slow. This is a product just like any other and suited to work for a group of people being nonspecific as possible and yet covering their needs. This would work perfect in hospitals.
Does anyone smell another Vapoware???
must be the same guy who designed that XBox controller
Sigs for Nerds. Sigs that Matter.
"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!
The specs are a bit last year (256 megs of ram, 1 gigahertz processor, 30 gig hard drive)
Hey! Those are the specs of MY box.
Technoli
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*
I could play solitare in meetings and the people around me would think I was actually working but wouldn't be able to get a look at the screen to see what I was really doing.
Evolution or ID?
Look at the last item on the features page.
Some of what I say is fact, some is conjecture, the rest I'm just blowing out my ass...you guess.
I think this little device has great potential. Specifically, it has a hard drive and runs Windows XP. I bought an HP 680 Handheld PC, which I thought was great, but ran Windows CE. Finding software for it when a new version of Windows CE/Pocket PC came out that was incompatible with the previous version.
Now I just hope they have the budget to do some advertising. No one wants to waste time on a product that will be discontinued in a few months, as was the case with my HPC.
Come play Moral Decay!
I think the more important question is can it run StarCraft? :-) This looks like just another over-sized PDA to me. Right now, it is faster than current PDAs, but, right now, it is also vaporware. By the time it comes out, 1 Ghz will be the minimum.
[/sarcasm]
When you can tap on something, throw it across the room, or pee on it, that's when it exists. When there are a bunch of pictures and promises on a web site, it doesn't. It means it's in "prototype", which means the actual machine is larger than my current laptop, but with a 5.6" screen and they're HOPING to get it down to size.
:wq
See what happens when you employ the same usability testers that Microsoft had testing the original X-Box controllers?
Application for Handtop PC Testers
[SNIP]
13. I can:
[]Palm a basketball
[]Palm two basketballs simultaneously
[x]Palm Cowboy Neal and two basketballs simultaneously
[SNIP]
See what I mean?
I wish I had a kryptonite cross, because then you could keep Dracula and Superman away.
My Casio (made by Panasonic) has 2 - 6 hours battery life, 800x600 screen, 80GB aftermarket HD (up from the original 20GB), 512MB RAM, only a 600MHz Transmeta so it's SLOW, PC slot with a 54Mbps wifi card, CF slot with a 384kbps cellular card, firewire, USB, external video, modem, fast ethernet, a hardware switch to boot it into XP or Midori Linux, and weighs next to nothing. It's also two years old, obsolete, and sells for $400 on the used market. Better than vaporware any day of the week.
typing looks like it's going to be a huge problem. "the fingers you have used to dial are too fat. To obtain a special dialing wand, please mash the keypad with your palm now."
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 :)
People ask, "why so I need this?" I say you don't.
Not until Microvision MVIS retina scanning displays are cheep and full color. When your screen is the back of your eye the ultra portable doesn't need a screen and becomes your only computer.
Basically a video iPod that you can watch porn at work with a shit eating grin on your face and have no one know what your doing.
Good buy economy hello hedonism.
"I don't think something with a 5.6 inch screen would fit vary comfortably in most anyones hand."
... hand ... must resist ... dirty joke ...
inches
When you want something bad enough your mind can play tricks on you....
and
The specs are a bit last year
turns into
The battery lasts about a year
...I guess I'll just have to keep dreaming
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
Look folks, don't think of this as a very small PC.
Think of this as a PDA that can run standard applications.
For example, one of the main uses I have for portable computing is running trip planning software like Delorme's MapNGo products. Currently, such products are pretty much Windows-ia32 only. I really don't NEED a full-size laptop for this, and the software was designed to run acceptably well on a 25MHz 486 with 32M of memory fercrissakes! Running this on a 1GHz Crusoe with a quarter-gig of RAM will be child's play.
Yes, it would be nice if you could run this software on an XScale or MIPs based PDA. It would be nice if I didn't have a mortgage payment, too. But I do and it doesn't.
So having a PDA that can run ia32 code is not a bad thing.
www.eFax.com are spammers
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..I find that (vaporwareproduct) lets me (e-action) and (e-action2) while (e-action3). The (hardwarespec) allows me to store (information) while the (hardwarespec2) makes for fast (e-action4).
My (vaporwareproduct) helps me keep it all together, thanks to its (hardwarespec3) and (hardwarespec4). My productivity has increased, since I don't have to carry around (competingproduct), (competingproduct2) and (competingproduct3).
Thanks (companyname)! (vaporwareproduct) is tailored just for me!
I guess it does. From the FAQ, it seems easy to install your favorite software. Since this is an announced feature I think that if there should be any problems, FlipStart support will happily help you ;-)
How do I install my favorite software?
You can install software one of four ways:
1. Download the software from the Internet
2. Install the software from your home or office network
3. Attach FlipStart to the mini dock and install the software from the CD-ROM drive, and
4. Attach a USB drive.
)9TSS
First it's ordering beer at Mariners games with your WAP phone, now this...I want Paul Allens time/money.
.-=Wit is educated insolence=-. -Aristotle
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.
Avantslash - View Slashdot cleanly on your mobile phone.
" 5.6" HDTV-quality display (1024 x 600)"
Coming out in time for the next Superbowl! No longer do you need to go around to your friend's house to watch the Superbowl on his home theatre set-up, you can bring your own 5.6" HDTV-quality system!
(Hmmm...720p...1080i...600 what?)
Anyone remember that series of childrens' paperback books that were popular in the eighties, which were written in the third person and had the reader being a kid secret agent who carried around a disguised micro-micro computer and saved the day by writing a few well-placed BASIC programs?
:)
That was the first thing I thought of when I saw this paperback-book-sized computer...finally technology has caught up to fiction.
Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
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.
My money's on "Idiot"
How come Slashdot never gets Slashdotted?
No thanks, I already have a Sharp Zaurus SL-C750, why do I need a vapor product that's a bit faster (and with a HDD), but doesn't fit in my pocket? It's still going to be too small to do any serious typing, and this thing looks like it's going to be too big and overpowered (heavy, crummy battery life) to be a good PDA (actually, the Zaurus isn't a great PDA either, but that's a software issue).
I read the internet for the articles.
...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.
A friend who works for them had a prototype of the OQO. Neat device. Certainly these devices will only get more powerful as time goes on, and components continue to shrink.
My impression / comparison:
Speed : Tie
Memory: Tie
Networking: 802.11b only on the OQO, but g should be coming
Bluetooth: Built-in on the OQO
Size : The OQO seems a little smaller and leaner physically
Screen: The screen was very high-quality on the OQO. One major drawback to it is that it doesn't flip down, meaning you'll have to protect it a lot. The FlipStart works more like a laptop, self-protecting the screen. Also, the resolution is smaller on the OQO. But the wacom-style touch-pen is very nice, and a lot more flexible and powerful than modern PDA styluses.
Expansion: The OQO has ports all over the outside edge. It's really kind of impressive. However, only USB 1.1. It does have firewire, which I think is great for external drives and fast peripherals. And the OQO docking station looks really useful on the website.
Sexiness: The OQO wins hands-down. The look and construction of it is much more in line with very sexy Apple-industrial design standards, than cheap Toshiba-notebook plastic-molded awkwardness. That'd be a main selling point for me.
I don't want to say anything about price, because I don't know what's public knowledge yet, but I will say that the price I heard for the unit was well below what I thought it'd be. So you might find these units being aggressively priced and marketed to gain traction early on.
Anyway, it was neat to see one of these things in person finally, because I agree: they've been a long time in coming!