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Forget the PDA, Here Comes the TDA

Posted by simoniker on from the there-goes-the-tda dept.

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."

10 of 390 comments (clear)

  1. taking notes by Hatfieldje · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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
  2. I smell a hoax by scrytch · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.
  3. Re:bad pricing idea by madprogrammer · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Good pricing idea, poorly executed... they shouldn't have advertised the pricing changes in advance.

  4. Re:bad pricing idea by Cali+Thalen · · Score: 4, Insightful

    That's $600...plus a list of acessories and 'recommended' add-ons that reads like a new car brochure. Figure at least $800 by the time you're done.

    The pretty color screen will cost you an extra $138. $45 for an internal MP3 player.

    $25 for USB *CORD*? I thought that was for a USB interface. But hey, you can get 4 AA batteries for only $5!

    --
    Chaos, panic, disorder...my work here is done.
  5. HOAX / SCAM - $100 needed for "Escrow Account" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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!!!

    1. Re:HOAX / SCAM - $100 needed for "Escrow Account" by Bellyflop · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I'm going to have to call shenanigans on this one. That's pretty sketchy. They don't seem to really want to let you know how to really use their new touchscreen technology to do useful things like input an address. That's the sort of thing a PDA company wants to reassure is very simple right off the bat.

      The website is registered to Novinit, some company in France. I have a hard time believing that they are real since they don't seem to want to leave an address on their website, nor do they own the domain "novinit.fr" which any self-respecting french company would own. They claim that they have been doing the research for 10 years with "tens of millions" of dollars invested in research. Sort of hard to believe since they also claim to have been founded in 1999 and with a 2mil euro initial investment and $10 mil in initial capital. Strange that they keep flipping between Euros and Dollars.

      If they are real, they ought to provide more information.

  6. Fraud! by chill · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.
  7. SCAM? by wdavies · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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

  8. Developer tools are hilarious by AnEmbodiedMind · · Score: 4, Insightful
    This is hilarious,

    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

  9. 5 things stop me splashing the cash... by hedgehog2097 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "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..."

    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& sa fe=off&q=%2266+bis+avenue+Jean+Moulin%22&btnG=Sear ch

    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...