Slashdot Mirror
FreePad: A Linux Handheld Wireless Computer
terrified writes "A Norwegian company called Screen Media is advertising a new product, called the Freepad, on their website. Apparently it is a Linux-based portable device with wireless technology, letting you roam about 300m from its "base station." This thing looks quite promising, but unfortunately there's next to nothing in the way of information on their website. " Its a tablet style machine does look pretty excellent, but its tough to make out much more.
I remember about a year back seeing a product which I will describe...
It was a pad. Wireless, rechargeable. All it did was trap your mouse, keyboard and monitor, then sent them wirelessly to the pad. And back when you input anything. It allowed you to take your pc anywhere within a reasonable distance from the base transciever.
Does anyone know where I can find a beast of this kind? Or was I hitting the crack pipe a little hard that week?
-Steve
My intelligence insults itself.
I really think there are uses for this type of thing. True hospitals may have problems with them, but some manufacturing lines could use it. Just-In-Time manuf especially. Letting orders come down better. Of course they were bilking this thing for home use so I'm not sure how tough it would be if it could stand a manufacturing line.
For a much further discussion about it check out the last time it was posted (Sep 7).
-cpd
Yes it does sounds like an excellent thing to use in any enviroment. I still have a few slight worries tho. First of all as you mentioned using it in a hospital setting, I'm worried how much disturbance a transmitter of this kind will have on the often very sensitive medical eletronic equipment.
The second concern is equal, it's also a technical one. All those transmitters would need to have a unique modulation frequency, otherwise what I do on my term might affect your terminal. So then you'd either need to have a transmitter with tweakable frequency, or each computer has a receiver with which only one transmitter goes. In the first case you'll have jokers, scanning to find someone elses frequency, in the latter case you'll have to have an administration of what you allready have in a certain room, in case you want to add more of the same machines.
It's a great technology, and I certainly see it's uses, but there's still the last worry, that we're getting more and more wireless technology, and the air is getting more and more polluted by electro-magnetic fields (low energetic radiation).
Beware of Wight Supremacists!
There have been several of these kinds of devices, but the Zenith CruisePad achieved a fair degree of success , especially for providing mobility in hospital and healthcare environments. (I used to do healthcare IT consulting.)
The initial CruisePads weren't really computers in their own right with wireless LANs, but rather Windows Terminals that used a wireless link to remotely control another PC. This made them quite expensive, so they never became very popular outside the places where mobility has a high value.
I think the company continued on for a while after Zenith was gored by Bull, but other than a non-responsive link at cruisetech.com, and some fossils at ZDS, there doesn't seem to be much left of them.
"The future's good and the present is nothing to sneeze at." - Roblimo's last
I did a search on some Norwegian websistes, and according to digi.no (a leading norwegian web-based newspaper), the price will be somewhere around 5000 NOK (approximatly 625 USD). It will have 16MB RAM, and a touch-screen with a resolution of 800 x 600 pixels (beware of smudgy fingers!).
Also, it will have a DECT-based basestation (connected to a phoneline [regular, ISDN, ADSL, whatever]), and it will be possible to share this basestation with a total of eight FreePads. The DECT-DMAP protocol will enable speeds up to 500 Kbit/second, something that will be quadrupled over time (the article does not say how/when).
According to the article, the people behind the idea, are former employees at Alcatel (french-owned multi-national telecoms corporation) and Telenor (largest norwegian telecommunications company).
reference: article at digi.no (in norwegian)
The software team is busy working on the software. A well known Linux company is doing the DECT drivers, and Opera is porting their web browser to Nano-X for us (screenshots should be available shortly).
As for the prototype pictures: The one on the main page is computer generated, but the others are pictures of the real-life prototype.
Regards, Vidar Hokstad VP of R&D, Screen Media AS
Btw., I gues I qualify as "the friendly developer" :-)
On another note: One change from last time is that we'll be using USB for the optional external keyboard, and that it will be possible to use other USB units as well. And the new design for the plastic is a lot cooler :-)
Regards, Vidar Hokstad
Vidar Hokstad
I am considering buying a palmtop computer, mostly for browsing the web, and maybe, if possible, email and instant messaging.
Anti-Microsoft ideals put aside, the WinCE machines look pretty attractive. I've read some info on the wince version of IE, and it seems like a pretty nice browser. Can anyone tell me how Palm compares to this?
I know that ICQ is available for Palm, is it available for wince? I know that AOL just released a beta of AIM for wince. What about Palm?
What about wireless modems? How do they work with Palm? Wince? (are they even supported?) How much can I expect to pay for wireless net access for these machines?
The one featured in this story runs Linux, but I have seen comments that say it doesn't run X, which means I can't use it for web browsing (unless I use Lynx, which I'm not ready to do). Also, I have seen nothing about wireless modems...
Is there anything else I should know that I haven't mentioned here?
--
Vidar, thanks for patiently responding to all questions on your product. Can you tell us what the projected price point is? I know LCD prices sometimes fluctuate, but a ballpark figure would be useful. And second, off-topic question: Does anyone know if GSM has been approved for hospital use?
Zigbee Central: A Zigbee weblog