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Handhelds Intel Hardware

Intel's 'Personal Server': The Handheld Killer? 332

Posted by michael from the have-your-device-call-my-device-and-we'll-do-lunch dept.
markbaard writes "Intel is developing a wireless, pocket-sized personal server that may replace laptops and PDAs altogether. The 'personal server,' which is being developed at Intel Research by ubiquitous computing wizard Roy Want, is the size of a deck of cards, half the weight of an iPaq, and has no i/o, no screen, and no peripherals. The device never leaves its user's pocket or handbag. Pictures of the personal server and the story are at baard.com."
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Intel's 'Personal Server': The Handheld Killer? More

Intel's 'Personal Server': The Handheld Killer?

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  • Permalink to the Article (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 04, 2003 @06:54PM (#5877292)

    Permalink here: http://www.baard.com/archives/2003_05.html#000071 [baard.com]

  • I've got one of these already (Score:5, Funny)

    by WIAKywbfatw ( 307557 ) on Sunday May 04, 2003 @06:54PM (#5877297) Journal
    It's tightly integrated, I carry it around with me all the time, I never lose it and it's never crashed yet. It doesn't cost a thing and it comes as standard.

    It's called a "brain".
  • Next step: Implantation.

  • Ok that was bad, but how secure are these things? I mean I dont want anyone to be able to use a sniffer to find my MP3's and porn.....errr I mean my school work and documents :P

  • Old News (Score:5, Informative)

    by mclove ( 266201 ) on Sunday May 04, 2003 @06:56PM (#5877309)
    This already exists, more or less, in the form of the Toshiba HopBit [toshiba.co.jp]. And I think that Toshiba's smarter than Intel in positioning their personal server as an accessory for PDA's rather than as a replacement for them. A box with no screen doesn't have very much sex appeal, and people like to be able to access information on the go, so people will probably buy these things mostly to serve as video storage for their Tungsten T's and iPaqs.

  • Hmmm... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by fireman sam ( 662213 ) on Sunday May 04, 2003 @06:57PM (#5877325) Homepage Journal
    Can someone explain how a "wireless harddrive" that you need a computer to access will replace PDAs? I mean, you can't sit on the train and organize your day with it?
    • Correct, the "handheld killer" bit is just so much rubbish. Makes me doubt the content of the rest of the site.

    • Re:Hmmm... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Elwood P Dowd ( 16933 ) <judgmentalist@gmail.com> on Sunday May 04, 2003 @08:06PM (#5877709) Journal
      Everyone is missing the point. You keep your wireless harddrive in your backpack/pocket/purse/briefcase/whatever. Now your handheld has access to 80GB storage at all times, at no size/weight/cost. Your phone, handheld, and computer can all use the same harddrive, so they could all use the same data.

      You're right, it's not a handheld killer. It will make killer handhelds.

      • Re:Hmmm... (Score:3, Insightful)

        by durand ( 670353 )

        Everyone is missing the point. You keep your .......

        What is the point? Price Point

        The most expensive, in terms of dollars and space, parts, outside of the CPU, on PDAs are the physical I/O ports and devices. Take them away and this gadget costs you and I less than US$100.- retail.

        Of course, just cause the ports and touchscreen are not added on today does not mean that the internals do not support them. :)

  • Not a "handheld killer" (Score:5, Informative)

    by larryleung ( 664571 ) on Sunday May 04, 2003 @06:58PM (#5877326)
    This is typical /. misreading of the article. It's designed as a server... something that provides background services to the user.

    Now combined with various IO devices it may match the functionality of a handheld. Here is the ubicomp 2002 paper about it. [speakeasy.org]

    • Re:Not a "handheld killer" (Score:5, Informative)

      by platypus ( 18156 ) on Sunday May 04, 2003 @07:24PM (#5877485) Homepage
      Take a step back and look closely at the submitters name and the reference website's name.

      I doubt he would misread his own article.

      • Despite that this probably adds nothing to the topic, the parent to this is the best thing I've read in quite some time. Definitely a great point as to how people on Slashdot will follow a group mentality, even if that wasn't what you meant to point out. Still laughing...

  • Intel is too late... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 04, 2003 @06:59PM (#5877334)
    Intel is too late. People have been serving themselves with their hands in their pockets for AGES!

  • Probably won't replace handhelds... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by juhaz ( 110830 ) on Sunday May 04, 2003 @06:59PM (#5877337) Homepage
    I see this more like addition, or update (if it's done right, if it's NOT done right I see it as paperweight), than replacement.

    Sure, it would come handy to automatically have your portable computing device wirelessly "hijack" vastly superior input and output capabilities of bigger computer whenever you're in position to use one, but I'm not convinced web server is good enough for GUI of such device.

    And it would be neat for it to still have screen and input device of its own (they would be turned off for power saving most of the time), for use where there just are no desktop systems for borrowing, in such situation, this system is 100% useless.

  • is replace a misnomer? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by whiteranger99x ( 235024 ) on Sunday May 04, 2003 @07:01PM (#5877346) Journal
    Intel is developing wireless, pocket-sized personal server that may replace laptops and PDAs altogether.

    The personal server mounts on any PC that can recognize wireless devices: "Any computer becomes your computer," said Want.

    Ok, I'm a little confused, are they saying that this will replace laptops and PDAs altogether or are they saying that this is merely a more flexible means of storage that can be accessed from other PCs or PDAs?
    • They're saying both. Of course, one of them can't be right. This is not a replacement for laptops and PDAs.

      How can I use a personal server on the train or the bus, or sitting in a park, or lying in bed, or at a meeting, or in a cafe, or...
      • > How can I use a personal server on the train or the bus...

        Same way as anywhere else: with whatever interface device is at hand. Likely a PDA-shaped thing on the bus, or maybe a lap-top-shaped thing. It depends on how you use the interface and how much you want to carry, I guess. Maybe you'll even borrow a device from the guy next to you.
        • Yes that's right, the bus company is going to install PDA's so I can use them with my personal server, and they're not going to get vandalised, and they'll always work.

          And the guy next to me won't be busy using his, oh no.

          And the park, you missed that. I take it trees will come with compatible interfaces.
      • I think they mean that it could curently replace certain functionality of laptops and PDAs. For example those people who basically use a laptop or PDA primarily to transport data back and forth between their home and office desktops. Also, that further in the future, if terminals for this baby become ubiquitous, that many people would choose to just carry around their data on this device and then use the built-in terminals on the train/bus/plane/Starbucks etc. instead of lugging around their own screen an
    • They could be designing this to be some sort of a headless computer. Then, you use either a PDA sized, laptop sized, or desktop sized terminal to access its processing power and storage. This could be quite cool if done right.
    • I think with personal wireless storage, the basic concept of laptops and handheld devices might change.

      You have your personal server, and then you buy a storage-less computing device to go with it, or something like that. That's the direction I think the article writer was going with this.

  • Wardriving in the subway! (Score:5, Interesting)

    by exhilaration ( 587191 ) on Sunday May 04, 2003 @07:01PM (#5877347)
    Let's see how long it takes our enterprising youngsters to crack the security on these things! If they become ubiquitous, then the average user will use them to transport data of great value; after all, what better place for ALL your e-mail, and ALL your documents that in your pocket? Imagine being able to break into one of those things from a laptop - or perhaps another unit reprogrammed to attach to all nearby units and grab anything available.

    Sounds like fun!!!!!

    • Even better, imagine if you could break into several of these things and then launch a series of DDoS attacks to nearby wireless devices and play hell with their communicationg >:)

      Let the fun begin :D ( Ack, I said too much :P )
    • My brother just suggested that biometric authentication - probably fingerprinting - would be a useful feature on these devices. It might also be a good way to introduce biometric technology to the general public.
    • Subway? Now you can sit in a sidewalk cafe slipping a latte while the data walks past -- none of that tedious driving around.

      As a security feature they should make a sound when being accessed on-the-go. The *SLOORP* as you walk past would be a give-away.

  • more info... (Score:5, Informative)

    by mz001b ( 122709 ) on Sunday May 04, 2003 @07:02PM (#5877357)
    since the link is horribly /.'d already, this has a lot of detailed info: Intel persional server PDF [speakeasy.org]

  • That's it? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Skyshadow ( 508 ) on Sunday May 04, 2003 @07:03PM (#5877361) Homepage
    Gotta admit being a little disappointed by this.

    For those of you who didn't RTFA: This is essentially a little hard drive which rides around in your backpack (note: I don't carry a backpack all the time; do you?) and can connect, wirelessly, to any machine you access which recognizes wireless devices. Basically, as far as I can tell, this has the same net effect as having a home directory on an NFS server someplace and using it to save your settings as you move from machine to machine.

    Again: Bo-ring.

    When I saw "personal server, no IO", I was hoping this would be a manifestation of the keystone portion of my idea for a personal wireless network Your devices would all notice one another, and the width of functionality of any given device would be dependant on what you were carrying. If you we out taking pictures with your digicam and were carrying a server, the images would be transfered to the (presumably very expansive) drive in the server. If you had your cell phone, the images would be sent off to your home computer, as well.

    Repeat en masse. PDAs display and do I/O, headphones play music and the real work is taken care of automagically behind the scenes in some secure fashion. You'd effectively allow the elimination of multi-use devices which don't do any job very well by allowing your devices to play their strong points, and you could customize your loadout just in what you grab in the morning when you're loading your pockets.

    Anyhow, this ain't it, and that's disappointing -- somebody must have hit my verbosity flag today...

    • Re:That's it? (Score:3, Informative)

      by Dylan Zimmerman ( 607218 )
      Look up some information on MIThril. It's a cool wearable computing platform that seems to me to be similar to what you are talking about. It has removable components that all network to one another over a rather interesting bus and add all sorts of fun functionality.
      • Yes, but MIThril is never going to be a commercial product. Unless you want to build it yourself, the progress MIThril is making is totally irrelevant to wether or not we'll be able to use them.

    • Re:That's it? (Score:3, Insightful)

      by PaddyM ( 45763 )
      How is this not what you said? Just think of it as a webserver. "If you we out taking pictures with your digicam and were carrying a server, the images would be transfered to the (presumably very expansive) drive in the server." The only thing missing is "you hit the new 'upload' button on your camera". Or am I somehow overestimating the generality of the term 'wireless hard drive'? Is this not a wireless hard drive?

  • Security (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Centerius ( 612257 ) on Sunday May 04, 2003 @07:05PM (#5877372)
    What's to stop someone from walking by with a laptop, and gaining access to all your data?

  • had one for years (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Build and INVENTED by Steve Mann at the University of Toronto.

    It is a companion to the wearable computer. Built on a dimm pc and used a laptop hard drive to far surpass this things sotrage capacity, and used 802.11 PCMCIA card for wireless access.

    Oh and it ran linux too so you aren't stuck with some crap that they dish out.

  • Security (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Ghetto_D ( 670850 ) on Sunday May 04, 2003 @07:08PM (#5877395)
    What kind of security features/ecryption would be implemented on this device? There have been enough flaws oncovered with WEP that this sounds like a bad idea to me. ANY computer with 802.11 access being able to connect to my portable hard drive? And how would I know since there isn't even a display?

  • Needs work ... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by jrl87 ( 669651 ) on Sunday May 04, 2003 @07:10PM (#5877407)
    Intel seems to have a good idea with this; however, I don't think it will cost effective to implement it. It will be like alternative fuel source cars - they will have to built a system to use it. Assuming they use WiFi to connect it to a computer so it "is your computer," that would mean that most computers could not connect to it without an purchase seems how a majority of the population don't even have their computers networked, much less wirelessly. Furthermore, it can't replace a PDA, atleast not yet, because you have to have a computer to use it; you can't use it while you are walking down the street. I think it would work great if they integrated some sort of display, even if it is crude, so you can use it like a PDA and still maintain the personal server aspect of it so it can be used to make any pc or laptop your own
  • I do like the idea of integrating it into a cell phone, since we always carry it. But yeah, this would be nice. Someone's mentioned the rumored BluePod, which would have bluetooth access. So, on a train, you could listen to other people's tunes, see what other people have.

    But what I really see the potential for is a repository. I posted about this before, just can't find it offhand. You have a digital camera. It needs storage. So you have to keep track of that. MP3s in an MP3 player, have to keep t

  • no I/O (Score:2, Funny)

    by DraconicFae ( 600508 )
    "Half the weight of an ipod, and it has no i/o" cool! Does it run on Write Only Memory too? :)

  • Next Big Thing? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by rufusdufus ( 450462 ) on Sunday May 04, 2003 @07:20PM (#5877463)
    Perhaps the editor's did take a little licence when they decribe this as a handheld killer. This particular device? Probably not.

    This particular paradigm? Hey maybe.

    PDAs and laptops suffer from the "kitchen sink" problem. In order to please a sufficently large number of people, all sorts of features have to be included, and in turn, compromises made. Some people want color, others want audio, some keyboards some need a touch pen. In order to compete buttons are placed in random places on pdas so they can work like a dictaphone. All sorts of weird things that I don't want just to please some niche.

    And adding all those features raises the cost of the device.

    This idea of modularizing components wirelessly might be a really great idea. With this paradigm, I don't have to fit the CPU and hardrive into an ergonomic shape suitable for pen input. Also, your hand is relieved of the extra weight of those components.
    So just like desktops, you might buy your "monitor" from a totally different manufacturer than the cpu. You like Sony's egonomics but compaq's performance? Why can't you have both?
    Also, with this model, you don't need all the extra proprietary gobblygook to interface to your desktop.

    Sounds like a good deal to me.
    • Ehh... I dunno. I think companies should do what's usually done in these situations; offer a varied product line of similar devices, each with different feature sets.

      You can't please "all of the people all of the time", of course - but trying to make one handheld do it all is a big mistake.

      Cellphone makers haven't quite learned this advice either, as a general rule. I think that's why you still see a lot of people using really outdated phones. They just want to talk on the thing and place calls easily.
      • >> You can't please "all of the people all of the time"

        The paradigm the parent talks about makes this problem mostly go away. By removing complexity and therefore cost from the interface device, it becomes easier to choose the one you like best. I'm with you as far as the phone thing goes; give me a simple friggin phone. If I want games I'll buy a Gameboy. If a phone is no more than a small bluetooth device with buttons and a tiny battery (since it only has to transmit a few feet), how much could

  • No I/O? (Score:5, Funny)

    by eGabriel ( 5707 ) on Sunday May 04, 2003 @07:21PM (#5877476)
    In what way exactly is wireless communication not I/O?

    I read "no i/o" and thought, well, bricks don't have i/o either... so what?

    • Re:No I/O? (Score:3, Funny)

      by NanoGator ( 522640 )
      "I read "no i/o" and thought, well, bricks don't have i/o either... so what?"

      Don't knock bricks man. You can deliver messages with bricks that 802.11b has a hard time penetrating.
  • No I/O?

    Sounds like a lump of wood to me.

    Wireless is I/O. :-)
    • "Your Majesty! this is the most advanced PDA ever envisioned! it can do everything! and it needs no no I/O, no batteries and it can hold all your data without ever needing to change batteries!"
      "Looks like a block of wood to me." said the grand Vizer
      "Well you see your majesty" continued the Intel Rep "only the most intelligent people can see the data it contains, because beams the data straight to their minds"
      "Well of course I knew that" the empereor quickly replied "I was just schedualing my apointments
  • Now if you had a PDA that could talk to this thing via bluetooth, we're almost there.

    You then remove all external IO from laptops and PDA's, except for the blue tooth to talk to the server. The server then handles all communication with outside networks, such as the Internet. Then you turn your cell phone into a client device as well. You bassically turn yourself into a walking wireless network, with the personal server acting as your router.

    Now, battery size becomes a non-issue for the interface devic

  • Intel's other plans incude (Score:3, Funny)

    by gilesjuk ( 604902 ) <<giles.jones> <at> <zen.co.uk>> on Sunday May 04, 2003 @07:29PM (#5877516)
    A watch with no display.

    A walkman with no headphones.

    A laptop with no keyboard or screen.

    A mobile phone with no screen, mic or earpiece.

    They're really going to corner the minialist arty gadget market :)

  • So... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Apreche ( 239272 ) on Sunday May 04, 2003 @07:30PM (#5877522) Homepage Journal
    Basically it's a hard drive and a processor in your pocket. It connects wirelessly to "normal" computers. So I can carry my mp3s, my videos, my schedule, and all that crap around with me in a little box. But if I want to get at it I have to connect to the little box from a "real" computer.

    You know what's better than that? Just set up a "real" computer at home. Then use VNC, ssh, a web server, sftp, or any of that type of stuff. Then, wa-la you have the same exact thing. Only now, you don't have to carry anything around with you. It just sits on your desk at home, where it always is.

    The problem isn't that you can't get to your stuff when you're out of the house. The problem is that you can't get to a computer. What I'd like to see is a super super thin super small laptop. Screen, keyboard, small processor, bit of ram, sound output of some kind, pointing device and network connectivity through wire or not. The device would pretty much be a vnc box. Turn it in, connect securely to your machine at home. Use your computer from anywhere on earth.

    There's a problem with this. If you are on a plane, suck. But vnc uses mad bandwith. So if you don't have broadband it should have a command line only mode, or at least a low bandwith mode, like lbx or something. So that you can make it work by plugging it into the bottom of your cell phone and raising the little antenna.

    We don't need the services. Those can be anywhere. The problem is lack of io. Give me just the io devices and a means to connect, and I'll have just one computer. I'm asking for something like viewsonic's wireless monitor, only 10 times better.
  • I actually think this is a good idea. You can keep your information on a sealed device you don't have to take out. I can see this being something that you carry in your back pocket. Then if you want a pda type device, carry a REALLY thin client. Screen and wireless only. If you want something more advanced get a sunglasses-type interface. Or maybe your cell phone, (or anyones), picks up to it, (if it's not incorporated into cell phones like the inventor invisions). Or just carry it and use it as the
  • > the size of a deck of cards, half the weight of an iPaq, and has no i/o, no screen, and no peripherals. The device never leaves its user's pocket or handbag

    Dumb like a rock and hard like a brick... Windows CE/ME/NT :)
  • first off... the tricorder device.... what exactly did it do.... anything like....

    Other potential applications for the personal server include sensor data retrieval for science and biomedical purposes, and presentation and other mobile computing applications for business users.

    this?

    How about those nifty "communicators" were they anything like cell phones?.... hmm... he never put them together!

    Want said in a recent interview that the uptake in wi-fi, the introduction of Bluetooth into mobile phones, an

    • Noble intentions, but could someone please explain how a device with no integral I/O exists stand-alone? Gotta be a mis-comm, a journalistic embellishment.

  • Too Small, Too Slow Net, what standards? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by billstewart ( 78916 ) on Sunday May 04, 2003 @07:37PM (#5877556) Journal
    The 1GB Microdrive is simply too small; an iPod drive is much closer to adequate. The reason I'd want to use one of these things instead of hauling around my clunky laptop is so I can carry my entire Microsoft Outlook work email system (needs about 2GB) plus my personal email (needs about 100MB :-) plus the files I've been working on in the last year (another ~1GB, much smaller if I'm constantly sorting down to the files I've used in the last week or month, which is way too time-consuming for a labor-saving device.) That way I could get by with a thin client at work (~$200 plus monitor) and my own PC at home.

    A 400MHz XScale is just fine for this kind of thing. But while Bluetooth is good for some applications, it isn't fast enough for many others; it's like an 0.5X CD-ROM speed, though it's certainly good enough to drive the headphone audio. 802.11 could be fine (though it tends to be a power hog, suggesting the need for an on-off switch...), though it's tempting to recommend a simple ethernet jack on the side instead, which has the advantage of working in places where people are correctly paranoid about which side of the firewall the wireless network belongs on. I tend to favor having an "ok to connect new object" button anyway, for security reasons...

    UPnP is one of them evil Microsoft things :-) Is it the right one? What about security - how do you implement that correctly for this kind of device?

  • More Information... (Score:3, Informative)

    by Doodhwala ( 13342 ) on Sunday May 04, 2003 @07:38PM (#5877562) Homepage

    Another interview of Roy Want about the personal server can be found on Intel's website here [intel.com]
  • This sounds like a fairly good idea to me, but isn't it basically just a portable HD with a battery that uses wireless connectivity...?

    Porta-server sounds really impressive, but basically, it sounds like a FireWire drive that's slower, but has the advantage of not requiring a big, clunky wire to use it. Lack of a big, clunky wire will probably jack up the price to some unreasonable level, though... in which case, why buy a wireless HD when I can just use my iPod...? There's also that additional issue w
  • Slashdot that thing hard enough and it may well vibrate.

  • "he device never leaves its user's pocket" (Score:3, Funny)

    by Daetrin ( 576516 ) on Sunday May 04, 2003 @07:47PM (#5877614)
    Where it spends it's time spewing EM waves into the user's crotch :)

  • Nice idea, but what about this... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by pr0ntab ( 632466 ) <pr0ntab AT gmail DOT com> on Sunday May 04, 2003 @07:47PM (#5877615) Journal
    Looks like a pen. Writes like a pen.

    But it's not a pen. It contains 256 MB (or so) of flash, which is shared via bluetooth. A 10cm high gain antenna is hidden within the length of the pen itself, and powered by a single AAA battery. Walk by an enabled PC, optionally type in a password, and all your documents, your keyring, etc. are available.
    Finally, as an added bonus, when you write on paper (or anything for that matter), you can choose to record your scribbles on the flash drive. Tiny gyroscopic sensors determine the motion of the pen across the page, and a pressure sensor determines whether the pen is against a writing surface. Each time you expose the ball point head it creates a new file, and when you retract it, it closes it. You can tell which file is which by the timestamps.

    THAT would kick ass. And as embedded logic gets more powerful, you could have a personal web/email/jabber server running in there too.
    A wireless iPod sounds nifty, but where's the innovation people?
    • It's already starting to exist but requires special paper (it reads dots on the paper instead of using gyros) and a dock (no bluetooth). Read all about it [logitech.com] at Logitech's site or buy one at ThinkGeek [thinkgeek.com].

      In other news, I've seen those 256 MB USB keyring drives on sale for $90-100 for the last two weeks. Probably even cheaper if you look around at pricewatch or whatever power-shopper site you like.
  • I think they were even faster than Intel. Here [pcworld.com] is this:

    "The first technology--a prototype developed by IBM Research--is the Meta Pad, a 3-by-5-inch, 9-ounce device that an IBM official hailed as the "ultimate personal server." The Meta Pad contains an 800-MHz chip, a 10GB hard drive, a 3D graphics chip, and 128MB of memory; it is capable of running Windows XP.

    The device, which supports Bluetooth, is designed to help give users access to all their data whether they are connected to their desktops or lap

  • Hmm, except it doesn't play MP3s. Or Breakout. Or Solitaire. Or let you view notes. Or your contacts. Or your calendar. Or recharge while it's tranfserring data.

    So... did I miss anything in it's functionality other than the differences I already listed?

  • Sounds like Roaming Profiles meet "next big thing" (Score:4, Interesting)

    by default luser ( 529332 ) on Sunday May 04, 2003 @07:58PM (#5877671) Journal
    Except you set it up once and can use it anywhere.

    ANYWHERE.

    Desktop, mobile, PDA, Cell phone, you name it. You're customized and ready to go, your OS and programs follow you ( The simpler ones run on the Xscale processor, the wireless link is just for shared data and I0 / screen updates, the more complex platforms get streamed boot data then program data, like your desktop )

    We've been bitching at Intel for years for not making things portable enough, instead concentrating on bigger, hotter power hungry desktop chips.

    Now Intel looks to be making a move to make everyone's standard data server run on a capable but not overkill Xscale.

    Sure, there are some specialized things it can't process. Want to play a game? Mosey over to the desktop, your Xscale will stream the game files over in a few seconds, and while you play, fully configured with your key. Want to crunch a new movie into Divx or your favorite video codec? Your desktop will encode it and download it to the server in real time. Your desktop probably won't even have a hard disk, everything including the OS should be streamed from your handheld server.

    * The key point here is this can be used as a seamless virtual session device ( ala Citrix ) plus fileserver plus desktop companion. Remote GUI sessions have always had problems catching on because the software is expensive and they require solid bandwidth. This has neither problem, and does more, so it's not dedicated hardware you're plunking down for. The battery life could be better, true, but for first generation >4 hours is impressive.

  • PDA: laptop killer remember? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by mnmn ( 145599 ) on Sunday May 04, 2003 @08:04PM (#5877702) Homepage
    Think of the webpad my microsoft thats supposed to kill laptops....

    Now think about it. People need a computer they can carry and use. It better have a monitor, drives, keyboard.. and you got a laptop. Can a PDA replace it? No too small a screen and keyboard. Increase the screen and keyboard size and youve got a picturebook. Similar to a laptop but that harddisk needs an upgrade..

    So a webpad is something more expensive. People dont need it. Some might buy it. Just like the some who buy PDAs and use it for maybe 2 minutes each day for nothing really important, except maybe games, for which the laptops still the best tool.

    So we will continue to see things that their makers will claim will kill the laptop and picturebook and pda and webpad and intel thingy.
  • I have a desk at home and at work with a comptuer at each one. If I use a laptop, it'd be away from my desk. For those times I dont' want to be behind my desk or just be somewhere else.

    Now puzzle me this. Cowboys. If it has no screen, and I'm on my couch, or in a meeting with no screen/keyboard... how do I use the thing?

    This thing feels more like a firewire, portable HD, without the wire and it serves itself up. Neat trick, has a nich, but not the same as a laptop or PDA.
  • This is an extremely good idea, but it needs to leverage device integration.

    The "personal server" would, essentially, allow you to take all of your personal data with you wherever you went... no matter what computer you sat down in front of, you would have access to your files and even the applications needed to access and edit them. Imagine an iPod with 802.11 and Appleshare (or NFS or Samba).

    The downside is that away from a computer, you would have no way to access or modify those files. So you'd need a

  • So, let me see if I get this straight. This little gadget is going to interact with whatever computer happens to be around it, providing that computer is set up for this. Well, what exactly will that "set up" entail?

    I see this little device as necessarily incorporating Palladium (or whatever the hell they're calling it these days). How else can these computers play with strangers?

    When Microsoft, Intel, et al, roll out their trusted computing initiative, they're going to have to get us all to buy into

  • The main significance (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Lord_Dweomer ( 648696 ) on Sunday May 04, 2003 @08:17PM (#5877763) Homepage
    The main significance that I see with a system such as this, where its use is merely to store data to be read/modified by other devices is that since now we can store this part of the computer, imagine how much power you could suddenly cram into a "handheld" device. Now I think we will see a small breakaway from that concept and into another concept which I feel will bridge the gap between handheld users and wearable users. Slowly we are seeing the modular wearable computer form. If all you need to hold in your hand is a screen/speakers/input device, suddenly you are working with significantly more space to play with if you remove the processor and HD and memory to a wireless unit stored in lets say.....a backpack.....or a purse....or a briefcase........or a jacket pocket. We can't always just move to smaller devices, sometimes we need to split them up, and then individually shrink the components, and this is a good step towards doing just that.

  • PDA KILLER ?? I think not (Score:3, Funny)

    by Crashmarik ( 635988 ) on Sunday May 04, 2003 @09:50PM (#5878188)


    The primary purpose of PDA'S for most people that have them is showing they have PDA'S and their companies thought enough of them to get them one.

    The personal server defeats the purpose by being invisible. You can't go around saying look at me i'm cool I have this when its meant to be carried in a place where you can't see it, and it has no display to show itself off.

    This is not to say all PDA'S and laptops are used by yutzes who are techno IDIOTS and have a need to show off how current they are, just alot of them. I have seen PDA's put to great uses (programming routers with terminal software, keeping contacts in sync as part of a cell phone, data repositories and really nifty calculators).

    Most of the time though, what people say they are used for is better handled by paper.

  • Do you trust every place you plug in? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by CaptainSuperBoy ( 17170 ) on Sunday May 04, 2003 @10:10PM (#5878252) Homepage Journal
    If I were using this to replace my laptop I'd want to connect to it through terminals at my clients' sites as well as public terminals. That's basically why I carry around my laptop now, the PCs on sites where I work never have all the tools and data that I need. It's a great idea, after all I don't need to carry my own monitor and keyboard around and frankly I'm sick of digging around under random desks looking for a free drop.

    But the problem here is, do you trust every place that you plug your laptop in currently? Right now you don't have to since the act of plugging in doesn't give anyone access to your data. But I could imagine a situation where an unscrupulous customer or public terminal stole data from this personal server. All they'd need to do is see how you authenticate to it (say, use a keysniffer) and then they're free to grab your data whenever you're in range. I think a simple solution would be to have a button on the device that you would have to press in order to authorize access to it - the password is not enough. It's not foolproof, but it's better than just a password. Until there is some additional security you really wouldn't want to use these things at an untrusted location.

  • Network While You're Networking ;) (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Taliesan999 ( 305690 ) on Sunday May 04, 2003 @10:45PM (#5878387)
    Makes for a whole bunch of interesting possibilites...

    How long before someone develops a piece of software that lets you swap files with other such devices in the area automatically, maybe even search for specific files on other's shares?

    Turn up to a lecture and just by being there you get a copy of the audio and notes streamed to your personal server.

    Add an access mechanism to a television/home entertainment system. Boom, instant portable TIVO!

  • What's wrong with this picture? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Animats ( 122034 ) on Sunday May 04, 2003 @11:12PM (#5878495) Homepage
    Let me get this straight. I'm supposed to carry around this little box with all my data on it so that when I get somewhere that has a keyboard and screen and knows how to talk to this box, I can log in and access my data.

    What's wrong with this picture? Why do I need to carry around this box? Why do I want to carry around data? That's what the Internet is for.

    Remember Java-enabled jewelry with onboard crypto? The RSA "fob" ID device? Dallas Semiconductor buttons? Same functional capabilities, less to carry. All you really need is an ID device.

    Ubiquitous computing looks more like "hurry up and find something that wastes compute power before we have to have another layoff". They need some better ideas over there.

  • Or you could just get a USB mini-drive. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Thag ( 8436 ) on Sunday May 04, 2003 @11:24PM (#5878545) Homepage
    ...Which has almost zero security issues, or power issues, will link up with damn near anything, and is a good $100-200 cheaper at the same storage size.

    Or, for about 25 cents, burn a CD.

    Jon Acheson.

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