02-07-2006, 01:00 AM
|
|
Swami
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 4,303
|
|
Microsoft's Ideal Lifestyle Ultra-Mobile PC
"Word is trickling out that Microsoft has treated attendees at its Mobile Platform Division partner briefing to its vision of the next generation of "ultraportable lifestyle PCs." . . . Bill Mitchell, Corporate Vice President of the Mobile Platform Division, showed a slide that outlined specs for the new PC category, including that it be wearable, always on, no larger than 10-inches, connected through 3G networks, pen-based, and have a suggested retail price of $500 or less. Sounds like something of a cross between Windows Mobile smartphones and tablet PCs (sort of like the Ruby concept PC, pictured)"
OK, file this one as 'sounds very interesting; remind me again in a year or so'. This puppy is also meant to be running a full-blown version Windows, i.e. it's a slimmed down tablet rather than a beefed up 'mobile' device. No doubt we'll get devices that can do as Microsoft want and at the US$500 level, but when? Does this sound like a good concept to you? If you had an 'ultraportable lifestyle PC' like this, how would you use it?
|
| |
|
|
|
02-07-2006, 03:09 AM
|
|
Ponderer
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 76
|
|
always on
if it is always on then it seems good to me. That is the key to portable computing. It's a team sport device. I find it embarassing if I have to fumble around with the machine trying to get to information while someone is waiting for me in a meeting or in the hallway discussion. the price seems impossible to me. If I were the dualcor people it would scare me.
also on that same site was a clip about apple patents on a gui for a tablet. I'm surprised someone didn't post that on the front page. It was irritating to see that Jobs had put his own name against some of the patent information on a machine without a keyboard - the infamous quote comes to mind on why he killed my beloved Newton - something like real computors have keyboards. :evil:
__________________
ipaq 3670*OS 2002
|
| |
|
|
|
02-07-2006, 05:59 AM
|
|
Thinker
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 359
|
|
I think this would appeal mostly to certain vertical markets, like the Handheld PC did. I think the functionality is too much for too small of a device to appeal to the average consumer IMO.
|
| |
|
|
|
02-07-2006, 06:51 AM
|
|
Philosopher
Join Date: Jan 2005
Posts: 566
|
|
An OQO w/o a hard drive.(??)
__________________
-= Sass =-
|
| |
|
|
|
02-07-2006, 07:29 AM
|
|
Ponderer
Join Date: Jan 2005
Posts: 108
|
|
Inevitable but when?
From a purely technical point of view I don't see how Microsoft can avoid moving in the direction of a full implementation of XP on a PPC form factor.
As solid state storage capacities increase in density without increasing in size it won't be long before 10GB is available either in SD card format or in micro drives. I'd estimate that is a tipping point at which you might as well have a full PC based operating system on your PPC rather than the artificially brain dead version we have now.
I suspect the only reason we do not have it today (4GB would be sufficient if you devoted most of it to OS) is so that Microsoft can protect its desktop applications market. The current artificially high pricing for Office products means you could not deliver them on a PPC for under $500 and provide what most people want which is full MS Office apps functionality. Of course, the joke is, that 3rd parties are providing full Office App functionality for both PPC and the Palm platform, if you want it now.
Once Microsoft accept the inevitable that to remain competitive they have to lower prices then I would not be surprised if they don't move rapidly to implement one operating system and one set of applications across all computing devices from handhelds to servers.
LouisB
|
| |
|
|
|
02-07-2006, 08:47 AM
|
|
Theorist
Join Date: Jun 2002
Posts: 301
|
|
biglouis is dead on here. Microsoft has been keeping the PPC down with a lot of little inadequacies for quite a long time. Do they really want a flawless "round trip" experience for .doc or .xls file? I doubt it. When the PPC can do exactly what an XP desktop does, they get cannibalization not extension.
I think they're happy with the PPC as the "dumb little brother" of XP always at the end of an ActiveSync leash. First you buy an Dimension desktop from Dell and they get probably $50 on the XP license, then you buy an Axim and they get another what $20 for the Windows Mobile license on that?
Bluetooth HID profile? Maybe we'll get around to that. USB host in the reference design? Not a chance! Sure Microsoft won't "stop" an OEM from bolting a solution onto the design, but they have clearly stopped taking effort to extend it themselves. Since they creamed Palm, there's no one keeping them honest anymore.
I can't wait to jump to a portable XP. I used to think Linux handhelds would be a solution, but that's gone nowhere.
Personally, I'm really tired of having to spend hours futzing around with Syware to make a DB that's got a fraction of what I can make Access do in ten minutes. That's not a criticism of Syware BTW, it's just the idiocy of having to build two completely different skill sets.
Hardware has improved to the point where this ought to work. What is taking so long?
|
| |
|
|
|
02-07-2006, 08:57 AM
|
|
Contributing Editor
Join Date: Feb 2007
Posts: 3,111
|
|
Re: Inevitable but when?
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by biglouis
As solid state storage capacities increase in density without increasing in size it won't be long before 10GB is available either in SD card format or in micro drives. I'd estimate that is a tipping point at which you might as well have a full PC based operating system on your PPC rather than the artificially brain dead version we have now.
|
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Mark Johnson
Hardware has improved to the point where this ought to work. What is taking so long?
|
Two things I can think of right off the bat - heat generation, and short battery life. Current handtops like the OQO and the Sony Vaio U suffer from both.
__________________
"A planner is a gentle man, with neither sword nor pistol.
He walks along most daintily, because his balls are crystal."
|
| |
|
|
|
02-07-2006, 10:02 AM
|
|
Pontificator
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 1,043
|
|
The Toshiba e800 is about big enough; with average to large hands it's manageable, it'll fit in a decent sized pocket, and the screen's big enough for most work/browsing/reading. Slightly larger - possibly a 5" screen - would still be portable, but exclude a lot of users with smaller hands just because it'd be awkward.
A device on the scale they're talking about seems weird to me. Too big for Blackberry-like thumb typing, it nonetheless has a thumboard. Why? Not big enough to really rest on a forearm like a tablet but too big to use in the palm, how does one hold it? I like the scale, but it seems more a special applications appliance or an around-the-house gadget. Something for beside an armchair, or for semi-mobile workers in factory settings.
For general consumption, if you're going bigger than a large PPC, go tablet scale. Anything over about a 10" screen or below 5" seem convenient to use. 6" to 9" seem to make for awkward devices. Or am I full o' beans?
|
| |
|
|
|
02-07-2006, 10:11 AM
|
|
Pontificator
Join Date: Apr 2004
Posts: 1,108
|
|
'Scuse me, Microsoft? Have you forgotten that you already have a device in this weight class, one that's smaller, cheaper, and more comfortable to use than any transplanted notebook? Idiots. A minitablet with a thumb keyboard... Hrmph. :evil:
|
| |
|
|
|
02-07-2006, 11:31 AM
|
|
Sage
Join Date: Jan 2006
Posts: 805
|
|
Well, I would really love such a device. Then, I would be able to run full fledge, VS.net on it. I want to do programming on the move. Sadly there are no such apps for the ppc
Sunny 
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Linear Mode
