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Another Linux PDA to Challenge the Nokia 770
vhogemann writes "It seems that the number of Linux PDA devices just keeps growing, the German based phone maker Road just announced an Qtopia based Linux Cellphone/PDA. The original article gives more details: 'Opening the clamshell device reveals a QWERTY keyboard and a 640 x 240 display — closed, the unit presents a 102 x 65 monochrome phone screen. The HandyPC contains the usual array of PIM and messaging apps, along with a viewer to read Microsoft Office files. It will ship with PC synchronisation tools, media player software and a web browser. It can even be used as a voice recorder.'" Rather than Nokia's 770, to me Road's phone more closely resembles Nokia's 9XXX series.
Sure, its cool, and it runs Linux, but will it be manufactured in large enough quantities to make it economically realistic?
I doubt it.
If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.-TJ
This device has it all.. Linux, a real keyboard, half VGA resolution and WiFi.
Also, unlike the Nokia communicator series, it has a touch screen ( useful for VNC, among other things).
I haven't been this interested in a PDA since the Psion series 5. Cool!
This reminds me a lot of the nokia communicator, except its running what will hopefully be a much more hackable OS :) I've always been tempted be one of the newer communicators but EPOC seems a little limiting compared to linux, it was a great OS for running Psion PDAs where the main task was word processing/spreadsheets/games etc but when it comes to networking I always felt epoc fell down a little.
The only obvious limitation is that the screen resolution is quite low they could do with a few more pixels on the vertical axis. Imagine using VNC on a screen that size, you'll be constantly scrolling.
640x240 is not that small. 'High-resolution' CGA two-colour display was 640x200, and Windows up to 3.0 can run in that. For many years the standard PC resolution was 640x480, and if you choose your fonts carefully it's okay to halve the vertical resolution. The Archimedes had a pleasant and reasonably uncramped GUI in 640x256 (using an 8x8 font designed to work with rectangular pixels), and I think the Amiga and other 'home computers' designed to connect to television sets had a similar resolution.
I think this was in the days before excessive toolbars; the Arc also disposed of menubars and used the middle middle button to pop up a menu, which was a neat way to do things.
-- Ed Avis ed@membled.com
The photo reminds me of the best PDA I ever owned. It's been about four years since my Psion Revo (badged as a Diamond Mako) died. I bought a Windows-based PDA following the sad event, but less than two years after that, I stopped using it. I don't use a PDA today. Why doesn't anyone make a good clamshell anymore? Why doesn't anyone make a good mobile OS anymore? The Revo's UI was a study in pure usability, not trying too vainly to be simple (PalmOS) or trying too hard to mimic inappropriate desktop conventions (Windows Mobile). The 'HandyPC' looks promising--but design-wise, it still looks to me like a predecessor to the Revo.
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