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Toys Transmeta

Handtop PC Announced Using Transmeta Processor 254

Posted by CmdrTaco from the we-love-the-gadgets dept.
Cyberllama writes "Like many people on Slashdot, I've been wondering when all those transmeta-based products we were promised were finally coming out -- then I saw this. It claims to a be a fully functional laptop-like device with a 5.6 inch screen that can fit into the palm of your hand -- smaller than many laptop batteries. The specs are a bit last year (256 megs of ram, 1 gigahertz processor, 30 gig hard drive) -- but the size of the device is still pretty impressive. Unfortunately it looks like they won't be shipping until the end of the year."
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Handtop PC Announced Using Transmeta Processor More

Handtop PC Announced Using Transmeta Processor

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  • Already old... (Score:2, Insightful)

    by IamGarageGuy 2 ( 687655 )
    It won't be out till next year and it is already pretty unimpressive. Time to market in the PC world is king.
    • It won't be out till next year and it is already pretty unimpressive.

      Yep. It piqued my interest because it came with a hard drive, which is the only thing really lacking from my Zaurus C860. But since it's currently vapourware, I'll stick with the Zaurus, which just rocks. I have ssh and web browsing on the move, on something that easily fits in a jacket pocket. What more could anyone want? For all their touted benefits, laptops are useless to me because they're just too big to be portable.

      • And to a lot of other folks, the Zaurus C7x0 is not as useful as a laptop or more traditional palmtop because it doesn't have a touch-typeable keyboard. It has a pretty nice thumboard, yes; but if you are going to be doing a lot of typing, you really need a pocketop or something.

        But yeah, I'd rather have the Zaurus than nothing, though. :) But this flipstart thing isn't the first of its kind; you have been able to get similar devices for quite a while, some even with a huge hard drive, as long as you we
      • laptops are useless to me because they're just too big to be portable

        If the guy on the left here [basketball365.co.uk] can tote a 17" Powerbook, you must be tiny!

  • why (Score:4, Interesting)

    by 74nova ( 737399 ) <jonnbell@gma[ ]com ['il.' in gap]> on Tuesday February 24, 2004 @10:52AM (#8373186) Homepage Journal
    what do i possibly need 256MB/1GHz with a 5.6" screen for? not a troll, im honestly curious. thats what i have at home in my desktop and it does all i need, sure. however, most of what i do coudl not be done on a 5.6" screen. maybe its just a little to early for this kind of tiny power or are there really pda-style apps that need this?

    • Re:why (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 24, 2004 @10:58AM (#8373235)
      Well, what's popular in the PocketPC market? Personally, I'd see a wireless device that you could use for what Steve Jobs has been touting. That is, replace the mini-tower as a central hub with a ballsy PDA. It would still need an optional keyboard but...

      Since cell phones are become more PDA-like, and PDAs are offering better multimedia capability, perhaps the new line of products will be somewhere in between. Personally, I'd like to know what the PocketPC sales have been like over the past eighteen months. How viable is this market?

      • Re:why (Score:3, Informative)

        by lpret ( 570480 )
        The PDA market has been growing as always. As I outlined in a journal entry [slashdot.org], I make the point that there are different levels that people want. I personally have a cellphone with simple PDA functions (Sony Ericcson T616), a PDA with everything but the kitchen sink (Sony NZ90), and a monster desktop. However, my PDA is used more for browsing the internet on wifi or taking pictures with the 2 megapixel camera. I think a handtop unit such as this would be good for college students like myself -- *if* the s

    • Re:why (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Jerph ( 550853 )
      You need a fairly strong processor to play MPEG-4 (xvid, divx, etc..) videos, especially with multi-track encoded audio. My 200 mhz e310 PocketPC can play very specifically made divx videos, but the frame rate is low. This kind of device would be perfect if for taking very large amounts of high quality video around with you, since it has optional TV-out (according to the specs).
    • The main reason is that it runs XP, and not one of the light weight "Windows Powered" hand held operating systems. It's not a PDA, but a full blown PC.

      "Full Windows XP Home/Professional operating system"

      This is not a Pocket PC, but a full blown PC at the SIZE of the larger clamshell Pocket PCs. You're getting close to the low end of XP's recommended hardware specs with this device. It'll probably be a bit sluggish with that hardware.
      • I ran XP on a Dell Dimension with 128MB of 66Mhz RAM and a Celeron 333Mhz. It wasn't quick but you could use it. I have two Duron 1400+ with 256MB of shared 133Mhz SDRAM at home, and they run fine. 1Ghz and 256MB may not be the greatest thing for multi-tasking but it's hardly pushing the low end of XP's requirements.

    • Lotsa' reasons (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Midnight Ryder ( 116189 ) <midryder.midnightryder@com> on Tuesday February 24, 2004 @11:36AM (#8373659) Homepage

      I own a Toshiba Libretto C110. I still use the heck outta it - I never bothered with buying a PDA, I use my Libretto instead. It's small enough to drop into the pocket of my trench coat when I head out on a startup, or go to gaming on the weekends.

      PDA's have a very confining feature set - very little storage, low processing power, etc. For instance, I hate carrying my books to gaming - so, I have scanned versions of my books (and some that I bought from TSR in .pdf format) When I need to look up something, just pull up the document, hit find, and I've found what I need - more convenient than a dead trees version (for searching - there's still something I prefer about dead trees for normal reading). Plus, it beats the heck outta carrying 5 books. Sure, I could convert to plain text for a PDA, but then I loose most of the table formatting. Plus I also keep my characters on there in Excel (I'd run OpenOffice, but, the Libretto is too underpowered for OO - it works fine with the fairly old version of Office that was included.)

      It's also great on a startup for similar reasons - just throw all my manuals on it, and when I need to look up something, pull that sucker out. Also great for times when I need to upload a program to a PanelView, connect to a PLC, etc. It's small, and I can hold it in one hand while connecting to the PLC - no need to have to set up a table or rest it on a rack.

      For any serious long term use, it requires an external keyboard and monitor hooked up - I've used it that way a few times, but more often than not I just suffer through 15 minutes of typing on the itty-bitty keyboard it has.

      This thing sounds like a perfect successor to my Libretto. The Libretto has 32Mb RAM, 166MHz processor (I overclocked mine to 233Mhz - there's some nice sites out there about hackin' the Libretto), and a 6Gb HD in it at the moment. 1 Ghz, 256MB, 30GB HD, and 802.11g? Sounds like a great upgrade to me :-)

      Now if I could only get: Same thing with a G4 in it (what ever happened to the idea that Transmeta was going to be able to emulate any processor?!) running MacOS X, a touch screen that can be rotated around like some of the (way too large!) TabletPC's, and a decent 3D card in it (for when I'm bored at the airport, car trips, meetings :-) I'd REALLY happy :-) (And my wife would too - while I don't have a PDA, she does. She also has a Mac, and if she had her choice everything would run OS X / work like a Mac :-)

      • It could be a very useful device if the price is right. If it's around $500 or less would work, but if it's considerably more I'd rather buy something like the Averatec 3150 that's less than 4 pounds, very small and thin, and can be had for under $700 refurbished. At least it has an XGA screen and more connectivity options.
      • Same here.

        My loved 110CT has twice the accumulated working hours than every other PC I ever had.

        I'd be lost the day it would die. I recently cured its old-age incontinence by replacing the four-year (!) old battery and the screen shows some stuck-on vertical lines on the left side. So I feel the end approaching and I've been looking out for a replacement for some time. But all successors are larger or are misdesigned (like the two hand mouse operation in the new Vaio).

        As to the keyboard I've found out th
        • >My feature wishlist looks like:
          >- faster startup / instant-on
          >- longer battery life
          >- USB ports
          >- even smaller/lighter

          Check out the Fujitsu Lifebook P1120. Other than the brighter screen and the 30-40G HD, it has all these features. Plus built-in 802.11b wireless. Mine runs Win2K Pro/RH9.0 dual-boot. Only weights 2.5 pounds (less without the extended battery) and runs for 6+ hours. A great little machine...
    • what do i possibly need 256MB/1GHz with a 5.6" screen for?

      I doubt you would find a use for it. I would have a hard time using it as a laptop replacement as well.

      However, these things are useful for certain types of applications:

      1. Warehouse inventory. Instead of dragging around a laptop on a cart, you can carry this in your hand outfitted with a barcode scanner.
      2. Hotel industry. You'll note that most hotels have electronic locks. These electronic locks are encoded either with a laptop that has
      • Warehouse inventory. Instead of dragging around a laptop on a cart, you can carry this in your hand outfitted with a barcode scanner.

        Any other kind of inventory system. I was recently at a large chain supermarket after hours and some employee was checking barcodes in the aisles with a laptop on a cart. Perfect place for this type of machine.

        I'm working on a system that does the exact same thing except that it's PocketPC-based with built-in wireless (802.11 and GPRS).

        1GHz is a huge overkill for somethin
      • Warehouse inventory. Instead of dragging around a laptop on a cart, you can carry this in your hand outfitted with a barcode scanner.

        Why would you need a 1GHz processor to do inventory? A 100MHz processor would be over powered for such an application.

        Same goes for all your other examples. Fort a field data recoverry tool you need a washing machione controler class CPU with a bloody huge ruggedised hard disk.

        The real reason it needs a fast processor etc. is the stupid design decision to put Windows on

      • are very easy to have if you have USB. You can use a dongle of extremely minimal size. Think of it as a cable length extender :)
    • Man...this is the type of system I've been waiting for. Personally, I'd love to get a system like this for those times when I'm sitting on the bus or at the coffee shop, and I get the sudden inspirations for whatever project I'm coding. Somehow just writing the idea on a piece of paper doesn't seem work when I get home to code it. By that time, the exact idea I was thinking of is gone. Of course I'd like to have a full sized keyboard for serious work, but for getting an idea down quickly this would be p
  • " device with a 5.6 inch screen that can fit into the palm of your hand "

    I don't think something with a 5.6 inch screen would fit vary comfortably in most anyones hand.

    • Re:In my hand? (Score:3, Funny)

      by Phekko ( 619272 )
      must be the same guy who designed that XBox controller

    • Re:In my hand? (Score:5, Funny)

      by ZaMoose ( 24734 ) on Tuesday February 24, 2004 @11:06AM (#8373326)
      See what happens when you employ the same usability testers that Microsoft had testing the original X-Box controllers?

      Application for Handtop PC Testers
      [SNIP]
      13. I can:
      []Palm a basketball
      []Palm two basketballs simultaneously
      [x]Palm Cowboy Neal and two basketballs simultaneously
      [SNIP]

      See what I mean?
    • "I don't think something with a 5.6 inch screen would fit vary comfortably in most anyones hand."

      inches ... hand ... must resist ... dirty joke ...

  • What will the cost be? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by segmond ( 34052 ) on Tuesday February 24, 2004 @10:53AM (#8373194)
    I want to get such a system for $450-$600 brand new tops. Doesn't have to be the fastest, but with the price of such small laptop like computers, it is never going to happen. Even used Toshiba liberttos are expensive.

  • Avalible for a while now.... (Score:5, Informative)

    by OPTiX_iNC ( 691070 ) on Tuesday February 24, 2004 @10:53AM (#8373195) Homepage Journal
    if you had the money.

    www.antelopetech.com/
    • $3,970.00 USD??

      Not really all that expensive actually, given that it's a desktop and a handheld.

    • I have the money but i wouldn't buy this one 'cos i frankly don't see the point... I currently am testing quite a few technologies and i've settled on a setup of an AMD 64 desktop, and PPC handheld to act as a desktop-extension-device for 100m bluetooth internet around the house and mobile multimedia, and a palm OS 4 handheld for PIM functions (long battery life, mature third-party apps).

  • I have one. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by gregarican ( 694358 ) on Tuesday February 24, 2004 @10:55AM (#8373203) Homepage
    I recently purchased a Fujitsu P Series Lifebook that uses a TM processor (see their site [fujitsupc.com] for details). It's pretty slick. Don't have a CD/DVD drive, but I'm using my unit for remote admin work so I love being able to go wireless, grab a wired connection, or even use GPRS via a PC Card. The touch screen is great as well.

    • Re:I have one. (Score:3, Interesting)

      by isaac ( 2852 )

      I recently purchased a Fujitsu P Series Lifebook that uses a TM processor (see their site for details). It's pretty slick. Don't have a CD/DVD drive, but I'm using my unit for remote admin work so I love being able to go wireless, grab a wired connection, or even use GPRS via a PC Card. The touch screen is great as well.

      While I love my Lifebook P, it's not in the same size class as this device. This is more like a modern version of the IBM PC110 [apj.co.uk] (complete with touchpad and thumb-positioned trackpoint).

  • Cost? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by bad enema ( 745446 )
    The article simply says "pricing is not yet available."

    Argh, what does it matter. Whatever it is, it won't be worth it because laptops are getting more and more prevelent. This will simply be more geek eye candy, something geeks will show off to other geeks.

    • Re:Cost? (Score:2, Interesting)

      by vrtsdaemon ( 748716 )
      hey, let's not slap a negative connotation on the word 'geek' now :). I think the best definition of geek I've ever heard is courtesy of phessler on BSDForums: "The difference between a nerd and a geek, is a nerd will skip a party to do homework, and a geek will party, then do homework while drunk/hungover." I think I fall into the geek category, minus the drunkenness.

  • Ach! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Walkiry ( 698192 ) on Tuesday February 24, 2004 @10:56AM (#8373212) Homepage
    It's a good thing I have a big hand :p

    Anyway, my main grip with this (it's not the only product I see doing the same) is still keyboard design. You are supposed to write with your thumbs while grabbing the thing, why not arrange the keys around the thumbs then? It's not like anyone will be able to touch-type there anyway with that size.

    Also start using some fucking trackballs again, I'm sick of these useless annoying touchpads. It'd be specially annoying in something that size.

  • 2-6 hour battery life? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Marx_Mrvelous ( 532372 ) on Tuesday February 24, 2004 @10:56AM (#8373214) Homepage
    That seems a bit short. Considering you can buy a 15" scrren laptop that gets 4 hours life. I guess they have a tiny battery powering that thing. Too bad, it looks like a nice halfway between PDA and laptop.

  • Those are almost the exact same specs (Score:5, Insightful)

    by jayhawk88 ( 160512 ) <jayhawk88@gmail.com> on Tuesday February 24, 2004 @10:56AM (#8373216)
    The Compaq T-1000 TabletPC has. And I can tell you from experience that WindowsXP on that thing is A DOG. Pack a lunch if you plan on using this thing for anything more than IE and Freecell.
    • Should be ideal for corporate usage then. :-)
    • I wonder if they couldn't have used VIA C3 or Eden processors instead of Transmeta ones to give the necessary boost to their handheld. VIA CPUs running at 1GHz are definately fast enough to make WinXP run smoothly (although not comparable to AMD or Intel processors running at the same Ghz), and still consume only 10W of power. It might even be possible to underclock (/undervolt) them to further decrease the heat output. The memory would be another problem, but they probably have a SO-DIMM slot inside anyway

  • Oqo all over again. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Oscar26 ( 126520 ) on Tuesday February 24, 2004 @10:56AM (#8373220)
    Haven't we all seen this before? I remember back in 2002 when OQO claimed they would ship something very similar (an "Ultra Personal Computer" or uPC) by the end of 02. Haha. What a laugh. Here we are 1 1/2 years later and nothing yet.

    I'll believe it when I have one in my hand.

    • Re:Oqo all over again. (Score:5, Funny)

      by Steve B ( 42864 ) on Tuesday February 24, 2004 @10:59AM (#8373263)
      an "Ultra Personal Computer"

      Ultra Personal? What, does it have a teledildonic interface built in?

    • Assuming they will both be released eventually, the OQO trades 10 Gigs with the FlipStart for FireWire. Other than that, they seem to have similar functionality. Price will be the key here.

      I think OQO offers a more PDA-Like experience when using away from the desktop, where FlipStart tries to be more like a laptop. Perhaps these two paradigms could be the deciding factor?

    • Re:Oqo all over again. (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Alan Cox ( 27532 ) on Tuesday February 24, 2004 @02:04PM (#8375392) Homepage
      It can be done because it was done in 1994..

      I still have my IBM PC110. Its smaller than a paperback book, weights about 800grams. Yes the display isnt ideal and the keyboard is very much two-thumb but its *incredibly* useful because it lets you take a "real" computer with you all the time.

      Its also better than PDA because the apps are the same as your normal ones, so its easy to maintain and flexible. I guess Linux on zaurus is changing the equation a little.

      Personally I wish someone would just hurry up and ship the damn things at a sensible price cos the PC110 is wearing out...

    • A friend who works for them had a prototype of the OQO. Neat device. Certainly these devices will only get more powerful as time goes on, and components continue to shrink.

      My impression / comparison:

      Speed : Tie
      Memory: Tie
      Networking: 802.11b only on the OQO, but g should be coming
      Bluetooth: Built-in on the OQO
      Size : The OQO seems a little smaller and leaner physically
      Screen: The screen was very high-quality on the OQO. One major drawback to it is that it doesn't flip down, meaning you'll have to

  • Cost effective solution? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by 192939495969798999 ( 58312 ) <[info] [at] [devinmoore.com]> on Tuesday February 24, 2004 @10:56AM (#8373224) Homepage Journal
    What will matter is the price they can bring these units down to. The big deterrent to a lot of companies that could use PDA's (construction companies, stores, etc) is their high cost. If this machine can help lower the prices of other machines, it is good, even if it is not the fastest or most impressve device in the world.
  • The porn on it would be so small I would have eye sore from squinting all the time. I'll pass.

  • Very Good... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Sentosus ( 751729 ) on Tuesday February 24, 2004 @10:58AM (#8373237)
    In the world where laptops are getting smaller and smaller.... I like this handtop. It is a good bridge between my ultraportable Averatec Laptop and my Palm PDA. This would be great also in the business environment. It won't fit you all and it is nice that you have your opinions, but we don't need to hear about it not running something you want or being too slow. This is a product just like any other and suited to work for a group of people being nonspecific as possible and yet covering their needs. This would work perfect in hospitals.
    • I like this handtop. It is a good bridge between my ultraportable Averatec Laptop and my Palm PDA.

      You, my friend, are a gargoyle in the Stephenson sense of the word.

  • hummmm (Score:2, Insightful)

    by tipo21 ( 749912 )
    Does anyone smell another Vapoware???

  • Battery life's a touch short (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Tuxedo Jack ( 648130 ) on Tuesday February 24, 2004 @10:59AM (#8373253) Homepage
    "2-3 hours running Windows(R) XP operating system and Microsoft(R) Office applications"

    Really, we'd need more than that. A spare battery or two, perhaps, especially if you plan to do anything hardware-intensive on it (Office, Windows, anything involving Half-Life... sweet, Counter-Strike on a palmtop PC).

  • last year (Score:3, Funny)

    by Conspiracy_Of_Doves ( 236787 ) on Tuesday February 24, 2004 @10:59AM (#8373256)
    The specs are a bit last year (256 megs of ram, 1 gigahertz processor, 30 gig hard drive)

    Hey! Those are the specs of MY box.

  • PDA on steroids (Score:2, Interesting)

    by scambaiter ( 703904 )
    Looks like some PDA on steroids to me. Too small to get any real work done with it, but too big (and expensive) to carry it around all day long in your pocket. I mean who actually is supposed to buy one of them? Reading /. on the road with one of these looks quite painful, cant even imagine doing some coding on it.

    Sorry guys, but this simply looks very much like a geek toy to me. Not really useful for anything than show-off.

    • well.. some people manage to read slashdot on even smaller screens, the trick is to use some browser that alters the view.

      for the most parts it looks like a modernised liberetto for me.

      soon you're going to tell that people wouldn't bother sending sms's all day long?

  • Perfect For Meetings.... (Score:5, Funny)

    by millahtime ( 710421 ) on Tuesday February 24, 2004 @11:01AM (#8373283) Homepage Journal
    I could play solitare in meetings and the people around me would think I was actually working but wouldn't be able to get a look at the screen to see what I was really doing.
    • I found that 'Dope Wars [methodshop.com]' for my Palm worked rather well, as I'd have to write numbers for how much I was buying/selling, which looks much different than just clicking and dragging things around.

      And when people saw me writing, they just assumed I was taking notes.

      There are probably other games out there that would accomplish the same effect.

  • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 )
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • My Company's Competing Product (Score:5, Funny)

    by SuperChuck69 ( 702300 ) on Tuesday February 24, 2004 @11:05AM (#8373319)
    My company is offering a similar product, only 2" smaller and 15 ounces lighter. It will feature a 3GHz processor and 4GB of RAM, with a 1280x1024 screen. It uses a new solar technology that doesn't even require light to work, giving it an infinite battery life. It's also fully compatible with the Phantom Gaming Service [phantom.net]. Pricing and availability to be announced later.
    [/sarcasm]

    When you can tap on something, throw it across the room, or pee on it, that's when it exists. When there are a bunch of pictures and promises on a web site, it doesn't. It means it's in "prototype", which means the actual machine is larger than my current laptop, but with a 5.6" screen and they're HOPING to get it down to size.

  • Never heard of Casio? (Score:5, Informative)

    by Bushcat ( 615449 ) on Tuesday February 24, 2004 @11:07AM (#8373342)
    My Casio (made by Panasonic) has 2 - 6 hours battery life, 800x600 screen, 80GB aftermarket HD (up from the original 20GB), 512MB RAM, only a 600MHz Transmeta so it's SLOW, PC slot with a 54Mbps wifi card, CF slot with a 384kbps cellular card, firewire, USB, external video, modem, fast ethernet, a hardware switch to boot it into XP or Midori Linux, and weighs next to nothing. It's also two years old, obsolete, and sells for $400 on the used market. Better than vaporware any day of the week.
    • I was intrigued by the above post so I did some searching and I think he's refering to the Casio Cassiopeia Fiva MPC-206VL [transmetazone.com]. Looks like a nifty little computer. I'm curious about how "SLOW" it is. If I had one I would probably spend 90% of the time using ssh and/or browsing the web and neither of those applications require a lot of horsepower and all things being equal, I would rather have a longer battery life.

  • typing (Score:2, Funny)

    by shaunyb ( 646779 )
    typing looks like it's going to be a huge problem. "the fingers you have used to dial are too fat. To obtain a special dialing wand, please mash the keypad with your palm now."

  • MVIS will make these things work. (Score:4, Funny)

    by F34nor ( 321515 ) * on Tuesday February 24, 2004 @11:12AM (#8373401)
    People ask, "why so I need this?" I say you don't.

    Not until Microvision MVIS [mvis.com] retina scanning displays are cheep and full color. When your screen is the back of your eye the ultra portable doesn't need a screen and becomes your only computer.

    Basically a video iPod that you can watch porn at work with a shit eating grin on your face and have no one know what your doing.

    Good buy economy hello hedonism.

  • Wishfull thinking (Score:3, Funny)

    by lobsterGun ( 415085 ) on Tuesday February 24, 2004 @11:31AM (#8373604)
    When you want something bad enough your mind can play tricks on you....

    and

    The specs are a bit last year

    turns into

    The battery lasts about a year

    ...I guess I'll just have to keep dreaming

  • Actually, this IS useful (Score:4, Insightful)

    by wowbagger ( 69688 ) on Tuesday February 24, 2004 @11:41AM (#8373726) Homepage Journal
    Look folks, don't think of this as a very small PC.

    Think of this as a PDA that can run standard applications.

    For example, one of the main uses I have for portable computing is running trip planning software like Delorme's MapNGo products. Currently, such products are pretty much Windows-ia32 only. I really don't NEED a full-size laptop for this, and the software was designed to run acceptably well on a 25MHz 486 with 32M of memory fercrissakes! Running this on a 1GHz Crusoe with a quarter-gig of RAM will be child's play.

    Yes, it would be nice if you could run this software on an XScale or MIPs based PDA. It would be nice if I didn't have a mortgage payment, too. But I do and it doesn't.

    So having a PDA that can run ia32 code is not a bad thing.

  • More on Flipstart from Forbes (Score:3, Interesting)

    by ahess247 ( 209933 ) on Tuesday February 24, 2004 @11:46AM (#8373797) Homepage
    I covered this last week for Forbes.com, and got to play around with a Flipstart for about 60 seconds.
    http://forbes.com/technology/2004/02/17/cx_ah_0217 flipstart.html [forbes.com]

  • Parts-bin Frankensteins (Score:4, Interesting)

    by itomato ( 91092 ) on Tuesday February 24, 2004 @11:51AM (#8373837)
    Why, when we have portable DVD players selling under $200 [bestbuy.com], Palm-powered devices under $100 and hard drive storage for under $1 per GB, are there no devices that combine the price/performance of all three?

    Imagine, if you will, one of those DVD players with the brain of a Zire-class device; color screen (5" LCD - TV resolution, but that didn't stop us in the olden days), internal data storage (5GB?), a usb port or two, CF or CardBus, and maybe a bottom-of-the-barrel Realtek or ADMTek 802.11X chip.

    Email, address book, DVD, MP3, and computer functionality in your (large) pocket, or backpack. Plug in whatever USB mouse/keyboard you want, or use the integrated joystick-thingy on the bus/subway/plane/go.

    Hell, you could even play Commodore 64, Atari, and GameBoy games on the thing..

    Hellllo Amiga..

  • Let's start a company! (Score:5, Funny)

    by teamhasnoi ( 554944 ) <teamhasnoi AT yahoo DOT com> on Tuesday February 24, 2004 @11:53AM (#8373858) Journal
    I love to (hobby) and (hobby2) when I'm not running my (business) company. I use (vaporwareproduct) to manage my (business) and its (businessinformation).

    I find that (vaporwareproduct) lets me (e-action) and (e-action2) while (e-action3). The (hardwarespec) allows me to store (information) while the (hardwarespec2) makes for fast (e-action4).

    My (vaporwareproduct) helps me keep it all together, thanks to its (hardwarespec3) and (hardwarespec4). My productivity has increased, since I don't have to carry around (competingproduct), (competingproduct2) and (competingproduct3).

    Thanks (companyname)! (vaporwareproduct) is tailored just for me!

  • First it's ordering beer at Mariners games with your WAP phone, now this...I want Paul Allens time/money.

  • Microsoft (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Mr_Silver ( 213637 ) on Tuesday February 24, 2004 @12:08PM (#8374045)
    What surprised me was that the submitter, the Slashdot editor and all the comments so far have missed the fact that this company was started by Paul Allen, who co-founded Microsoft in 1976.

    Which does go some way to explain the heavy use of the word Microsoft and their associated (tm)(r)(c) lettering in almost every page.

    Information here [flipstartpc.com].

  • " 5.6" HDTV-quality display (1024 x 600)"
    Coming out in time for the next Superbowl! No longer do you need to go around to your friend's house to watch the Superbowl on his home theatre set-up, you can bring your own 5.6" HDTV-quality system!

    (Hmmm...720p...1080i...600 what?)

  • This brings back memories... (Score:4, Funny)

    by Robotech_Master ( 14247 ) * on Tuesday February 24, 2004 @12:27PM (#8374284) Homepage Journal
    Anyone remember that series of childrens' paperback books that were popular in the eighties, which were written in the third person and had the reader being a kid secret agent who carried around a disguised micro-micro computer and saved the day by writing a few well-placed BASIC programs?

    That was the first thing I thought of when I saw this paperback-book-sized computer...finally technology has caught up to fiction. :)

  • two words (Score:2, Interesting)

    by bryansj ( 89051 )
    Remote Desktop. I could see using this thing to access my home PC running a remote desktop through Wifi. Who cares how fast it is as long as it has the ability to push my commands through and display the graphics on the (small) screen. Right now I've got a 12" Sony VAIO that I can contect to running as my main desktop PC that is connected to my wireless router. I simply fire up remote desktop from the laptop and now I'm effectivly running at P4 2.8GHz speed with a Gig of RAM and plenty of hard drive spa

  • Eh (Score:4, Informative)

    by jandrese ( 485 ) * <kensama@vt.edu> on Tuesday February 24, 2004 @12:47PM (#8374492) Homepage Journal
    No thanks, I already have a Sharp Zaurus SL-C750 [dynamism.com], why do I need a vapor product that's a bit faster (and with a HDD), but doesn't fit in my pocket? It's still going to be too small to do any serious typing, and this thing looks like it's going to be too big and overpowered (heavy, crummy battery life) to be a good PDA (actually, the Zaurus isn't a great PDA either, but that's a software issue).

    • Re:Eh (Score:2)

      by EllF ( 205050 )
      How exactly does a released device qualify as vapor?

      • Re:Eh (Score:2)

        by jandrese ( 485 ) *
        The article is talking about a vaprous product. The Sharp, on the other hand, is very much real. I should hope it's not vapor, since I own one!
  • where's the pen?
    Pen input is a natural for devices this size.
  • ...storing and reviewing digital photos on the road. In my opinion the current hard-drive based portable storage devices are a one-trick pony, which limits their usefulness. On the other hand, notebooks are currently too big for a device whose primary purpose is to store photos and maybe review some on a screen. Sony and IBM have some ~3 lb. wonders that come close, but at around 1 lb. this thing is exactly the right size.

    What remains to be seen is how much this thing will cost. If it's priced like a 3 lb.

  • Or you could buy a Sony U101 today. (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Thag ( 8436 ) on Tuesday February 24, 2004 @01:15PM (#8374823) Homepage
    Specs are here [dynamism.com]:

    Celery 600, $2,000.00 price tag.

    Didin't say it was cheap, but then I don't expect this thing to be less than $1000.00

    Jon Acheson

  • Looks cool, but (Score:2, Interesting)

    by nial-in-a-box ( 588883 )
    I'll bet pretty much anything it's either complete vapor or we'll never see anything like it. The fact that not even Toshiba has released such a device doesn't look promising for this company. I know that major PC manufacturers aren't always right about everything, but they do essentially determine what we are allowed to want and what the market is allowed to carry. Sony's Picturebook (I think) series is the closest to this I have ever seen, and with those machines' low usability and fairly lame specs fo

  • Bigger PDA (Score:3, Interesting)

    by FreshFunk510 ( 526493 ) on Tuesday February 24, 2004 @01:48PM (#8375204)
    Would anybody buy this? We're increasingly reading about the lack and declining interest in PDAs and more of a move to cellphones. So the question is what woudl one do with this? I find it hard to thing anybody would be doing any serious work on it and the cellphone is replacing much of the core functionality provided by PDAs. The only place I see there being a demand for this is in some niche market.

    • Re:Bigger PDA (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Pierce ( 154 )
      I would buy this, the timeframe would depend on the price. I have been looking for a small computer to take to clients when I need to do diagnostics, network configurations or troubleshooting. I have a laptop right now but it is more than I need and still takes up more space than I would like (the laptop is a Fujitsu S Series). I have tried WinCE and Palm devices, but they lack a lot of application support for what I need.

      With something like this I could cut down on the baggage carried, still do my work

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