12-04-2003, 06:26 PM
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Executive Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 29,160
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BSQUARE and Vodafone Deliver a New Handheld Device
"BSQUARE announced that Vodafone is the first wireless operator selling BSQUARE Power Handheld devices. Power Handheld devices are now available in limited quantity to enterprise customers and mobile professionals through select Vodafone stores in the U.K. market. The device was developed under the code name "Maui".
BSQUARE's Power Handheld is a turnkey solution enabling wireless operators and OEMs to bring highly differentiated mobile devices to market. The very small handheld form factor allows for great portability with powerful functionality. In addition, Power Handheld is a platform allowing wireless operators and OEMs to grow their customer base by providing line of business applications and messaging solutions leveraging email, SMS and voice.
...It comes with two options of memory: 64 MB or 128MB RAM, 32 MB / 64MB FLASH and a removable storage SD memory slot (up to 1GB). The display has a viewing size of 4.0�, it's capable of showing 65,536 colours and resolution of 640 x 480 (VGA - Landascape). It's a GSM/GPRS device, capable of 120 hours standby, 4 hours talk time and 3 hours of GPRS usage. The device is SD IO enabled and supports wi-fi SDIO and Bluetooth SDIO."
8O Normally I frown on these "let's build a platform all by ourself" types of devices (i.e.: Nexio), but in looking at the screen shots, it seems that they've really put some effort into making the device useful right out of the gate. It would have been nice to have Bluetooth and/or WiFi, but as a communications device this looks like it would be highly useful. And the form-factor and specs show an agressive creativity that we often bemoan as lacking in the Pocket PC world. The biggest hurdle I see for this is software: there's no developer/enthusiast ecosystem around Windows CE .Net device as of yet, so what will you install on it? :?
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12-04-2003, 06:41 PM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,329
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This has been my key gripe about this device since the first picture was released. Fantastic hardware. Nice OS. Good GUI. Where's the software?
Someone had suggested that support would eventually come. When? If Microsoft isn't actively pushing development on this OS like it is with the Pocket PC where�s the incentive to developed for it? I just don't see this happening until these "types" of devices hit critical mass. The Pocket PC only now is hitting its stride. The one thing that bodes well for these devices: Isn't CE.NET's software compatible across the board (e.g. Pocket PC, Smartphone, CE.NET) with a bit of tweaking? If so if these devices do start getting a following it might be easier for developers to convert over to devices like these.
Right now you have a catch 22 going on. People don't usually purchase devices without some software backing and developers don�t really want to spend the time developing for a platform that doesn�t have a good user base.
Software problems aside this is a sweet looking device. It sort of reminds me of my Newton that is collecting dust
__________________
PDA History: Palm Pilot 5000 -> Apple Newton 2100 -> Casio E-11 -> iPaq 3650 (64MB Upgrade) -> iPaq 3700 -> Casio EM-500 -> HP Jornada 568 -> HP iPaq hx4705 www.spreadfirefox.com |
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12-04-2003, 07:36 PM
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Sage
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 713
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I don't think this is being marketed as a consumer device, is it? If not then the dearth of software for CE.NET isn't really a problem as Enterprise customers are usually installing proprietary software anyway, not Lemonade Inc. :wink:
They are competng with Symbol, et. al, not HP's iPAQ series.
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12-04-2003, 07:59 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 83
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Morty Seinfeld would have been a shoo-in for condo association president had he given out tip calcluators like these.
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12-04-2003, 08:44 PM
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Thinker
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 451
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Re: BSQUARE and Vodafone Deliver a New Handheld Device
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Originally Posted by Jason Dunn
And the form-factor and specs show an agressive creativity that we often bemoan as lacking in the Pocket PC world. The biggest hurdle I see for this is software: there's no developer/enthusiast ecosystem around Windows CE .Net device as of yet, so what will you install on it? :?
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Damn the 3rd party apps, if this was small enough and cheap enough, I'd get it anyway. Thing is it does look big even compared to a 3xxx series iPAQ.
Darn, and there I was saying PPCs were too lacking in cool hardware just a day ago..
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12-04-2003, 09:00 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Jun 2002
Posts: 13
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Bsquare's Maui
The challenge we had when planning this device was that MS wasn't expected to make full VGA support available for the PocketPC platform for a long time if ever. So, rather than pack it in we decided that people might actually want a full VGA display when looking at web pages.
The other features we felt would set it apart were the slide-out keyboard (to enable the Blackberry thumb-typing crowd), a Zoom feature to make viewing web pages more readable, and an intelligent email system that would wake-up, check for new mail, then hibernate again to save battery power. We really wanted to utilize the best features of different devices but also add some uniqueness as well.
The built-in software planned was a combination of what comes with CE.NET and third-party software. My research showed that users expected a certain amount of software out-of-the-box but also wanted to download their favorites. Because we used the 640x480 LCD, we knew there were titles out there that could be downloaded without a problem. Not as many as for PPCs but a decent number. Maybe it was my affinity for Jupiter but I still think something is missing when you only see 1/4 of a screen.
Now that there are other VGA devices out there (Toshiba for example, who's LCD is used in Maui) hopefully the software will start to evolve. It's nice to see that others are seeing the value of these features and I'm glad that MS's Mobile Group will support it soon as well.
Keith Amodt
Father of Jupiter
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12-04-2003, 10:49 PM
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Oracle
Join Date: Dec 2003
Posts: 830
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win
i wanna see win xp in a handheld so you can use win media player (with all formats), real internet explorer, and with a videocard form real 3d games!
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12-04-2003, 10:52 PM
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Philosopher
Join Date: Aug 2002
Posts: 495
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how hard would it be to make a PPC emulator for WinCE?
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12-04-2003, 11:20 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Jun 2002
Posts: 13
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Re: BSQUARE and Vodafone Deliver a New Handheld Device
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Originally Posted by yslee
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Jason Dunn
And the form-factor and specs show an agressive creativity that we often bemoan as lacking in the Pocket PC world. The biggest hurdle I see for this is software: there's no developer/enthusiast ecosystem around Windows CE .Net device as of yet, so what will you install on it? :?
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Damn the 3rd party apps, if this was small enough and cheap enough, I'd get it anyway. Thing is it does look big even compared to a 3xxx series iPAQ.
Darn, and there I was saying PPCs were too lacking in cool hardware just a day ago.. |
It is about the same size as the old Casio E-15 in size, with the back half being the slide-out keyboard.
Keith
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12-05-2003, 07:44 AM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Mar 2004
Posts: 51
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CE.NET
If this is based on Windows CE .NET 4.2, then there shouldn't be too many problems for developers using Visual Studio.net ??
Check out the downloadable file "Comparison of Windows CE .NET 4.2, Pocket PC 2002, and Windows Mobile 2003 Software for Pocket PCs" over at Microsoft:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/emb...p/pocketpc.asp
In particluar what you get with each platform.
Russ
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Linear Mode
