Future of handheld computing

[jake]

I recently had a chance to meet with Jeff Hawkins, the inventor of the Palm Pilot. I also was one of the first civilians on earth to get a detailed preview of the Treo 600.

http://www.jakeehrlich.com/Review/BulletTrain/PhantomV.jpg

I am a designer and I designed the handheld device pictured above as a device I would like to see Palm make in the future. My design refence is called the Phantom V. It was actually part of a presentation that I gave to Jeff Hawkins as a cunsumer on where I would like to see handheld computers go in the future.

If you want to read more on my Thoughts about the future innovation of handheld computing or see more of my futuristic design ideas you can go to:

http://www.jakeehrlich.com/Review/BulletTrain/BulletTrain.htm

http://www.jakeehrlich.com/Review/BulletTrain/PhantomV.htm

http://www.jakeehrlich.com/Review/BulletTrain/DesktopDashboard.htm

P.S. Hi Jason! It has been a while. By the way I did not draw this on an Etch-a-scetch!

[aroma]

Jake - Very intriguing concepts.

- Aaron

[Jason Dunn]

Jake, I really believe you should hire a programmer to develop your Bullet Train interface, and sell it as software for the Pocket PC and Palm platforms. That way you'll be able to see if the market likes your idea or not.

[rhmorrison]

Indeed looks very nice I would only add a few comments:

A gyro is not needed, only a minuscule mercury switch
I think an integrated GPS receiver would complement the features of this unit
I don't know if BT or WLAN is the better technology...
For me BATTERY LIFE is of UTMOST IMPORTANCE. When a unit becomes so small and powerful it will be in use constantly ergo it should be able to run up to 24 hours without a recharge (16 minimum).
In any case, it looks well thought out

[spursdude]

Jake - question - what stage are your concepts at? I.e. are your photos of the Phantom V from Photoshop, or are they of a non-functional model.... or does it actually function? 8O

But all I have to say is..... wow. Everything there looks awesome. Shame on Microsoft for saying it doesn't want to change its interface. It's gotta happen sometime.

[Jason Dunn]

...or does it actually function? 8O

They're all digitally created images - Jake is not an electrical engineer. ;-)

Shame on Microsoft for saying it doesn't want to change its interface. It's gotta happen sometime.

Microsoft didn't say they were never going to change their interface, they just weren't interested in what Jake was showing them. It's cool that Jake is passionate about his interface ideas, but I personally would not want to have my Pocket PC look like that - I find it too busy. That's why I think Jake should hire a developer and get to work on making this an add-on piece of software, so that people who want it can get it.

[spursdude]

Jake is not an electrical engineer. ;-)
That's what I figured... but I didn't want to be presumptuous... :D

Microsoft didn't say they were never going to change their interface, they just weren't interested in what Jake was showing them
You may have more info than I do; I was just referring to the line on Jake's site: "A representative from Microsoft's PocketPC team contacted me and told me they did not want to modify their existing user interface."

I like the interface, although it does seem somewhat crammed. But, to me, I think that's better than all the wasted space in the current PPC interface.

[jake]

Hi Jason!

It is weird to be back talking in the PPC Thoughts forum. So much has changed and it is really impressive how you have grown your site.

A year and a half ago I switched to the Treo and have been very happy with my decision. In the next month I will be upgrading my Treo 270 to a Treo 600 as seen below:

http://www.jakeehrlich.com/Treo600.jpg
On 9-18-2003, Walt Mossberg from the Wall Street Journal said "Treo 600 blows away any of the PDA/phones based on Microsoft's Pocket PC operating system." Fascinating Captian!

Despite the fact I have not been posting in the forum, PPC Thoughts remains one of my favorite sites and I read it 7 days a week.

I believe that in the next couple of years that handheld computers (PDAs) will probably be able to run PPC and Palm Apps concurrently, which means that you will purchase a device based on design and specs. When I was designing the Phantom V I could not help but wonder how it would look running PPC OS.

As far as my original Bullet Train user interface for the Pocket PC being crammed I understand what you are saying but with all due respect I disagree.

The premise of my original Bullet Train UI that I submitted to Microsoft remains timeless. I want a single screen, call it a digital dashboard if you will, that has all my vital info including appointments and to-do items for the day I am on along with one step access to ALL my apps that I use regularly.

I have published the first three parts of my 5 part series on the Future of Handheld Computing. The ideas in my article can be just as easily applied to PPC as Palm.

If anybody in this forum has a chance to read my article I would love it if you could share your ideas and insight with me.

Jake

If you want to read more on my Thoughts about the future innovation of handheld computing or see more of my futuristic design ideas you can go to:

Part 1: http://www.jakeehrlich.com/Review/B...BulletTrain.htm

Part 2: http://www.jakeehrlich.com/Review/B...in/PhantomV.htm

Part 3: http://www.jakeehrlich.com/Review/B...opDashboard.htm