Fully-functional Miniature Notebook Planned 225
florin writes "Check out this upcoming extremely cool micro-sized notebook from Microsoft-cofounder Paul Allen's company Vulcan (who were previously mentioned on Slashdot some time ago). Despite being small enough to fit in the palm of your hand, this is a fully blown x86-compatible computer capable of running Windows XP - or, presumably, a Unix of one's choice. Featuring an 800x480 pixel display, 256 MB of memory, sound, USB2, WLAN and optional Bluetooth, GPRS/CDMA or Firewire, this is far more than just another PDA, yet still small enough to carry with you at all times." Looks really cool, but I wouldn't plan on using full typing speed on it's tiny keys.
The problem all of these have (Score:5, Insightful)
PDAs are a wonderful idea, and once someone solves the interfacing problem I'm sure they'll be as common as full-size or notebook computers. But in their current form, I just can't use them, and I doubt that I'm the only one with this problem.
Re:To type fast (Score:2, Insightful)
Sponsored by... (Score:1, Insightful)
Dunno... (Score:4, Insightful)
I mean, if it's a complete pain in the ass to type on the teeny tiny keyboard on either model, what's the point of a 20 gig HD?
Plus, the Vulcan is fugly.
What's the target market? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:To type fast (Score:2, Insightful)
Hang on a tic... just how long did it take you to become "proficient" with the good old QWERTY? How long to become expert? Did you memorize all of the Palm character sigils instantly? Now, I don't know what sort of purpose you'd think of putting this thing to, but for a good input device for a general purpose device a month wouldn't be too bad. If you're just thinking of using it to save phone numbers, well that's a different story, but if I could type at reasonable speeds on something this size, a month is nothing to invest.
Compelling but... (Score:4, Insightful)
One would expect that the cost would be more than a normal laptop of comparable specs. While its got some compelling features this thing in the end looks like it can't decide if it wants to be a PDA or a laptop. At 800x480 resolution its probably not going to cut it as a replacement for a proper laptop, but at the same time, I wonder how usable an XP system would be as a PDA.
Its neat as a "gee whiz" thing, but what sort of people need a PDA with more power than the present ones enough to shell out laptop prices and likewise what sort of people need a laptop that small but are willing to give up screen resolution?
Re:just to small (Score:3, Insightful)
The whole point is that you can stick it in your pocket. Laptops are too big and heavy, even the subnotebooks. For the kind of thing you want a laptop for, there is a certain size below which it becomes counterproductive. Likewise, for the kind of thing you use a PDA for, there is a certain size above which it becomes impractical. The catch is, though, that PDAs lack the power, storage space or expandability for many tasks which they would otherwise be ideal. This is the niche which this device is meant to fill.
Ugh (Score:4, Insightful)
Give me a traditional PDA with a full-sized collapsable keyboard [amazon.com] any day. With the screen doubling as the mouse input device, it's still very compact. If you need to do serious work, a 2.7 pound ultralight laptop [cnet.com] shouldn't be too much to carry around.
Three Success Factors (Score:5, Insightful)
- Battery Life. Many similar devices are handicapped by their short power duration. Especially for a mobile/wireless device, the ability to run for a reasonable amount of time is key.
- Broad WiFi access. This is outside of their control, but from the design, it appears they are counting on it. If WiFi rolls out as broadly as many think it will, this type of device will do a lot of business.
The ergonomics are just wrong. (Score:5, Insightful)