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Handhelds Hardware

10GB In A Linux PDA 153

Posted by timothy from the off-camera-storage dept.
Deep Penguin writes: "Perhaps attempting to captitalize on the concept of data mining (mixed with turtles?), Serial Systems of Singapore has announced the Terapin Mine, a hand-held the size of a 35mm camera that looks to be a fusion of a double-fistful of geek toys: network storage (10-12Gb), audio record/playback, digital picture display (composite video out), PCMCIA reader and e-mail sender. It's attached to the world via 10BaseT, USB or whatever I/O card is in the PCMCIA socket (modem, LAN, wireless, etc.) Of course, all complex systems evolve until they can read Usenet news, leaving them an upgrade path to version 2. Price? $599. Delivery? End of August, they say. And it runs Linux, so no Microsoft tax." An anonymous reader points to this CNET article on the device as well. I was afraid this would live as vaporware on the Terapin site forever.
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10GB In A Linux PDA More

10GB In A Linux PDA

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  • ...because it has a built in network connection and a small LCD display? Seems to me I could save money by buying a portable harddrive and taping an existing PDA with network attachment to it.

    Sorry, looks like a sleek package and has all the right buzzwords but without full PDA functionality, it seems like it misses the mark -- at least at $599.
  • Remember Apple's Newton? I really thought that was a great PDA, especially because of the PCMCIA slot that you could plug anything into. Unfortunately, it still needed drivers, so most things were useless. But having a PCMCIA-ready toy in my pocket would be great - no need to go get still more network cards/modems/etc...

  • It's all about Power (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Big Yak ( 441903 ) on Wednesday August 01, 2001 @03:12AM (#18933) Homepage
    How much battery life does this thing have? After PDAing around the world for a couple months, batterly life is foremost on my mind.

    I have an iPAQ [compaq.com] with a PCMCIA card slot, sometimes hooked to a AirCard [sierrawireless.com] card (sweet wireless 128k download speeds in a taxi!), and sometimes to a Cisco Aironet [cisco.com] wireless LAN card. We recently demoed this working through a Tachyon [tachyon.net] 1.5 meter dish satelite connection, routed to a wireless base station. I was streaming MP3s to a cow farm in Germany. Amazing applications, but one Achilies heel...

    The problem: Power. My battery (even with the extra battery in the PCMCIA sleeve) runs out in less than 2 hours. As soon as I pop in an 1 Gig IBM Microdrive [ibm.com], it drops to about 1 hour, if lucky. To counter this, I've build a little laptop backpack that has 4 rechargable D-cells putting out the 5V DC that the iPAQ wants... backed up by a 12V DC-AC car converter and 3 solar cells mounted on the backside of the backpack (yes, I know it looks geeky, but stick on a couple Rage Against the Machine stickers and people think it's just a fashion statement, the latest in do-it-yourself geek-wear.)

    So, the bottom line is now I carry a bag as big as a laptop whose sole purpose is to power my handheld laptop. Of course, I also charge my Digital Camera and Cell Phone off the same bundle, but I still feel like I'm missing something...

    • Yak, your portable charging station sounds pretty cool. Do you have any specs or a parts list?
    • (yes, I know it looks geeky, but stick on a couple Rage Against the Machine stickers and people think it's just a fashion statement, the latest in do-it-yourself geek-wear.)

      It would seem to me that strapping hardware to your body is hardly 'raging against the machine'. It's more 'the machine won'.

  • 10 GB is useless (Score:2, Informative)

    by irc(addict) ( 239487 )
    Hell, the only thing a sane male would use the 10 GB for is pr0n! And it wouldnt be much of a viewing experience on that screen. Who would waste such precious GB on music for goodness sake!
    • Hell, the only thing a sane male would use the 10 GB for is pr0n! And it wouldnt be much of a viewing experience on that screen. Who would waste such precious GB on music for goodness sake!


      Those of us who prefer actual real-life women find that 10GB of Barry White MP3s are more helpful than pr0n is. ;)

  • This looks like a great mp3 player, but I don't know if I'd consider it a PDA. All it has built into it is an LCD screen and an audio plug. It only stores digital pictures, it doesn't display them. I want a PDA that lets me enter notes/etc anytime, anywhere (let me spell it out personal digital a-s-s-i-s-s-t-a-n-t).
    Sorry to sound like a troll, and I wouldn't be surprised if I got modded down but this sounds like they combined a zip drive (with a big disk stuck in it) with an mp3 player.
  • There is a similar device, Mindsgear Digital Wallet, that gets a fair bit of usage.

    Why? Because portably media is _small_. And holidays are _long_. I would love to have something like this for my upcoming three week holiday, cause then I can take all the pictures I want, and go through them when I get home. I don't knwo about you, but I hate reviewing on the LCD on the camera.

    This has the advantage over the Digital wallet, since it can also be used when I am not on holidays as a portable MP3 player!

    Why not take a laptop?

    a) I don't have one.
    b) size
    c) convenience (batteries are much easier to get)
    d) battery life (I hope)

    -- Paul
  • What about running a p2p server (i.e. freenet) connect it to a power source and the company lan, then hide it in the wall.

    The possibilities for small servers with large storage space are almost endless.

  • I bet a lot of geeks out there that always wanted to have 7 inches in their pants.

    From the CNET article ".. Mine is more mobile, switches on instantly and is easier to use "

    Maybe that would be a cool geek-pickup line. Just to bad when the girls find out it is just another "battery-operated device"... Geek girls dig that though, I think...
  • The whole sound thing is what I have been long wanting in a digital wallet, since it makes it so much more useful, so much mor often.

    However, the user interface on the mine seems a little cluncky, did anyone see an easy way to move files off of a (smartmedia|compactflash) pcmcia card onto the harddisk?

    Also,it runs linux itself, A cut down version, but still linux, but, it only ever mentions Windows drivers anywhere. Is it compatible with Linux? In particular does it work with the usb-storage module in 2.4?

    The Digital wallet works under Linux, but only has USB support, it cannot act as a netork appliance.

    Hmm. More questions that answers until the device is released I guess.

  • Look at the size of it... (Score:1, Interesting)

    by magi ( 91730 )
    ''7 inches by 3.2 inches by 1 inch.'' That's 17.5x8x2.5 cm. That's huge. Much bigger than the typical 80 GB disk drives. Much bigger than a CD player.

    With the given pricing, the marketing gap between this and a real notebook is very narrow.

    Definitely not for pockets.

  • Fat FilesysteM!! Win98 Compatible?! Oh my...No more DV > 4GB. This is in response to those that ask about the defragmenter...you have to sacrifice lots of cool stuff like linux's journaled filesystem for Winblows compatibility. I'm also curious if this thing has a standard notebook HDD in it. If so 30GB could be a nice upgrade to it. The price isn't soo bad when you compare it to other USB/Firewire HDD devices because of the extra functionality. If it were running a fast enough low power processor it would be cool to use this as a base for a VR system too. (VGA out / Stereo out / Wireless capability)...Sounds very interesting....
  • For example, if I'm out shooting video with a digital camcorder, can I dump the data onto this device through the usb connection? Though I suppose that's the whole purpose of using tape.

    But can it store ANY type of file?
  • I can't find any pictures or specs on the device. Like what kind of hard drive its going to use and what kind of cpu?
  • If I had had one of these handy only last month I could have used it to backup my laptop whilst on the road for work, instead I didn't n had my laptop stolen and 1 month's worth of work disappeared as I hadn't been into the office to back it up. I'll be getting one of these just for that purpose alone.
  • from this [ibuypower.com]? If you really want that much functionality, you might as well just go all-out and get a portable PC. -Angron
    • Can I use the Cappuccino as a standalone unit to listen to mp3's or view images on a TV? Sure, I could lug a keyboard and mouse on my trip and hook it to a television, but I don't want to do that.

      Does the Cappuccino run on batteries?

      Could I flip the Cappuccino on, and with no intervention transfer digital images from my camera to it?

      They are two different products with two different purposes in mind. Both are excellent at what they do.

  • What genius named this thing? (Score:3, Funny)

    by Vassily Overveight ( 211619 ) on Wednesday August 01, 2001 @10:31AM (#34607)
    Airport Security: What's that in your bag?

    You: That's a Mine.

    Airport Security: You're under arrest.
  • I have an Archos Jukebox 6000 [archos.com], which is essentially a USB HD with the ability to play MP3s. Granted it doesn't have all the expandability that this thing does, but you can get one for a third of the price ($200).

    I find it very handy to transfer up to 6GB of files from work to home, and play MP3s in my car while doing so.

    What I'd really like is for my Archos to be merged with my Handspring. I don't understand why no-one has done this yet. Add in Bluetooth connectivity to my phone, and I'd be a happy man. That would solve pretty much all my portable electronic needs.
  • It's really nice when fantasies come true. Now we just need some more specs on the baby. Totally worth $599 in my most humble opinion.
  • How does this compare to http://ssiamerica.com/products/neojukebox/

    I've been debating buying the Neo25 and now they've apparently come out with a new version. It's sold as an MP3 player, they specifically say it appears to the PC as a USB hard drive that can hold any type of files.

    It's sold with a choice of 10GB or 20GB harddrive, but you can get it without a drive and add your own. Presumably this makes upgrades easy since it doesn't have the "don't open" policy of some companies.

  • dang (Score:1, Redundant)

    by Tayknight ( 93940 )
    must not use credit card...
    • Ahem, if you do a search for the MyLinux PLW (Pocket Linux Workstation) you'll find a device that can do almost all this unit can and more - It's now going into production and you can actually place an order for one.

      Search google for it, or better yet, search google for the mailing list archives for the Mylinux PLW as that's where the developers are talking about the whole order process.

      • Bzzt. (Score:1)

        by ghjm ( 8918 )
        The PLW is even more expensive than the Mine, and has no hard disk. It does have a nice LCD display about the same size as an iPAQ.

        When I can get a device from which I can store and play a few gigs of MP3s, browse the Web from anywhere, send and receive e-mail, and ssh into my boxen, with a battery life of at least six hours, at a price less than $500 and a packed travel weight less than one pound including all chargers and accessories, I'll buy it. I figure it's maybe a year or two out.
        • Ahem, it has a CF slot, insert microdrive, Voila.
          hell it has a Type II or III pcmcia slot. add a larger one there..

          I'd rather have to plug in the microdrive instead of have to open the case to remove the one in the article. (I really bet it's a microdrive or PCMCIA drive inside there)

          So yes, it does.
      • Looks nice, but the site hasn't been updated in a while. I think it's dead.
        And given that the PLW is supposed to go to production by Aug 20, I'd put my money on the Mine.
  • I'm assuming x86, but the site (which sucks, btw) doesn't make it clear.

    Also, how "stripped down" is the OS?

    Dancin Santa
    • Also, how "stripped down" is the OS? I'm wondering if it wil be running a striped down version of KDE or GNOME or has it's own GUI...
      • 4 lines down and 20 characters across. It's not running anyone's GUI.

        Dancin Santa
        • It's got composite video out. Theoretically it /could/ run a gui on a TV or something. Don't know if the video out is a functional graphics device though, or just something to dump jpegs to...
          • Que? If you can "dump jpegs" to the output, then you must have some form of framebuffer in the device. Thus, it should be possible to do a GUI. Right?
            • Though a TV in you pocket would really spoil the portable bit.

              If they team up with some digital camera manufacturers they have the perfect tool if the thing is able to run as an USB host. Though the USB standard seems to be almost hostile against any good uses like that - do USB hosts really _have_ to feed its slaves with power?

              What could make it usabel is the PCMCIA port. This thing with a barcode reader would be soo much cheaper than a complete Ipaq package. Though a network might not be a bad thing either.
        • Perhaps I shouldn't skip articles anymore 0_o
  • The real strengths of mine are apparent as soon as you take it online. As a dedicated Internet device, mine gives you the power to distribute, share and exchange data securely from anywhere in the World, and to automatically backup and synchronize the digital information it stores with your online archive.

    Does this mean it would act as a server in your pocket?

    Can you imagine a be-Oh.. Nevermind.

  • If it runs Linux (Score:2, Interesting)

    by spudnic ( 32107 )
    ...then explain this question from the FAQ:

    Q:Why does ScanDisk run automatically when I start mine?

    If mine is not shutdowned properly, mine will run ScanDisk so that your data can be recovered. You can cancel ScanDisk process if you do not want to wait.
  • The question that begs is,

    Who actually buys things like this?

    I mean, I don't think I would even want all of this stuff bundled together.

    Knowing myself, I would probabally lose it, and since it has everything all in one, I would lose the company's records, my favorite pictures, my mp3 collection, and my new wireless lan pc card.

    Or, I'd drop it.

    I don't know, but it seems like all of these products that try to combine everything together ususally do a less than satisfactory job.

    I'll stick to my Visor/Nomad/Cell Phone/Laptop and just duct tape them together.

    From what I hear the duct tape look is in now, but when was it ever out?

  • 4 line 20 character display? WTF? Not everyone who uses it is going to want to wait til they get to a convenient composite display monitor in order to check if they downloaded a ton of images they want as opposed to tons of renamed goatse.cx pictures... Such as it consumes power, they could at least incorporate a reflective TFT display, I mean jeeze...

  • This device would be really interesting if a good GNUtella servant or Freenet node was tied to it in a way that freed the user from running P2P services on their workstation, yet still let them share music.

    Oh, and 10GB is just about right, for my collection, which is around 7GB of mostly MP3s.

  • Looks like good advice.. (Score:4, Funny)

    by PopeAlien ( 164869 ) on Tuesday July 31, 2001 @10:03PM (#47817) Homepage Journal
    This little gem from the Instruction Manual [mineterapin.com]

    Accessories
    Unpack mine carefully and check the unit for shipping damage and that you have all of the accessories listed below.

    Looks like real good advice.

    Be careful unpacking that mine Billy, It may be dangerous.. Looks like it's sustained some shipping damage and the detonater's a little loose..

  • Have you seen mine? It's so cool! I want one! It's all mine! It's not yours, it's mine. You mean it's yours? Yup, it's mine. But you can get one too, and then it will be your mine, and not my mine.

    Wondering who came up with the name......

  • What's it's target function? They don't seriously expect users to implement this as NAS of course... Is it then intended as an MP3 player... a PVR (player) ?, an email client? This device seems to be sufering from schizophrenia.

    Whatever happened to the idea to Keep It Simple, Stupid...? Do one or two things and do them well. That's why PalmOS has seen the success it has, while WinCE still flounders trying to decide if it wants to be A PDA platform or a PC platform.

    --CTH
    • Whatever happened to the idea to Keep It Simple, Stupid...? Do one or two things and do them well. That's why PalmOS has seen the success it has, while WinCE still flounders trying to decide if it wants to be A PDA platform or a PC platform.

      KISS works when you only need to do one or two things, but when you need more functionality, that means more devices, more space, and more weight. Let's say I'm on a trip to Europe (sightseeing, not backpacking), without a laptop because I don't want to deal with an electronic device of that size/complexity. My digital camera eats up storage space at a rate of at least 50MB/day (double that when I upgrade to a more recent model), so even a $400 1GB IBM Microdrive could end up being insufficient, not to mention the compatability, power, and reliability issues. That means I need something like the $500 Minds@work Digital Wallet or the $600 NixVue Digital Album (currently the best option), each with about 6GB of storage space. Right now this Mine thing is looking pretty good.

      But wait, there's more! I also like to be able to listen to music during the long bus rides between locations of interest, as well as the flights there and back. CD players are a no-no on planes, and carrying around a decent variety of music requires approximately twice the space taken up by the CD player itself. Power isn't an issue thanks to the standard AA batteries (same as the camera, all charged quickly with a Maha C204-F with the appropriate power adapter), which cameras are now moving away from (but that's another rant). So now I've got a bulky music solution that can only be used on the ground - not very good. If we replace that with a $300 or so 6GB MP3 player, that should solve everything, right? Except for the fact that I'm now carrying two 6GB hard drives that won't come close to being even half full, at a cost of up to $1000, both requiring power. My belt pack is starting to feel a bit heavy... Ok, we can simplify by going with a cheap MP3 player with a Compact Flash slot and putting all of the MP3s on the other device, copying files over as desired. Copying, copying, copying... I'm not liking this idea much either.

      So now, for the same price as a 6GB data storage device, I can get a 10GB device that can store my MP3s and pictures and do everything that a Digital Album and MP3 player could do, and can also function as a simple voice recorder (no need for that microcassette recorder anymore). All in the space of a graphing calculator (with a couple more lines on the display, it would even look almost exactly like a graphing calculator...), and running on the same batteries I (currently) use for my camera. That brings my total belt pack down to just this thing, the camera, PDA, binoculars, batteries, and a Compact Flash PC card adapter (well, and the mini tripod, clamp, pocket level, pen, passport, plane tickets, assorted pamphlets, etc.). Sounds good to me.

    • It's portable data storage that does not need a computer to function. What's simpler than that? You decide what you want to do with it.

      Got MP3s? Use it as a central storage for MP3s.

      Got a digital camera? Use it to store and display digital images.

      Need to transfer large files between users? Load 'em up and go.

      If it only did one thing, people would not buy it. "I'd buy it, but it doesn't do XYZ."

      By the way... Palm doesn't do just one thing. It's programmable. It does whatever you need it to do (within it's cpu capabilities).
  • like palmOS I'd switch immediately...

  • This is an even neater invention than the Internet for moving files from one place to another! You can't move 10GB quickly over the Internet, but with the Mine's 10BaseT connector, (10Mb/s = 1.3MB/s) you only need 2.27 hours (10GB / 1.3MB/s = 8192 sec = 136 min = 2.27 hours) to fill it completely, plus the time to drive to your friend's house to trade MP3s. Who needs Napster and the crap the ISPs are dishing out in trying to block it? Back to old swap meets we used to trace C64 and Amiga games at! Now, where did I put my credit cards?

  • I have to say I'm not overly impressed with this. Perhaps I'm biased because I can't see a major use for this, for me. But from reading the site it just seems like an overly marketed image viewer/m3 player. Ok it has online connectivity, but then its $599. That's a lot of money to transfer files from the office to home. I'd be more tempted to spend the cash on a year's *DSL connection.

    Its online features seem a little too little. A mobile device, which lets you email mp3s and image files, wow! Oh and lets not forget the file sharing. For me if there's something I want to share online, I'll put it on server where the connection will be reliable, and the files will be available.

    It doesn't seem to have many applications that I could use, and at $599 its too expenisve (for my pocket) to get as a toy. A bigger screen, some kind of useful input device, applications I can use productively and I'll buy it^h^h^h^h^h^hhave a laptop.

  • If i had six hundred big ones, i would buy one because palms right now are pretty unnecessary. they dont do much and had very little space. 10gb's of pocket pleasure makes me a happy guy.
    • What would you use it for? I hate to tell you, but a very basic Palm with 2mb of RAM has more functionality than this unless I totally missed something, like a user interface.

  • Article.... (Score:3, Informative)

    by natesch ( 465385 ) on Tuesday July 31, 2001 @10:12PM (#47833)
    This Practically Networked article [practicallynetworked.com] has a review of a bunch of products like the mine, and they list it as their favorite. Could be cool for college students with ethernet jacks everywhere.

  • Dammit... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by verbatim ( 18390 ) on Tuesday July 31, 2001 @10:15PM (#47835) Homepage
    Lemme just clean the drool from my keyboard...

    I am very concerned about the storage - 10-12GB HDD... what kind of HDD? I've heard bad things about the Creative Jukebox where the HDD can be sensetive to motion. While the prospect of storing this amount of data on a very portable PDA, I am worried that it is (1) easily lost, (2) easily stolen, (3) easily broken. 10GB is a lot of data...

    I like my smartcards and compact flash media. You can store/organize information and worry less about total loss (if you loose or break one, you aren't completly lost).

    Before I run out and buy one, I'd want to know:

    - reliability
    - HDD specs (can I replace it cheap or do I need an expensive part)
    - warranty options

    I was just looking at a picture of the device and I was thinking - cellphone. It looks like a cellphone but does everything except make phone calls and prepare dinner... now if it could only prepare dinner... mmmm... dinner... ;)

    • I think I would buy three of these things, export the disks as network block devices, and then do software RAID-5 on them from a fourth machine. Or something like that...
    • I own a 6gig Jukebox, and I've *never* had any problems with the hard drive. I've gone running with it, no skips or data problems. It has fallen off of its perch in my truck a couple of times, and it shut off both times, but there were no problems.

      Either I'm very lucky, or the other person was unlucky.

      I will say however that there are several things I don't like about it. It is slow to boot, transferring sometimes hangs the device, and I hate the proprietary file transfer system.
    • I absolutely agree with all the concerns regarding the ruggedness (or possible lack thereof?) regarding the hard drive. I'm also a little concerned about the upgrade path available...if there is one.

      I think the coolest thing about this is its network-readiness. It would be very cool to use something like this as a network storage device. Besides, it'd make it a lot easier to transport chunks of my .mp3 collection between my friends if I could just connect the device to the LAN and let them take what they needed. :)

      Portable network storage...yum!
      • Well I can't speak directly about the mine, I can speak about the Archos 6000 MP3 Jukebox, which is more-or-less a portable HDD. It's got a 6 gig HD and because of the construction, it's quite rugged and easy to upgrade. You just open it up and replace the drive. Simple as that. As it is, the thing is pretty functional. I wish it had a PCMCIA card interface, but I'm willing to settle for it's USB interface.
  • It only ships with drivers for Windows - which makes it appear as a USB drive. It also makes reference to running ScanDisk on the device. I'm no expert but doesn't that mean FAT? Or is it setup just to look FAT16/32 when Windows is looking?
    • Don't forget that most people do use windows - so you can just connect it to the built-in Ethernet port it got, and use smbmount command - and presto - share files between your Linux and this device..

      As for "scandisk" - I belive they mean fsck, but go tell a windows user what is fsck..
  • It's obviously a kick-ass portable MP3 (and WAV) player, with the ability to store about 150 CD's worth of music! Or will be if it's got decent audio hardware. (Headphones provided.) Likely.

    Mostly what it appears to be is a 10 GB "removable drive" designed for consumers. Big emphasis on storing photos (and the ability to show them on a TV as well as transfer to and from PCs). Think about it: The capacity of 16 CD-R's, totally re-writable, that can be used between two PCs without CD-R or CD-RW drives.

    (Prediction: This will be used to transfer pr0n downloaded at work via the office T1, to a PC at home where it can be, ahem, "enjoyed." Lovely.)

    What don't I see:

    It says, "Fully versitile. Totally secure." I don't see where the security comes in ... or could, with a consumer grade device. ("Sorry, sir, if you forgot your password, there's no way you can retrieve those, um, important documents from your office PC. Sir?")

    No PDA functionality. (20 character x 4 line display; cheap, but don't try to bring up your calendar, or a big phone directory.)

    No ability to rip CD's. Not a problem; it begs to be hooked up to a PC, so count on the computer to rip.

    No support for Windows 95 (98 or 2000 need a device drive; Windows ME appears to have native support for USB disk drives), Mac, or, ironically, Linux.

    Robustness. You need to "eject" the virtual drive (how the Mine looks to a PC) before disconnecting. Yeah, like that'll happen every time.
    • IBM has these new USB keys. They store ~8MB and transfer extremly fast (they claim 128MB/s). They are about the size of a small pen (but the width of the USB port) and are, actually, useful.

      The only problem is "ejecting" the drive. If you forget to "eject" the USB drive, nothing will be written to the internal media. Oops.

      From my experience with USB drives, "ejecting" them can be a pain. My observations of them indicate that filehandles are not completly closed until "ejection" of the device. However, if the app that created the handle dies without properly closing the handle, the USB drive cannot be ejected properly (it says the device is "in use"). Short of turning off the computer, removing the USB drive becomes impossible (without loosing your data, that is).

      However, having it as a virtual drive is a lot more conveniant than having a special interface program (eg. palm "hotsync", nomad transfer, etc). I would hope, especially with this amount of data, it is easy to create some coherant directory structure without loosing the ability to fully index the content (eg. the software on the device should recurse into directories when desired).

      Sigh.
      • Ejecting them is a pain sometimes, but I've never actually had a problem. If the OS doesn't want to eject it, I just yank the cable anyway. Maybe it's because I'm using an USB HD, rather than a flash memory device, but I've never had it lose data. I suspect the same would be true of the terapin mine. (Which, BTW, is a terrible name...and keeping the name in lower case just adds to the confusion. Talk about negative brand recognition!)

        Just my 2 cents.
        • I suspect the same would be true of the terapin mine. (Which, BTW, is a terrible name...

          And misspelled, I think they meant terrapin. Course it could be some clever word play, but I'm not sure where the tera comes in and the turtle is plain as day.
  • Hey I am just sharing the albums I ripped myself from my collection with my direct friends. It's a fair use pratice, no? Well I know they are all on my corporates LAN but it's legal, right?

  • 20 * 4 display? (Score:5, Funny)

    by AnonymousComrade ( 465177 ) on Tuesday July 31, 2001 @10:30PM (#47857) Homepage
    Oh yeah! This gadget will really rock my world! Can't wait 'til next reboot! ;-)

    Linux version 2.2.19
    pre17 (herbert@arnor
    ) (gcc version 2.7.2
    .3) #1 Tue Mar 13 22
    :37:59 EST 2001
    BIOS-provided physic
    al RAM map: BIOS-88:
    000a0000 @ 00000000
    (usable) BIOS-88: 01
    f00000 @ 00100000 (u
    sable) Detected 6000
    3 kHz processor. Cal
    ibrating delay loop.
    .. 119.19 BogoMIPS M
    emory: 29788k/32768k
    available (1744k ker
    nel code, 408k reser
    ved, 672k data, 156k
    init) Dentry hash ta
    ble entries: 4096 (o
    rder 3, 32k)
    • Why is that funny? I love Linux on my Terapin. Now if I could just get the X server running..

      Buffers Files Tools
      Welcome to GNU Emac\
      --11:---F1 *scratch
      For information abo

  • Useful Indeed (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Mr. Fusion ( 235351 ) on Tuesday July 31, 2001 @10:34PM (#47863)

    I deal with large files all the time, and I'm constantly looking for work arounds that don't involve lugging my 8-pound laptop to another workstation or burning something on CD. This little device would revolutionize my life if it lives up to its vaporware specs. Consider the following:

    After shooting 5 minutes of DV footage on someone else's camera, I want to bring the video home to edit on my PC. Instead of borrowing their DV camera or buying my own, all I need is a PCMCIA FireWire card to transfer footage and a NIC to bring it back out to my laptop editing machine.

    or...

    I want to listen to MP3s in the car, but I'm on a 4-hour road trip and compressing all my songs to 64k mono versions for my old 32mb Rio just doesn't cut it for me. Now you can take those 7 gigs of Elton John and Styx without sacrificing quality.

    but what about...

    You've been taking a lot of pictures at some social event for the company you worked for, but you'd rather not go download all those photos into your computer in the other room nor do you want to be the nerd behind the laptop for the party. Transfer all your images into your silver device, and as an added bonus, you can even have everyone view those pics on TV when it's over. I'm sure this also would apply to making and giving presentation. Much cooler than Powerpoint when done right.

    and let's not forget...

    Looking at pr0n on your computer in your office isn't as appetizing as viewing it on the couch in your living room.

    -Mr. Fusion

    • After shooting 5 minutes of DV footage on someone else's camera, I want to bring the video home to edit on my PC. Instead of borrowing their DV camera or buying my own, all I need is a PCMCIA FireWire card to transfer footage and a NIC to bring it back out to my laptop editing machine.
      That's an absurd, fabricated scenario. Bravo.
  • How does it acts like a server, anyhow? I mean, does it have CIFS(samba) or HTTP(apache) built-in? Image it with apache installed with all its beloved modules like php and mysql... I have to hacked that.

  • huh? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by /dev/niall ( 1043 ) on Tuesday July 31, 2001 @10:42PM (#47876)
    By what stretch of the imagination is this a PDA? A four line, 20 character display? They make a big deal about being able to transfer pictures from your digital camera to the device. What then? View them on a display that makes my cell phone look good? ;) Cool to be sure, but I'll keep my iPaq thank you very much. This ain't taking the place of a Palm anytime soon either.
    • Why do people keep saying this, and why did some even mark it up as insightful? The website does NOT say that this is intended to be a PDA. It's just unfortunate that /. decided to use that term in the headline. It's an information storage device, and it does exactly that perfectly well.

      From their website:

      mine is a powerful, handheld, internet enabled, personal data storage device ready to meet all of your digital information needs at work and at play.

  • "scandisk
    Scandisk is a program that scans the hard disk to find and correct any errors. Running this regularly ensures that all of your digital information remains safe.

    defragment disk
    Defragment Disk is a program that rearranges the data in mine more efficiently. "Defragmenting" mine's hard disk in this way helps mine to continue to provide you with fast access to your digital information."

    I don't see why it needs a scandisk and defragmentation if it runs Linux...
    • Any drive that's bouncing around in my pocket for a while would tend to be a good candidate for the occasional disk integrity check. Defrag, maybe not...but something like scandisk would be a really good idea.

  • well.. (Score:2, Insightful)

    by NoSoup4You ( 256309 )
    they talk about this being able to hold thousands of digital images...and about some sort of photo album. I'm sorry, but that tiny little display doesn't seem to be adequate for the task.

  • Jesus fucking crayons! (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    My TI-86 has a bigger display than that!
  • ...what with their constant use of the word "secure" Kevin Nealon subliminal-style (hotsexhotsexhotsex).

  • Imagine... (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    It has to be said anyway...

    Imagine a Beowulf Cluster of these!
  • ... a pretty good device to graft into a wearable setup. It talks to lots of other things and has plenty of storage. In the meantime, if it can talk to Palm OS, I dare say I would love this device.

  • 10GB In A Linux PDA

    Hmm, is that big enough for a complete Debian installation?

    (including emacs)

  • Risk of disk crashes? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Ryu2 ( 89645 ) on Tuesday July 31, 2001 @11:44PM (#47982) Homepage Journal
    As long as these things use magnetic media with moving parts, I would be leery of a disk head crash. As they get more miniturized, I'm just more scared that a disk failure will wipe out a large chunk of data, due to the extremely high information density.

    I'll wait until solid state lets us have hard-disk like capacities.

    • Actually, smaller hard disk are more resistant to shocks. The smaller the parts, the higher the mechanical eigenfrequencies. Therefore, a shock is experienced by the miniature part as a smooth motion.
  • The original subject is misleading. This thing is not a PDA! As some folks have already pointed out, it is a portable storage device.

    One obvious use is for folks w/ digital cameras, c.f. Digital Wallet [mindsatwork.net]. It is more expensive, but does a whole lot more, and far more flexible.

    Now if I could only get PHP/MySQL/PostgreSQL/Apache to run on this thing...

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