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What is Microsoft's Origami Project?
An anonymous reader writes "Rumors are running around the web about a new Microsoft gadget codenamed Origami that will be unveiled on March 2nd. Speculation can be found on Designtastesgood, Scobleizer, and Thatedeguy, and WindowsForDevices has a description and photos of a prototype Origami device built by National Semiconductor 2001. Anybody out there know more about this new device?"
'Anonymous coward' hyping an yet to be released MS products. Sounds like astroturfing to me. I bet it's the marketing manager.
It's a flash animation made by marketdroids.
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
Is it going to be like those future telling devices the girls used in 3rd grade? Pick 1, then 2, then 3, oops, looks like you're going be hit by a bus, try again.
"No one will really be free until nerd persecution ends."
I'm not sure, but the animation on the linked "Origami Project" site is scaring the shit out of me.
This is like "I Love Bees," only minus the whimsicial veneer.
You'd be better off to make paper swans with the greenbacks you would otherwise spend on it.
The real question is can you wipe you ass with it ?
Why is Bill Gates telling me to "Touch me" His heavy heartbeat amid the ambient backdrop is quite erotic.
The Custom Mary
I think they're releasing the next week's worth of info on the website next week. Not releasing/unveiling the product itself.
Such a tease.
Ode to the Origami
It does many things
but it is from Microsoft
it must not be good
It has a keyboard, a color display, the specs of a mobile phone, and obviously a state of the art speaker (I can't vouch for that by looking at the pic though). So I have come to the conclusion that it is a Mobile-TV-Internet-Cell Phone.
I have given it the name MTvICP . That is what it is!!
Linux Help
for all things on Linux
Linux ported to this device in 5... 4... 3... 2...
Zhrodague.net - I do projects and stuff too.
This isn't news for nerds. This isn't stuff that matters. This is pure speculation by bloggers and *rolling eyes* journalists. No one even knew this was Microsoft related until they started looking up domain name information.
Developers: We can use your help.
A special grill that will let the fat run off and the flavor stay in! It will have a special patented slanted cooking surface that won't stick, and it will all be run by windows tablet edition (hey, at least they found some use for it)!
All yours for only $900 and $80/month!
I read the internet for the articles.
Seriously, I'm sure whatever it is, there will be plenty of time to figure out how it's not an iPod killer.
I'm going to fucking fold that guy! *fling*
I heard they got VC funding for this by pitching it as:
A device for carrying on an undertaking of great advantage, but nobody to know what it is.
It's worked before, why not again?
I know nothing about this thing, and have never even heard 'origami' and 'Microsoft' in the same sentence together before just now. But knowing how that M$ almost always uses totally unimaginative descriptors as product names, I'm guessing origami is something small that folds, like a portable device with a fold out screen or keyboard or something. I'm posting this guess purely for my own entertainment.
A-Bomb
With a name like that... The project is destined to fold...
-FL
But I bet there's a paper clip involved.
I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.
Actually, it has a small talking paper clippy holding the paper folded.
didn't make it past legal.
I noticed that windowsfordevices.com (216.218.185.157) looks (as far as the website goes) almost identical to linuxdevices.com (216.218.185.154). The IP's make it look like they might be with the same server farm.
Just weird... The first thought I had looking at the site was that it looked almost exactly like the one for linuxdevices.com... Second, read the article there.. YAWN!!! More gadgetry that people will get excited about till the next latest and greatest thing arrives in a few months.
Look at this! (pulls out new phone) Yes!
Combination hookah and coffee maker
also makes Julienne fries.
Will not break (opens the phone gently),
will not--(it falls apart)
it broke.
Wait, don't go!
I can see that you're only interested in the exceptionally rare.
I think then, you would be most rewarded to consider...this.
(PEDDLER pulls the Cellon Int'l C8000/Philips CT9688 out from his sleeve.)
Do not be fooled by its commonplace appearance.
Like so many things, it is not what is outside, but what is inside
that counts.
(modifications by me, the rest is part of the intro sequence from Walt Disney's Aladdin)
The mysterious website gets me really excited, but this looks a little much like a Treo w/a camera on it.
Nice design though I think we've seen this before.
This smells of a MS astroturfing troll. Since whatever it is hasn't been released we can only waste time speculating. Maybe it's a desert topping or a floor wax. Maybe it's both. In any case, it's vapourware until it shows up. How about we all wait a week to see what is announced and then have a discussion about it?
Slashdot: Failed Car Analogies. Amateur Lawyering. Anecdote Battles.
But MTV doesn't like ICP!
Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
...that see's an odd likeness between the logo of this device and another logo we've seen recently from another evil company?
If this is just a random fluke, I'd sure say it's a funny one considering the product type. If it's not a fluke, it's time to break out a new batch of tinfoil hats.
MTW
"The Origami device is approximately 7 ½ inches x 3 1/2 inches x 1 1/2 inches thick and uses:
m on/FileOpen.aspx?FileName=8998_National_Semiconduc tor_Conceptual_P.doc
Extensive multimedia features in Windows XP Embedded to support its customized video record and snapshot application and to provide video-conferencing capabilities
Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 to provide the latest Web browsing capabilities including playback support for Flash and Shockwave files
Outlook® Express for e-mail "
"At first glance, the device looks like a small camera and camcorder until you open it to reveal a brilliant 4-inch, 640 x 480 display that looks more like a terminal. "That's why we call the device Origami; it changes shape depending on what function you're using," Matson notes. "You twist it one way to use it as a personal access device, another way to write an e-mail, and other way to use it as a camera." A patent-pending hinge on the unit allows users to bend the device into different shapes."
http://members.microsoft.com/CustomerEvidence/Com
It looks to me like Microsoft's version of Blackberry, whose addicted customers just might be forced to seek an alternative shortly. Fairly brilliant move on their part to start leaking now.
Sweet, the prototype looks like it's got a bottle-opener on it!
Just what cellphones have been missing!
Does it make you happy you're so strange?
So... In theory... If you put this and a Nintendo DS together, would they keep each other entertained?
From the name, I'd expect it to be related to the digital paper that's been under development in the last few years (not at MS that I know of, but at other companies, and surely available to MS). That doesn't seem to be the case though. Strange; maybe they're trying to get their claws into that name for later digital paper models?
Why don't you wait until details unfold before making that kind of statement!
Can you use it to make small paper swans?
The best part is that after you make them, they'll change their color to blue, and will never fly away.
BFD! Too big.
Some say he is made with ascii, others that he is eyeballed daily by millions. All we know is, he is known as the Sig
FTFA:
"The Origami folds and pivots into a digital camera, video camcorder, smartphone, MP3 audio player, PDA, Internet access or Internet picture frame, email device or video conferencing terminal.
Origami utilizes Bluetooth wireless technology for network connectivity. PAN and LAN networks use a Bluetooth-equipped access point, while WAN uses a Bluetooth GSM or CDMA phone."
That's the Origami vaporware. Now, what's my SonyEricsson K750? Without folding or pivoting, it's a digital video/still camcorder, MP3 player, contacts/calendar/notes PDA, GPRS Internet, and picture frame. With Java applets, it's a "smartphone", and with applets and a Bluetooth keyboard it's an email device and maybe even "videoconferencing terminal". And it pivots images for preferred display orientation on user demand.
And it's over a year old. I'm sure there are phones with better email and "videoconferencing". What is this Microsoft astroturf?
--
make install -not war
You fold it in half to more easily store it in some kind of carrying case, and open it to see the screen and access the pointing device and keyboard. What will they think of next - a graphicaly based interface to the operating system?
"We are all geniuses when we dream"
- E.M. Cioran
You call yourself a geek?!!
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
You have to see it for yourself.
Let me assure you that the C8000, while running Linux, is no superstar in the reliability department. Couple that with Philips UI and you have what is know in the vernacular as a steaming piece of shit.
"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey
I figure it's some guys name...some guy named Gabbo.
Ohh.. wait.. that's been said http://www.sedway.com/ ;)
One rare time when Steve Jobs was talking bollocks.
Jonathan
http://www.justgofaster.com/
or Google?
"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey
Well whatever it is, it'll be better than an overpriced scooter in art-"health-care-device" style.
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
About 8 months ago, I submitted my resume to do some Perl work on a tracking database for a MS product. I didn't get the gig because I was only willing to work nights/weekends, but in discussions with the recruiter, he told me it was for a MS handheld game console. This is about the right time for it to be announced.
Cool! Now we get an Origami Sim! Just the perfect thing to add to my collection of Sim games.
Can you use it to make small paper swans?
No, but small swine can use it to make papers for the internets as PR stunt.
1) Take customer's money.
2) Fold it in half.
3) Stick it in Bill Gate's wallet.
4) Origami!
A fatal exception 0E has occured at 0137:BFFA21C9
One more crippling bombshell hit the already beleaguered origami community when slashdot confirmed that origami market share has dropped yet again, even before it was released to the genral public.
You don't need to be a Kreskin to predict origami's future. The hand writing is on the wall: origami faces a bleak future. In fact there won't be any future at all for origami because origami is dying. Things are looking very bad for origami. As many of us are already aware, origami continues to lose market share. Blue screens flow like a river of blue flash animations.
In a final tribute to an idea overhyped before release, potential users could be seen taking their blue origami foldings and tossing them in a pile. And then lovingly burning them, as an idea that could have been useful. Except that it came from Microsoft, and knowing the past, they already knew the future.
Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"
...robotic paper folding overlords!
A little re-arrangement of words:
/.
Many things does it
but from Microsoft it is
be good must it not
Now instead of haiku (on topic within the context of Origami) you get mod points for sounding like an insightful 400 year old Jedi Knight here on
BSD is designed. Linux is grown. C++ libs
National Semiconductor Geode Origami
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law - Aleister Crowley
This and Bill figured that it meant Oracle or Borland would go under, so he said okay.
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
It's a USB paper shredder
_______
DIY Linux virus removal:
1) [root@localhost ~]# rm -rf /
my cellphone already does all that and more?
Plus, it runs Linux.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Take a look at this origami puppet.
The linked image shows it with a face, but when I grew up, you would write the numbers or letters on each face (like 1, 2, 3, and 4). You can put four fingers into it. Then you can open the "mouth" horizontally or vertically. You would tell someone to pick a number. Then you would count 1 (open horiz), 2, (open vert), 3 (open horiz), 4 (open vert). Once you open it, 4 more faces appear. Maybe they have 4 colors. The person picks a color. Then, you unfold whichever face has that color written on it. Then, a fortune is written on that fold.
There are lots of variations. I know it is still a common schoolyard thing for American pre-teens. The joke is only funny if you picture someone going through the motions as you read the post.
Cool! Now we get an Origami Sim! Just the perfect thing to add to my collection of Sim games.
... paper doesn't handle that well.
...
I hear that when you play Sims 2: Origami, you can fold up your sim into eight different positions, plus each time you do that, it increases your invisible Yoga skill.
But, sadly, Sims 2: Origami is incompatible with Sims 2: Nightlife. It's all the spilled drinks
And the pixelation of unfolded origami is kind of an annoyance
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
...it's something that no one will remember or talk about next year.
Synchronize your calendar and mobile phone via text messaging.
there was an entire South Park episode that centered around one of those things.
Slashdot readers slashdot the site rendering it unreachable by the masses at large.
Net result, one effect cancels out the other.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
oh, wait...
Did you know that "FTW" ("for the win") is a direct translation of "Sieg Heil"?
The Samsung SGH-D307 cell phone has a dual hinge design that sounds a lot like this. It's not a media player, tho.
My guess is they are about to release a network search agent, possibly coupled to a mobile wireless device. I'm imagining a handheld (Palm pilot-ish) coupled to a wireless Windows CE coupled with a Microsoft Terranova or similar map program for getting information while out in the field, coupled with Microsoft Search for finding information on the fly.
The star design (nodes radiating from a central node) implies a network configuration, where there is a central location that is retrieving data from external servers. The first portion "do you know what I can do" with pictures of circuitry also implies a hardware device capable of networking, but the multiple images (arrows) suggests a query. The "and where I can go" with pictures of cities and beaches implies a mobile device. "or how I can change your life" could really mean anything.
Of course, Origami is basically "folding paper", so the hardware itself could be a Digital Paper device coupled to a wireless 802.11g" device for on the go searches...
If that's not it, maybe I can patent the idea for a device like that before they get around to building one.
I suppose I'm a product of the times I was born in, but beack in the day whenever I saw girls making those I always thought about Pacman.
Just then the floating disembodied head of Colonel Sanders started yelling Everything You Know Is Wrong!-Weird Al
You're right... it is a little disturbing.
So far, it's said "Touch me. Hello. Do you know me? Do you know what I can do? and where i can go? or how I can change your life?"
Sheesh.. Next it'll ask "What are you wearing?" and "What's your credit card #, baby"?
"People like you helping people like us help ourselves" - Processed World.
If MS reveals an incredible folding computer into a breifcase and patent's it, I'm going to cite prior art from the Jetsons! Oh wait nevermind... that's a laptop (I mean notebook) computer!
In order to improve security, Microsoft decided to make the next generation Windows firewall from folded paper. It might not be "safe" by most people's standards, but it is like Fort Knox in Microsoft scale.
Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.
Micro$oft has decided that the end user license agreement for Vista will only be available in the form of a folded paper crane. They're hoping that most people will never read the EULA for fear of wrecking "the cute little paper crane that came with Vista".
The bits on the bus go on and off... on and off... on and off...
I think that it is realy a samll blue duck that requiers 4 usb ports once pluged in it will glow and annoyingly quack at random intervals. It will come with all future versions of windows and will be required as part of anti-piracy measures. Secretly the bsod will be updated to set off a small nuke inside the duck. Crash?!?!?! You dont even have a computer how could it crash?
What kind of connector is that on the side? I'm trying to get a sense of scale. It looks like a cell phone, but if it's the size of a cell phone, that keyboard is going to be utterly useless.
Paper folding..... Microsoft is planning on folding up the world so they can take it with them.
"Learn more 3.2.2006" the animation says.
It's already 24.2.2006, and that's what it says.
That WOULD be typical of Microsoft to be late.
whatever it is, it's going to cause some small and innovative company somewhere to fold.
how many pairs of boxer shorts should you own?
It's probably the swiss knife of gadgets, and runs on soylent green.
It's a novelty Rubik's cube with LCD's on each tile face.
:-)
There's a mini USB connector behind one of the centre tiles,
and you can upload 6 jpg/bmp images, one for each face.
It takes 15 seconds to boot up, during which time you
see the Microsoft embedded XP logo on one face, while
the other faces pulsate in pastel shades.
Two of the LCD's are touch sensitive, and pressing both
simultaneously toggles 'Help mode' which overlays arrows
on the tiles showing you which way to turn them.
Give it a while and the whole thing turns blue with white
writing and you have to take the battery out to get it to
work again.
It is a handheld game system like psp....
The NZ-90 is a great PALM OS5 based PDA with pretty good multimedia capabilities. Its built in 2 megapixel camera can record video, take picture (well.. duh..), and work as a web cam for video conferencing.
I use it to watch movies, take pics, play games, etc. If I popped for a wifi card for it (trust me, I have done that once on a pda and will never do it again - just the wrong size platform to be more then a gimmick) I could surf the net, read email, and things like that.
The only real difference here is it (as described) incorporates a phone. Which makes it no different then a couple of HP Ipaq smart phones out there (except for the fold up format).
Unless it has some serious horse power (at a cost of battery time!), it will have to have something else then what is described by National, because yet another media convergence device / PDA / Phone has little market value. That is why everyone keeps pulling out of the US market space for PDAs. No one wants to spend $800 for device. Out side of must have gadget collectors and bleeding edge tech junkies.
I got my fix with my NZ-90 (which, BTW isn't even made anymore) and its held out for over 3 years now. I am certainly not the market segment for this possible new device.
They're gonna turn everyone into Japanese.
Blame the user, not the software.
can we load linux on it? Does it support iTunes? Does it have see through functionality. Nah.. i'm not going to be interested.
Plus, wasn't Yoda 900 years old, anyway?
Perhaps it is what you need to do while you wait for the applications to load
It portable BSOD device, so you don't get homesick on vacation
Signature Pro version 1.13.2-3 release 83.5 beta3try7 after-breakfast edition
Offtopic? I could see Funny, or Overrated, or maybe even Insightful (what MS mobile appliance couldn't use a bigger battery), but Offtopic? Sheesh!
"Good things don't end with eum, they end with mania or teria." - H. Simpson
What the hell is up with that stupid pointless flash animation...
anyway, a device like this is long overdue..
I have been looking for a device which is a:
* digital camera
* video camcorder
* smartphone
* MP3 player
* PDA
Hopefully this device has something better than a 4MP resolution with at least 4X optical zoom. It they wanna make it a video camcorder, they better bump up the optical zoom to at least 10X. The MP3 Player batter at least have a 5GB HDD.
I' willing to pay about a $1000 dollars for such a device instead of pay $400 for PDA, another $300 for a Digital Camera, another $300 for an MP3 Player and another $200 for a cell phone. If they add decent video capability, I'd be willing to spend $1500 for a device that has it all.
That Haiku must be from Yoda's younger works.
Before he died, Master Yoda wrote a poem shorter in length, but similar in meaning:
Hmmm?
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
Now if a couple of the functions include running and blowing things up, this would be a really fun little toy.
You mean like this?
"Now instead of haiku (on topic within the context of Origami) you get mod points for sounding like an insightful 400 year old Jedi Knight here on /."
Up fuck the shut!
(Nothing personal, I've just always wanted to say that without getting modded down.)
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
Okay, I went to that Origami Project website, and it loaded a Flash animation that floated the words 'Touch me' on a mod blue background. I immediately clicked back.
Does this technology need to gain fame through sexual undertones?
On vit, on code et puis on meurt.
If he ever was 900 years old, then at one time he must have been 400 years old. Just as he was 176 years old.
From the Article:
* digital camera
* video camcorder
* smartphone
* MP3 player
* PDA
* Internet access and Internet picture frame
* email access
* video conferencing
Ok, so it's the same thing that was already becoming absolete in Tokyo two years ago... Except heavier and with no built-in tivo.
"Your superior intellect is no match for our puny weapons!"
Microsoft is betting on and hoping blackberry will be gone on purpose so they can have their own blackberry killer.
It will be a windowsCE device (err windows powered) that will play media files (itunes killer) sync with media player store (with vista) and may or may not include cell phone capabilities. My guess is all the pocket word and excel software for their pda's will be included as well.
Microsoft just may have made the ultimate ipod killer, phone, and blackberry.
The touch me button and zooming gave a hint too of a portable device and the fact the site advertised that it can go anywhere.
Media player already monopolizes the market due to the fact that it comes with windows. I think Apple should be scared once Vista comes into play. I think this is why MS waited for this long. They wanted ot make sure only they could sell software, music, and video's for this phone with drm
http://saveie6.com/
I already do all the proposed functionality with my treo 650.
Do you really need video conferencing on a cell phone? I don't use video conferencing on my desktop...
I hate moving points. That is where my cell always dies. Treo= no moving points.
Bad idea.
Good idea: wireless mp3+mic headphones for my treo. bluetooth stinks.
It's a paper-folding device installed in your wallet to ease the nano matter-energy transportation of your cash to Bill.
Unfortunately the prototype had a general protection fault which caused someone's pants to be transported to the Gamma quadrant, 70,000 light years from home.
man, I need to slow down when reading /. headlines...
C|N>K
Yes and you'll need 1000 of them to make your friend in Alaska get better. But first you will need to roll them up with your Katamari first.
This is my sig. There are many like it but this one is mine.
I know the submission was astroturf, but I'm still interested to see what the heck this thing actually is.
Engadget is running an article with some possible information on the project. Looks somewhat interesting.
This past semester I interned with a motion graphics / live action production house DigitalKitchen (title sequences for Six Feet Under, Rescue Me, Nip / Tuck, Ghost Whisperer, etc). They've done a lot of "commercial" work for Microsoft, including one on the "Origami" project. You can watch the spot at Digital Kitchen's website. Navigation is a pain, but click on the logo >> Enter >> Work >> Brandtheatre and it's the top video. Enjoy.
Will be sheets of paperlike (but unwritable) material that does not bend until 2008.
'Once scientists, even the dim-witted social scientists, get muzzled, the Western Civilization is finished.' - oldhack
Must be like Olga Origami, Prime's long thought lost little niece. Special powers include a 3 megapixel camera, 3G telephony, and laser bluetooth.
It's simply amazing what kinds of markets Microsoft is interesting in these days:)
This article seems to indicate that my comment above really may have been a lot more "Insightful" than "Offtopic."
"Good things don't end with eum, they end with mania or teria." - H. Simpson
before someone installs Linux on it.