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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."

5 of 390 comments (clear)

  1. bad pricing idea by tedtimmons · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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!

  2. Sony Gummi by datawar · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

  3. Hmm, let's see.... by Spyro+VII · · Score: 3, Interesting
    including 3ActilOS, a multitasking OS, which is not even referenced by Google
    Which can be taken to mean that this OS doesn't exist.
    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.
    I'm sorry but something about this escrow account and deposit reeks of a scam. And if that wasn't interesting enough, I should note that the domain was just registered on May 28th of this year, which doesn't seem to be a long enough time for something to be created. I wouldn't give them my 600 bucks.
  4. Not even internally consistent... by SamBaughman · · Score: 3, Interesting

    "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.

  5. I agree - it's a scam by shamino0 · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Offering a bait-and-switch price of $600, only to find that this price is without any display whatsoever. After adding a display and memory, you're now up to almost $800.

    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.