Meet "Ophelia," Dell's Plan To Reinvent Itself

redletterdave writes "Dell is reportedly working on a project codenamed 'Ophelia,' a USB stick-sized self-contained computer that provides access to virtually every major operating system — from the Mac OS, to Windows, to Google's Chrome OS, to cloud-based solutions from Citrix and Dell — all via the cloud. Powered by Android, Ophelia works just like a USB stick: Just plug it into any flat panel monitor or TV, and boom, you have a computer. Ophelia connects to the Internet via Wi-Fi, and can connect to keyboards and other peripherals over Bluetooth. Not only is the computer portable and power-efficient, but to make it truly accessible, Dell plans to sell the device for just $50."

Comments

well, this article's lost it

[ThorGod]

PCs are cumbersome, heavy and slow. Ophelia provides a computer experience as typical and fast as any other computer -- again, everything depends on the Internet connection -- but at a fraction of the weight. PCs can’t fit in your pocket; Ophelia can. Heck, you could probably stick anywhere between two to five of those computers into a normal pants pocket.

1.) Talk about hyperbole, batman.
2.) I imagine the lag will be horrendous.
3.) Over wireless?

Re:well, this article's lost it

[hawguy]

PCs are cumbersome, heavy and slow. Ophelia provides a computer experience as typical and fast as any other computer -- again, everything depends on the Internet connection -- but at a fraction of the weight. PCs can’t fit in your pocket; Ophelia can. Heck, you could probably stick anywhere between two to five of those computers into a normal pants pocket.

1.) Talk about hyperbole, batman.
2.) I imagine the lag will be horrendous.
3.) Over wireless?

I regularly VPN over my home Wifi connection to work and run Windows remotely via rdp and it works quite well. Not quite as snappy as a long machine, but works well enough that I don't bother to bring my Windows laptop home to do work, I just remote into the terminal server at work.

It's a lot less seamless over a celluar Mifi device, but still usable.

I don't see why this device wouldn't be usable.

The "Cloud"

[TheGoodNamesWereGone]

I can't be the only one who's creeped out about this. All my data in "the cloud"... I know, I know, it's been going on for years, but me, I like my data on my own machine away from anyone else. The is just more devolution of the power of the individual & transferring it to others, who may not necessarily have the individual's best interests in mind. Keep your little machine Dell.

Re:The "Cloud"

[hawguy]

I can't be the only one who's creeped out about this. All my data in "the cloud"... I know, I know, it's been going on for years, but me, I like my data on my own machine away from anyone else. The is just more devolution of the power of the individual & transferring it to others, who may not necessarily have the individual's best interests in mind. Keep your little machine Dell.

You may not be the only one who's afraid of the cloud, but for most people, their data is safer in the "cloud" than it is at home on their old PC that has no backups. It could even be safer against hack attacks if the provider keeps applications patched so no one is still running a buggy unpatched MSIE 6 on WinXP.

Re:The "Cloud"

[Osgeld]

even better, when they screw up and delete something they did not mean to, and go looking for it later, they have someone to blame

Re:Been Done

[Cryacin]

Yeah, even if this is useful as just a web browser, this is going to be a market changer.

Re:Been Done

[hjf]

https://dx.com/p/android-4-0-mini-pc-google-tv-player-w-wifi-allwinner-a10-cortex-a8-tf-hdmi-white-4gb-137012

You were saying, anon?

Mac OS my a$$

[Radical Moderate]

I'm willing to bet very, very many internets that Apple hasn't authorized any Mac OS running from this device.
Not.
Gonna.
Happen.

Re:Mac OS my a$$

[bill_mcgonigle]

Remember, MacOS is on the slow-kill list. It's been slowly merging with iOS and Apple doesn't want to develop two OS's. If 'Mac' still exists in 10 years, it might be the iPhone having a 'Mac Mode' where to goes full-screen to a wirelessly-connected K/V/M. But for 'pros' who need more CPU, rather than building it into the phone (where it will eat power and transistor budget) they might offer the option to buy compute power from the cloud (with Apple taking 30% of whatever anybody makes on it).

In fact, if a $50 Dell dongle has the CPU power to do a 'Mac Mode', we could even see this launching in June on the next iPhone from Apple. Sure, they make a good profit on every hardware Mac they sell, but if they can make the same profit by renting the hardware time and expand their userbase to every iPhone user (with seamless data sync, naturally) then they'll go for the better revenue stream. That will make the phase-out of the Mac that much easier.

Apple dropped "computer" from its name in 2007, when the iPhone was just starting its upward trajectory and the iPod was on fire. A lot changed that year, as the company changed its primary focus to mobile and outlined a long-term plan to leave the desktop market.

Re:Mac OS my a$$

[Princeofcups]

I'm willing to bet very, very many internets that Apple hasn't authorized any Mac OS running from this device.

Not.
Gonna.
Happen.

Don't
Understand.
Device.

It's just a linux boot running VNC client. The actual workstations are back in a datacenter somewhere, and they will be actual Apple certified Macs, running VNC server. I'm really amazed that no one has done this sooner. The one thing you can't do is really graphics intensive games, like shooters.

Odd choice of name....

[Eightbitgnosis]

The first thing I think of when I hear the name is going insane and dieing in a river

Re:Odd choice of name....

[Ukab the Great]

Naming a product that's supposed to save your business after one of literature's most prominent suicides probably seemed like a good idea at the time.

Dell invented the diskless workstation?

[Lawrence_Bird]

It really is amazing how the IT industry continues to re-invent what was done decades ago.

Re:Dell invented the diskless workstation?

[mattdm]

Actually, this apparently comes from Dell's acquisition of Wyse. That is, these guys: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/72/WyseTerminal100.jpg/220px-WyseTerminal100.jpg -- the people who *did* do this decades ago. So, I guess, fair enough.

The cellular data bill

[tepples]

It's a lot less seamless over a celluar Mifi device, but still usable.

I don't see why this device wouldn't be usable.

I'm under the impression that the the cellular data bill (assuming the U.S. market, where Dell and Dice are headquartered) would make it cost prohibitive.

Re:Licensing & Latency

[hawguy]

The two biggest roadblocks to Ophelia - besides most LCD's not supporting this type of USB connection - is licensing these multiple OS's on the cloud and the inherent latencies that are going to hound such a small CPU while it tries to handle graphics, WiFi & Bluetooth network stacks and the throughput of data. $50 is a wonderful price for the hardware. What will the services end of this product cost?

Amazon will rent you an entire virtual Win Server 2008 server for around 12 cents/hour - presumably desktop pricing would be lower, but if a typical home user uses their desktop for 4 hours/day, that's around $15/month at 12 cents/hour.

An Even Better Idea

[mtrachtenberg]

Dell's R&D must be working overtime to come up with a clever new idea like that.

Here's another "someday" idea they can pursue: put a 5" crt, two floppy drives, and a Z80 in a suitcase. Call it a "portable" computer!!

Re:Been Done

[nihaopaul]

I've got the next one up. Mygica a11 I like it a lot. Very fast. I put plex for android on it. 3 USB ports. HDMI port. No sperate audio jack but that's OK. Was half the cost of the apple TV and also has airplay on it.

USB, not.

[msauve]

The summary implies this somehow connects to a USB port on a monitor. I was curious how it would then do video. Answer - it doesn't use USB. It's actually made to connect to an MHL port, which isn't nearly as widespread as either HDMI or USB. MHL doesn't use a specific connector - although it's quite common for it to be provided as an alternative to USB over a micro-USB connector (some smartphones do this). But, it's one or the other - you can't do both at once over a USB connector. MHL ports provide power, where HDMI ones don't (well, 5V@50mA, which ain't much) - which is the reason they're doing it that way. (there are also some proprietary connectors with more pins which will accept a USB plug, or a proprietary plug which allows simultaneous USB and MHL)

Re:VNC

[scdeimos]

First Apple doesn't own the VNC technology, so they can't legally enforce that.

Second, although OSX's "remote desktop" software listens on VNC's tcp/5900 for incoming connections, for remote OSX clients it uses Apple's custom Type 35 Diffie-Hellman authentication/private key exchange and then switches to an AES128-encrypted link to run Apple's own RDP protocol. i.e.: it's not even VNC protocol.

Re:Been Done

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

If(and it isn't a small if, you run screaming from Dell software for a reason) Dell can get the software working properly, I'll give them that.

As you note, assorted Android-powered 'stick PC' products(the mk802 is sort of the 'kleenex' of the category; but the array of model numbers and knock-offs is frankly rather dizzying) are done to hell and back by now, and cheap too.

The quality of their firmware, however, might charitably be described as 'downmarket'. I'd assume that Dell will manage to clean things up a bit; but it would fail to surprise me if(once you've glommed on some CALs and VM rentals and assorted bullshit-as-a-service stuff, you'll be right back up to where corporate thin clients have always cost, only a bit smaller this time).

Re:Been Done

[pepty]

I'm guessing $50 gets you the terminal but there will be a monthly charge for the OS and applications cloud.

I hope they shorten the name for commercials...

[RedHackTea]

"Dude, I'm getting Oph!"

Re:Licensing & Latency

[scdeimos]

Oops, I got suckered, it's not HDMI. It's MHL (Mobile High-Definition Link).

Re:Been Done

[ozmanjusri]

even if this is useful as just a web browser, this is going to be a market changer.

They've been on the market for a while. I have half a dozen of them, given others to family and friends as Skype terminals.

http://www.aliexpress.com/wholesale?SearchText=android+usb+pc&catId=0&manual=y

A lot of SMEs in parts of Asia have started using them as basic office PCs as well. I'd say Dell is trying to get on this wave before it peaks.

Re:Been Done

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, even if this is useful as just a web browser, this is going to be a market changer.

So why name it after a crazy chick who's husband and boyfriend were such arseholes they drove her mad till she threw herself into the river?

What's their next project codename? Syphilis?

Re:Been Done

[LynnwoodRooster]

Everyone's heard of Dell. Only geeks MAY have heard of Raspberry or Sheeva. You don't have to be the first to a market to dominate or change a market - just the one who markets the best.

Re:Been Done

[93 Escort Wagon]

Everyone's heard of Dell.

Except, for the past seven or eight years, whenever they've heard "Dell" it's been preceded by "piece of sh*t".

Re:Been Done

[hsa]

You really think Dell will let you use that as a Web Browser? Think again.

It is going to be a dumb terminal that connects to Dell Services. These services will likely have a monthly/usage based fee.

There is no business sense in giving you hardware with low profit margins for your personal use.

Re:Been Done

[itsthebin]

What's their next project codename? Syphilis?

sounds catchy

Works like a USB port? Wuht?

[wonkey_monkey]

Ophelia works just like a USB port

Err, does it? A USB port is a slot for plugging USB devices into. This is a teeny tiny computer that you plug into a display.

Re:Or qemu and a garage sale tower

[GNUALMAFUERTE]

You are right, no sane enterprise will use cheap hardware and free software to run such a service. Imagine if google used nothing but cheap x86 hardware and free software to run their operation, instead of the huge IBM mainframes they have now.