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HagakiPC - "Postcard" PC

Posted by timothy on from the smallness dept.

captainJam writes "The HagakiPC, Hagaki meaning postcard in Japanese, is a tiny PC with dimensions of 135 x 109 x 18mm and weighing in at 340g making it by far the lightest and 2nd slimmest handtop. Only 128MB RAM and a 640x480 VGA screen, plus there's no hard drive -- it's meant to run OS's from CF cards (great for D.S.L. and the like). Still only a prototype, so not much info is available, but what we do know (and a few photos) are here." Update: 09/01 12:14 GMT by T : Link to D.S.L. upgraded to a form that doesn't make some browsers choke.

3 of 112 comments (clear)

  1. Why? by The_Mystic_For_Real · · Score: 3, Insightful
    I think that these ultra small almost entirely functionless handhelds are just wasting the time of good engineers who could be making something that is actually useful.

    From a corporate standpoint, the development costs of making this sort of product are very high. The sales from these are fairly low as the only people who buy them tend to be impulse buyers, most of whom are scared away by the high price needed to make a profit.

    Between CF cards and actual pen-and-paper notebooks, this type of machine is entirely unneeded.

    Nothing to see here, please move along.

    --

    _____

    Thank you.

  2. Am I the only one... by RsG · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...wondering at what point you start to hit diminishing returns for miniaturization? C'mon, how small do we need? Anything smaller than a laptop gets you into major trouble with input devices (as another poster already mentioned). I have enough trouble with existing Palmtops. There's gotta be a point at which modern technology can be miniaturized further, but benefits no one in doing so.

    Call me a luddite, but this level of shrinkage strikes me as being more of an PITA than lugging around a larger unit. What someone needs to develop is a method of interfacing with a device this tiny that doesn't require tiny keys or voice input. I have absolutly no idea what kind of interface could fill that role, even theoretically (never mind realistically).

    Anyone have any ideas?

    --
    Erotic is when you use a feather. Exotic is when you use the whole chicken.
  3. already works by skating_tortoise · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The selling point seems to be the x86 compatability, but linux already works on many embedded processors, and the thing is to slow to run windows.