"After the slew of recent device announcements... HTC is now busily prepping the follow up to it's 'mini-laptop' form factor HTC Universal, better know as the SPV M5000, i-mate JASJAR, T-Mobile MDA Pro, O2 XDA Exec, etc. The follow up to the Universal, codenamed the 'HTC Omni', is set to offer a similar design, VGA support once again, and boosted connectivity with HSDPA support."
One of the things that's stopping me from getting a WM5.0 device is the lack of choices for VGA devices - it's the Universal (too big), the Sharp Wilcomm (Japanese), or the Sharp Zaurus (not even WM5.0). There's always the Dell x51v but it doesn't offer much of an upgrade over my present PDA. Now another potential contender is on the way from HTC themselves - a replacement for the Universal that offers just enough extras to get me excited again. Featuring a processor from Samsung, more hardware buttons, HSDPA, a size smaller than the Universal, and potentially VGA out, the Omni is due to be delivered in late '06/early '07. Here's wishing it has an SDIO slot too. :wink:
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"A planner is a gentle man, with neither sword nor pistol.
He walks along most daintily, because his balls are crystal."
VGA output? Does this mean it will have a 2700G GPU, or just something worse (for example, ATI ImageOn?) It'd be GREAT!
I also hope it'll already offer seamless conversation recording-capable hardware, unlike all the HTC models released so far.
The other stuff (more hardware buttons, HSDPA) seem to be cool, but why there is no external LCD to, at least, display the caller's number/name? The Universal is so less usable than the Wizard or other, non-mini-laptop PPC PE devices when not used with an advanced BT headset...
VGA output? Does this mean it will have a 2700G GPU, or just something worse (for example, ATI ImageOn?) It'd be GREAT!
I wish...it's not quite that simple though. The way I read the article, it's something that's been added to WM5 through AKU3 - i.e. software only. We'd still need hardware support and on that there's precious little except speculation. I'm still keeping my fingers crossed though
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"A planner is a gentle man, with neither sword nor pistol.
He walks along most daintily, because his balls are crystal."
VGA output? Does this mean it will have a 2700G GPU, or just something worse (for example, ATI ImageOn?) It'd be GREAT!
I wish...it's not quite that simple though. The way I read the article, it's something that's been added to WM5 through AKU3 - i.e. software only. We'd still need hardware support and on that there's precious little except speculation. I'm still keeping my fingers crossed though
I don't believe that SW upgrade only could give you the VGA out feature. You need some kind of HW. Maybe it could be done through USB slot, since it's allready used for sound, but iit would be kind of clumsy.
In any case if they don't use some kind of GPU, then this will be pretty uselles (slow) feature, maybe usefull for displaying static images/slides.
So I hope the implementation is going to be something like Dell x50v/x51v true VGA out capable of displaying full video, since HTC is producing them they should have plenty of experience.
Also USB host functionality would be really nice, and usefull for attaching external storage, and SDHC port for 8Gb and beyond cards...
I don't believe that SW upgrade only could give you the VGA out feature. You need some kind of HW. Maybe it could be done through USB slot, since it's allready used for sound, but iit would be kind of clumsy.
...which was the point I was trying to make. Having driver/software support would be nice (DirectX Mobile?), but you still need the hardware to make it happen. I actually had the same thought you did - they might actually have to replace the mini-USB slot to one of the propreitary connectors like the Dell, just to get it working, or another slot/socket entirely.
__________________
"A planner is a gentle man, with neither sword nor pistol.
He walks along most daintily, because his balls are crystal."
I don't believe that SW upgrade only could give you the VGA out feature. You need some kind of HW. Maybe it could be done through USB slot, since it's allready used for sound, but iit would be kind of clumsy.
...which was the point I was trying to make. Having driver/software support would be nice (DirectX Mobile?), but you still need the hardware to make it happen. I actually had the same thought you did - they might actually have to replace the mini-USB slot to one of the propreitary connectors like the Dell, just to get it working, or another slot/socket entirely.
Since HTC allready uses propreitary USB connector in all their new devices, I guess it could be possible to use this for VGA out too, but it I guess it would be rather clumsy. On the other hand, having USB and audio out is also clumsy and they still did it...
VGA Lovers Rejoice: The Successor to the Universal is Coming!
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