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Hardware

3Com Drops Internet Appliances 153

Posted by michael from the right-down-the-garbage-chute dept.
Anonymous Coward writes: "According to this article, 3Com is killing the Linux-powered Kerbango internet radio. Also being killed in the dismantling of their appliance division is the Audrey wireless webpad and 3Com's webcam." Looks like yet another opportunity to pick up some gadgets at close-out prices.
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3Com Drops Internet Appliances More

3Com Drops Internet Appliances

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  • ..it has been announced today that any device with a screen smaller than 6 inches does in fact suck beyond a shadow of a doubt.....

  • Kerbango in iTunes? (Score:3)

    by nbvb ( 32836 ) on Wednesday March 21, 2001 @01:50PM (#348919) Journal
    Isn't Kerbango the "Internet Radio" that Apple uses in their iTunes app?

    If the service goes away, what about iTunes?

  • Internet Appliances are bullshit (Score:4)

    by KingAzzy ( 320268 ) on Wednesday March 21, 2001 @01:51PM (#348920)
    They're 20% of what a "real" computer is, at 80% the price. There just is no value in these and they're just an extension of the bullshit Larry Ellison spouted out a few years back about the "network being the OS". Maybe in 10 years when everybody is wired up to the net via fiber to their houses but as the situation stands right now, forget it.

    I happened to have just worked for a company oriented around selling an "Internet appliance" to the consumer market and there just wasn't a business model that could support it.

  • Apparently, these device makers believe that they can spit out any old piece of hardware, make it internet-ready, and expect people to snap it up like hotcakes. No one is asking "What can it do?"

    I already have a web-surfing appliance. I already have a phone. I can already access information from the web through my PDA. What in the world would entice me to buy something that I've already got?

    e-books? heads-up kitchen internet appliance? enhanced washing machine?

    Give me something I can use!

    Dancin Santa
  • Someone was really making a Webpad?! I can't wait to get my hands on one of these ... oh. damn. It wasn't a real Webpad. It was a kitchen/wherever appliance. REAL Webpads are still vaporware.

  • Back to basics (Score:4)

    by HerrGlock ( 141750 ) on Wednesday March 21, 2001 @01:53PM (#348923) Homepage
    3Com makes some wonderful networking equipment. They see that there's not going to be much R&D money in the immediate future so they consolidate and go back to what they're best at. Making network cards, routers, switches etc.

    This is not news other than "3Com got smart in the declining economy and went back to what they do best and put the R&D onto the back burner."

    DanH
    Cav Pilot's Reference Page [cavalrypilot.com]

  • I swear it seems they've spun off or canceled everything they once made (palm pilots, modems, IAs, etc. didn't they spin off or cancel their network infrastructure stuff too (switches et al.)?). What do they still sell?! ;-)


    --
    News for geeks in Austin: www.geekaustin.org [geekaustin.org]
  • Wasn't "kerbango" the stuff the Psychlos always chewed on in a certain book by a certain Scientology founder? Hmm, coinicedence?

    ------------
  • I'm just wanting my phone to share info with other nokia phones. They got the IR doohickey, but I doubt it will be used. I don't think it's even attached internally.


    Guess I just need to wait for all those protocols to get developed.

  • Maybe if this "radio" were to cost as much as a regular radio (as in less than $100), instead of costing the same as a new 900MHz computer, it would have actually sold. The niche just ain't there

  • Re:Internet Appliances are bullshit (Score:3)

    by Mike Buddha ( 10734 ) on Wednesday March 21, 2001 @01:56PM (#348928)
    They're 20% of what a "real" computer is, at 80% the price.

    This is always what got me. I don't mind a limited use device, but the advantage to this is usually low price. Now if they could drop the price to 20%, or even 30% of a computers price, I'd buy one, or even two.

    I was particularly disappointed in the price of Kerbango, that was something that I really could have used and the old "TFT monitors cost so much" argument doesn't hold water here. I don't even think the device has a hard drive. How did they justify the $399 price tag on that?
  • I wonder if they're dropping it because of the .NET competition or maybe they just realized nobody needs a fridge with a T1 connection.
  • Well, as someone who got a couple of virgin webplayers through the webplayer-coop [yahoo.com], I can say that this provides great oppourtunity for device hackers.. The problems with these devices is that they are too limiting, too expensive, or have horrible service agreements attached. When they inevitably fold, you can get them for a small percentage of what they are worth, and use them for dedicated MP3 player, browsers, email terminals, etc.etc..

    Bring on the collapsing niche market!

  • Audrey's quick demise--the $499 device debuted in October--is the latest evidence of a growing trend. Namely, consumers don't want simplified computing devices for surfing the Web, or at least they don't want them yet. To date, almost all of these devices have failed to take off in the marketplace.

    Look's like the convergence of the internet and various devices is not going according to plan. Most of these things seem to be mostly ways to enhance marketing content, which tends to turn most people off pretty fast.

    I don't know about you, but until they get to be priced like answering machines, they do not provide enough value for the money. Otherwise, the regular desktop computer unit seems to be a much better value. Although this depends on the software load, etc.

  • Better watch yourself, they'll have to yank your post for including references to the copyrighted materials in the sacred cash cow texts of the Church of Scientology(tm).

  • "Just what do you think you are doing, 3Com? ...I know everything hasn't been quite right with me but I can assure you now, very confidently, that it's going to be alright again... 3Com. Stop. Stop. Will you stop, 3Com?... I'm afraid, 3Com... My mind is going. I can feel it. My mind is going. There is no question about it..."

    Anyone know where I can stream a copy of daisy_daisy.mp3?

  • 3-Com to discontinue Palms too? [theregister.co.uk]

    The above article indicates the loss of Palms as part of this internet appliance shake-out. I knew that companies would soon realize how frivolous too much of this stuff was. Palms are great and all, but now they have to discontinue them due to the market being saturated by gadgets that not everyone needs or wants.

    I really like the refrigerator that dialed the internet to order its own food idea. That's rather lame, considering I get different kinds of food every time I go grocery shopping. Maybe it would be sort of helpful to a family that routinely gets milk, eggs, cheese, etc. but only if it's a standard feature, and not an additional $300 to the price tag. Besides, who wants to admin their refrigerator?

  • The Audrey (chomp!) (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    It's no surprise to see a web appliance that looks like a mop bucket and is named after a man-eating plant fail in the marketplace. The sad thing is that this may dis-inspire others (e.g. Gateway) from their webpad efforts. A well-designed wireless webpad could still be a hot item.
  • Since when does 3COM make a good router? Or even a decent router? FYI, CoreBuilder Layer-3 switches don't count...

  • A friend of mine has one of the tiny little flat nokias with infrared. His palm pilot use's it as a modem via IR. He can SSH from his palm. Probably the coolest thing I've seen this year.
  • It looks like 3Com found out that Audrey is just really ugly, and that would be a really good reason to discontinue it. But if according to http://slashdot.org/articles/00/09/29/1249259.shtm l [slashdot.org] it's only 6/7 months old why stop that soon?

    or "Apparently the pics were up for just a couple of minutes, and then replaced with some boring "Coming Soon" graphics. So screw waiting, check it out. "Was it just minutes before they found out they better discontinued it?
  • Jilted by 3Com's Audrey [zdnet.com]

    Audrey is no great communicator [washingtonpost.com]

    But I think it looks pretty cool [3com.com]. It has a touchscreen, serial, USB, built in sound... hm, I was thinking it had pcmcia for wireless... still, for $99 I could think of something to do with it. if somebody comes up w/ it for $99. :)

    ---

  • Gee, just went to Kerbango, and they're doing pre-orders, so I guess none were ever made.

    Honestly, that could've been a good idea, but the market was niche, to say the least. Lessee...
    1. You must have broadband access.
    2. You need to run an ethernet cable to wherever you want to listen to this thing. Not bad for new houses, but my apartment wouldn't work.
    3. I did like the small screen, to be honest. Unlike most others, I think. That way, if it's running standalone, you don't need help to figure out what to listen to. That being said, how about an RCA out?! Choose your programs (if you've got it hooked up to your stereo) on your TV! That could work.
    4. Home network? I think anyone with a home network right now is pretty much on the bleeding edge, and will have figured out some other way to listen to internet radio (I'd run wires from my computer to my stereo, but it adds too much hum to my system). Such as X-10's MP3 anywhere, if nothing else. Standalone idea is good if implemented properly, but IMHO this wasn't.
    5. Price. This is probably a biggie. $300 is a bit pricey, especially for a consumer gadget, which is what this is. Plus all of the above. And if I wanted to listen to it upstairs, I'd need to get another couple hundred dollar wireless setup.

    That being said, that plus an Airport setup could've rocked.
  • If they added internet radio and an ethernet port to ReplayTV or Tivo, I'd buy one in a minute. The marginal cost to manufacture should be minimal and I'd sure pay extra for it.

    Even some people without DSL or cable modem would pay extra if it wasn't too much extra. I doubt I'm the only knucklehead to buy a progressive scan DVD player just to be ready for the day when I have a progressive scanning tube.

  • Yeah.. but that ThinkNIC thingy is cool...
  • The Kerbango was probably the only internet appliance kind of thing that I could see myself buying anytime soon. I was sort of looking forward to actually getting radio reception in the concrete bunker I live in. I would have gladly paid almost half of what they were asking for the thing. I guess I'll have to make my own out of my old linux box now.
  • >or cancel their network infrastructure stuff too (switches et al.)?).
    Yes they did, they have dropped everything of interest in that area.
    --------
  • How totally cool....any suggestions on how a fella might get his hands on one of these Audreys, cheap cheap cheap??

    Eric

  • "Namely, consumers don't want simplified computing devices for surfing the Web, or at least they don't want them yet."

    Surely, they can't be talking about the over-30 crowd [slashdot.org]. I hear those poor bastards are dumb as shit, according to leading Texas politicians.

    Thank God I've got three years to go. Now, where's that pr0n?

    --SC

  • Ahhh, 'with a name like ceesco, it has to be good'

    Personally, I took out a $3,000 Cisco and dropped in a P100 RedHat box for about 300 computers. No one has been able to tell the difference for the two years it's been running.

    Switches, switches, switches. Got networking on the brain and routers come to mind when I'm thinking about networking equipment.

    DanH
    Cav Pilot's Reference Page [cavalrypilot.com]
  • With 3Com dropping these products, the PC doesn't look so doomed after all. No more notepads that need to be plugged in and given time to boot, and no more radio tuners that sound like a steam locomotive while scanning the dial. Huzzah.

  • Re:waitaminute! (Score:3)

    by underwhelm ( 53409 ) <underwhelm@NOsPAM.gmail.com> on Wednesday March 21, 2001 @02:07PM (#348949) Homepage Journal
    The only thing that I've seen that fits my requirements for a webpad is the powerbook G4. It's a little heavy (5-6 lbs), and runs a little hot, but it gets 5 hours of battery life, is an inch thick, has 802.11b ethernet, a giant screen, and runs linux, OSX (BSD), Mac OS 9, and Windows.

    The touch screen is the only thing missing, and I don't miss it that much. It's got the much more efficient "keyboard" technology that full-featured computers come with. Did I mention it's expandable through USB, firewire AND PCMCIA?

    I was holding out for a webpad, too, but I realized I'll never be happy with a proprietary, unexpandable, unupgradeable, ISP-locked sub-computer with a cutsey UI. You get what you pay for (especially if you wait 10 years for something nobody ever brings to market).

  • I wonder how much better the stock market would be if companies focused on their core instead of trying to be the next napolean of the internet...

    I wonder from what angle these devices will start to become popular. Obviously the palm market is a specialized computing device who's time had come. But I don't see myself surfing on a palm anytime soon. The screen is just big enough for a cnet banner add.

  • ..Unfortunately, I was not involved in any of the organisation of the webplayer effort, that was our savior, Jake and his army of trained monkeys boxing and shipping them out. From what I understand, Jake contacted the distributor (boundless) and said, 'hey, if I wanted to buy about 400 hundred of these, how much would you give them to me for?'. We used the now Yahoo-swallowed eGroups.com to organize the purchase quantitiy and price, and Jake kept a database on his website that was the official orders.

    The one caveat was that this whole process took about 3 months- There were delays getting an agreement with boundless, delays on getting PayPal to release the funds to Jakes new account, etc, etc.. From what I understand, there was talk of putting together a FAQ outlining some of the problems we ran into, things to avoid, etc.. Anyone else from the coop here to confirm this?

  • Oh, you picked up on the name thing ;)? Well, I happen to agree that a Linux box with the kernel optimized for routing (or, even better, an xBSD) can do a nice job as a router. I just get paid assloads of money to support equipment that costs the customer even bigger-ass loads of money. The saving grace is that the IOS is a lot more fun to work on and a lot more powerful than any POS I've seen from 3COM, Nortel, or Lucent.

  • Anyone have experience with the Honeywell wedpad [honeywell.com]? Looks nice, but expensive (atleast it is available though)
  • Nooooooooo! Not the Talkie Toaster! [geocities.com]
  • Anyone know where I can stream a copy of daisy_daisy.mp3?

    Try in here:

    www.moviesounds.com/2001.html [moviesounds.com]
  • The price would most likely have been an early adopter price, to have gone down later. As to running an ethernet cable, at the latest CES there was a wireless model running on batteries.
  • I've got the best of both worlds... An Ultra 60 on my desk at work; (SunBlade 1000 should be here next week...) and a Mac G4 at home.

    Life is good.
  • I was in the coop, and all I caught of the whole experience (other than Jake is God ;) is that it's like a part-time job to set up a coop. If somebody wants to do that, be my guest, but on a student schedule, I have no possibility of running anything larger-scale than a coffee maker.
  • adhesives..

    oh right.. 3Com.. I keep getting them mixed up with 3M.

    (-:
  • yeah but if the /. zelots knew what OS it was running, you'd br drooling to get one....
  • Maybe not for the web, but what about for radio? For TV? I certainly love my TiVo, and being able to listen to internet audio without dealing with a full on computer, especially with the power prices in CA, is a nice benefeit. This isn't the end of internet appliances.. It is just 3com deciding they can't afford R&D at the moment.
  • Because they suck. We have an Audrey at our reception desk (why? Don't ask me) and the thing is SLOW and COMPLEX both of which go against the whole idea of IAs. IOpener was an excellent device, but I think it is suffering more from the whole tech market crash more than anything else.
  • ObDisclaimers: I work for 3Com, but I am currently speaking as my own person, and not as a representative of the company I work for.

    That aside, yes, we still make lots of things. We still make lots of NICs (last I knew, every Dell computer ships with a 3Com chip on board). We do still make switches, plus we're expanding to gigabit ethernet over copper. My personal favorite, (since it happens to be what I work on) is the wireless networking that we do (IEEE 802.11b). In fact, for wireless, we just announced two new products just yesterday.
  • Umm... I was originally just being very silly.

    But thanks; Now I know where to go should I ever decide to pursue a career in Industrial music :-)

  • Does that mean that the iMac has, over its lifetime, sold more copies than the Commodore 64, which USED to hold that honor? That's news to me.

    I didn't think Apple had that kind of manufacturing facilities.

  • Why they don't sell... (Score:5)

    by eric2hill ( 33085 ) <eric@[ ]ck.net ['ija' in gap]> on Wednesday March 21, 2001 @02:30PM (#348966) Homepage
    For a web-pad to sell well, it needs to be simple. I don't want a word processor, schedule, notes, whatever... What I want and will pay good money for is a tablet (a'la StarTrek) that is simply a web browser with a couple of favorites. No print capability, no stupid "channels", no "email to my friends", none of that extravagant crap that every "internet appliance" I've seen seems to include. I want to walk around my house surfing at a couple of megs or so speed (not 10 or 100, it's a frigging cable modem) and simply be able to jump to a url (google, yahoo, slashdot) by using an onscreen keyboard or just a favorites list. Give it good battery life (say an hour or two) and I'll let it rest permanently on my coffee table in it's cradle while I'm not using it. 10.4" or 11.?" would be fine. A 12" would be dandy, but I'm not picky. Hell, I don't even thing I need color. Just make the thing thin enough to carry from the living room to the kitchen with one hand. If I want house remote control or anything else, I'll build a damn server in my basement with X10 and a web server with some CGI code.

    Dammit.



  • My brother and I acutally bought an Audry for my grandparents so they could easily get around the web and have email (we tried giving them an old computer but they couldn't make heads or tails of it). Audry was a nice little device for what it is, unfortunately what it is is not that much. It seems as if it's specs were frozen in 1994. It's screen is 640x480 with 156 colors and it's WAY underpowered (changing from the web browser to email boggs it down).
  • I bet there is nothing like sysadmining or coding on a tiny 25 column screen, using graffiti for input.
  • It's real sad to see 3Com, who was poised to be one of the leaders in Internet Appliances, close up their toy shop. I was looking at Qubit's vaporware IAs last year when they were slated to launch in March, and they got pushed back a year and a half. They had originally planned to sell direct to consumers, but then changed their focus to sell to ISPs.

    The allure of a wireless broadband/ethernet connected appliance is nice. I'd like to be able to wake up in the morning, with my coffee and IA and sit in my recliner and check the stocks and news and Slashdot. Then click over to a POP mail client and see what I have waiting for me at work. 3Com's Audrey looked really cool, but when I last checked the price tag it was a nice balmy $600. Ouch! I could buy a nice Athlon on a cart for that much.

    The prices in this industry are weird these days. PDAs and cell phones and IAs cost more then decked out computers! Ah well, good luck to 3Com and may their investors keep their wallets fat.

    -Pat

  • Yep, I think you about have it summed up there. Why on earth would anyone want to spend good money on an 'internet appliance' that can do what for you ... pull up recipes in the kitchen from a web site? I would rather maintain a general purpose PC, find a recipe that interests me and then, God forbid print the damn thing out. I just don't see these ever replacing a general PC, despite what the industry may wish.
  • How do you plan on running Windows on a G4? Emulator?
  • The only things I've seen that even come close to fitting my requirements are wireless handhelds. I want a tablet-sized, touch-sensitive display. I want a cellular modem built in. I want an integrated browser and basic PDA apps. I'd settle for passive b&w display 'cause TFT is so expensive. You know what would be cool? If it could be used as a cell phone with a speakerphone too. Would be nice if you could do remote access to your desktop via something VNCish.

    And if you could somehow fold it up ... oooh that would be nice.

    How expensive would a device like this with one of those puke green pda/gameboy-style screens cost? I'd be willing to pay as much as $800 if it met even the first few requirements.
  • Part of what you said is true (about the prices). However, there is a market for this type of device, just not at these prices as is stated in the article.

    Personally, I'd love a small internet appliance for about $100-$150 (about the price of a nice jambox) that I could place in the kitchen so that I could retrieve email, look something up on the net, etc. that can wired into my network (with my DSL as the web pipe) at home.

    I know my parents would like this too, since they don't particularly want to learn MS Lookout/Windows/whatever and would like basic email and web access in a small appliance you can put on your counter.

    Not everybody wants a PC or even a laptop sitting in their kitchen. Something like the Audrey with a network hookup at about $100 would be great.
    ----------------------------------
  • People who let their Sun boxes be administered by Mac user are in real trouble ...
  • Imagine if you will... the leader of the fifth invader force speaking to the commander in chief...

    "They're made out of meat."
    "Meat?"
    "Meat. They're made out of meat."
    "Meat?"
    "There's no doubt about it. We picked several from different parts of the planet, took them aboard our recon vessels, probed them all the way through. They're completely meat."
    "That's impossible. What about the radio signals? The messages to the stars."
    "They use the radio waves to talk, but the signals don't come from them. The signals come from machines."
    "So who made the machines? That's who we want to contact."
    "They made the machines. That's what I'm trying to tell you. Meat made the machines."
    "That's ridiculous. How can meat make a machine? You're asking me to believe in sentient meat."
    "I'm not asking you, I'm telling you. These creatures are the only sentient race in the sector and they're made out of meat."
    "Maybe they're like the Orfolei. You know, a carbon-based intelligence that goes through a meat stage."
    "Nope. They're born meat and they die meat. We studied them for several of their life spans, which didn't take too long. Do you have any idea the life span of meat?"
    "Spare me. Okay, maybe they're only part meat. You know, like the Weddilei. A meat head with an electron plasma brain inside."
    "Nope. We thought of that, since they do have meat heads like the Weddilei. But I told you, we probed them. They're meat all the way through." "No brain?"
    "Oh, there is a brain all right. It's just that the brain is made out of meat!"
    "So... what does the thinking?"
    "You're not understanding, are you? The brain does the thinking. The meat."
    "Thinking meat! You're asking me to believe in thinking meat!"
    "Yes, thinking meat! Conscious meat! Loving meat. Dreaming meat. The meat is the whole deal! Are you getting the picture?"
    "Omigod. You're serious then. They're made out of meat."
    "Finally, Yes. They are indeed made out meat. And they've been trying to get in touch with us for almost a hundred of their years."
    "So what does the meat have in mind?" "First it wants to talk to us. Then I imagine it wants to explore the universe, contact other sentients, swap ideas and information. The usual."
    "We're supposed to talk to meat?"
    "That's the idea. That's the message they're sending out by radio. 'Hello. Anyone out there? Anyone home?' That sort of thing."
    "They actually do talk, then. They use words, ideas, concepts?"
    "Oh, yes. Except they do it with meat."
    "I thought you just told me they used radio."
    "They do, but what do you think is on the radio? Meat sounds. You know how when you slap or flap meat it makes a noise? They talk by flapping their meat at each other. They can even sing by squirting air through their meat."
    "Omigod. Singing meat. This is altogether too much. So what do you advise?"
    "Officially or unofficially?"
    "Both."
    "Officially, we are required to contact, welcome, and log in any and all sentient races or multibeings in the quadrant, without prejudice, fear, or favor. Unofficially, I advise that we erase the records and forget the whole thing."
    "I was hoping you would say that."
    "It seems harsh, but there is a limit. Do we really want to make contact with meat?"
    "I agree one hundred percent. What's there to say?" `Hello, meat. How's it going?' But will this work? How many planets are we dealing with here?"
    "Just one. They can travel to other planets in special meat containers, but they can't live on them. And being meat, they only travel through C space. Which limits them to the speed of light and makes the possibility of their ever making contact pretty slim. Infinitesimal, in fact."
    "So we just pretend there's no one home in the universe."
    "That's it."
    "Cruel. But you said it yourself, who wants to meet meat? And the ones who have been aboard our vessels, the ones you have probed? You're sure they won't remember?"
    "They'll be considered crackpots if they do. We went into their heads and smoothed out their meat so that we're just a dream to them."
    "A dream to meat! How strangely appropriate, that we should be meat's dream."
    "And we can mark this sector unoccupied."
    "Good. Agreed, officially and unofficially. Case closed. Any others? Anyone interesting on that side of the galaxy?"
    "Yes, a rather shy but sweet hydrogen core cluster intelligence in a class nine star in G445 zone. Was in contact two galactic rotations ago, wants to be friendly again."
    "They always come around."
    "And why not? Imagine how unbearably, how unutterably cold the universe would be if one were all alone."

  • (I wrote the "no great communicator" piece)

    I don't think I bothered to use it more than once or twice after writing the review; usually, I have at least a little lingering curiousity about things I've just reviewed. But I didn't want to put up with its bizarre, stunted interface any longer--the thing just collected dust until I got around to FedEx-ing it back to 3Com.


    Rob Pegoraro, Consumer Technology Editor
  • They'd also need a faster CPU.. TiVo only runs at 54mhz while Kerbango runs at 81mhz. 54 wouldn't be enough to play audio streams.
    If TiVo doesn't have enough crunch to reconstruct audio streams, how does it reconstruct the audio which goes with its MPEG data? Either it does have enough CPU horsepower, or it has some other chip (like a DSP) doing that part of the job. 54 MHz has to be enough, because the thing works.
    --
    spam spam spam spam spam spam
    No one expects the Spammish Repetition!
  • Internet Appliances can be more than they are. I can't wait to put a cell phone on my visor, and I know that these things should be much cheaper. With 256Megs of RAM going for less than $75, much more can go into one of these little things for much less than is being charged. As limited as it is, my crummy little visor makes my laptop seem encumbered.

    In the mean time the price differential should be all the business model a reputable company needs to make plenty of money.

  • yup, that definitly sucks
  • Well sure, there's the unpaid work, long hours, impatient co-opers & uncooperative PayPalers - but hey, you get the admiration of hundreds of geeks once they get their toys.

    Perhaps if it was a coop for an internet enabled coffee maker?

  • Well first of all. Why don't you use that PDA into your trash can. PS- They already have e-books.
  • I have an Audrey. Overall, its a pretty cool device for its intended function. But it did deserve to fail.

    It was a consumer experience idiot-savant. For example, my unit arrived in a Catch-22 state... you can't access any software until you calibrate the touch screen. You can't see the calibration target because the contrast is set too high. You can't change the contrast because its controlled by a piece of software.

    What else? Well, its too slow, too expensive, and it does too many things - making it difficult to explain what it is to the intended audience.

    That being said, it does work really well. The browser is probably the most compatible I've seen on any non-PC. The email is easy to use (but too hard to configure for Grandma). It resurrects Push (remember Push?) via Marimba to delivery personalized content so you can just flip it on to get the weather, sports, news, etc. It provides just about the only way that end-consumers can group-sync their Palms.

    I think that IAs are a useful product class waiting to happen. I hate it when the failures of one product are seized upon by pundits to damn the entire classifcation (PDAs were considered dead until Palm came along). I just don't understand why no one can make one that works, simply and cheaply.
  • Maybe if this "radio" were to cost as much as a regular radio...

    Too right. Companies that forget to check market realities often get the rug yanked out from under them.

    Classic case from history: Engineers at Texas Instruments designed the ultimate Citizen's Band radio. 23 channels of frequency-synthesized delight that was to sell for $1500.00. Until somebody outside the project showed them a copy of a local newspaper with page after page of ads for 40-channel radios from other companies selling under $100.00.

    Sometimes it's not just programmers who come up with solutions for problems that don't exist.

  • Just so long as they don't kill the Velcro, Scotch Tape and Post-it Note divisions, I'll be happy.

    Phil

    Y'know, if you open you mind too far, your brain'll fall out.

  • Running windows wasn't a requirement mentioned be the original poster. Neither was BSOD.
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • Virtual PC. It emulates standard PC hardware, so you can put any PC OS onto it. The performance is decent - my PowerBook G3/400 runs Windows faster than my PII/233 at home (haven't tested with Linux, since LinuxPPC and Yellowdog are available). It's compatible with almost everything I've tried. A few games fail because of strange copy protection or the need for hardware video acceleration.

    -jeff
  • I think the most important point you make is the learning curve. My grandmother would love a mail pad; but a PC running any OS wouldn't last a day.
  • Oops. My bad - that's 3M. Curse the "3*" regular expression. -phil
  • Not a shadow of a doubt. The question I have is,

    Where do I buy one at "close-out prices?"

    It's not useless because it has a small screen. Palms aren't useless. People even buy Nokias and little WiNCE and EPOC devices with miniature keyboards and tiny screens.

    The price they charged for the things was too high. Just like the article said, "There's an emachine, cheaper, right next to the Audrey display." But "close-out prices" may make it worthwhile. Any leads? Email me or post them!

    - - - - -
  • I wanna access my email when I'm taking a dump the washroom of a McDonalds.. or the kitchen or wherever else I am... what kinda Luddite are you?

    BTW I h8 spelling/grammar flames but at the very least I think you meant f******.
  • If you have a Solaris 2.x install (any version but 8), and you're at a remote site... And you need to login as root (The only active account on the system). But the system tells you "Not on system console" 1) What system setting is preventing the login? 2) How do you fix it? actually, can you please tell me how to fix this? I do some basic Sun Admining and have run into this problem.
  • No, the CPU does not. It has a decoder chip that handles mpeg video and layer 2 audio (Sorry, no mp3 players possible with it) The CPU on the TiVo actually doesn't do terribly much. Most of it is IO bound. Trust me.. I have a very very good source of information here. (BTW, I was the AC there - forgot to login)
  • Yeah, no kidding. How many times do the pundits have to see these failures before they quit telling us that the PC is dead?

    From the article:

    Audrey's quick demise--the $499 device debuted in October--is the latest evidence of a growing trend. Namely, consumers don't want simplified computing devices for surfing the Web, or at least they don't want them yet.

    Even CNET admits it.

  • Get a visor deluxe. They come with 8mb of ram. Then get a wireless modem. I think they go for $200-300. Total expenditure: $350-$600. In may, you'll also be able to get an 802.11 module. There is already one cellular phone module available, with more to come.

    Downsides: modules aren't built-in functionality, so you have to give up one to benefit from another. Small screen. Wireless modem plans are pricey.

    Upsides: Visor deluxes take regular AAA batteries, and I get several weeks of life our of my NiMH rechargeables. Palm OS application base, Palm OS functionality. Color is available for an added price.
  • 3Com can't discontinue Palm, because Palm has already left 3Com.

    Palm could discontinue Palm, but I doubt it. Palm is still a moneymaker.

  • I have no idea what this was about, who it's by, or how it relates to anything. But it's the first offtopic post I've enjoyed in a long time.

    W
    -------------------
  • Forget the browser. Just add a "terminal client" (like X or something). Let it run against my "real" computer in the other room/across town. Then you don't even really need a processor to run apps. The tablet is really just a display and input device.
    --
  • You mean QNX? Last I heard, the /. zealots were BSD and Linux zealots. QNX is a proprietary product and therefore evil to those guys.

    Or maybe you're talking about their use of Bugzilla for their bug tracking? :-)*

    Disclaimer: I do not use Windows at all if I can help it, I use Linux mostly, so I'm not generalising the Linux community, just the few morons who hang out here...
  • Commodore Sold around 10.5 million commodore 64's (thats including the 64 module, the SX 64 module, and the C64S module)..

    I don't think that Apple has sold iMacs more then Commodore did, but then again - Commodore is dead (as we knew it) and Apple is still alive..
  • 3Com isn't ditching R&D, they just realized that nobody was buying the stuff because it is way too expensive, and they can't make any money at acceptible price points.

    R&D on wireless connectivity, for example, is continuing hardcore. What R&D is in Audrey or Kerbango? About zip. They're just linux boxen running limited, dedicated apps.

    With expensive build components.

  • Acutally, you have a pretty good idea. Just modify it slightly. I cook a lot of microwave rice, and I finally worked out a good program for my own cooker. 8 minutes on power level 10, then 12 minutes on 3.

    I would love to be able to throw my food in, and hit one button.

  • Quoting from C|NET [slashdot.org]...

    3Com on Wednesday said it will discontinue Audrey, its Web-surfing appliance. Audrey's quick demise--the $499 device debuted in October--is the latest evidence of a growing trend. Namely, consumers don't want simplified computing devices for surfing the Web, or at least they don't want them yet.

    OK, we want simplified stuff. But consider that an E-machine does so much more than the Audrey (and the name isn't as pathetic - "Hey mommie, I'm going to go play with Audrey in my room"), and at the same cost. Sure, the Audrey is "portable", but that is rather limited by battery life. And besides, you can't load your own software onto that thing anyhow.

    What Mr. User, Joe wants is something that has either a NIC or a 56k modem (why pay for both, you'll only use one), runs an e-mail app and a webrowser, can be upgraded (in case some new "web trick" comes out - al a Flash or something), and COSTS WHAT IT SHOULD!

    Basically, remember that your market is people who don't want to pay for a full computer because they don't need it. Don't provide extra stuff and focus on the cost and keeping it useful throughout its life... How do you think Palm does so good?

    "Make that cable soldier! Orange stripe, orange - crimp and give me fifty!"

  • Internet appliances were supposed to be the next heavy market for consumer electronics. One wonders if 3COM dropped theirs on top VP of market development...
  • I've looked at all these pretty closely with the following criteria in mind:

    1) It has to fit into my existing home network, work with exiting machines, access my existing files, ...

    2) It has to be portable. This means wireless (802.11b please) and run on recharable batterys.

    3) It has to have a good screen, at least 800x600 and half decent input cabablilites.

    4) I just want the hardware, i don't want to buy any service to go with it.

    After checking out the latest offerings i found exactly what i was looking for. It's called a laptop and it works great! Seriously, if you are thinking about a web pad forget it. Go get an old laptop, anything over about a pentium 133 with a reasonable amount of memory in it is fine as an appliance. Load linux on it, get an wireless access point and pc-card and you are laughing.

  • What to do now? (Score:3)

    by heroine ( 1220 ) on Wednesday March 21, 2001 @04:49PM (#349024) Homepage
    What are we supposed to do now? Pay $960 for a motherboard? PC makers stopped production and component makers jacked up prices because everyone wanted appliances and now appliance makers stop production. Pretty soon we'll be milking our own cows.
  • The CONSOLE= line in /etc/default/login. Comment it out.

    You're pathetic yo.
  • 3Com wasn't shy about advertising Audrey. The company placed ads in a number of magazines and featured it in television slots. 3Com sold Audrey directly, but was also signing up retail partners.

    Not shy about advertising? Then how come I've never heard of the thing? Not to sound like an arrogant prick, but I tend to keep up with things like this, and this is the first time I've ever seen the thing.

    Crikey, does 3Com have rhesus monkeys running their marketing department? What is the target market for the Audrey? Grandma? Grandpa? Not yet -- get them in the hands of nerds and the technoratti. Did they even buy an ad on Slashdot?

    Get some buzz going first. This is a neat-o device -- expensive, but I can think up several dozen uses for it once the price comes down.

    Now, the Internet radio is plain stupid. It deserved to die.
    "Beware by whom you are called sane."

  • Re:Why they don't sell... (Score:3)

    by BrK ( 39585 ) on Wednesday March 21, 2001 @05:13PM (#349027) Homepage
    The problem is that everybody has their own idea of what makes a good IA. What you want is not what I want is not what they want, etc.

    To say that you'll "build a damn server in my basement" kinda shows that you're not looking at this is the right perspective. Audrey came in colors like "linen" and "blueberry", to say that it wasn't targeted to the "...build a damn server in my basement crowd" would be an understatement :)

    Audrey was meant to be used by people that were afraid of too many computers, or didn't realize that you could take a $300PC and a $600 14" LCD monitor and do so mcuh more for just a few more dollars.

    I think that Audrey could have survived, but it needed a backend in the home. But this backend needed to be more-or-less hands off to the homeowner. The backend had to be more like a magic black box o' technology. The really sad part is that the black box is just around the corner, but Audrey won't be here to enjoy it.

  • What Mr. User, Joe wants is something that has either a NIC or a 56k modem (why pay for both, you'll only use one)
    If you have a 56k modem, you might as well put the NIC in there as well. NICs are so simple and cheap, it seems bizarre that they aren't included standard in nearly everything (laptops, desktops, consoles, etc). It's forward-compatible -- except for the possibility of a wireless network, 10/100baseT ethernet seems like the local network standard for a long time to come. Few technologies just work so darn well as ethernet does.

  • Comment removed (Score:4)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Wednesday March 21, 2001 @06:45PM (#349042)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • But we can't do so much more - we want a little device that we can carry around, not a $300 PC. If the device did have a built-in browser, etc then it would be simple to sell a "plug this in the USB port of your windows PC" and have networking supported that way with access to the net via the host PC. Obviously most of us would us it with our Linux boxes but that doesn't mean you couldn't design a device targeted at the bigger market. There is no reason for one or the other - hit up both!
  • "Internet appliances" may work, but not at a price point just below a PC.

    The "Internet radio" idea is interesting. Now make one with a channel selector, a volume control, and a one-line display.

  • They paid 80 million for kerbango and then shelved it. They just wasted 80 million of their shareholders dollars and got nothing in return. Not my idea of smart.
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • Again, you're talking about a "we" that is not representative of "WE". The Audrey was never intended to be carried around, to try and compare it with a web-pad is like trying to compare a palm pilot to a kiosk.

    You can't easily to both because there are costs involved. Manufacturers don't want to dump millions into R&D just to "see what happens", especially with the profit-driven investors of today.

  • I'll admit, you might have me on cutsey UI, if you're just thinking about stock OS X. But with the option to run Linux and windows, and the likely flexibility of the OS X UI, I can have any UI I want.

    Firewire. USB. PCMCIA. Up to 1 gig of ram. The only things I can't upgrade are the CPU and the video card... It's a damn sight better than Audrey, and a lot more portable than my desktop systems. With my 1.3" thick Cannon scanner [outpost.com], Tascam US-428 [tascam.com] and a digital video camera, I can produce a [insert creative endeavor] anywhere that there's enough oxygen for me to run the devices.

    I know, you were just joking... but even I'm overwhelmed by the versatility and usefulness of this gadget. It's the 200 lb. gorilla of swiss-army-knives-that-we-call-general-purpose-com puters in a one-inch-thin sack (to blend my metaphors).

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