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Forget the PDA, Here Comes the TDA
Roland Piquepaille writes "A French company has just started to sell the Jackito, the first 'Tactile Digital Assistant' (TDA). This new kind of PDA has no stylus, doesn't offer handwriting recognition and has no keyboard. Instead, it is based on touchscreen technology and relies entirely on your thumbs for input -- which are harder to lose than a stylus. And as Jackito has two simultaneous touch points, you can operate it with your two thumbs at the same time, at least according to the company. For an entry price of $600, you'll get parallel-processing capabilities with 7 processors and plenty of brand new technology, including 3ActilOS, a multitasking OS, which is not even referenced by Google. So be warned before purchasing one! However, the approach is pretty unique and I wish them good luck. Before opening your wallet, you'll find some selected pictures in this summary."
"tactile" ... "jackito" ... oh my.
I've finally had it: until slashdot gets article moderation, I am not coming back.
So it costs $600 right now. After 1/2 million units, they'll lower to price to some unspecified amount. After 1 million units, they'll lower the price to $100.
How would you like to pay $600 for the 499,999th unit? Or (unspecified amount) for the 999,999th unit? D'oh!
Why do the words "Jackito" and "finger-touch array" give me a real bad vibe. You know...like when you see tentacle pr0n. *shudder*
SMS texters have been sending messages using their thumbs for years.
Drill baby drill - on Mars
Is it just me or does this have almost no cool factor. I'm about as excited about it as a ham sandwich.
but does it run linux?
They will never get any first-adopters now! They told everyone that after 1 million units it will drop to $100! So everyone will wait, no one will buy it, and it will die.
Bye bye, Mr. Tactile Digital Assistant!
1f u c4n r34d th1s u r34lly n33d t0 g37 l41d Capitalization really works: i helped my uncle jack off a horse
Those must be some pretty unimpressive processors to last a week on a single AA...
Youinsensitiveclod!Ihavenothumbs!
Those insensitive clods!
paintball
One of the reasons people like PDA's is because they can take notes in class or in meetings. I didn't see any easy way to take notes with this thing, unless they use morse code: Left thumb = dash, right thumb = dot.
for maximum effect, the preceding post should be read monotone and at a steady cadence
His thumbs are as big as the screen. Will this be like Mac where one button does all. Andre will have to type morse code beep, beep, beep, beeeeeep, ... , beep, beep, ...., beeeeeep.
The perfect gift for the man who is all thumbs.
If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
"So simple a monkey could use it.*"
*If that monkey had opposable thumbs.
Is that in sleep mode?
To optimize Jackito's features (Finger-Touch Control, battery life, fast graphics, Multitasking, Real-Time Processing, etc.), we have had to incorporate Parallel Processing (seven processors) and a powerful Gate-Array
Isn't it counter-intuitive to imply Parallel Processing and powerful Gate-Array would give better battery life??
This sounds like a hoax.
This thing sucks, where's the stylus?
No stylus is going to be SOOO cool.
Where's the keyboard?
RTFM
Imagine a beowulf cluster of these.
In soviet russia, tactile digial assistant operates you.
Just wondering, does it run linux?
You must be new here.
I can hack my iPod to use bluetooth with this 600$US thingermojib.
so, it has parallel processors for my .. multithreaded calendar? I suppose I could look up phone numbers just as fast as you like. So for $600 why don't you get an entry-level laptop? I sure as hell don't want a Jack(it)O in my pocket. Hey, little kid, what's your number? Let me just rub it into my Jack'o with my thumbs here..
Now I don't want to sound cynical, but I remember a product a few years ago on slashdot which numbers didn't add up, and it had all these pretty pictures. Something about a seti@home pci card.
If you ask me, it's a joke, especially since it's using an OS that google can't find.
=================
Unix is very user friendly, it's just picky about who its friends are.
there-goes-the-tda
Shouldn't it be:
there-goes-the-pda
while true ; do echo this is my sig; done
So that is a misnomer IMO.
somebody needs to pop that dudes giagantic ego and to stop spamming his lame blog everywhere. just goes to show how being a persistant asshole pays off.
Damn it! I just bought a Tungsten T3! I knew I should have waited for something else that was REALLY cool to hit the market!
Red Bull gave me wings and I flew into the ceiling fan.
I'm unemployed right now, so securing "financing" for that $600 price 2would definitely put my thumbs in jeopardy...
The only surefire protection against Microsoft infections is abstinence. - The Onion
Let's see, "super sekrit SEVEN PROCESSOR PARALLEL PROCESSING sauce ..." runs for over a week on standard AA batteries. Telling everyone your pricing model which includes a ridiculously steep drop after shipping a million units. Truly amateur copy writing ... even the French know that when you have a new product, you have to market it wel.
.
Oh, and you pay a $100 or 100 eur "deposit to confirm your order".
So it's not only a hoax, it's a SCAM
I've finally had it: until slashdot gets article moderation, I am not coming back.
beowolf cluster of these?
"If the facts don't fit the theory, change the facts." -Albert Einstein
Karma? There's a serial modder out there.
Man, this Jackito almost made me weep browsing the PDA's website. This thing is incredible, and is definitely an incredible feat of engineering. But the only thing is, does anyone else think this is too good to be true? Weeks on a AA battery, very fast, easy to use, cost cutting to $100 after 1 million units. It almost sounds too good to be true to me. Lets all hope this is for real and not vaporware like the OQO.
I'm still trying to figure out what this could be used for @ $600, aside from being an Enron-style corporate gift that would go unused. I guess if you're one of those PDA enthusiasts, that is just really into carrying around and manipulating little bits of semi-useful data, this is a step in a new direction, but I mean... seriously.
We are one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively. Back to you with the weather, Bob!
I've always had horrible handwriting.
The only reason I can still write at all legibly (slightly less then a doctor) is because I use a PDA stylus... just using my thumbs? I might as well swear off ever using a pen or pencil in future.
Help Brendan pay off his student loans
...is not quite the drawback people seem to think.
It's 'not a PDA', but... it's website is jackito-pda.com. Interesting. On another note, using your thumb on the screen is messy, it gets the screen all greasy and dirty. You can use your thumbs on a regular PDA, if you are so inclined. Also, it's powered by AA batteries. Ugh, i'll stick with my lithium rechargable battery.
High Sound quality via Screen!
Apparently the speaker is beneath the screen, that's kind of neat.
This seems to me to probably be the equivalent of a "PDA" you can buy at walmart for $15.
If you look at the product demo it shows the touchscreen being used as a keyboard. A very big keyboard. I see how this could appeal to the those peoplewho insist on running a 640x480 display but the screen area overhead that this thing will need for regular operation will turn off everybody else.
Instead, it is based on touchscreen technology and relies entirely on your thumbs for input -- which are harder to lose than a stylus.
and probably harder to use than a stylus for the impaired. someone with paralyzed arms may be able to use the stylus with their mouth, or an amputee might as well.
i'd rather use a stylus anyway, less clunky than my thumbs. after all, i'm "all thumbs" when it comes to some things.
What's the target market?
You can't enter text, so you can't input data from the field to be used later. It doesn't have wireless so you cant use it as a GUI interface to an existing system.
No serious input + no interface to larger system = glorified storage device with a pretty screen.
If you look, they require $100 to be put into what they call an "Escrow account" until the unit ships. Huh!? ELABORATE SCAM!!!
It is a very professionally well done web site, very convincing, but a company of their stature would be accepting payment by means other than PAYPAL!!!
I mean fake Apple PDA pictures have surfaced a few years ago that also looked very convincing as well. At least these fakers are trying to get some money out of you for all their hard photoshopping and HTML design!!!
Jackito???
Methinks the marketing folks dropped the ball on this one.
Maybe this is some sort of fancy animal that is realy cool in certain circles and I am missing it?
Maybe this is one of the Engineers kids names? Jack=jackito, bobby=bobito? Judge Ito = ItoIto??
Maybe the guy really loves Jack in the Box and is mad they don't have burritos, so this is a stab at fulfilling his fast food fantasy. Eating a burrito at JITB.
Perhaps this is spanish for "small jacket"? (not sure what that has to do with a 'TDA' though)
Not too sure, but I am going with 'jagoffito' for now since this is the weakest product name out there.
If this article confuses you, don't worry. It was posted yesterday in a much clearer fashion.
I often try to operate my P900 with my thumb, but it usually ends up badly. Sometimes it works, though.
Why can't someone come up with a thumb stylus? Kinda like a thumbpick for guitars...
There is no gravity...the earth just sucks.
This is a pretty damn good hoax. I bet the real news sites start picking up on it as something real very soon.
:)
It has enough technical information to sound real, but there are just so many sections where it just doesn't quite make sense what they are saying...
anything "Jacko" won't sell here?
Don't they read the press first?
You hear me? Not color, not grey scale, not even 4bpp. Its mono, black & white. Hell, its not even that, its black and not black. Scuse me while I go call the 1990s and tell them we've found their missing PDA.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
What has two thumbs and loves simultaneous touch points?
This guy...
Why in gods name would they include 7 processors? That just dosn't make any sense. My guess is that some idiot just counted up all the chips in the system, or something.
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
and has to be paid 123USD (bw) or 138 USD (color) extra
jackito-pda.com buy site
Because something that sounds like a cross between masturbation and tortillas ain't so great!
What we call folk wisdom is often no more than a kind of expedient stupidity.-Edward Abbey
Sony has a device called the Gummi Bendable Computer that they've been developing. Input is based on bending the credit-card sized device (made of flexable material) towards and away from you. The design is well thought out, and as an HCI person, I'm actually pretty impressed with it.
If you have access to ACM's digital library there's a good paper on it that was published at the CHI 2004 conference.
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
Heh.
3ActilOS
What is with all those lovely color pictures (http://www.jackito-pda.com/hardware/overview.php) on a device that has a BLACK & WHITE screen? And by B&W, I mean 2-color and not grey-scale. They call it "extreme contrast".
Mmmmm... $600 for a 2-color PDA w/a proprietary OS and heavy DRM. Sign me up for a dozen! I'll take delivery right after Nader sweeps the elections in November!
[And an OS that is described as an extension to Visual C++, to boot!]
-Charles
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
I'm sorry, but the thought of finger-touching something that's name basically in Spanish is "Little Jacko", which further "translated" means "Little Michael Jackson" doesn't sit right with me... Fire the person who came up with this name and perhaps call it "Pussito" and I might consider buying one... to finger-touch...
Instead, it is based on touchscreen technology and relies entirely on your thumbs for input -- which are harder to lose than a stylus.
Not if you're yacuza, you insensitive clod.
StoneCypher is Full of BS
This website is just recently created, and only has a ONE YEAR lease.
What big fancy company like them would have paid for such a short time to own a domain?
IT'S A SCAM, THE DEVICE IS FAKE!!!
They require $100 for an "escrow account" via PAYPAL BEFORE the item is SHIPPED!!!!!
The missing step:
1. Make up product
2. Make a few pictures in Paint about said product
3. Get some dork to write in his online diary about it
4. Post to Slashdot
5. Profit!
Slashdot sucks
However, we appreciate that, without actually holding Jackito in your hands, you can't really feel this new and unrivalled type of interactivity. Why? Well, for example:
A PC mouse can't make objects jump, unlike your fingertips
on a Jackito Touchscreen. A stylus-driven PDA doesn't allow you to touch two points
on the screen simultaneously.
Jackito lets you use both thumbs at the same time.
Jump? The objects on the screen jump? As in, off the screen, into the third dimension? Wow. No wonder it's 6 beans.
"I'm doing the jackito -- look how it jumps!
everything in moderation
...take some time to learn how to read.
:
SCREEN
See options
- Color LCD
I'm guessing you saw the "ultra contrast (black and white)" and decided to post a furiously 3dgy comment rather than to keep reading the page. While I agree this unit looks useless, it is useless and color.
Domain Name: JACKITO-TDA.COM
Record created on 09-Jul-2004
I think I saw this once...as an Apple Newton.
As below, so above and beyond, I imagine drawn beyond the lines of reason. Push the envelope. Watch it bend.
Keep up great work Roland!!! We love hoaxes maquerading as news!
And the slashdot editors keep falling for the same old reciepe
Piquepaille is still spamming here it seems, did you also notice the pictures he has lifted from other peoples webpages (you dont think he takes them do you) , do you think he has explicit permission to display them on his site and by do so profiting from them (by advert revenue) ?
there is a reason photographers and graphic designers exist and its not to support some leecher/pirate
7 processors?
Can you even have that many in a handheld? And wouldn't you have to have an even ammount, like 2, or 8.
And with that many processors, wouldn't you expect a nicer resoluation than 240x320?
while true ; do echo this is my sig; done
As you don't have another place to enter text as the on-screen keyboard editor, you probably lose the ability to have some in-place editing, i.e. you could lose track of what are exactly editing now and things like that. That at the very least will limit the kind of applications that can be done with it.
Michael Jackson Glitter Glove?o ve
...probably even less if he gets convicted.
You can get the full version on Ebay for less than $10:
http://search.ebay.com/michael-jackson-glitter-gl
From the site's "Software" page: No thanks.
Piquepaille is a known block spammer
"7 processors" = 1 microcontroller (M30803) ("Logical processor") @ 20MHz and 1 DSP (MSP 430) ("Analog processor"), both released in the 2001 timeframe + 5 "Automata" inside an FPGA (write protection/addressing windows, main timing control, access control, button control, and LCD processor ... or touchscreen process control, graphic control/LCD clipping, memory optimation/bank switching, main timing control, and main bus interfaces, depending on which page you check.
Pretty bad when you're not even self-consistent.
Yeah. Slashdot is fucking dead. What a joke.
I'll wait for the reduced price "FF" model -- you know, the JackitoFF...
The hardware is the exact same form factor and industrial design as the Newton 2100... I know, I have one in my closet... 8-) Totally a hoax.
So how do we mod an entire slashdot article as -1, Gullible?
Contact us
:
:
JackitoTM is a trademark of Novinit
For any question
or request for additional
information
contact@jackito-pda.com
Technical Support
> United States & Canada: tech-support.us@jackito-pda.com
> Europe:
tech-support.eu@jackito-pda.com
> China:
tech-support.cn@jackito-pda.com
> Japan:
tech-support.jp@jackito-pda.com
> Other Countries:
tech-support.eu@jackito-pda.com
Apparently, the unit, sans screen, costs $600. If you want a screen for some reason, a B/W costs $123, while color is only a mere $15 bucks more, for $138. Totally nuts you have to pay more for a screen, should just be honest and sell two models, one for $723 and another for $738. F'ing retarded to try and slip in a lower unit price by pretending the screen is an optional accessory (Did fool the loons on Slashdot though; the uber-parent fell for this ploy, as did the nutsy Slashdot uber-mod).
Slashdot: Playing Favorites Since 1997
it's not my cup of tea. reminds me of those grubby touch screen monitors libraries had back in the mid 80's. more importantly where's the compelling software that is easy to use ~ like my Palm 3 which I got back in '98 for about AUD$600?
Technology looking for a solution that's already been partially solved? Makes me appreciate Palm (as a company when it originally released) a whole lot more
peterrenshaw ~ Another Scrappy Startup
Ok, the more I read this, the more it seems like a scam. Of course Slashdot can't be held responsible for novel scams, I do think a large rwarning should be put up now enough folks have ridiculed the site.
Lets see: Weird named OS that has never seen the light of day, a "deposit" required, etc. Even if this isnt a scam, seems like these guys dont have a shippable product, and are looking for some free funding... and that's being charitable
The problem with a device like this at it's high price is that it changes just too many variables.
* You might pursuade people that the wonderous new input device was worth looking at on a fairly standard PDA.
* You might sell them a fairly standard PDA with some new no-name Operating System.
* You might even convince them that they need 7 CPU's on a regular PDA.
* You might maybe sell people a pretty standard PalmOS PDA from a company you've never heard of (if it's cheap enough).
But all those things at once (and at such a high price) are just spelling "DISASTER" to me.
It only takes one of those wonderously innovative things to be somewhat broken to make the darned thing useless - and what happens if the company goes bust tomorrow? They've already admitted that they've paid a fortune up-front to tool up to build a half million of these things. They must owe money out the wazoo - it's a high risk venture they are engaged with here.
Will they be there to fix up the bugs in an untried OS running on 7 CPU's in parallel? Will there be new applications for it? Will there be endless teething troubles with all of these new hardware widgets?
(And if it's a "TDA", why to they have 'pda' in their URL?)
www.sjbaker.org
yeah
I hope people realize how amazing this hardware appears to be, or at least the manufactoring of it. Look - it's a build to order PDA: , the first ever. I have been following this industry for 5 years (I run a large pda website), and never has a company made a true build to order PDA.
This company? Which screen you want, color, b&w, or bistable - a technology that I thought was still in testing! This may be the first use of bistable screens in a large device. (and how about the fact that it's turning the screen into a flat panel speaker - isn't this what synaptics wants to do with the laptop touchpad?)
And look, you can make the case whatever color you want, but also add many modules, like internal bluetooth, fm radio, add internal memory, internal mp3 player, internal microphone. This PDA will have exactly what you need, and not what you don't need.
It's a large device, but it has some cool hardware. I'm not sure about the specilized cpu's, I worry about the speed of this device, and who knows what is going on with the software, or data entry, but this company, at least in manufactoring techniques and componants used, could be changing the PDA industry as we know it. The battery life they claim is incredible! I am excited to hear and learn more about it.
And one more thing - the interfaces are all like the "3D" browseable interfaces we have heard about for awhile, they really are "tactile".. reading through their stuff, it's a huge jump in how we look at the GUI. This company is thinking so far outside the box. WOW.
Is it just me or is this just an overpriced step backwards in technology?! Where's the holographic keyboard that was promised to come out soon?
No thank you. If you can't remember to put the little stylus back into the perfectly made hole for it... then you shouldn't own one anyway. "Here's your sign."
Eh, for 600 bucks, I'm content with my Zaurus C860.
The greatest experience we can have is the mysterious.
- Albert Einstein
Why is it so difficult to filter out these kinds of hoaxes?
This "thing" is a horrible joke! My Atari had more class in it's one-buttoned "hope you don't sit on this..." controller than this "TDA" does. It's almost an insult to consumers!
A company is capable of producing an innovative new handheld device running an allegedly unknown OS, and they use PayPal to accept payments? That alone dropped their credibility to almost none. This is one case where I will definitely have to see to believe.
I am feeling fat and sassy
Terms and conditions state:
Your deposit is refundable on request. In this case, we will deduct 8% to cover bank charges.
However, Paypal only needs 2.2%, so they end up with 100's * $5.60 free money
Damn very well done hoax site tho, I'm impressed.
...and this Roland Piquepaille guy is really flattering the GROKLAW web site design.
steveha
lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
Is it just me, or does the name "Jackito" have a vague refrence to Michael Jackson??
flag burning
Like a PDA you can operate while keeping your hands in your pockets...
Er ok... Perhaps not...
(such a device might end up being euphemistically
referred to as a jerkito)
My hyperlinks aren't worth the paper they're printed on.
If the Jackito is their first product, and only recently named, it would make sense that the domain for "jackito-pda" was only recently registered.
Also, searching for their management team of Arnaud de la Fouchardière: Founder, President and CEO; Patrick Thomsen: Vice-President Marketing and Finance; Noël Pietri: Vice-President Sales turned up (among others) these links: Noël Pietri, Arnaud de la Fouchardière. I haven't found anything on Patrick Thomsen as of yet, but if this is a hoax, it is extrodinarily elaborate.
"Nothing exists except atoms and empty space; everything else is opinion." - Democritus
Have you seen teenages with their cell phones, some of these kids can enter text like mad people. Entering text by moving a joypad or something simple in simple patterns is an idea that works really well. Ken Perlin (of Perlin noise) had a great idea based on this a few years back, it deserves to be brought back to life.
A good product based on this could work really well. Indeed, you could set up an N-Gage to do this and you might wind up with something that you can enter text into FASTER than with a normal PDA.
I could not find any patent apps, or any FCC approval documents by Novinit, BUT they did trademark the name jackito for use in laptops/pdas/handhelds and the like back in 2002: http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=s 0knan.2.1
Trademark's aren't free, and this was years ago, so I take this as proof that it's real.
And then they only accept payment via PayPal. So you have no legal recourse when they take your money and disappear.
And their product description looks like a whole pile of feel-good platitudes with absolutely no technical content whatsoever. Their FAQ goes on at great length about how styli are evil, but the site says absolutely nothing about how you enter text into the thing. My guess is that you can't. Assuming the device exists at all, you probably can only enter text while it's docked to a real computer - making it completely useless for everything I rely on my Palm PDA for.
Seven processors and a custom OS? <SARCASM>And if the program is not stopped, the computer's processor will be placed in an nth-complexity infinite binary loop - which can severely damage the processor if left running that way too long. Unfortunately, most novice computer users will not realize what is happening until it is far too late.</SARCASM>
Click here before replying that you don't get the joke.
...you'd be better off getting the new Zaurus 6000SL. 640x480 color, wifi, slideout thumb keyboard, Linux based, yum. In fact, I'm doing this posting on one now.
website quotes
s _stylus.php
"thumbs play a pivotal role in the user's interaction with our Jackito product. Developing this touch-screen technology has taken over ten years and has cost several tens of millions of dollars.
from http://www.jackito-pda.com/what_is_jackito/finger
and "Founded in May 1999 with a capital of
2,000,000 "
hmm... time traveling deveopment.... founded 1999
ten years development...... 2004... hmmm
would create a device that uses two thumbs to operate.
I wouldn't pay $200 for that.
Look up the M30803. It's a 20 MHz CPU!
The MSP430 is a digital-watch class device.
20 MHz processor. 2.5M RAM, 320x240 display, serial interface, you can ignore the FPGA and "internal bus"... if the CPU is so anemic they can't be any good. I've got a faster PDA with a better screen and more memory that cost under $150. AND you can actually get software for it.
something wicked this way comes!
Write Only Memory: Another pointless blog.
All the signs - Unclear domain name ownership - Bad, very bad, truly horrible copy ( c'est abominable!) - Hyperbolic yet inconsistent specs for the "7 low-frequency parallell processor technology) - PayPal and Escrow for orders placed in dollars - you'd think a French company would also quote prices in Francs - French jingoism isn't what it used to be :(
And the cherry - the highest, fully loaded configuration possible would cost you 1655 dollars.
Assuming you chose to pay for that you'll probably end up with a cheap video game made in China.
See that long UID - that's what you get for lurking too long
Just see the movie Pope of Greenwich Village, and you'll see what I mean.
It really looked too good to be true... until you see that it has a TWO color display and that it doesn't come with "Internet Explorer" (I'm sure they meant "a web browser") because "all mobile phones come with their own configurable web navigator (e.g. WAP)"! WTF?! Am I missing something here?! how the hell is that suposed to work?! a remote session on my phone's wap browser? Seriously, I was keeping my mind open until I saw this. Or this is a neat scam (like someone pointed out) or these guys are sufering from serious disajustment with really. When you can get a PDA with nearly all the power and functions of a larger computer, why would anyone would care enough about something as pre-historic as this? Ok, I love my iPaq :P but I'm sure that the Palm crowd wouldn't trade their pet PDAs for this. I surelly wouldn't!
And besides, the next wave of mobile devices seems to be those neat "mini-tablet-PCs", somehere between a PDA and a tablet/laptop PC (discussed already in slashdot).
So I wish then good luck, but I don't know how they will manage to pull this off. It's almost like someone selling some neat "12-digit, all elementary operations" pocket calculators in our age of graphical calculators, just because it has a neat way of inputing numbers...
Don't buy it -- boycott France! Oui oui!
which are harder to lose than a stylus
I work for the mafia, you insensitive clod!
They claim that the developer tools are touch screen based... yeah - you code for the product USING THE TOUCH SCREEN!
But there is also a BASIC language interpreter... can you imagine coding BASIC with a touch screen?
"We have supplied this built-in BASIC interpreter, as it lets you code programs directly on Jackito, without having to use a PC. We chose not to include a Java interpreter, as you cannot code Java programs directly on Jackito - you need a PC for this."
What a dumb ass hoax
Quoting price in Francs? It's not 1999 anymore. Welcome to the Euro.
"Piter, too, is dead."
awesome, public displays of affection gross me out anyways...
yes, I read slashdot 24/7
"Computer games don't affect kids; I mean if Pac-Man affected us as kids, we'd all be running around in darkened rooms,
Battery life of a PDA depends at least as much on the screen technology as on the processors. But they can define "several weeks" however they want - turn it on once a week for a few minutes? The real question is, if I use it to read an e-book or play a game how long does it last. It better be at least 8-12 hours, in case I end up bored on a long airplane flight.
Using multiple low-speed processors with dedicated functions is a very good idea. Using an FPGA is an even better idea. More PDAs should try this; and I do not understand why a PCI card with an FPGA co-processor is still not yet a typical geek upgrade for a desktop PC. Reprogrammable hardware ought to be much more useful than, say, the MMX instruction set.
There are those multitouch keyboards that can track multiple finger positions at once; maybe their touchscreen technology is similar to that. If so that's also pretty cool. Multitouch should have been offering touchscreens from the get-go, IMO, because it's bound to be more useful in that form than as a desktop keyboard replacement. And I told them so too, but why should they listen to me, I guess.
Using the screen as a speaker is also a neat idea, as long as it doesn't make it feel funny as a touchscreen. But maybe tactile feedback via the speaker is the whole point.
Yeah it's too bad about the proprietary OS; and if they want any chance of mass adoption they need to give away the development tools, period. And there needs to be a compiler for a real language, not just some cheesy BASIC interpreter.
I suspect they will not be very successful, commercially, but slowly their ideas will be re-implemented one-by-one on other platforms. Too bad, so sad. OTOH if they are very very lucky they could have a cult following like the Newton did - but the Newton was also much earlier, when nothing remotely like it existed.
It's a perfectly valid opinion and it's on topic.
Drill baby drill - on Mars
Jackito's 4 guarantees:
:P
1. Your $100 or 100 deposit will be paid into an escrow account until your order is delivered.
2. Your deposit is refundable on request. In this case, we will deduct 8% to cover bank charges.
3. Your order price is final and binding.
4. We will ship your order at the lowest cost to you (best FedEx, UPS or Post Office rate).
Oh that's great- no "whoops, we're going out of business- sorry bout your deposit" guarantee
I browse at +5 Flamebait- moderation for all or moderation for none.
How can the French expect a retarded, lazy, and illiterate American such as myself to use a device that requires two thumbs when I usually have *AT LEAST* one of the two up my own ass?? ;)
Screw that.
Why any hardware company would be foolish enough to implement such a thing, until absolutely forced to, is unclear to me.
If they think that this means they can charge every software vendor to develop for it, they're right -- in theory. In practice, there are open systems to develop for, and that's where development efforts will go.
If this feels nice in your hand, there'll be others with the form-factor and without DRM, and those will actually have developers.
Unlike this thing, which will remain a glorified Walkman.
How do you optimise battery life by adding more processors (plus a gate array)??
"To optimize Jackito's features (Finger-Touch Control, battery life, fast graphics, Multitasking, Real-Time Processing, etc.), we have had to incorporate Parallel Processing (seven processors) and a powerful Gate-Array. These are unrivalled technologies in the PDA arena, which explains the price."
It has magic beans installed, that's why it costs more.
Take off you pants and Jackito
Looks awfully like a late-generation Apple Newton doesn't it? Just a bit of spiffy-up.
Is this thing real?
"Phantom Console"
One of these days I'll assign my kids a project to compare the respective sales pitches of these two products and what similarities they were able to see.
Then when both are exposed as grandiose hoaxes they will have a good background in spotting future scams.
If you don't want to repeat the past, stop living in it.
Now, if you fat Americain excuse me, I must, how you say, pee now. Yes, I know I'm on zee Metro. You Americains and your stupid concept of hygiene. You are all so uptight, no?
how do i write larger texts on it? with my fingers? no matter how advanced the computer is and no matter what else it can do, plain writing of text is still one of the most important tasks. at least for me.
SHE does throw dice.
Quote :
"By holding Jackito in your hands, you will instinctively enter a new Touch-driven world where you will actually 'feel' the lifestyle benefits it offers."
I ALREADY HAVE ONE !!!
haha )
They don't actually have an SDK or documentation for download on the developers section, very suspicious... M
I have no thumbs, you insensitive clod!
I know there is a bit a language issue but straight from their site: Vision Our tools provide to men a richer more fulfilled life in all its dimensions (personal, work, education & leisure) and all its multiple activities. I don't know if snubbing half the population will get them anywhere near the 500,000 units ha ha ha..
Like an Apple Newton 2x00 form-factor. In fact, it looks just like one.
My bad! Euro it is. Blame it on caffeine and self-inflicted sleep deprivation. (Theres is one "Rumsfeld interrogation stress technique" that the true /.er won't be fazed by! :)
See that long UID - that's what you get for lurking too long
So according to their innovations page it has 7 cpus at 10 MHz in parallell, of which one apparently is used for screen management. I'm kind of guessing you'd use one CPU per application, unless you're doing a lot of specialized programming that can run one application in parallell, so you'd look at a performance of about 10 MHz for one program.
Bank Switching is also something I don't think of as innovative, it seems like it is something of a side effect of their power management.
The jackito really seems like a step back in PDA development, you can control any other touchscreen PDA with a single finger or the stylus, having 2 finger control doesn't really sound all that innovative.
A quick reverse directory on that address turns up no company called novinit, but the offices of a couple of shell companies, MMSA/Digiplace. Web design and hosting, with not much history according to google.
Novinit is not a registered company name in France. Perhaps it is the operating name of another company. The website does not offer the required information of a tax number, physical address, and other contact details.
Arnaud de la Fouchardière is the money behind the fly-by-night Marcopoly online store. They've got a bad reputation for shipping various bits of kit which probably fell off the back of trucks, and no after sales service. He made his money from online pr0n, mostly doing the technical front for prostitution rings using the old Minitel service.
There are two sites, novinit.com and jackito-pda.com, one is hosted in France, the other in California. They seem identical in content, but the one hosted on 7x24net in the U.S. has bogus registration information.
The photos of the device on the website are of an Apple Newton.
There is no way to get in touch with this company except through a paypal link. The phone number given for the registrars is a pre-paid anonymous GSM phone on the orange network.
All the hallmarks of a scam.
the AC
Hemos is like...sci-fi fans;he thinks technology is cool, but he hasn't bothered to understand the science it's based on
I've got some real fly PDA's right here check 'em out! They're bigger than all the other PDA's because bigger is better man. You don't want to be whipping it out in front of your girl and your girl be all "aww, you're PDA's too small." And she ain't gonna diss those 16 megs of ram. That's like two times the memory in one of those wimpy little Zire things.
You like texting on your phone? You send out them SMS messages wit yo thumbs? Yo man, we gots the mad SMS messaging going on. It ain't got no keyboard! No need, all you need is to tap each key five or six times, and bam, instant scribbles. You can even upgrade it with sound, a headphone jack, MP3 playback, and a whole lot else if you've got the dough if you know what I'm saying. And hey, the black and white screen is so sharp, it's almost color.
This little baby's just six huned dollas. Just six huned dollas! Who wants one? You in the back? I know you want one for ya girl, man.
Yo, be the first to buy the Jackito.
The ______ Agenda
take a look at a computer monitor that experiences multi-user traffic in your office or educational space. See all those nasty smears and fingerprints? And to think most people are currently aware that your average computer monitor does not work like a touch screen. Imagine something that is designed to be manhandled.
I should hope the docking station for this device involves a tank of windex in which it is submerged.
ôó
Would look more seriously at this if there was a compact flash slot or two rather than the SD or in addition to the SD slots.
I have two iPAQs, one Journada, and two digital cameras that use cf cards and would want something compatible with my existing devices so that I can continue to use my present collection of CF cards.
TDA - Another TLA for an PDA which IMO is worth sweet FA.
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
Thanks for the extra info... especially about Fouchardière and Marcopoly. Regardless of whether it's a hoax/scam or not, there's no way I would give money -- overseas no less -- if I had even a doubt of its legitimacy!
"Nothing exists except atoms and empty space; everything else is opinion." - Democritus
Right now, my ancient stock parallel processing PC is running simultaneous independent programs on its Pentium, keyboard controller, VGA controller, ethernet controller, soundcard, PCI controller, IDE controller, and printer. That's 8-way parallel processing!
In fact, my 1981 Atari 400 ran a parallel set of 6502, ANTIC, POKEY, IOC, and modem. And it cost $550, in Carter dollars. It's membrane keyboard and classic joysticks were pretty tactile...
--
make install -not war
From the testimonials page:
:P Were we not just cautioned about the signs of fraud? I would say this looks like a red flag, but considering the whois for 3actil is registered to a Hong Kong address I guess the red flag thing is a given.
"we have discover the solution . Jackito..."
I think we have discover a company who even proofread the few webpages they will had publish
That stuff is pure amazing genius and I am just depressed when I realize how poorly our best desktop models have progressed.
Will somebody warn the on duty editors, and inform them that this is a fraud.
Walk your way to a new day! This innovative product, made possible by the NASA space program, has undergone 35 years of development and cost over $10 billion.
Advantages over PDA's:
- Large footprint allows easy data entry. What is more
natural than walking?
- Take notes with the innovative Hopscratchpad.
- Simultaneous data entry with both feet!
- Play fun built-in games such as Twister(tm) and Kickman, and
educational software such as Prance Prance Evolution.
- Experience multimedia interactive fiction such as Stomp: The Interactive Multimedia
Experience (requires force-feedback module).
- Contains FOUR MULTIMEDIA LAYERS of Teflon, Foam, Silicon and
Plastic!
- Easy connection to Segway(tm) docking station.
What people are saying about SolePad:- "Finally, my hands are free to do my work. I love taking
notes with the Hopscratchpad." - Jackie Chan, actor
- "I kept losing my shoes. Now I have an excuse to keep them
on!" - Bikram Choudhury, yoga instructor
- "This is the greatest new technology I have seen since Jackito."
- Michael Jackson, singer
Special prepaid introductory price: $1000/ft.SolePad: Finally, a step in the right direction. (tm)
Kickman (c) 1981 Midway
Twister is a registered trademark of Milton Bradley
"This guy must be laughing all the way to the bank. Every minute this is on the front page suckers are sending this guy money..."
& sa fe=off&q=%2266+bis+avenue+Jean+Moulin%22&btnG=Sear ch
Would be my immediate comment. But I'll back it up with some quick detective work.
Let's view the source on the payment page and start with some PayPal background checks. You need a PayPal account for this:
Seller Reputation: New Member*
Account Status: Unverified
Account Type: French Business
Account Creation Date: 28 Jun. 2004
PayPal Member For: 15 days
Cust. Service Email: lafouchardiere@novinit.com
An unverified account rings an alarm bell immediately. It doesn't take long to do this, just a week or two to wait for a code on a bank statement. It's another sign that you are who you say you are. Any reputable retailer does this. Maybe he's just about to.
Now a whois search on the novinit domain:
Arnaud de La Fouchardiere
66 bis avenue Jean Moulin
Paris, 75014
FR
Phone: 06 07 61 23 36
Alarm bell 2 - the name "Arnaud de La Fouchardiere" itself is registered to another address. You can determine that with a search here:
http://wfa.pagesjaunes.fr/pb.cgi?lang=en
I won't paste it in case I'm barking up the wrong alley. But it certainly isn't the one from the whois result. Perhaps he moved recently, or this is his office address. Or perhaps he's a clever scammer syphoning away our money as we speak.
Alarm bell 3 - from comparisons with the above site, Parisien phone numbers should begin 01 4.
Alarm bell 4 - The whois address given appears to have rather too many companies using it for my liking. It may be a rented service.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8
Alarm bell 5 - he wants us to wait 90 days?!?
If you check PayPal's policies, it's increasingly difficult after 30 days to retrieve funds on items that aren't received. This guy is expecting us to wait 90 days before he despatches?
So what we have is a site that seems a little too good to be true, appears to invent technology, and has some large information holes that many other people have pointed out.
Maybe it's genuine. Send us an email Arnaud, we'd love an exclusive interview!
I'll wait for the first million.
Perhaps "Arnaud" could make a better living designing websites? I'd be glad to throw him 600 bucks to redesign mine...
I tried thumbing my PocketPC for a while. The greasy mess it leaves on the screen is disguisting.. but hey thats my thumbs.. greasier than most I am sure.
If something exists that does not need a creator (god) then why must the cosmos need one?
while I tactilly assist my digit . . .
...as it's the only way we're going to prevent <insert-favorite-post-apocalytpic-successor-to-hum ans-here> from taking over our technology when we fall from the top of the evolutionary chain.
Roach "Give us the nuclear launch keys human, or you will feed my 100000 offspring!"
General "Their locked in my, um, Jackito, um. Lets see you thumbless cockaroach bastards operate this TDA!"
Roach "Damnit, we've be thwarted by our lack of opposable thumbs! How are you American Generals so smart?
General "American? I'm not American, I'm French you silly so-called Cockaroach King.
Much prancing about and head tapping behaviour ensues.
Unless of course the roaches build a large wooden Badger outside of the Pentagon.
from the FAQ page
:S
Doesn't using the fingers leave marks on the screen?
- Yes, our fingers do leave marks on the screen. So do our cheeks, when we use our mobile phone. - We need to clean the screen from time to time, just like we clean our eyeglasses. - However, these marks can be useful, as they reduce unwanted glare. - In practice, we don't need to clean the screen very often.
Hrm, to me this sounds just a little bit silly, after reading this, i'm beginning to think this product could be really, and the people at NOVINIT just have absolutley have no concept of marketing....... even if this is a scam, i really don't think this point would be a wise one to include
Reece,
- including 3ActilOS, a multitasking OS, which is not even referenced by Google
True "ActilOS" is not googlable, but "actil OS" is. Common boogle -- not trying alternate spacing for acronyms and product names.-- @rjamestaylor on Ello
The MSP430 is a cool little microcontroller -- but it would be hard pressed to decode MP3 data. They should've said it had an ARM...
Then again, Slashdot's "editors" accepted the "story".
For a good laugh, read the developer page. "The main component of ACTIL OS is its System Functions Library, whose call syntax (i.e. function names and list of arguments - variables, parameters, and so on) and comments have the same format as the functions in Microsoft's VISUAL C++ library." Wow.
Quote from the site: "With no special software"
Finally, just what I'm looking for.
You can't take the sky from me
Novinit is not a registered company name in France.
8 99021&vu=1. Better get your facts straight next time before making such false statements. You know, that a company can hold you liable for such defamatory nonsense?
So? http://www.societe.com/cgi-bin/recherche?rncs=422
Even better are the "applications" it comes with like:
QUICK (for people in a hurry who only want to execute tasks..)
CENTER (control panel: sound, contrast, click, battery status, memory status, font, styles and sizes, languages, audible feedback, etc.)
"QUATRO (configures the four software buttons numbered 1, 2, 3, 4)." -as if they were proud of that fact that they realized numbering them 8 19 30 and 105 just didn't make that much sense
"FAVORI (gives instant interface to our main Software-Applications)"
Um, I don't think that most people will see the ability to save files on the INCLUDED storage as an application. I think that's more of an OS feature, but hey it does have solitaire, so at least you should be able to do something with it.
I also particularly like their "Digital Right Management" page. Yes "right" as in singular, the only one you should really need. Your right not to buy this piece o' crap.
Why not call it the 'kalimba' if the whole thing is just a little box that you hold between your palms and work with your thumbs?
By the way, mes amis, is the accent for the name 'jackito' on the first syllable, "jack' i to" like the english 'jackulator' or the middle syllable, "ja-kee'-to" like a drunken frat boy doing vulgar Mexican imitation?
I thought that you guys in France weren't allowed to make up stupid words for marketing purposes. Isn't there 'un academie francais' that decides whether or not all these new nitwit words are really French or not? Do they have vigilantes that go around making sure that no one tries to sneak in an English word into a sign by putting a bogus accent over an 'e' like they do in Quebec?
You ought to meet the handyman my girlfriend hired some years ago.
At their first meeting, he had his hands in his pockets for a looong time, my gal thought.
And as soon as he got the job and went to shake hands, she discovered that he had NO thumbs!!!
Truly a "handyman" in every sense of the word.
Oh, he also turned out to be an alcoholic, so one can surmise how he lost his thumbs.
Like cutting on a table saw while drunk perhaps?
but Novinit does show progress in the Wayback Machine...
from their 'buy it' page
1. Your $100 or 100 deposit will be paid into an escrow account until your order is delivered.
2. Your deposit is refundable on request. In this case, we will deduct 8% to cover bank charges.
3. Your order price is final and binding.
4. We will ship your order at the lowest cost to you (best FedEx, UPS or Post Office rate).
I have read and understood Jackito's four guarantees
apparently, all they have to do is create a really good website, put in a clause about refunds, less 8%, and sit back and wait for the cash to roll in.
I think his largest mistake was allowing a deposit of $100 or 100 because they're just not the same thing.
just so you get that straight, people send in money, and when they get upset when no "jackito" arrives, they ask for a refund, less 8%.
that's a free $8000 or 8000 for every 1000 suckers!
sounds like a quick buck!
They're using their grammar skills there.
That does not mean the screwdriver was designed for that purpose.
You can do things with current PDAs, but that does not mean they were designed to be used that way (i.e. your fat greasy fingers).
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
>Instead, it is based on touchscreen technology >and relies entirely on your thumbs for input -- >which are harder to lose than a stylus.
I'm a fish finger, you insensitive clod!
Yeah, that email betta service.
Well, that is going to cost 0 US$ and nevertheless there are suckers out there paying to get beta accounts.
If this thing is deemed great people will be falling over each other no matter how expensive it is.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
for all you guys complaining about the lack of text entry or the lack of an explanation of text entry: look at the demo at http://www.jackito-pda.com/what_is_jackito/product _tour.php
... than a scam. Imagine some design student figuring out what would be nice (and having read Idoru), setting up a site with the "device the world has been waiting for".
... either that, or it's satire. *Weeks* on a single battery? Yeah, right.
Question: where did this link come from then? Could be the finals project of some design-cum-marketing dude.
yes, we have no bananas
The photos of the device on the website are of an Apple Newton.
Which photos, exactly? I see a lot of renderings, but no straight up photos. And the images I see aren't of any Newton. What model? I'm a long time Newton user and developer, and there is no Newton that looks like that. It looks more like a Newton than most other PDAs, but as far as I can tell, that's mostly to do with the fact that it is big and has some curves...
Working toward a usable PDA environment in the spirit of Newton OS: Dynapad
in my life God comes first.... but Linux is pretty high after that
Francis Smit
Jackito the band... French language pages, Miami phone number...
It says it has:
Parallel processing: 7 processors
1 Mitsubishi CPU (M30803)
1 Texas Instruments CPU (MSP 430)
Spartan FPGA with 5 Automata
In total 7 CPUs, if you wish...
Z
From the Legal Terms on the website:
ARTICLE X : FORCE MAJEURE
Novinit will not be responsible for the non-execution of its obligations if this non-execution results from an independent act, if it is independent from its will and if it is escaping to its control. Will be considered as a fortuitous case or force majeure, all facts or circumstances which are irresistible, exterior to the parties, unpredictable, unavoidable, independent from the parties' will, and which cannot be impeached by the latter.
If something should happen to Us(Novinit), we aren't responsible for delivering.... Riiiiight...
PS: Who's "the latter" who cannot impeach, anyway??
Although this machine translation has been handled by a human at some point, that human didn't speak English, apparently
This is a really bad idea guys! We are not trained to use our thumbs like that.
Besides, if you are mugged, the PDA will give up right away being French.
Hi, this is 2001, we would like our vaporware back. Thank you.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
The picture on this page http://www.novinit.com/plan_uk.html shows that they started with $45M but on the main Jackito-TDA site, it says $50M! http://www.jackito-pda.com/about_us/who_we_are.php
This combined with numerous typos sufficiently scares me away...
From episode 9F09 (just into that glorious 4th season), Homer's Triple Bypass :
"Mmm... ham."
This space intentionally left (almost) blank.
http://news.google.com/news?q=%223ActilOS%22&hl=en &lr=&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=gn
-- Boycott Shell
How do you know that Arnaud de la fouchardiere made money in p0rn ? Would like to see serious proofs behind your claims! Working in Marketing in France, Arnaud is well known and respected. Not sure that if Marcopoly was a huge shit, France Telecom would have bought it! Let's be serious 5 minutes! Tequila, which he created, is France's n1 marketing services agency. I don't see this guy putting himself in a hoax like this... He doesn't need the money!! ;-)
I'm not sure its Arnaud behind this scam. Arnaud is known for putting his money behind things which will turn around and make him more money, preferably in the short term. He is very gifted in that respect. This seems to be someone using his name, probably to impress people googling about reputation behind the directors.
Marcopoly is a shitty online company, but they certainly have high enough margins. They get a lot of business because they have a lot of "rebadge" front companies, all of whom used to get their advertising through Tequila subsidiaries. They are now trying to be the French version of Dell, but also selling white goods. I didn't know FT bought them, but then I try to avoid that whole market.
the AC
Hemos is like...sci-fi fans;he thinks technology is cool, but he hasn't bothered to understand the science it's based on
To make the product as nomade as possible...
It must be cutting edge technology; the terms they use to describe it are baffling, to say the least.
Lodragan Draoidh
The more you explain it, the more I don't understand it. - Mark Twain
Novinit is not a registered company name in France.
Novinit IS a registered company name since 1999.
Wow you made an interesting research on that matter but I'd like to know how you discovered that the phone number is a prepaid one ? And an anonymous one, besides. Just curious.
Men are born ignorant, not stupid; they are made stupid by education. Bertrand Russel
Seeing as it's French, is this new tactile interface pinch-and-grope?
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
I predict the Jackito will bring down not one but two companies due to poor sales. A new OS, a new method of interaction (all thumbs) and a whopper price ($600 USD and up) will lead to the demise of
NOVINIT. Tactile display maker NISSHA will also go tits-up thinking they will sell 500,000 units for the Jackito.