The ROAD Linux-Powered Handy PC Closer to Realization

[Ekkie Tepsupornchai]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.engadget.com/2006/08/18/road-keeps-their-linux-handy-pc-concept-alive/' target='_blank'>http://www.engadget.com/2006/08/18/...-concept-alive/</a><br /><br /></div><i>"...ROAD has been promising this Handy-PC Linux dreamphone of theirs for a while now... it still hasn't materialized, but their new concept version of the phone looks a tad snazzier and a bit more for-reals... it's still a QWERTZ clamshell with Bluetooth, WiFi, quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE and a 640 x 240 display. When closed the unit acts like a slightly chunky candybar -- ala Nokia 9300 -- with a 102 x 65 monochrome display... The device is powered by a 400MHz Xscale CPU, and comes in two flavors: the S101 and S101K, the latter of which adds a 2 megapixel camera and encryption..."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/ekkie_road_linux_handypc_200608.jpg" /><br /><br />No word yet on when this might be available or for how much, but I wonder how many folks would like this better as a Windows Mobile device with this higher resolution, but larger size? I know I might be intrigued. If you're interested in pre-ordering or just following the latest press releases, you may want to bookmark their <a href="http://www.road-gmbh.de/">website</a> (though it is in German). Anyway, let us know what your impressions are of this!

[kaiden.1]

..you know with bluetooth head sets now, I hardly use the phone to my ear anymore anyways. Having a larger device with good screen that is useful as a mini PC, and a phone is a great idea! I Like It! My PPC is just too small for me to use much more than a PDA......I really like the idea of the tiny PC.
If it can come with decent memory.....(I hate devices with little to no memory.....whcih includes almost everything out there)
Hopefully the price is decent and it works without problems.......would love to read a good review and try it out!
-k :D

[netboy]

but I wonder how many folks would like this better as a Windows Mobile device with this higher resolution

what high resolution are u talking about?? i mostly use my pdaPhone for internet. if i use this thing for internet, i bet i be clicking the down arrow on every pages!
also i use my pdaPhone for GPS, with this thing it only shows the maps with 25% view..

[Gerard]

yatbd. oy. What's with all the thumboards? For a so-called keyboard where only 2 of the customary 10 digits can be practically put to work entering text, a thumboard takes up an inordinate amount of device space which might better be occupied by bigger batteries, more slots, etc. The smallest practical keyboard for any serious amount of writing is similar to that found on the small Sony VIAO notebooks - not that I have one, but that's about like my Belkin folder, which is similar. Even at that scale one feels cramped, unless possessed of very small hands.

I'm happy to see that everyone jumping on the Blackberry bandwagon. Shows that humanity is still behaving more or less the same, copying a success long after it's become accepted. It's the same with all sorts of fashion trends. But seriously, how long are devices like this going to be around, when half the darn things are devoted to an inadequate data entry device? If folks want them, great, here's another supplier. But I sure wish the manufacturers would get busy on continuing the good path they abandoned, with large, screen/stylus-driven PDAs. Throw phones into the things, throw whatever feature they like as such things get cheaper. But don't toss truly nice screens in favour of the text messaging market.

[QYV]

Despite your desire to believe otherwise, device users have spoken with their wallets and thumboards are what they want. I personally am twice as fast using two thumbs as compared to any stylus-based entry method, and that's discounting the convenience of not having to pull the stylus out in the first place, and I am apparently in the majority (though perhaps not in these forums).

I do hope some device makers continue to serve the non-thumboard market because I hate to see anyone forced to use something they don't like, but don't count on the trend suddenly reversing because companies "see the light"...

[Lex]

Is life cyclic ? Looks like the HP Jornada palmtops are back to life !

[Marcel_Proust]

first, this is likely vapourware. how likely is it a minor player can enter the market at this stage of the game? and sign contracts with the telcos?
besides, would the telcos like linux. it's too non-standardized, and they don't like that.
then, i don't see anything great about the stats of this device. 1/2 vga screen. so why not go to the JASJAR VGA, the greatest, if somewhat bulky, device imho. and the JASJAR is even beginning to run Linux if you head out to XDA forums. for those so inclined.

[natestera]

I have to agree that the clamshell keyboard works well after getting used to it. I went though 2 of the 9000 series nokia phones, and the web browser offered WAP, or fully supported java. I'd rather scroll down than across and down. Of course good thing the Thoughts site is so well formatted. I typed this on my ipaq...could have been done 10 minutes ago on the nokia, but they died...

[Gerard]

Despite your desire to believe otherwise, device users have spoken with their wallets and thumboards are what they want.

A majority also 'speak with their wallets' in any number of peculiar, distasteful ways. Paris Hilton (Sidekick = coincidence?) owes her 'fame' to such trends. The popular mind does not, unfortunately, jibe with what is so ironically known as common sense. Thumbs are faster than a stylus? Sure. And if faster-than-stylus but much-slower-than-keyboard input is what you need, great, use it. But please, don't delude yourself as to the reasons why more people's wallets are opening for thumboard-driven devices. It's a fashion thing. Be seen doing what one is lead to believe one should be seen doing...

I am not suggesting that a thumb input interface is bad. For those who benefit (besides the sellers) it is useful. A bigger screen is also useful. I'm suggesting that the latter has more utility for the majority, though they aren't being told that, and tend to do what they're told.

[netboy]

Despite your desire to believe otherwise, device users have spoken with their wallets and thumboards are what they want.


no, that because they have no other options! i really really wanted a VGA pdaPhone WITHOUT build-in qwerty keyboard. what's with the EXTRA build-in keyboard?? we already have a popup keyboard!

[Damion Chaplin]

Wow, really? You like that pop-up keyboard? Yeesh.

Gerard, I'm afraid I have to disagree. I've been waiting for a thumboard on a PPC for years. Just because you don't see the purpose doesn't mean I bought it because it's 'in fashion'. I couldn't care less about the blackberry/sidekick phenomena, I just wanted a way to type articles and emails without using the stylus. I agree a nice small keyboard is superior for text entry to a thumboard, but how large would that make my handheld? Hint: It wouldn't be a handheld.

In short, I bought a thumboard because I didn't want a full keyboard and I hate stylus input. It was certainly a common-sense decision on my part, no matter how 'delusional' you think us K-JAM users are... So please don't imply that I'm simply 'doing what I was told' unless you're implying that I did what I told myself to do, in which case you're correct. Somehow, I don't think that's what you meant though.

So relax dude. Different strokes fer different folks. You and I are obviously different and thus require our own self-determined strokes. :wink:

[Pdaholic]

what's with the EXTRA build-in keyboard?? we already have a popup keyboard!

The "extra build-in keyboard" is because pecking with two fingers is much faster than pecking with a stylus on a tiny screen.

I don't know how many people want a built-in keyboard and how many don't (poll, anyone?), but I can see the keyboard as being a better way for the general public to input info on phones. That's why they are selling. The keyboard sure sold me in regards to input, and it had NOTHING to do with style.

That said, I don't know how well this device will do. Remember the old Jornada 720 series? Too small to touch type (at least for my hands) and too big to carry in a pocket. Made neither a decent laptop nor handheld. The NEC Mobile Pro 900 series was a perfect laptop replacement--if you didn't mind your laptop not actually running Windowz. HTC universal, Sony Clie UX50 and the like have done well because they can be pocketable and make for a better thumbboarding experience than the traditional small-button thumbboards (Ipaq 4350, treos). I presume this device will go the way of the Jornada 720.

[bbrockie]

I hope they can swap the 'Z' with the 'Y' on this QWERTZ keyboard :mrgreen:

[Marcel_Proust]

Despite your desire to believe otherwise, device users have spoken with their wallets and thumboards are what they want.


no, that because they have no other options! i really really wanted a VGA pdaPhone WITHOUT build-in qwerty keyboard. what's with the EXTRA build-in keyboard?? we already have a popup keyboard!

well i like qwerty keyboards, but i hope you get your wish. if hp released a phone update to the hx4700, that would be just swell, and I hope they can see a market in that.
for those of us who like keyboards though, i just don't see what this machine has over the full VGA HTC Universal. and if they can't bear the size, the new non vga HTC.

[desertrat_blog]

what's with the EXTRA build-in keyboard?? we already have a popup keyboard!
What, you mean that stupid thing that takes up half the screen, and in badly written programs obscures what you're trying to enter? One would've thought that with the 300% increase in screen real-estate that a VGA display has over a QVGA display that problem would be eliminated, but no, as of WM2003SE there is still no significant/useful support for VGA. So what's the point of a big shiny VGA display that shrinks to uselessness when you start entering text?