Slashdot Mirror
On the Possible Handtop Paradigm Shift
captainJam writes "Handtops.com has a piece
about the effects of handtops (text
version) such as the OQO,
FlipStart and others
on the computing experience. With a physical size that's slightly larger than
a PDA, a handtop has the power of a standard ultra-portable laptop - 1GHz, 256-512MB
RAM, USB, FireWire, etc. These factors, coupled with a dock (plug in a monitor,
keyboard and mouse) allow one to imagine a world where maybe they won't need a
desktop, or laptop, or mp3 player, video jukebox, digicam, etc. Maybe one day
companies might even be willing to pay for part of your handtop, knowing that
they would have to invest less in upgrading? It's not all rosy, the devices are
still under $2000 and aren't due out until later this fall (OQO) or
Q1-2 2005 (FlipStart), but this is an important shift worth letting the mind ponder." Of course, the OQO has been in development for a while, now.
Paradigm Shift
So, who hijacked the time machine and transported us all to 1998?
Do you like German cars?
What's the point of these? They're still too big to carry in your pocket. If you're carrying a bag anyway, you're better off with an ultra-portable.
Handtops.com has a piece about the revolutionary effect of the new handtops? You don't say...
There's a lot of technology that goes nowhere, even with a vocal group of geeks behind it.
It won't replace the desktop at least as long as my fingers are not ultra portable as well.
The problem always comes back to the input device. Sure, you have your keyboard/mouse when you're docked, but when you're not, input just plain sucks...
A house divided against itself cannot stand.
These handheld devices are getting more powerful and more useful, but with the specs listed (1GHz, 256-512 RAM), you're not really talking desktop or even normal laptop computing power. That's especially true given that these devices aren't coming out until the Fall or early 2005 (yeah, I'll believe it when I see it).
Post a story when they pack computing power equivalent to a six-month old desktop into a handlheld form factor.
Maybe one day companies might even be willing to pay for part of your handtop, knowing that they would have to invest less in upgrading?
Most companies want their information/apps locked into their computers - some even to the point of assigning a company laptop to perform off-site work.
For small/medium companies with less sensitive data protection needs, it could help some of their bottom line. But employee expenses will be their major reduction focus.
Shame... I mean, I can't wait until the prices rises. I'm not buying one until they are AT LEAST $5000.
Each of my hands, (I have two), in a relatively relaxed open position, are somewhere between 4 and 5 inches wide, from thumb to pinky (narf). When my eyes are tired, focusing on distant objects becomes "hard".
Tiny screen plus uber small keybaord? No tnx. If i have the realestate, I rather have my 18" or however wide keyboard it is + a 19" monitor. For travelling, I rather have something big enough but not outweigh an every-day text book plus wide enough that I'm not squinting and can see my screen, w/o carrying around a full sized monitor.
-
ping -f 255.255.255.255 # if only
That was way too much hype and marketing speak this early in the morning.
I personal long for the time when i will have just ONE portable device for everything (phone, email, calendar, Word prcessing, Internet etc) and one central server at home. I think this would be possible already, but the main problem is the lack of good design and innovative IO-Solutions (wheres my foldable Keyboard?).
I have a really tough time believing that these things remain at a bearable temperature. Laptops with these same processors can still get hot on the old lap. Does anyone have the Sony or know what sort of thermal protection these have? (if any) Might be a nice feature to have in a $2k gadget. Also, how quiet are these things?
OQO has been in "next quarter" status for, what, 3 years now? They get /.'ed about every 6 months with their "any day now" press releases. Don't call me until is ships.
No, I take that back.
Don't call me until version 3 actually arrives. Anything with so many delays (usu the result of design or production difficulties) is going to be crap on its first two releases.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
You'll invest MORE in upgrading, since these little überdevices are completely closed, from a platform, and probably source/OS perspective. Need the new wireless standard? Sorry. Need a RAM upgrade to run Longhorn? Sorry. Need a dual-head video card for a special project? Sorry. Neat PDA though, can you watch Seinfeld on the way to work?
I predict that the more this appeals to someone in your office, the less work that person does to begin with.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
Gee, I'd rather stay in the blowjob paradigm, thank you very much.
Is there any PDA, labtop or the like without any form of screen, only with a set of goggles or a head-up display?
.. I would say that a set of high definition LCD goggles would do the trick .. and be less power consuming as they wouldn't have to be very big?
I want the big screen, but I don't want to carry it around
My bullshit detector just went through a Paradigm Shift.
- Seth
Hate me!
This sounds [vaguely] similiar to what the PowerBook Duo was supposed to become. The Duo had several problems that prevented it from catching on; will these "handtops" go the same way?
-:sigma.SB
WARN
THERE IS ANOTHER SYSTEM
This must be the pda the doom3 guy was carrying! They really need to put a flashlight on it though.
Save your time, the "article" reads like a blatant piece of astroturfing with an unhealthy dose of wishful thinking. Unless the price of these "handtops" drop under $1000 fast, they'll be an even bigger flop than the Tablet-PC.
The PDA's will be supplied by the UAC- 'brining you a better future!'
Here's my company's current standard for mobile users:
$1700.00 - IBM Thinkpad T41
$150.00 - Port replicator
$80.00 - Extra battery
$200.00 - Motorola T720/T730 Cell phone
$350.00 - Palm or Sony PDA
$800.00 - Software... PDA sync software add-ons, cell phone addy book sync software, etc.
-------
$3300.00 approx
Compared to the OQO alternative:
$2000.00 - OQO
$200.00 - Cell phone with bluetooth and GPRS for all-time internet access
--------
$2200.00 approx + added productivity capabilities.
So... in the near future it would seem we could save $1000.00 per user and get increased productivity. Not much justifying and convincing to do it would seem...
BINGO!!!!
Here's a funny thing: You have to figure that the vast majority of people buying these are going to be the corporate types trying to replace their Blackberries with something even more functional. So why do most of these damn things have XP Home on them?!?!
What's the Battery life like?
Shift your Paradigm's till your fucking blue in the face. I want newton '05.
Multifunctional devices are all dandy but I don't see how they could compete with devices designed for one thing only. Sure, things develop and multifunctional devices get better people might say but so does the single purpose device. There are mp3 players you connect to your mobile phone but will they ever get as good or compete with say, the iPod?
Will the camera in most mobile phones ever get as good as a good digital camera? I doubt it.
It's just too expensive and difficult to bring the best of everything into a device of this kind. You compromise and hope that someone REALLY NEEDS all these things in small package enough to be willing to pay alot of money for it. I certainly won't.
``With a physical size that's slightly larger than a PDA, a handtop has the power of a standard ultra-portable laptop - 1GHz, 256-512MB RAM''
Reading that made me feel a bit icky. It has the size of a device one would like to use on the road, but specifications that likely make that unfeasable (battery life?). So it's not good for on the road, maybe it's good on the desktop? Well, I doubt whether such machines will use standard parts, so upgrades/customizations will be expensive if not impossible.
Handtops may still be useful for those who travel a lot, but not that long that they would need stellar battery life. However, PDAs have not been crazily successful, and one step up there is Apple's iBook, which is very hard to beat.
Now, of course, if someone made cheap, really low power computers with standard network, storage, and input interfaces, that would be something.
Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
but this press release states quite clearly that these things will replace home PCs...
Yeah, sure they will.
Would seem more useful to me, to have a portable hard disk. Cheaper, and about as easy to type on...
I have a 15" PowerBook. It's a good size. A little small, but definitely usable. I dock it to a keyboard, mouse and monitor when at work. This suits me perfectly.
Given that I walk wherever possible (any journey under a couple of miles, which includes my trip to work), with this laptop, and weight isn't a big issue, why would I want something smaller and less powerful?
There was this story not long ago on a Laptop that would have primitive PIM functions in BIOS. Sounds a lot cooler to me.
10 ?"Hello World" life was simple then
I just got back from a summer in Japan and the Sony models (U-50 and U-70) were all over the place there. I never did see anyone actually using one though.
But as a PDA/Laptop thingy they pose a good compromise. For some reason they (Sony) failed to put in Bluetooth in them which seems like a failiure of biblical proportions. Not only can I then not use it with my phone I can also not use wireless mouse and keyboard with it. For me that made it easy to decide against getting one. (Not sure if I would have otherwise, but I did get a PDA there so it's not unthinkable.)
They are wonderful bits of technology though, I'd love to get my hands on one.
1Ghz is surely impressive (if not hot) but it's not a question of how big is it, it's about what you can do with it. Let's see how does it improve on a typical current PDA:
Q: Can I (easily) type on it? Using 6, 8, 10 fingers?
Q: Can I (comfortably) watch a 16:9 movie? With surround sound?
Q: Digicam you say? What, with optical zoom and flash?
Q: Surely I can take it with me into the wild and the batteries last forever?
Well - I gonna stick with a handheld instead of "handtop" I guess. No, really.
> It's not all rosy, the devices are still under $2000
I would have thought it would be less rosy for them to be *over* $2000. I mean, my watch cost me $30 - that's less than $2000.
Oh, you meant '*just* under $2000)? I see...
SO you have a machine where everything is there EXCEPT a hard disk, it just has a pcmcia type slot, along you come with your 2.5 inch hard disk, pop it in the slot, boot up and away you go....
Quite apart from the resiliance linux has towards changing hardware, which beats windows hands down everyone except the most crucial area of all, eg graphics cards, especially nvidia ati, linux will handle changes of motherboard / cpu / etc much better than windows, perhaps some of the EXCELLENT functionality of the knoppix hardware autodetection could be built in....
Anyway, all you carry around is your data, plug it into a desktop, laptop, pda, whatever.
Could make a lot of sense in a company big enough to make such a system worthwhile, only caveat is such a system would need a totally solid backup solution for when users lose or damage their laptop hard disks... such a system has many advantages and could be made pretty secure too, with the sole exception of an employee who either lost their disk and did not report it, or allowed it to be cloned.
Could be a lot of fun to set up too. Epecially is technology moves along and we get there new 2 Tb flash drives with more useful read/write life than present flash stuff.
http://slashdot.org/~GuyFawkes/journal
With travel time that is just a little bit to much for my Nomad Zen. So I got two Mp3 player, an iGb-100 (small 1.5gb player from iRiver) in my pockter and the Zen on my belt. I got my wallet of course. Usually some small change and other stuff and my phone. Keys and the job alone adds one for the locker and one tag for signing in and out. A knife and pen. Maybe a roll of drop (candy).
In short I need a belt just to keep my damn pants from sliding down.
I could of course bring a book to read in the breaks or a GBA.
Can you imagine the bulge in my pockets? I don't care about my looks and work in place where people don't care either but in a suit this doesn't look good.
So yeah I see some sense in these multi-capabilty devices. They are not for me as the phone-mp3-game don't have the storage to play music for 8+ hours or the battery life.
No the camera in a phone or pda will never be as good as a dedicated camera. But if you need/want to make photo and send it with your camera then I wish you luck with your external camera, good luck in finding a way to connect the two, in getting the phone to regonize the camera, in making sure the phone messaging format can be used with your camera's storage format. Etc etc etc.
You are walking around with two devices, the guy with the cameraphone with 1. Add an mp3 player and you got 3, the guy with the supergadget still got 1. Add a game platform and you got 4 devices, the guy with supergadget still got one. Add a PDA function and you got 5 devices. The guy with the supergadget only 1.
Sure you will beat him in functionality but he doesn't look like a geek.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
It's super that they want to stick faster processors with better screens into smaller devices, however I think we forget the main limiting factor. Batteries have not changed in 10 years, and I think until we can develop a device that runs reasonably well (> 2 hours) on current technology we're still at the same point we are now. Give me better batteries, not faster processors!
Dilbert
Any company that spends that much to keep you connected is ignoring its bottom line. You don't need both a company pda and a company laptop. Make the average employee lug the laptop around--it's cheaper anyway if you just add Wi-Fi. As for the handtop, have you seen how underpowered they already are? If you're doing light enough tasks to use a handtop, you didn't need such a high-end laptop. For most people your example system doesn't need a port replicator. The sync software is either included with the PDA and phone or won't be as expensive as you think. For example, CommonTime's Lotus Notes ActiveSync product is $100 a year and Outlook syncs with PocketPCs out of the box. As for the cell phone, what's that? A free phone with service contract? WE'LL TAKE IT.
And get the extended battery, who wants to lug around a second battery when they could use the larger battery and have it fit better?
This sounds like a job for... http://alphagrip.com/
It's not all rosy, the devices are still under $2000
Yes, things will be much more rosy when they are over $2000.
if you think this is bad, you should have seen my last sig
Imagine carrying around this thing and it will have all your stuff on it. You get up and go to work, you toss this thing in your suit case. You get in the car and your computer's stereo starts reading your mp3s via wireless. Get to the office, toss the thing on the desk, and via wireless it's already talking to your monitor, keyboard, mouse and speakers.
Get home, you toss this thing on it's recharge station, and you can start puterizing from home.
Going on a bike ride? Toss this thing in your backpack, and start listening to your mp3s via wireless headphones.
Or if you go on vacation, and you start snapping off photos with your digital camera, this computer could be automatically uploading the photos to the internet for your family to see. (hopefully you're not taking photos of yourself and some women of the night)
I think this will totally be the future, but not yet.
-asoap
Treat me like a marketing stat, and I'll treat your movie like a series of ones and zeros
truth is i actualy like to have shitty cheap gear that just doesnt do everything. for example if i go hiking or whatever and my cell falls out of my pocket on some rocks im not worried that im going to lose all of my music, designs, etc.
its just a cell so whatever its going to be fine, but if i had to tote along along a handheld does all unit id be a little nervouse to have fun with it in my backpack.
I found just what you are looking for! a laptop - just don't get the one called a P-P-P-Powerbook...
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I'm so damned sick of all these stupid gadgets. I want a cell phone to be a cell phone. A computer to be a computer. wtf, quit limiting my product choices by throwing them all into one.
Asshats
You're right. These things won't take off until they cost about $5000.
I forget what 8 was for.
Without RTFA (it's already /.ed), I'd have to say this sounds a lot like the Apple Newton. I.e. it won't work because it's too big to fit in a pocket, and to small to work comfortably on it. Until we get usable and affordable goggles, and/or plus some kind of input technology that's truly portable [1], these devices won't take off.
1: e.g. digital paper, so I can fold an A3-sized screen/tablet into an A6 package.
I own a JVC microlaptop (which is actually built by Asus and rebranded by JVC) and I'm totally thrilled by it.
Around 900 g, about the size of VHS tape, a keyboard that I can comfortably touchtype with (and I think my hands are pretty normal). This is a great device - it runs Linux, has a 20 GB harddisk and is fast enough to watch movies on its 16:9 display.
I did own a normal 3 kg laptop some years ago and I'm not looking back. I don't own a car and travel by bike and bus - everything more than 1 kg is an annoyance then.
Yes, I'd love to own an even smaller device. I once bought the Zaurus in the hopes of having a PDA-sized Linux computer, but without a harddisk and without the possibility of connecting an external keyboard, it wasn't worth using and collects dust as one of the most expensive toys I ever bought.
I'm looking forward to a PDA-sized x86 computer with a harddisk, a decent display and good battery time. I also need connectors for an external display, keyboard and (if possible) TV. Count me in as one of their first customers.
------------------
You may like my a cappella music
As a person working in IT Security, this kind of thing is an absolute nightmare for companies attempting to implement or stay true to any kind of security procedure / protocol. The fact of the matter is these things will not replace desktops, because if they did it would give everyone in the company (or at least the important people) to walk out of the doors with whatever vital data they decided to work on that day, with the possibilty of that device never making it back into work for whatever reason (robbery, fire, alien death ray). The immediate cost savings over a laptop / desktop (if in fact there is one) does not begin to warrant the move to these 'handtops' when the extreme risk that is to be incurred is taken into account.
I remember quite a few years back reading (I believe) a John Dvorak column regarding palm-sized handheld computers replacing desktops. The concept was similar, calling for docks to extend functionality while at home, but enough power to do pretty much anything, anywhere. The idea piqued my interest at the time, and seemed feasible. I think that due to the conceptual shift that is also required so-called handtops have yet to become true desktop replacements and have also yet to achieve a truly ideal performance to size ratio. I think that anyone who says this is where things are going is right on. I see a future convergence of handheld style operating systems and desktop operating systems (mainly the integration of new input features into the desktop OS), but I can't imagine that we'd see widespread desktop replacement by handtops any time in the next five years.
I am feeling fat and sassy
The problem always comes back to the input device.
That's why I love my Psions. I have a Series 7, a netbook and a series 5mx, and I'll weep on the day they're all gone. Not only are they small, light (1kg) and incredibly durable (you could toss the netbook, frisbee-like, into a brick wall and use it afterwards), they've got great battery life, touchscreens and tremendous keyboards. Not quite full-sized, but large enough for me, a ham-handed ogre, to touch-type on.
I've been looking for suitable replacements for each for 4 years now, and none exist. Every potential replacement lacks some feature or another.
if you get a little projector and mount it in the side of one of these so that it can display a, say, 17-20" image on a flat surface.....
...when they're affordable. It took so bloody long to get color handhelds under a decent price... now these neat little toys come onto the market at prices THREE TO FOUR TIMES that of a typical desktop. WTF?
Wake me when I can actually afford to buy one.
Honey, I shrunk the Cygwin
What's it good for? It's the next step to miniaturize the laptop, notebookn, sub-notebook...
Each step gives yoiu more mobility with less capability for a given prize. Already, many descisions in that area are trade-off's like "will the 12" PowerBook suffice? It IS easier to carry around..." These toys will just be the next extreme in the continuum somewhere between desktop and mobile phone.
No, check the release date slippage.
This the the PDA Duke Nukem uses.
If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. - James Madison
CRICKEY!!! What do you want! It would STILL run a compiler, STILL run multi channel soft synths, still even be capable of moderate video editing... that's a LOT of MIPS pumping through that thing. It will run a browser, run Javascript, emulate JAVA at a reasonable speed and has video acceleration anyway. It is fast enough to play DVDs - which is still the most taxing thing most users ever do with their PC's. It will still run my FFTs and signal processing stuff and it will definitely read my email, news and let me type up documents (hell I was doing that on my 286's and 386's) Sorry to moan but you either do fluid dynamics for a living or REALLY like running SuperPI.
Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.
These things are pretty cool, but i think an ultra light laptop (about 2Lbs) is far better for this typeof work. altho u could not really use it as a pda.
i think a decent PDA and an ultra light laptop is prety much all you need.
-Nex6
Why would anyone create a page like that of the 3rd link "Others" at http://www.handtops.com/show/compare where I've a scrolling page within a scrolling web page? Now I've got to manipulate 4 scroll bars to view the thing instead of the usual 2!
a site about handtops predicts a bright future for handtops? it's almost like a news site for nerds pushing an anti-Microsoft agenda!
Make sure you pronounce it "pear-a-dig-ehm" and not "pear-a-dime"
That's 20 cents, isn't it?
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
http://www.frogpad.com/
I can't wait 'till it becomes pervasive.
What exactly do you need to do on a $2000 palm top unit that's worth the cost, when for around $700 you can get a Zaurus SL-C860 and a wireless card, install the free pdaXrom Linux/X environment, and have decently-functional note taking, word processing, mp3 playing, e-mailing, web browsing, scheduling environment? Sure it's a "slow" ARM CPU, but it's as fast as what was on your desktop a few years back, and with the money you save you can buy a really fast desktop system that you can export you Zaurus screen and apps to when you're sitting there, and have two systems for the price of one (with the redundancy that entails - always a good thing), each optimized for what it does.
... suckers required?
In a couple of months of having an 860, I've gotten to where I can thumb-type as quickly as I can write in a notebook (the small, paper kind), and it's as easy to carry around. (I've previously favored real notebooks over the computer kind - smaller, cheaper, more durable.) Most anything I do that really needs CPU is graphics-intensive, and although GIMP will run on the Z, I'd rather have a very large screen for that stuff anyhow.
A full Linux handheld like the Z should go for $400-500 in a year or so, and these folks betting on selling $2000-3000 systems
"with their freedom lost all virtue lose" - Milton
Asinine. It's the new retarded.
labtop? Are you, like, a scientist or something? Or do you just have a cold?
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
This palmtop on the other hand would be alot easier to carry and it would fit in at least one pocket of a jacket I wear.
Like another poster said, some people type on blackberrys and their cell phones.. I wouldn't want to type an essay on one of these but if i'm at the mall and want to type up an email i'm sure it would be ok for that.
"Thanks to the remote control I have the attention span of a gerbil."
This is why these multi-function devices are nice to have. They will never be as good as a standalone device but in some situations they are good enough and in 2 years they will probably be better than the standalone product your using today. Camera phones are low quality but give it a couple of years and you'll probably have 3 mega pixel cameras in there and be able to take crappy movies.
"Thanks to the remote control I have the attention span of a gerbil."
Handtop replaces desktop, lets see where have I heard THAT before (let's go through the drawer):
Casio Digital Diary
PSION Organizer
Newton Messagepad (and MP100 upgrade)
Tandy Zoomer Z-PDA (Casio Z-7000)
PalmPilot Professional
Freestyle Manager (Windows Palm PC)
Handspring (Palm OS)
Toshiba (Mobile Windows)
Do away with the desktop? OH YEAH, SURE!!!!!
It doesn't matter what you wrap your emotions around, Reality is a brick wall specifically designed to scramble eggs
Seriously. Considering how warm similarly spec'd laptops can get can you imagine how hot these puppies will be? I mean the surface area is so much smaller the escaping heat is going to have be a lot more concentrated. Ouch!
Here is another web site that focuses on ultra portable pcs: http://ultraportables.net/
Many companies have tried this with laptops. It almost always ends in frustration.
What would be needed is some sort of dual-boot system or vitualization... where the employee would be free to install games, screensavers and other eye candy, "free" apps that include spyware, and all the other crap that individuals often load onto own computers.... which is entertaining but has a tendancy to interfere with business usage.
As far as most companies are concerned, the potential cost savings of shared ownership ends up being "penny wise, pound foolish" once even a small portion of the employees install software that messes up the machine both makes them unproductive and ties up tech support time from whomever at their company needs to fix it for them.
PJRC: Electronic Projects, 8051 Microcontroller Tools
Get rid of that small screen of a handtop and get goggles instead. Enjoy your big, hi-res virtual monitor and get an extra bonus of augmented reality.
So i guess that wearables, not handtops will kill laptops some day.
How about the next version Treo, "Ace", due in October? It's scaled down from those "handtops", but not by much - each spec is about 1/3 that of these handtops (except for default RAM, but that accommodates the lighter PalmOS). And the Treo is built around a completely integrated phone, with a DB instead of a filesystem, while its "paradigm" is a mobile peripheral for a networked desktop, instead of making a bloated desktop kinda mobile.
--
make install -not war
but when can i get one with cell phone capabilities?
Sounds like the Newton MessagePad 2000 or 2100. Pity they're not still being made. Imagine what the Newton would be like today if its development cycle hadn't been broken...
I have a Sony Clie N770, not the latest, but it has a decent battery life, (10 days) plays mp3, has a colour hi-res screen, but only PalmOs4. It was created before Sony (and Palm in their turn) went mad running high power battery-killing CPUs. Too many people forget these older palms could be close to the ideal handheld. Ebay is now full of people who buy the latest PDA and sell soon when disappointment sets in when the gloss of pointlessly watching tiny videos wears off.
Then there's interesting items like the Siemens SimPad - still in demand but only available on ebay, many people feel it's a grown-up Zaurus. Originally costing over a US$1000, they're now available for less than 20% of that price.
Remember the Audrey? Some people do, and they're still loved.
Remember Cyrix/Geode WebPAD (TM)? Not many do.
When the Newton was first emerging, I recall seeing a demonstration tablet made by Olivetti Research Labs here in Cambridge England. It was a full-size A4 screen, could send/receive faxes etc. Considering a 486 was state of the art, this was a miracle of engineering.
So, whilst I welcome new computers like the OQO, Intel's personal server, the new Zaurus 6000W (unavailable outside Japan - crazy!), until I can actually find one in the stores, see 3rd party developers working with them, and hear from the early adopters, I don't hold my breath as to their practical reality.
OQO missed the opportunity to make a nice keyboard, by leaving the tab/capslock/shift/ctrl keys and other keys on the sides. Too bad. And the really sad thing is the Taiwanese and Chinese clone manufacturers, who are brilliant in their own way, unfortunately lack the imagination to remedy this by coming up with their own layouts. So again a good idea, the small form factor PC, is doomed by a bad implementation. I may be just an AC, but mark my words on this one.
*sigh* Funny being modded down by people who don't understand the refference. :>