05-05-2003, 05:00 AM
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Contributing Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 8,228
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Intel's Personal Server - The End of the PDA and Laptop?
http://www.intel.com/research/exploratory/personal_server.htm
"A new class of mobile device that utilizes advances in processing, storage, and communication technologies to provide ubiquitous access to personal information and applications through the existing fixed infrastructure."
It has no screen or other user interface. You instead utilize nearby screens, printers and internet connections via a "low-power short-range wireless" (note they didn't say bluetooth) connection.
Well, it sounds cool, but you are just going to have to color me cynical on this one. I don't see the advantage of this any more than I did of the network computer where all of your data was online and you just had a bunch of dumb terminals. Now your data is always with you but you use a bunch of dumb devices to see it. :roll: No thanks. It is a combination of local and remote resources that keeps prevailing, and local means you can do what you need being totally disconnected if necessary, not having to rely on remote resources. Am I missing something? And the wireless connection... is it bluetooth or not? If not, are they developing yet another "standard?"
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05-05-2003, 05:21 AM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Feb 2007
Posts: 116
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Okay, it's getting a little too Minority Report for me... :robot: Besides, the last thing I want is for everyone to see the email I'm sending my wife asking what we're going to do after we drop the kids off at the sitter, you know?
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05-05-2003, 06:02 AM
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Thinker
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 400
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My biggest problem with it is, why wouldn't I want a touch screen? Even if I did use it as a "personal server" I'd still like to access to my own data if I were away from these mystical screens and such that are supposed to materialize to support this bizzare concept. We're having a hard enough time getting WiFi hotspots setup who's supposed to spring for these "wireless" screens and interfaces?
Dumb :twak: Dumb :twak: Dumb :twak:
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05-05-2003, 07:13 AM
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Pupil
Join Date: Dec 2002
Posts: 17
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I don't see how this device would prevent you from having your own touchscreen.. the display would simply be seperate from the cpu (and thinner). This could be nice in some ways, maximizing the usefulness of your PAN..
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05-05-2003, 07:16 AM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 157
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Well, I could see the reasoning behind this technology.
Think about it. In the very near future, things like flat monitors, tiny cameras, input device, speakers, and mic are going to be dirt cheap, and mass produced. In fact, speakers, mic, and input device are already disposable items. Essentially, the only thing that is valuable is your data. Problem is, portable data has been, and I believe will always be expensive, slow, and sporadically covered. I don't think the price of airwave will get any cheaper. In fact, airwave is a scarce commodity, and it will become more expensive as more people need more of it. Sure, technology will make wireless data more efficient and therefore faster, but the maintenance of these infrastructure cost money. As price of everything goes up, the wages to cover these maintenance works will have to be adjusted to offset inflation. Higher wage means higher price for these wireless data service. The same goes for landline network also. They require even more infrastructure and maintenance and will probably be more expensive then wireless.
So, the most cost efficient and sure way to have data with you is to store it in a small memory device that you can carry, and use publicly available dumb terminal to get to your data. Especially if you consider that as PDA gets smaller, the available space for things like screen will become less too. As small as we want our PDA to be, there will be a limitation to how small the screen can be until we can not fully utilize the device anymore. Therefore, using an external screen makes more sense then having a small quarter VGA resolution screen with limited information.
I can imagine that technology like this will push the idea that in the future, instead of having public phone booth, which we almost don�t use anymore since cell phone�s been around, we will have public dumb terminals. These will be devices for you to access the data you carry with you, with out having to go online if you don�t want to. These terminals will be in moving public transits, public places, non-urbanized areas and possibly everywhere else.
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05-05-2003, 08:10 AM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Apr 2002
Posts: 68
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This is a great thing... just not a PDA replacment.
Just keep it with you always... it's your brain. When at work, you can access it at your desk with all your e-mail, settings, documents, applications and more... all there and accessable. Even sends your computer (or PDA, or watch, or cell phone...) alerts if you get mail from Mom, or a voice mail at home from girl friend.
On the bus (or in line at the DMV, or at the check out line) you can access ANY file you ever worked on, any contact, any task, any book, any fav link you ever had. It isn't at home only avalible when you can find a live connection. It's in your pocket.
But it won't take the place of a PDA. It will just make them more useful.
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05-05-2003, 08:14 AM
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05-05-2003, 08:27 AM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Dec 2002
Posts: 245
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Just sounds like another device that will muck up the whole market :roll:
:twak: Shame on you :twak: for mucking up the market :mecry:
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05-05-2003, 08:43 AM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 1,043
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Me no like. Just one more network store to hack, for the losers who like to do that sort of thing.
Instead, what I'd like to see is a sort of pocket-sized multi-format hub. It could be modular, like Lego, with bits for IrDA, Bluetooth, WiFi, any old sort of wireless LAN, even with plugs for USB and Firewire, and of course legacy adapters for those who do a very wide range if kicking around on other people's turf. Then you've go this little lit, about the size of a PPC, through which any and all computers, PDAs, whatever, can all interface via whatever protocol they have handiest. Need a file off that floppy over there, in your PPCPE, and all you have is an ancient PC running Win95 and a parallel cable? No problem; whip out Network Buddy� and hook it up. Have it readable as broadly as possible, built to appear as a familiar device type to just about anything. Of course, I dunno what I'm talking about here, but doesn't this seem a better way to bump data around than more network stores/servers? Universal connectivity is where it's at, not proprietary junk. Maybe this can't happen, but it seems to me it should.
As for carrying around every doc you ever worked on in your pocket ... that's not exactly a far-fetched dream for PPC users. With some users carrying around 80GB external hard drives for their PPCs (thanks to Tapani J Otala), and CF cards getting cheaper in the 1 - 2GB range, how long can it be before a 100GB low-power and tiny storage device we can cram into a CF or SD slot comes available? Once that's here, only big media files will need to be left on big computers. Everything else can come along in a pocket, with a proper screen and stylus as part of the deal.
__________________
Gerard Ivan Samija
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05-05-2003, 10:28 AM
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Sage
Join Date: Mar 2004
Posts: 734
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Hm, I wouldn't want to use one of those things. God forbid I lose it or it gets stolen.. Carrying around your PPC is a whole different ballpark then carrying around [in essence] your entire computer life and history.
Now, if this thing was as small as a microfiche and could be implanted in say.. a finger, then yes, this'd be a great. But I sure as heck wouldn't want this unless it uses some top notch biometrics for security...
Having said all that, these things do have potential. You could carry around this thing the size of a matchbox or even better, credit card, and it would act as server, authentication device, personal data storage, and could interface with terminals or screens that you'd carry around: transparant paper thin displays..
But hey, I'm just a big Sci-Fi lovin' geek
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