Ipaq's 4700 - A possible reason for the new touchpad

[norm1153]

Lots of speculation on the Ipaq 4700 in other threads here. This ipaq apparently will have touchpad navigation system built in.

I'll just bet this new screen will depart from LCD; and that it is an OLED screen.

OLED is a new technology, that is just hitting the market. It features much better display qualities, and MUCH less battery drain. But I do not think it has tactile feedback; it's not touch sensitive. (pretty sure, anyway)

So the tradeoff in lower battery drain could be offset by both the faster CPU, and - maybe - the navigation pad polling for changes. So in the end battery usage would remain about the same. Then a somewhat less-than--precise navigating system would be offset by a far brighter, better screen.

Just my two cents worth, but I think the timing is right for the introduction of OLED screens in PPC's.

Norm

[jnajera]

The pad thing really dissapointed me, ipaqs have always been great for gaming. Know the buttons are going to be just as bad as the Toshiba E805 :cry:

[arnage2]

Hopefully, someone will make an external controler for it.

[Stephen Beesley]

Lots of speculation on the Ipaq 4700 in other threads here. This ipaq apparently will have touchpad navigation system built in.

I'll just bet this new screen will depart from LCD; and that it is an OLED screen.

OLED is a new technology, that is just hitting the market. It features much better display qualities, and MUCH less battery drain. But I do not think it has tactile feedback; it's not touch sensitive. (pretty sure, anyway)

So the tradeoff in lower battery drain could be offset by both the faster CPU, and - maybe - the navigation pad polling for changes. So in the end battery usage would remain about the same. Then a somewhat less-than--precise navigating system would be offset by a far brighter, better screen.

Just my two cents worth, but I think the timing is right for the introduction of OLED screens in PPC's.

Norm

I am sorry, but I just don't buy it. The touch screen is just too much an integral part of the Pocket PC Design. Even if it worked okay with the PPC/WM GUI for navigation, what would you do for data input?

[Dermot81]

*sigh* I know gaming is not the main use of a PDA, but I would think even if I didn't play games on my PDA, I'd still prefer actual buttons over touchpad.

Don't know what HP is thinking :( I mean, everyone plays the occasional game or two on their PDA, why unnecessarily make it that much harder?

[norm1153]

Geez; how could I forget input? Well, so much for my theory!

Maybe OLED's are touch sensitive; but we'll just have to see.

Norm

[Chucky]

Sorry to break this to you, but as much as we would love to see an OLED screen its not going to happen soon. Passive matrix OLED screens have only just been introduced, I think a couple of digital cameras use them and one mobile phone is going to be released soon with one. However a passive matrix screen would be just about useless for a Pocket PC, we will have to wait for active matrix OLED's before anyone is going to consider putting one in a Pocket PC. Maybe about a year from now, Toshiba will bring out another bleeding edge PPC with an OLED screen ;)

Also, I don't see why an OLED screen couldn't be used with a touchscreen, I imagine the organic nature of OLED's would make them much better than the current touch screens, who knows perhaps they will not only be able to tell the hardware where you are touching but also with how much pressure, could be useful for graphics applications.


On another note, I don't think we should completely write off the 4700 for gaming, I personally believe that as long as the touch pad makes its raw data available to programmers it could be really quite effective. Who knows, I guess we will just have to wait and see.

[Fishie]

Several oled cellphones already exist, just not in the US yet it seems.

And urm touchscreens as such do not exist, they all have a an almost invisible raster sandwiched between to pieces of glass/plastic on top of the actual lcd.

[Chucky]

As far as I am aware there are none in the world that use an active matrix OLED screen. There is I think one with a passive matrix sub screen there may be others with a passive matrix as the main screen, but none with active matrix.

Yes I know what you mean about touchscreens, but I think your missing the point. OLED's can theoretically be made on flexible material, thus offering more advanced touch based interaction.

[Fishie]

As far as I am aware there are none in the world that use an active matrix OLED screen. There is I think one with a passive matrix sub screen there may be others with a passive matrix as the main screen, but none with active matrix.

Yes I know what you mean about touchscreens, but I think your missing the point. OLED's can theoretically be made on flexible material, thus offering more advanced touch based interaction.

Ah, thanks for the clarification.

[bnycastro]

why not put a 9-way joy stick (joy stub??) in it instead of the pad... It would be awesome for games! like the ones in SE mobiles (t610,t68i,t630) and I don't think a joystick would have that much power drain.

[milkman dan]

Maybe OLED's are touch sensitive; but we'll just have to see.

??? I don't really know what you are talking about, but if you mean to say that there will be no touch screen abilitys... well, the touchscreen ability has nothing to do with the LCD, it is the digitizer that takes care of that. A neat fact, OLED is actually a synthetic rip off of the same stuff that makes firefly's glow, kinda neat if you ask me :)