01-10-2006, 11:30 PM
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Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 15,171
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More Details On The Long-Missing HP hw6900
"Well lookey here: a good friend of Engadget's who shall remain unnamed landed an internal specsheet on the HP iPAQ hw6900 Mobile Messenger we got some rough n' early details on yesterday. Want the real skinny (until they change it again, anyway)?"
Engadget's got the most definitive specs to date, including a 416MHz XScale, GPRS/EDGE, 802.11b/BT 1.2, GPS, WM5+MSFP (i.e., AKU2), 1.3MP camera with LED flash. Brighthand suggests that it will only have one (miniSD) slot.
The real question is, however, what's taking HP so long? Brighthand suggests that this unit has replaced the long-awaited hw6700 and that they might be waiting for AKU2/MSFP to hit release, but it has already been released by Microsoft and in fact appears in at least one device. I chalk it up more to HP's incompetence. This is a company that took their confusing product numbers and saw fit to add an additional character (e.g., the rz, hx, hw, ...); refused to upgrade the ROM of their most popular devices (like the 2215 or the 4150), alienating their customers; still hasn't gotten around to releasing a WM5 upgrade for the hx4700 even though it was promised; and is generally allowing any interest in their devices to be lost in favor of Palm's and HTC's new devices. In fact, despite the Treo's less RAM, I'd pick that device any day -- it's more compact and it seems someone's actually putting effort into getting it released in a reasonable timeframe. Even though this is one of the few square-screen GSM WM5 Phone Edition devices, I wouldn't be surprised if Palm's future GSM Treo 700w will far outsell HP's unit. It's sad to see HP fall this far -- both of its past constituents (the Jornada and iPAQ teams) were considered amongst the best in the industry. 
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01-10-2006, 11:47 PM
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Sage
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 810
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I'd have to agree with you there.
This device could be great (providing that everything actually works instead of something that merely reflects spec-heaven with muddy performance).
I'd also like to know what GPS chipset is in the 6900. Anything less than SirfStarIII and you can forget it.
Hopefully, HP will pick up its heels and move. I'd like to see them improve.
I also like the new Treo 700w as well, but it needs integrated WiFi at the very least (this 6900 has it plus GPS to boot!), and Palm needs to put out a GSM/EDGE version. A faster processor wouldn't hurt, either.
Although I can't say that I'm a great fan of the square screen (and probably never will be), I'm still eager to see HP release this thing - I want to see what it can do. If it's good enough, it could be what draws me to the idea of giving a device with a square screen a chance.
HP has certainly been slipping and sinking in terms of their handhelds and what the company is capable of. Maybe HP's 6900 can help make a believer out of some of us again. We'll see.
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01-10-2006, 11:51 PM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 1,202
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A device like this just leaves me to wonder. What if Palm had managed to fit these hardware specs into the Treo 700w? Wouldn't that have been THE killer converged device. Instead we are left with the choice of hardware specs or styling/Usability (sorry 6500 owners).
I have to agree, it seems HP has decided that their handheld division is the poor step child that will only be fed to keep from starving. I have to think they may be having troubles getting carriers to actually agree to carry these new devices, what with all the troubles their initial device brought with it. In many ways it's a self-fulfilling prophecy. HP probably says sales are down, so we don't want to invest money into better devices - of course not readily admitting that sales are down because they have been neglecting the market for the last 2 years.
It's always been obvious to me that HP doesn't understand the Mobile Phone market. They insist on making large, wide devices with big screens. Now I know some people prefer the larger screen, but a majority of the people who will be purchasing a device like this will want it no bigger than the Treo, K-jam or i730, as they are much more Phone like in size and shape.
Now I still have to say the 6900 as presented above is a fairly compelling device, I just wish it had a smaller screen and higher resolution. :lol:
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01-11-2006, 01:26 AM
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Pupil
Join Date: Dec 2004
Posts: 28
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If it comes with, at least, 64MB RAM, I'll jump over it!!!
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01-11-2006, 03:53 AM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Jan 2004
Posts: 59
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keyboards, yuck!
Keyboards, keyboards, keyboards! Are we going to see any new phone devices without the silly thumb board?
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01-11-2006, 03:59 AM
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Pupil
Join Date: Dec 2004
Posts: 28
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Yep, I also think it's not necessary. I would prefer it had a 320x240 or 480x320 screen, instead of the square 240x240, and no thumb keyboard. But I can live with that...
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01-11-2006, 04:32 AM
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Thinker
Join Date: Jun 2002
Posts: 312
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Re: keyboards, yuck!
Quote:
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Originally Posted by echernosky
Keyboards, keyboards, keyboards! Are we going to see any new phone devices without the silly thumb board?
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Well, there's the Eten PPC phone devices, and the new Atom. Plus, guess what? You don't even see the Wizard keyboard unless you actually need it! 
__________________
PDA Lineage:HS Visor->Visor Prism->Casio EM-500->Casio E-200->HP Jornada 568->Ipaq 1910->IPAQ 4150->IPAQ 2750 with Motorola RAZR V3->Imate K-JAM->Treo 750->HTC Touch Cruise
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01-11-2006, 03:40 PM
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Theorist
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 278
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Without BB Connect or MS' long promised real push email implementation that can provide the same reliability and functionality of a BB, this will never capture the minds of the business community. While this may not be their target market (although I suspect it is), unless you want to carry 2 devices, once you have experienced the dead drop reliability and efficiency of BB for email (and only for email, I know it is sorely lacking on a number of other fronts - I am long time PPC user that switched over to the BB platform a year ago), it will be tough to get people to give up their BB for this (as much as I would love to).
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01-11-2006, 04:08 PM
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Thinker
Join Date: Mar 2004
Posts: 469
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Yes, HP finaly gets it! Oh wait, it doesn't have a 480 x 480 display? Next.... :roll:
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01-11-2006, 05:21 PM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 1,202
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by powder2000
Yes, HP finaly gets it! Oh wait, it doesn't have a 480 x 480 display? Next.... :roll:
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I originally felt the same way, but the more I look at things, I don't think a 480 x 480 screen will really help much. The problem is in how WM5 uses the extra pixels - a 480 x 480 screen will simply be a pixel doubled 240 x 240 screen that is slower and uses a lot more battery life. It won't enable native 320 x 240 applications that require the entire screen to run properly. The only place it will help is for VGA enabled applciations, that have been tweaked to support square screen VGA devices.
I could be wrong on this, but that's the way I have come to understand MS' "flexible" screen resoultions.
Based upon the way I intrepret things, it appears to me that a 480 x 480 screen really doesn't "fix" what is wrong with a 240 x 240 screen - other than text will be cripser and smaller fonts will be a little easier to read.
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Linear Mode
