Slashdot Mirror
OQO For Sale
captainJam writes "After many delays, the OQO is available for sale, or pre-order actually. However, they will begin shipping in the middle of next month. Read the scoop for how much it'll set you back. Check this link if you're still not sure what the OQO is." Update: 10/13 13:49 GMT by H : I've got a Model 01 that was sent over for review; I'll be checking it out with both XP & Linux; it's definitely one of the cooler handhelds out there.
Panurgism is the reaction to an ever repeating tired joke :
The fact is that I am not interested anymore, I just do not believe what they kept repeating while postponing their product.
Trolling using another account since 2005.
Yes I'd seen this over in mip's scan that the OQO has finally launched and is taking orders on their website. I'm not sure though - it seems pretty underpowered for the price. The Flipstart seems to be a more promising unit.
that the internet bubble was a hoax?
Proof it wasn't - you better have a bunch of grade A stock options to fling at a handtop.
For the "under $2000 price tag, you get a box with:
- state of the art OQO handtop
- power cord & AC adaptor
- docking cable
- desktop stand
- digital pen
- carrying case and a manual/guide
Thank you. The link has already been slashdotted. That is one horrible article summary.
I submitted this story last night, and it didn't get posted.
I get basically the same thing as a newer, clamshell Zaurus, but without Linux? I get a used Apple iBook, but without OSX or Mac goodness? Where's the compelling reason to buy?
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
Wow. No description of what the hell this thing is, but he does give links to find out and they're both slashdotted.
Can the editors please institute a policy that they only accept/post stories that are adequately descriptive?
You couldn't find enough room in the cover story to describe what it was, so you linked to a web page that was /.ed when there was a total of 1 comments posted. Great Job!
who | grep -i blond | date cd ~; unzip; touch; strip; finger; mount; gasp; yes; uptime; umount; sleep
Just 4.9 inches long, 3.4 inches wide, .9 inches thin, and weighing only 14 ounces, the model 01 can fit in a pocket or purse and go with you anywhere. For easy typing and cursor control it has a complete thumb keyboard with TrackStik and mouse buttons as well as digital pen and thumbwheel. It is the much anticipated device for people who previously had to choose between the bulk and awkwardness of a laptop and the limited capability of a PDA.
The OQO model 01 is also the most versatile computer to date. With the OQO docking cable, it can easily connect to projectors and Ethernet. Placed in the desktop stand it is a desktop computer, allowing you to connect easily to a variety of peripherals, including full-size keyboards, printers, scanners, and high-resolution monitors. It shifts easily from one mode to the other with no data synchronization required. With an OQO model 01 you can move throughout your day and enjoy constant access to all your information and Windows XP programs. You can use the same computer for high-powered applications at work, sending email at home, listening to music on a train, or watching a movie on an airplane. It is the only computer you need.
Would it really fuck up an editor's day to actually do some, you know, editing? What the hell do these guys do all day, and can I get paid to do the same?
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
lack of editing mutter mutter not like that in my day mutter mutter youth of today mutter mutter ...
And tomorrow, hell freezes over... OQO has got to be the king of vapor, and now they are actually ready to sell a product!? Now what were the odds of that at your local bookmaker? Someone could have made a fortune. Might be a pretty cool device from what I have previously read about it though!
Guess they're using one to run the webserver!
For a few nano seconds it will look cool as you have the latest flashiest toy on the block. If that's worth $2,000 to you then fine but I won't be buying.
init 11 - for when you need that edge.
http://www.oqo.com/hardware/basics/
:)
The official marketing version.
East Coast Brewers
Unfortunately for Linux users, there is no option to not have any OS installed.
The USB is currently 1.1
So you have to pay M$ royalties, regardless of whether you intend to use Windows, and no USB 2.0 support. Lovely.
I've looked at that one, as well as the Sony U series, but basically, I've come to the conclusion that I really want a keyboard as well, not a writable screen. So much of what I do involves writing in one form or another. I've ended up ordering one of these instead. Sure, it won't (quite) fit into a coat pocket - you need to have it in your bag - but it is a lot more computer for about the same price.
Trust the Computer. The Computer is your friend.
You'd think our boy Timothy would at least link to the page of the manufacturer where there are images, and stands a better chance against /.'ing. Here you go guys...it's some sort of portable computer thing.
model 01 ultra personal computer
1 GHz processor, 20GB HD, 256MB RAM, WiFi, Bluetooth, USB, FireWire, audio, thumb keyboard, 800x480 indoor/outdoor readable LCD (ships with: removable lithium polymer battery, docking cable, desktop stand, power supply, carrying sleeve, and digital pen.)
Windows XP Home $1899.00
Windows XP Pro $1999.00
Microsoft Office Small Business Edition Pre-installed $300.00
I believe prices are USD.
I think this fills a need that too many folks don't have.
Also, the article says that many of the specs are out of date, but they're going to launch anyway. That tells me that the second generation OQO is going to have more guts, and be out as soon as enough suckers have bought enough of the wimpy ones to finance further development. I'll wait.
See what I've been reading.
Here are some info links
extremetech
The register
Since this is not the first machine of theses types of machines, nor has it been modded to run Linux how does this rate as News for Nerds?
I don't know why the news kept pointing to some arbitrary handtops site but the actual site for the device is OQO.com. Basically, the thing is a 1ghz laptop with a 20GB HD, 256MB RAM, and 800x480 LCD. It's been shrunk to the size of a PDA but runs full Windows XP home. So, for the unreasonably high price of $1900 you can get a laptop from 2 years ago running an OS that isn't designed for the size of the device. There is no market for this thing.
LilMikey.com... I'll stop doing it when you sto
I got a TC1000 Compaq Tablet at ebay for sub-$1000. The specs are not that different (e.g., same disappointingly slow Transmeta CPU). The OQO is smaller and more portable but the TC1000 already feels "slightly below the minimum" with regards to comfortably reading webpages. It will be interesting to watch if this form factor succeeds but, for now, I'm staying with what I have.
Uh yeah, missing windows. That's why it comes with XP Home or XP Pro, right?
Of course this is expensive. Ever notice how most things work on an exponential curve? As you get smaller and smaller the price begins to go up disproportionately. Why? Cause its hard to cram a whole computer into something the size of a 1990 cell phone! If you think this device is too expensive you don't understand the market its aimed at. Its not really for Joe Sixpack. Its for Joseph Suit that wants to take his computer with him and not carry a laptop.
Sounded at first like OQO the company was for sale. My fist thought was, "Sheesh...after all this waiting!". Kind of like your woman telling you at the last minute that she's got a headache :-)
-JT
Following is a link to my reply to this story. I am sure it will be modded +5 as it is a very extensive, earth-shattering reply. I expect this to be the most viewed post ever on Slashdot. For more information about me, and why I am so important, follow this link .
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
From what I can tell, it's a grossly overpriced small laptop with a touchscreen. Wow. Where's my wallet? Really, what's the incentive to buy this instead of a much cheaper, much much more powerful laptop? Are most people not able to lug around the gargantuan, 5-8 pound laptops available today? Jesus, most books are heavier than today's laptops.
I don't respond to AC's.
Battery life up to three hours, depending on usage
What If I surf while listening to mp3 ?
I only get around 10 minutes autonomy ?
No Way !!!
Trolling using another account since 2005.
Erm, yeah right, how do they know?
I have a very complex application (a simulator) here that we run on a dual-opteron system and it still nearly kills it - but apparently if I buy a 1GHz OQO it will run it? Hell it wont even fit it in the RAM and combined with WinXP it'll need one huge swap-file!
Check this link if you're still not sure what the OQO is."
Apparently, one or two of us were somehow so behind the times as to need to click the link ... gee, I feel so "yesterday" ;) How could I not have heard of this wonder?
However, the OQO isn't designed to be a desktop replacement, nor intended to be a portable video game machine
So, what exactly is it supposed to be? An overpriced PDA? A toy for high level executives?
Oh, I get it - I'm going to spend twice the money I would on a desktop to get less than half the machine.
I really like the concept of the OQO:
So it has everything I want in a portable, except: price. I can hardly justify spending $2000 for this thing when the Sharp Zaurus has a full keyboard, runs Linux, and costs about 1/2 to 1/4 as much. I don't think I'd have too hard a time finding at least half a dozen other comparable handtops that cost less than half as much.
Overall, I'm really interested. This would be a really cool machine, but at $2000, it will never be accepted by the mainstream. Price it at $500, and two years from now people will be saying, "Palm who?", and "What's an IPAQ?"...
The society for a thought-free internet welcomes you.
Grab it while it's hot. Going fast!
Simpy
So now I will be finally able to create a little nice beowulf cluster out of those goodies. ... Hey - wait. This joke didn't fit in where it really starts to be feasible :D
FINALLY a PDA/Handtop that will run Linux that's priced at the same price as it's Win version! I'd expected them to offer Linux for $100 more, you know in keeping with the spirit of PDA's.
The update to the article contains three of the dumbest links I've seen on Slashdot. Linking XP to Microsoft? Handheld links to the OSTG IT Manager's Journal (which, incidentally, has little useful content)... Sigh...
sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.
You are waaayyyyy too right. This thing is priced at least double what it should be priced. More realistically it should be at the $700 range like you said since the memory is low, the wireless is slow, and the processor is not all that.
Saying basically, 'but you can get a 12" laptop cheaper' is, no offense, completely missing the point.
It's like saying 'but a Walkman and carrying 100 cassettes around is much cheaper than an iPod'. That may well be, but the iPod fits in your pocket, while the cassettes would need a backpack. _That_ is why I'd rather pay extra than carry cassettes around.
Or it's like saying 'don't buy an iPod if you already have a laptop'. That stupid. Yes, you could pack your music on a laptop instead. But all things being equal I'd rather have a small MP3 player in a pocket, than be the idiot who lugs a freaking huge laptop bag around just for the music.
Same with the OQO. I don't want to freakin' lug a huge laptop around, when I can get the same thing in the size of a palmtop.
I'm very much willing to pay $2000 for something which fits in a pocket, _and_:
- has a proper keyboard
- lets me actually run normal PC programs, instead of some castrated Palm-speciffic idiocy.
- lets me actually pack Eclipse on it and do some coding on the road
- lets me actually play a modern PC game once in a while. Not Doom 3, of course. But Europa Universalis, Hearts of Iron, Crusader Kings or several others would run perfectly on it.
Etc.
Again, yes, a laptop would do all that. But I still don't want to lug a laptop around if I have even half a choice.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
Sorry, I'll take an Etch-a-Sketch Animator with a "GNU Inside" sticker on the front over this any day.
Ok here are the specks from the oqo.com site.
.9"
"1GHz Transmeta processor
20GB hard drive (shock-mounted)
256MB DDR RAM
Dimensions: 4.9" x 3.4" x
Weight: 14 ounces
800 x 480 W-VGA 5" transflective display (indoor/outdoor readable)
3D accelerated graphics with 8mb video RAM
QWERTY thumb keyboard with mouse buttons and TrackStik®
802.11b wireless
Bluetooth® wireless
4-pin FireWire® (1394)
USB 1.1
3.5mm stereo headphone jack
Microphone
Digital pen
Removable lithium polymer battery
Battery life up to three hours, depending on usage
OQO docking cable includes:
3D accelerated 1280 x 1024 VGA video output
Additional USB
Additional FireWire (1394)
Ethernet
DC power
Audio out
additional features
Active hard drive protection that safely parks hard drive heads upon detecting freefall
Screen that slides on rack and pinion mechanism to reveal thumb keyboard
Shift, control, function and alt keys that have smart-lock with LED indicators
Thumbwheel allows for traditional scrolling as well as enhanced features
Ambient light sensor that automatically adjusts backlight to appropriate level
External antenna connector for 802.11b (in addition to built-in diversity antennas)
Now the part that stands out to me (besides the USB 1.1, I guess Firewire is the way to go) is the 3 hour battery life, depending on usage.
Ok so we've basically stepped back in time 5 years to ultra crappy laptops that don't last long enough to fly half way across the US.
I'm guessing that if you're using the wifi that battery time is probably less than 2 hours. Reminds me of the Ipaq I used to have that lasted all of an hour without plugging it in. Talk about your useless wireless POC.
Apple free since 1990!
I just bought a new PDA (HP4155) with builtin wifi, and while I like it immensely, it's still YAD -- yet another device -- in my life that I have to keep track of. I want *fewer* devices in my life. For example, I want to use my PDA as my MP3 player. While the HP4155 plays MP3s well, (and with a 1GB sdio card, I can fit a fair number on it), loading them takes forever, so it doesn't quite adequately replace a hard-drive based MP3 player like an iPod.
The OQO seems to go one step in that direction (theoretically, at least) by combining a PDA with your home system, and since you can also load MP3s onto it and use it as an MP3 player, that's 3 devices in one. Perhaps the ultimate vision is everything converging on your cell phone. So that you can use it as a PDA (a la the Treo), *good* MP3 player (a la iPod), and when you go home you can just dock it and use it as your PC. Sweet! mmm... convergence....
I suppose there's some lower bound surrounding screen size. For a functional remote computer, a cell phone sized screen doesn't quite cut it. Whoever can figure out how to create a collapsable LCD display and keyboard will be a rich rich man... ;)
And in a surprise announcement, tomorrow OQO will reveal that Duke Nukem Forever has been released exclusively for their platform!
The dangers of excessive individualism are nothing compared to the oppressiveness of excessive collectivism
The OQO is really a wallet mini-ITX mod.
Disclaimer: The Mini-ITX spec doesn't come in wallet sized solutions but you can mod a courier bag to fit the Mini-ITX spec.What is so exciting about this thing? Just its size?
pay half as much and get the smallest USABLE laptop. The fujitsu p1120. 800mhz crusoe, 4.5h battery life (with extended battery) and touchscreen. keyboard i can code on all day. its a beautiful beautiful system. shell out the cash for the extra ram. and laptops inc/portable one should gladly upgrade your hard drive, if you so request, usually at very reasonable prices.
Fujitsu p1120. Purchase here and forums for it here.
This has to be the most un-imaginative approach to mobile, and unbiquitous computing: take the hardware and OS of desktops and small to midrange servers and make it all smaller. Granted there's a nod to the portability issues with the touch screen and built in wireless technolgoies but this is bolt on stuff from a design point of view.
Of course it's a remarkable acheivement in engineering to cram all that in to such a small and light device, but the design demonstrates a really blinkered approach to the requirements.
Think about what you are liekly to do on the move. The input devices fixed to the machine should reflect tese activities: you can't write seriously on a keyboard like that so why bother with the keyboard at all? Voice recognition can handle serious text input with ease these days leaving only the editing to be done when you get back to base and plug it into it's cradle giving you access to a full size keyboard and mouse.
What is the power hungry and delicate hard disk for? This should be in a datacentre somewhere and presented on the device via an intelligent caching back end that makes it look like the stuff is local.
Why is it running an OS that has it's design roots derived from hardware designed for the server and desktop computer ? Do we really need all that baggage in a portable device?
The PDA approach is a much better place to start. With the addition of the right client software it could communicate with larger systems when placed in it's cradle (using protocols like X or framebuffers like VNC), and using a full size monitor/keyboard/mouse. Storage could be central and the device is then also small enough to function a phone.
Condensing Windows, a desktop OS which in turn has it's philosophy derived from other multi-tasking operating systems for small computers like Unix et al into a small package like that is amazing, but ultimately misses the great opportunities that global networks, wireless connectiivty and a tiered approach can give.
Still - I'm sure it'll find many fans due to the familiarity factor - same as your desktop/laptop but smaller..
The OQO was very briefly used on the last series of 24.
I can't seem to buy it without XP installed. For $1900 it's doesn't offer very much in the way of configuration.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
WSJ's The Mossberg Solution reviews it today; pix both undocked and docked. Bottom line: he doesn't like it much; get a laptop. A quote:
Any idea what the battery life on this thing is? If its like a laptop, ala 2hours, then i'd definately pass.
"Thanks to the remote control I have the attention span of a gerbil."
Business users have no use for USB 2 or wireless g?
I'm sure I'm totally alone on this, but this thing looks incredible. Yeah, the stats aren't the greatest, but I've always wanted a pocketable computer (not PDA, but computer) that could be plugged into a full sized monitor, keyboard, and mouse, when home or at the office.
If I were rich, I'd get one of these and use a bluetooth cell phone (or Wi-Fi, where available) to VNC into a cheap OS X box running at the office. I can't stand Windows.
I think that these would do really well. Why sync your data when you can just carry it around on one device?
Ah well. It'll be the toy of the rich. Let's hope this company lives long enough to get cheap enough for the common people.
Also, let's not forget that you only need a certain amount of speed to type an e-mail and surf the web. This thing should be able to run Office just fine. I don't think anyone's going to buy it for Quake.
I'm waiting for the FLIPSTART to come out. www.flipstart.com
MadOgre.com
I'm too lazy to go back and get a quote but what I read said 2-3hrs of continual use and could last all day with standby mode.
For about $1100 you can get a fugitsu P1120. Sure it's a little bit bigger, heavier, and slower, but with the wide screen and a 9 hour battery life it's a heck of a lot more useful. Plus it also gives me $900 more dollars for beer money :-).
The fugitsu P1120 is probably the cheapest super mini notebook around right now, and it's around $1100 (with a 800Mhz transmeta, no less). Saying it should be $700 is just unrealistic.
Yeah, I'm sure they will get loads of orders for this when they can't even write a sensible web shop.
Let's face it, who really wants to pay nearly 2000 bucks for an undersized, underperforming gadget that is too heavy to put in your (oversized) pocket?
Really...
I think what they are missing with the OQO is not providing a more capable dock. Why couldn't they put more smarts into the cradle? Add another processor, better graphics, and more RAM into the cradle. When it is undocked, the OQO could act like a more powerful PDA-like device.... pretty much like it is now.
When docked, however, it could use its on-board processor along with the dock's processor and add the dock's RAM to the pool of RAM available. A large hard disk could be in the cradle and a smaller disk could be in the unit. When you connected the palmtop to it, the hard drives could be sync'ed up seamlessly. Maybe the home directory is always on the palmtop, but the applications are in the base. Or the palmtop acts like a cache for active data.
What would be even cooler would be proximity detection. When the OQO is close to the main unit, it might off-load some work to it... it could use a faster Gigabit ethernet connection on the dock and act like a dumb terminal until it got out of range of the Bluetooth or WiFi. It could save files to the dock's disk until the transfer rate got too low and would then store data locally. It might be neat to start a movie in the DVD drive on the dock, and then undock to sit somewhere else or finish the movie on the train.
There would be a lot of technical challenges to doing all of those things, but I think the base idea is sound. When you are stationary, take advantage of that to include heavier, more capable hardware. When you are mobile, degrade functionality accordingly.
======
In X-Windows the client serves YOU!
Remember this bad boy?
The IBM ThinkPad PC110!
http://www.basterfield.com/pc110/history.htm
I've heard things things are real handwarmers.
might want to check out an insightful, positive review over at the NY Times.
Tierce
Who sponsors your feelings?
The New York Times is running and article on the OQO. It should shed some more light on the specifics of the device, assuming they got one for review.
Here
No I didn't read the article. Yes I wanted to be the first to post it. So there.