OQO Price And Release Date Set

captainJam writes "After more than 2 years of development, the OQO is finally set to be released in October for a price tag of $1899. Initially the unit will only be sold through OQO's website. Those grumbling about the price should take into consideration that the OQO is by far the smallest and lightest XP capable handtop with a touchscreen, slide-out keyboard and Transflective display."

Re:but...

[klausner]

YES. According to early reports it should be able to run anything that has been ported to a Transmeta processor. Like, oh, Linux.

Re:The size is nice, but

[klausner]

According to this article [linuxdevices.com], an OQO VP says the unit "will run whatever OS would run on a PC, so yeah, Linux should run just fine."

Re:looking for the specs

[Anonymous Coward]

From http://www.oqo.com/hardware/specs/ [oqo.com]:

* 1GHz Transmeta processor
* 20GB hard drive (shock-mounted)
* 256MB DDR RAM
* Dimensions: 4.9" x 3.4" x .9"
* Weight: 14 ozs
* 800 x 480 W-VGA 5" transflective display (indoor/outdoor readable)
* 3D accelerated graphics with 8mb video RAM
* QWERTY thumb keyboard with mouse buttons and TrackStik®
* 802.11b wireless
* Bluetooth® wireless
* 4-pin FireWire® (1394)
* USB 1.1
* 3.5mm stereo headphone jack
* Microphone
* Digital pen
* Removable lithium polymer battery
* Battery life up to three hours, depending on usage
* OQO docking cable includes:
o 3D accelerated 1280 x 1024 VGA video output
o Additional USB
o Additional FireWire (1394)
o Ethernet
o DC power
o Audio out

additional features

* Active hard drive protection that safely parks hard drive heads upon detecting freefall
* Screen that slides on rack and pinion mechanism to reveal thumb keyboard
* Shift, control, function and alt keys that have smart-lock with LED indicators
* Thumbwheel allows for traditional scrolling as well as enhanced features
* Ambient light sensor that automatically adjusts backlight to appropriate level
* External antenna connector for 802.11b (in addition to built-in diversity antennas)

included accessories

* Power cord & AC adaptor
* Docking cable
* Desktop stand
* Digital pen
* Carrying sleeve

Wikipedia stub

[antimatt]

The Wikipedia article [wikipedia.org] needs some serious work. Calling all knowledgeable nerds.

Re:Seven word review:

[Erwos]

I see you've never actually tried running Linux on a real slate-style tablet. I have.

XP Tablet Edition is much, much better than Linux if you're actually trying to be productive with the thing. I know that's a minor heresy to admit on /., but the current Linux handwriting recognition (Xscribble being the best I've seen) software just doesn't compare in accuracy or ease of use. xvkbd fills some of the gaps, but you aren't going to write essays with it.

If you want to run Linux for Free software reasons on it, I can respect that. But, really, Linux simply isn't there yet on tablets. It's a bitch to set up, and you'll be cursing at the handwriting recognition the whole time.

Trust me, as crappy as XP is, it's the right choice for one of those.

-Erwos

Re:Hmm

[gl4ss]

then you could like the flybook [dialogue.com.tw].

higher specs, more 'innovative', 3g, looks nicer to use.. and it's cheaper.

Ultraportables

[ultrapcs]

Hello All. Here is a nice web site that discusses the new class of portable computers ultra pcs : http://ultraportables.net/ [ultraportables.net] or http://u-pcs.com/ [u-pcs.com]

Re:transflective backlight

[gildesh]

Well, looking at the word "transflective" I can only guess that it's a mixture of "reflective" and "transmissive", meaning that it relfects some light in order to illuminate the display, but has a backlight to boost the output.

Re:transflective backlight

[michaeldot]

As far as I understand, all transflective screens have backlights.

How else would you see them in the dark?

The difference is that when used outside a transflective screen doesn't compete with the sun and uses natural light to illuminate the display. So the backlight isn't needed in bright light, but is in low light.