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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!
Is it just me or does this have almost no cool factor. I'm about as excited about it as a ham sandwich.
Youinsensitiveclod!Ihavenothumbs!
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
"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.
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.
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.
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.
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!!!
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.
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.
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.
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
"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.
Not neccesarily true though. There are always those who will go to any extent or price to say "I had it first."
Look at people who pay several hundreds of dollars for a cell phone just because T-Mobile doesn't offer it yet.
while true ; do echo this is my sig; done
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
My understanding is the several weeks / 1AA battery figure is for "normal use," which is "mostly doing nothing, waiting for input." They have a 7-CPU core processor (a gate-arry ASIC,) custom-designed, so that more or fewer cores can be activated as needed.
Good for power management, and can still be snappy when you need it.
everything in moderation
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
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.
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
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
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...
- 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