Take Your Desktop With You In Your Pocket?

[Ed Hansberry]

<a href="http://www.antelopetech.com/en/index.aspx?view=i-products_DesktopCradle.htm">http://www.antelopetech.com/en/index.aspx?view=i-products_DesktopCradle.htm</a><br /><br />"Small computers are great when you are on the move, but when you are at your desk you don't want to work on 6" screen -- you want a desktop computer's big monitor, big keyboard, and big mouse. Insert the MCC into the Desktop Cradle and your traditional desktop computing environment comes to life with your desktop monitor, full-sized keyboard and mouse. Everything is available to you, all your applications and data running in the Windows XP environment that you depend on."<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/hansberry/2003/20031031-antelope.jpg" /><br /><br />This apparently has a 1.0GHz processor, 256MB of RAM and a 10GB hard drive. It doesn't seem to be as much mobile computing as much as you just have cradles at all of your work points and move the MCC around with you.

[rlobrecht]

I just don't get it. $4000 for the guts of a $399 computer. Sure its portable, but that handheld sleeve looks gigantic. There may be a few vertical markets that will go for this, but I anticipate a dismal failure.

[powder2000]

Who would pay that much? I don't get it either. There are plenty of workable solutions already(smaller tablet pc's) that are affordable and attractive to businesses. I don't see how they expect to go anywhere with this at that price. Just my humble little opinion.

[The Yaz]

I think it's an interesting concept. If you look at the whole connection cycle, they've taken a hard drive and treated it like a compact flash card.

My major concern over this concept is that you lose location redundancy. What I mean is that the files on my laptop also exist on my desktop and sometimes my Pocket PC. God help you if something happens to this MCC and you aren't backing up your data regularly.

It's a neat idea, but at this pricing, it is more expensive than the combined equipment that it would replace.

Steve 8)

[Mojo Jojo]

To throw in another 'huh?' comment with an Apple slant...

I can buy an Ipod and not only have all my music but install OS X on it and use it as a bootable device. Plug it in to any Apple, reboot, and presto have all my work and files with me...

(Granted you need a donor to connect to... but for $4k I can get four eMac machines to use as 'dumb terminals', a 30 gig Ipod for a 'brain', and still have $404 dollars before I even consider the price of extra monitors, keyboards, speakers, cd-roms needed for this version. )

[jb]

HA, HA, HA, HA, HA!!!!!! :lol:

Please, $4000. One horrible screaching corporate death coming up.

Haven't these people heard how corporations are cutting back on IT purchases. To come out with a $4,000 mobile product at this time in the current economic climate is sheer suicide.

On the plus side, maybe 1 to 2 years from now they fold and sell of their remaining inventory on Ebay for .12 cents on the dollar.

Wouldn't mind picking up one of these babies then.

[bkerrins]

It may be great that I can carry it from work to home...but if I can't use it in between then who cares. If this was all I needed, I could just set up a portable hard drive unit for $400. It needs to be accessible without connecting to a monitor and keyboard.

[JonnoB]

If you cannot use the computer unless at a 'station' then why not just use a less expensive desktop system to remotely connect to a central site via RDP (Remote Desktop/Terminal Services)?

[Ed Hansberry]

Guys, is the device $4,000 or is this a development kit? It also seems to come with quite a bit for that - a "desktop" center and a handheld.

Modular Computing Core
Modular Computing Rugged Handheld
Modular Computing Desktop Docking Station
External AC Power Adapter
Handheld Battery Pack
Carrying Case
Screen Protector Pack
Windows XP Professional
Windows XP MCC HH Software Pack (preinstalled)
10/100 Ethernet Card
Mouse
Keyboard
Executive Pen-Stylus Combo
Documentation Pack

[daveshih]

I just don't get it. $4000 for the guts of a $399 computer. Sure its portable, but that handheld sleeve looks gigantic. There may be a few vertical markets that will go for this, but I anticipate a dismal failure.

Remember, it's $4,000 for the guts of a $400 computer in a very, very tiny form. Try getting a normal $400 computer into your pocket. No other forms (notebook, tabletpc, subnotebooks, etc.) currently has this capability. The only things this "brick" doesn't have in it are a screen and input devices. A real interesting idea to come in a long time. Of course, this is a IBM Metapad licencee.

I do agree with you, though, that vertical markets with security needs (only one set of data and OS, but have real mobility) will go for this.

Dave

[daveshih]

Who would pay that much? I don't get it either. There are plenty of workable solutions already(smaller tablet pc's) that are affordable and attractive to businesses. I don't see how they expect to go anywhere with this at that price. Just my humble little opinion.

Special vertical industries who have:

1. Special security need -- only one set of data and OS and special apps (no duplicates)
2. Real physical mobility need -- ability to really "take it with you".
3. Usability Form needs -- depending on location or job type, the usage form can change.

will probably go for this. Of course, I agree that the price is not attractive at all.

Dave

[daveshih]

I think it's an interesting concept. If you look at the whole connection cycle, they've taken a hard drive and treated it like a compact flash card.

Well, not just the hard drive, but also the CPU, Motherboard, GPU, RAM, I/O Bus, basically the entire computer sans screen and input devices.


My major concern over this concept is that you lose location redundancy. What I mean is that the files on my laptop also exist on my desktop and sometimes my Pocket PC. God help you if something happens to this MCC and you aren't backing up your data regularly.


For some people, this is actually a requirement due to security reasons. Having duplicate information around sometimes can be very difficult and unsafe.


It's a neat idea, but at this pricing, it is more expensive than the combined equipment that it would replace.

Steve 8)

Definitely.

Dave

[daveshih]

To throw in another 'huh?' comment with an Apple slant...

I can buy an Ipod and not only have all my music but install OS X on it and use it as a bootable device. Plug it in to any Apple, reboot, and presto have all my work and files with me...

(Granted you need a donor to connect to... but for $4k I can get four eMac machines to use as 'dumb terminals', a 30 gig Ipod for a 'brain', and still have $404 dollars before I even consider the price of extra monitors, keyboards, speakers, cd-roms needed for this version. )

I think their angle is a bit different. In your scenario, the processing power will depend on whichever "dumb terminal" you happen to plug into. With their setup, you're guaranteed to get performances from the embeded CPU, GPU, RAM, Hard drive, I/O, etc.

Of course, Transmeta crusoe at 1 GHz isn't something to look at, but somebody might find it necessary to have a given set of hardware profile that doesn't change from location to location, and from form to form.

Dave

[daveshih]

HA, HA, HA, HA, HA!!!!!! :lol:

Please, $4000. One horrible screaching corporate death coming up.

Haven't these people heard how corporations are cutting back on IT purchases. To come out with a $4,000 mobile product at this time in the current economic climate is sheer suicide.

On the plus side, maybe 1 to 2 years from now they fold and sell of their remaining inventory on Ebay for .12 cents on the dollar.

Wouldn't mind picking up one of these babies then.

Well, you're probably right about the pricing, but I still find this whole IBM MetaPad concept very interesting. Probably one of the real interesting ideas in a long, long time.

Also, this is not geared to be just a mobile product. I believe it's geared toward a security-focused and form-changing niche. Like I've said in other replies, this may be a very important requirement in some vertical industries.

David

[daveshih]

It may be great that I can carry it from work to home...but if I can't use it in between then who cares. If this was all I needed, I could just set up a portable hard drive unit for $400. It needs to be accessible without connecting to a monitor and keyboard.

When IBM announced this MetaPad concept, they do have a PDA form reference design available. See here:
http://www.research.ibm.com/resources/news/images/20020206_metapad2.jpg

or here:
http://www.research.ibm.com/resources/news/20020206_metapad.shtml

Too bad that when Antelope licenced this, they couldn't implemented.

Dave

[daveshih]

If you cannot use the computer unless at a 'station' then why not just use a less expensive desktop system to remotely connect to a central site via RDP (Remote Desktop/Terminal Services)?

Valid question. Perhaps they are just hoping that they can cach in during these times of broadband gaps and lacks. Or they are thinking of security-focused folks who prefer not to send their data over any network, no matter how secure it may be.

Dave

[Gallivant]

Except why not just carry a USB2 hard drive and plug it into various (cheap) computers?

I can entirely understand things like the OQO that give you a full XP computer in a PDA-sized package. Sure, they're expensive and a bit on the heavy size, but they give you functionality you just can't get elsewhere. But a basic computer runs $500 these days, $600 if you want an especially nice monitor, and you can just plug a $200 external HD into it for high-speed non-duplicated document access.

[mftalon]

I installed OSX on my portable firewire drive. I can boot from it at my mac at work and home and my OS, applications, settings everything are always there. $250.00 for 200GB drive. [/mac propoganda]

[SassKwatch]

Amongst the accessories listed on Online Ordering (http://www.antelopetech.com/en/index.aspx?view=i-products_RuggedHandheld.htm) page is a 'Rugged Handheld' shell....essentially turning the device into a somewhat largeish pda replacement. In that config, it would be a truly useful mobile pc.

I would think there will be a lot of 'field service' types who will find this device very intriguing. At $4k, I'm not sure they'll find it intriguing enough, 'but'.........

[rudolph]

There is a 'handheld shell' for it (see here (http://www.antelopetech.com/en/index.aspx?view=i-products_RuggedHandheld.htm)).

Not quite as small as a Pocket PC, but still pretty cool. If found this funny: "Buttons: CTRL-ALT-DEL, Left/Right mouse, On/Off".

Hahahah... it's keybaord consists of the keys ctrl-alt-delete.... It reminds me of this keyboard
http://www.geocities.com/~franzglaser/txt/ctrlaltdel.jpg

Yea, I know ctrl-alt-del doesn't reboot your computer as it did in dos/9x and xp is much more stable than 9x, but it still is funny. I can see why you would need hardware ctrl-alt-delete keys in xp tho. Perhaps if a program freezes and you can't use the soft keyboard to bring up the task manager, you would use the hardware keys.

[Mojo Jojo]

In your scenario, the processing power will depend on whichever "dumb terminal" you happen to plug into.

Sure, I'll give you that. But the given specs set a very low bar. In fact the lowest computer sold by the big companies (Dell, Gateway, Etc) is now 2.2 ghz and 2.4 ghz for about 400 bucks. Even though the performance is constant with this product, it is a slow constant that is beaten by the dumb terminal scenerio in performance with new purchases.

[jlp]

If you cannot use the computer unless at a 'station' then why not just use a less expensive desktop system to remotely connect to a central site via RDP (Remote Desktop/Terminal Services)?

This kind of products is NOT intended to use as a harddisk (ipod*) to move your data with you from one stationary place to the other!!

As this picture from Antelope Tech site suggests, it's rather for vertical markets who need the power of a desktop PC while away from their desk:

http://www.antelopetech.com/images/dr_groundops.gif

There are countless uses where neither a portable harddisk (even in the form of an ipod*), nor a PPC, nor a laptop, nor more obviously a desktop could practically be used to access large amount of data and processing power.

Granted the rugged device is large, just because it's... rugged, uses a large screen (6.3" 1024x768 rez) and incorporates lots of connectors (a PC Card slot, mic, phone, 2 USB ports), batteries, the power supply, plus the core (MCC) itself.

They are apparently working on a smaller input device (touch screen unit) that is closer to the size of a PPC (tho somewhat larger since it includes an 800x600 screen); this smaller unit is more halfway in size between this rugged handheld and a PPC.


*=I know it does more but it's what it would be in these situations

[jlp]

oops, when I hit the "quote" buttons on JonnoB's post I missed a whole page and noticed some other people also understand what this device is for.

OTOH, I've found a WB 2 News broadcast where they present the device and show Antelope Tech CEO with an MCC and accessories, and incidently he is also using this smaller handheld I just talked about.

Here are 3 shots from the broadcast:

http://home.urbanet.ch/urba4768/div/WB_2_News_broadcast-a.jpg
http://home.urbanet.ch/urba4768/div/WB_2_News_broadcast-b.jpg
http://home.urbanet.ch/urba4768/div/WB_2_News_broadcast-c.jpg

[Hugh Nano]

Glad to see that some Pocket PC Thoughts members have already picked up on the fact that this is more of a mobile solution than Ed's summary seems to imply. My avatar image is, in fact, one of the Antelope handheld prototypes that is included in the $4000 purchase price. As I've said before, I want one. It seems to me that this is the ultimate mobile solution--a desktop that converts to a handheld: all the power of the desktop in the handheld form-factor and no more worries about synchronizing data. But $4000 is completely out of my price-range. Too bad. :( Oh, well. Perhaps one day one of these will show up on eBay at a price I can afford?

[jlp]

Glad to see that some Pocket PC Thoughts members have already picked up on the fact that this is more of a mobile solution than Ed's summary seems to imply. My avatar image is, in fact, one of the Antelope handheld prototypes that is included in the $4000 purchase price.

No the handheld in the $4k offer is the larger one, not the smaller one your avatar portrays.

But $4000 is completely out of my price-range. Too bad. :( Oh, well. Perhaps one day one of these will show up on eBay at a price I can afford?

In the WB 2 News broadcast I talked about the journalist says that Antelope Tech "expects to have consumer based products for the MCC as early as the end of 2004."

Use this link to stream the 7.2 MB WB 2 News broadcast :
http://www.antelopetech.com/images/pr_docs/9_28_03AntelopeChannel2.wmv

[Falstaff]

I personally think that the entire concept of having a removable card should be bypassed. If they would just put the proccessing power inside a PDA (maybe slightly larger than normal) sized device, that simply had a cradle, it would be much simpler. Maybe I just think that because I like having a PDA with me, and I wouldn't want to have to pop a card into the screen to use it. Although, in a year and a half to two years, we should be seeing 1.0GHz PDAs (according to Moore's Law), so I can wait for that.

[Hugh Nano]

Glad to see that some Pocket PC Thoughts members have already picked up on the fact that this is more of a mobile solution than Ed's summary seems to imply. My avatar image is, in fact, one of the Antelope handheld prototypes that is included in the $4000 purchase price.

No the handheld in the $4k offer is the larger one, not the smaller one your avatar portrays.

True. I did mention that my avatar represents a "prototype" but my wording was somewhat misleading (unintentionally).

But $4000 is completely out of my price-range. Too bad. :( Oh, well. Perhaps one day one of these will show up on eBay at a price I can afford?

In the WB 2 News broadcast I talked about the journalist says that Antelope Tech "expects to have consumer based products for the MCC as early as the end of 2004."

That would be good! Perhaps there's hope for my dream machine yet!

[Ratel10mm]

Personally, I would prefer the OQO machine, purely because it has an in-built screen. As a field service type, it would suit my needs as closely as anything can right now. Hopefully it will make it to market, and at a lot less than $4000.