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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.
With the current growth and popularity of Linux on the handheld, the OS is rapidly approaching ubiquity. This trend will accelerate with the much awaited release of the Linux version of Palm OS.
Information wants a fueled airplane waiting at the hangar and no one gets hurt.
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
I've played with all of the data carriers and EDGE is just not what it was cracked up to be. Verizon may suck for voice quality, but their EVDO is tops. I'm able to listen to 160kbit streams all day long no matter where I go in Chicagoland on my XV6700.
A QWERTZ kezboard...
Looks rather decent, all the way around. None of the bizarre smaller-than-chicklet buttons in funky curved arrays that mar similar devices. It even has a standard touch-tone pad for phone functions (something many regular cell phones even lack).
Where were you when the voynix came?
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!
Have they learned that screen real estate is vital on these small displays yet? I can't tell much from the screenshot. The bar along the bottom suggests they haven't. The Linux/qtopia Zaurus I had was absolutely dreadful for wasting the screen. Menus, buttons, status lines, large scrollbars all over the place. Damned near unusable...looks at supplier web site... Nope they haven't fixed it, they're still taking the windows desktop metaphor and trying to squeeze it onto a tiny screen. Well maybe they've improved the keyboard shortcuts.
The Epoc based Nokia Communicator though does make good use of screen space. It should it came from a company who understood how to make a usable PDA.
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The German version of QWERTY.
Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | my blog
You cannot wash away blood with blood
Its German... look at the pics.
Religion and politics, without the flame. godgab.org
Believe it or not, there are keyboard layouts that are designed to be better suited to languages other than English. QWERTZ is the German version, the French use a layout called AZERTY, etc. "The more you know" ... *shooting star*
This is the form-factor I've looked forward to most in the phone/PDA market. Easy enough to handle as a phone, and a screen that's wide enough to actually fit 80 characters on. I have some issues with the computer UI, but hopefully someone makes better use of the screen space. I don't need to waste one line of text to show me what else I'm running when I only get half a screen in the first place (I'd prefer a hidden menu-type listing). If I could pick my next cell phone, this is the form factor, if not the actual phone, that I would go for. Sadly, my work supplies Blackberries with their small screen, wide form-factor, and sub-chiclet buttons.
:)
P.S. Of course, it's also the form-factor that Val Kilmer used in The Saint.
Sure I'm paranoid, but am I paranoid enough?
init 11 - for when you need that edge.
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.
It's a cool phone if it existed, which is what I thought in March of 2005, but the phone never appeared, so still hearing about it today makes me warry.
Check out the way back machine for february 2005 vs today's page
You'll notice subtle changes, but for something that was announced at least 18 months ago and that still doesn't exist, my patience has eroded somewhat.
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.
Your mind is clear / The things that you fear / Will fade with how much you / Believe what you hear
Psion recognised that PDAs on their own would be overtaken by PDAs with a phone and connectivity built in. They made a deal with the number 1 phone company, Nokia. The Nokia Communicators are the result of that. They are Psions with phones added on.
I have a Nokia 9210 and yup, it's an updated Series 5 with colour screen, email, web etc etc etc. ok so it's a brick, but it's a brick that's served me well for years, a brick which will bring my life crashing to a halt when it breaks down. My next phone will be either a Nokia 9500 or a Nokia 9300 as replacement, slightly less brick like but still the Psion tech built in and a fabulous PDA OS and UI.
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