Rumor: 6GB LifeDrive Coming?

[JAmerican]

Look...

http://brighthand.com/article/palmOne_Planning_6_GB_LifeDrive

Looks like the LifeDrive is already out of style. LOL. J/k

JAmerican ;) :)

[poissonsouriant]

Brighthand appears to be down. Is this listed anywhere else?

Also go look at the thread "The Futer[Future] of Mobile Managers" and see how I am right :D.

[Reggie]

CanalPDA reports that according to a Hitachi PDF document (in Spanish), the 6GB Microdive will be used in palmOne's new generation of handhelds. [details (http://www.1src.com/?m=show&id=1101)]

[JAmerican]

CanalPDA reports that according to a Hitachi PDF document (in Spanish), the 6GB Microdive will be used in palmOne's new generation of handhelds. [details (http://www.1src.com/?m=show&id=1101)]

I already posted that Reggie. You should at least add to the thread I created or combined them. :(

JAmerican

[Reggie]

I already posted that Reggie. You should at least add to the thread I created or combined them. :(


I was actually merging them. You just got to reply before it happened. Sorry about that.

[tonyreynolds]

Well, 6GB is better than 4, but they should STILL fix the problem with no dedicated RAM. Even a fixed 64MB would be better than nothing...

Tony

[hope]

It could have the 8gb but, it doesn't matter if it still stays the same size. I know my TH is going to die some day and Sony doesn't make handhelds any more so, I really hope by the time my TH dies the Lifedrive is up to par. Up to par in regards to size, dedicated RAM, and battery life.

[JAmerican]

I was actually merging them. You just got to reply before it happened. Sorry about that.

Woops. My bad. Responded to fast.

JAmerican

[EdFrmBrighthand]

Brighthand appears to be down.
We haven't been down in quite some time. I'm not sure what happened, but I suspect it was a problem with your ISP.

In any case, you should read my comments on why I believe this is a sign that the next LifeDrive will be available this fall.

[mauibro]

Well, 6GB is better than 4, but they should STILL fix the problem with no dedicated RAM. Even a fixed 64MB would be better than nothing...

Tony
This is great!
It implies the upgrade is likely this year. Usually there are Fall releases. I expected next year Before the next LD.
I doubt this will be just about memory. I figure it will correct much of is broken in the current model.
It fits with my upgrade cycle anyway, so I'm excited.

[pgenie]

Oops!!! Cant dream now..too soon for a release...at least not for now:)

[pgenie]

And for me, I do not see any use of bringing out a unit with 6 GB months after the new genration mobile manager as they call it, the 4 GB LD came out. 4 & 6 though it counts in gigs but I do not know how far it will influence the market. I think palmone should target the 10Gb. 20Gb will be a step too far ahead of the time;). Thats my opinion. NO for a 6 GB unless LD is a year.

[loki2486]

Maybe this upcoming model will replace the Tungsten C, and include a keyboard.

[Michael Quach]

I don't see how an extra 2 GB will make that much of a difference. I have problems trying to fill out all 4 GB right now :D.

Now, if they fixed a couple of other things, that might be a different issue....

[pgenie]

Well said Quach:)

[JAmerican]

I don't see how an extra 2 GB will make that much of a difference. I have problems trying to fill out all 4 GB right now :D.

Now, if they fixed a couple of other things, that might be a different issue....

I could fill 6GB easy on a PDA. Ever heard of Family Guy episodes :)

JAmerican

[jjesusfreak01]

I could fill 6GB easy on a PDA. Ever heard of Family Guy episodes :)

JAmerican
The thing is, with that much storage, I could just about store my entire music collection, as well as all of my palm programs. 4GB would be cutting it close.

[poissonsouriant]

I could fill 6GB easy on a PDA. Ever heard of Family Guy episodes :)

JAmerican

Yes, but I carry episodes of a different type. (hint: look at my avatar)

Do you rip your Family Guy episodes from DVD? Cause I tried doing that with Futurama and I can get it to work without the audio and video skipping like mad.

[mauibro]

And for me, I do not see any use of bringing out a unit with 6 GB months after the new genration mobile manager as they call it, the 4 GB LD came out. 4 & 6 though it counts in gigs but I do not know how far it will influence the market. I think palmone should target the 10Gb. 20Gb will be a step too far ahead of the time;). Thats my opinion. NO for a 6 GB unless LD is a year.
Just my point. 4 to6 gigs means nothing really.
The life drive is an awesome concept with huge rough edges.
I cannot believe that the will do nothing more than add a couple gigs of to the hardrive.
More real ram or at least some types of major speed improvements have got to be a part of this next device. And despite the "waiting for Linux" talk, might Cobalt finally appear?

First release always is flawed.
Palm V too little memory at its release. Vx made people happy.
505 way too dull, 515 made people happy.
Treo 600 low rez, 650 got it right.

Tunsten, was a high end line that was pretty good From the start, an exception,

Nevertheless The first new high end device of a series seems to often have one major flaw that jumps out at you.
The following device always fixes the glaring Flaw.

I think it may well be deliberate. Planned Obselecence.
The V,505, and 600 Were all new and exciting lines that sold well. Early adopters could not resist despite their obvious flaws.
Most V owners 505 owners, and 600 owners upgraded because while the new devices were Very similar, what was left out was so glaring they were compelled to do the upgrade.

You might think you can resist but if you can get a stable, fast, LD Perhaps even with Cobalt, most LD owners will jump.

That is 2 sales by deliberately making a flawed 1st device.
This is to be expected and a strategy that frankly has worked time and time again.
Mark my words, the new device will be exactly what we wanted this one to be.

[poissonsouriant]

Just my point. 4 to6 gigs means nothing really.
The life drive is an awesome concept with huge rough edges.
I cannot believe that the will do nothing more than add a couple gigs of to the hardrive.
More real ram or at least some types of major speed improvements have got to be a part of this next device. And despite the "waiting for Linux" talk, might Cobalt finally appear?

First release always is flawed.
Palm V too little memory at its release. Vx made people happy.
505 way too dull, 515 made people happy.
Treo 600 low rez, 650 got it right.

Tunsten, was a high end line that was pretty good From the start, an exception,

Nevertheless The first new high end device of a series seems to often have one major flaw that jumps out at you.
The following device always fixes the glaring Flaw.

I think it may well be deliberate. Planned Obselecence.
The V,505, and 600 Were all new and exciting lines that sold well. Early adopters could not resist despite their obvious flaws.
Most V owners 505 owners, and 600 owners upgraded because while the new devices were Very similar, what was left out was so glaring they were compelled to do the upgrade.

You might think you can resist but if you can get a stable, fast, LD Perhaps even with Cobalt, most LD owners will jump.

That is 2 sales by deliberately making a flawed 1st device.
This is to be expected and a strategy that frankly has worked time and time again.
Mark my words, the new device will be exactly what we wanted this one to be.
Sounds like what I said:
http://www.1src.com/forums/showpost.php?p=825613&postcount=12

Great minds think alike, I guess. :D

[p_boucher]

I might just add that the first Tungsten was a little flawed. They came with the T2 like 4 months after the first one with a much much better screen. The T1 was backlight while the T2 was transflexive.

Anyway I bought the LD knowing exactly that it was a little rough. I just hope it takes 2 generations to get it right - like the T to T3, so I don't have to upgrade in 6 months :D

I don't think Palm will release an LD2 with only the HD upgrade. The new disk will be used in future generations, but I think the next LD will probably address some of the issues we all know. Hopefully yes, it will bring back standard RAM or non-volatile flash as in the T5. I assume the latter since its seems the direction P1 want to take, and I completely agree.

[ackmondual]

Just my point. 4 to6 gigs means nothing really.
The life drive is an awesome concept with huge rough edges.
I cannot believe that the will do nothing more than add a couple gigs of to the hardrive.
More real ram or at least some types of major speed improvements have got to be a part of this next device. And despite the "waiting for Linux" talk, might Cobalt finally appear?

First release always is flawed.
Palm V too little memory at its release. Vx made people happy.
505 way too dull, 515 made people happy.
Treo 600 low rez, 650 got it right.

Tunsten, was a high end line that was pretty good From the start, an exception,

Nevertheless The first new high end device of a series seems to often have one major flaw that jumps out at you.
The following device always fixes the glaring Flaw.

I think it may well be deliberate. Planned Obselecence.
The V,505, and 600 Were all new and exciting lines that sold well. Early adopters could not resist despite their obvious flaws.
Most V owners 505 owners, and 600 owners upgraded because while the new devices were Very similar, what was left out was so glaring they were compelled to do the upgrade.

You might think you can resist but if you can get a stable, fast, LD Perhaps even with Cobalt, most LD owners will jump.

That is 2 sales by deliberately making a flawed 1st device.
This is to be expected and a strategy that frankly has worked time and time again.
Mark my words, the new device will be exactly what we wanted this one to be.

hmmm, they should've pulled a Tapwave or Apple ipod and released them together. Save $$ on a zod1 with 32MB of RAM or 20GB ipod or splurge $$ and get more with a zod2 with 128MB of RAM or 40GB ipod. Unless of course they're using the delay to patch up problems with the first LD. Otherwise, I can still kinda see the point. 4GB and 6GB for microdrive storage u could say is significant, but i think 8GB would've been better. An extra 1.8GB betw 4 and 6 means a LOT more multimedia, but having 96MB more of REAL RAM for a zodiac and above all, a pOS devcie.... and having 20GB extra to store that much more music makes a HUGE statement.

p_boucher already mentioned the T|T2 being everything the T|T should've been. THere's also the z21 being everything the Zire shoul'dv been.
Not sure with Handspring's timeline, but i think it may be true for The Visor to Visor Deluxe (more RAM), then another up to Visor Neo (faster proc, 16 shades of gray, updted OS) as well. Ditto for the Treo line as well. The tr270/300 to tr600 and then of course to tr650.

Also, i think it's an issue of the LD getting real RAM, as opposed to more of it. IIRC, the LD doesn't use any real RAM at all, at least not for PIMs and built in apps.

[mauibro]

The difference is that doing it Palms way the same buyer will often buy both devices. Also remember that Tapwave only had 2 devices period.
Palm has other models to sell to those who want to spend less.
hmmm, they should've pulled a Tapwave or Apple ipod and released them together. Save $$ on a zod1 with 32MB of RAM or 20GB ipod or splurge $$ and get more with a zod2 with 128MB of RAM or 40GB ipod. Unless of course they're using the delay to patch up problems with the first LD. Otherwise, I can still kinda see the point. 4GB and 6GB for microdrive storage u could say is significant, but i think 8GB would've been better. An extra 1.8GB betw 4 and 6 means a LOT more multimedia, but having 96MB more of REAL RAM for a zodiac and above all, a pOS devcie.... and having 20GB extra to store that much more music makes a HUGE statement.

p_boucher already mentioned the T|T2 being everything the T|T should've been. THere's also the z21 being everything the Zire shoul'dv been.
Not sure with Handspring's timeline, but i think it may be true for The Visor to Visor Deluxe (more RAM), then another up to Visor Neo (faster proc, 16 shades of gray, updted OS) as well. Ditto for the Treo line as well. The tr270/300 to tr600 and then of course to tr650.

Also, i think it's an issue of the LD getting real RAM, as opposed to more of it. IIRC, the LD doesn't use any real RAM at all, at least not for PIMs and built in apps.

[mauibro]

Sounds like what I said:
http://www.1src.com/forums/showpost.php?p=825613&postcount=12

Great minds think alike, I guess. :D

Props to you brother. You said it first.

[mauibro]

I might just add that the first Tungsten was a little flawed. They came with the T2 like 4 months after the first one with a much much better screen. The T1 was backlight while the T2 was transflexive.
Thats right, I had Forgotten. In that case the rule is even more obvious.
Anyway I bought the LD knowing exactly that it was a little rough. I just hope it takes 2 generations to get it right - like the T to T3, so I don't have to upgrade in 6 months :D
"Have to upgrade" thats my point exactly. :)
I don't think Palm will release an LD2 with only the HD upgrade. The new disk will be used in future generations, but I think the next LD will probably address some of the issues we all know. Hopefully yes, it will bring back standard RAM or non-volatile flash as in the T5. I assume the latter since its seems the direction P1 want to take, and I completely agree.
True

[Adrenochrome]

This is pretty much what I figured would happen. Upgrading an HD and keeping everything else the same is an easy way to offer "new" models every few months.

There really isn't much about the hardware (aside from the RAM issue) that I think needs to be changed on the LD. Sure, faster processor, better battery, VGA, etc., would all be nice, but it's not like the LD is lacking right now. All its issues are software-based.

[trickypuss]

6GB would be nice - anything bigger would be nice! In relation to this thread topic and out of curiosity - how much media is the average LD owner currently carrying?

I've got over 40 music albums in wma format at 160kbps, two episodes of Full Metal Alchemist, and a 600meg rip of Giant Robo disc 2 with 40 megs of installed apps and still have around 800megs free.

Also, I hope that an upgraded LD release in the fall means more than just a 2GB increase in the size of the HD. If there isn't a system upgrade or some type of RAM fix, then I would be inclined to just buy a big SD card and skip the "upgrade".

[Adrenochrome]

I nearly filled my LD with music of all kinds of formats when I first got it. I have a 1Gb card, so that's where all my regular reference and app data was stored.

Then I discovered how amazing this thing is at playing movies (thank you TCPMP!). I deleted about 700mb of music, and now am usually carrying around a movie that I get to watch in fits and starts whenever I get a few minutes. Having kids means I don't get to watch much that isn't made for a three-yera-old, so it's nice to be able to finally watch real movies again.

Currently, 50mb of photos, 680mb "Bourne Supremacy," and all the rest but a few mb is music. Probably 50 ebooks, Wikipedia, dictionaries, spreadsheets, critical documents, and app data is on the 1Gb SD card, with about 200mb left over.

I could use 6Gb, no doubt. I figure I listen to about 8Gb of music in total, though 90% of what I listen to could fit in about 2Gb. I really like using the LD as a video player and as a USB storage device, so any additional storage is good.

I probably won't upgrad again until Cobalt is a reality, but I wouldn't be above hacking in a 10Gb drive in the future just to keep things interesting.

[intellidryad]

If it has a 320*480 screen with the clamshell form factor, it would be a good notebook replacement for PC non heavy users :)

However, if they do the aluminum look in a clamshell device, they should be extreamly carefull not to make it look like a powerbook, or Apple would certainly sue palmOne for this :D

[alcoolj]

I spoke to someone who is in a special way related to p1 and he didn't want to tell me what happens next (of course), but he told me that LD is just the 1st of its kind and that it will not take long for more devices, so there are two possibilities:
1. There are two or more Lifedrives with the hd size as only difference. Like the ipods.
2. P1 produces a real successor of the LD with bigger hd, real ram and software updates.

As he told me, it seems to be quite sophisticated to produce a pda that has cache, real ram and a hd in that way its done now as "cheap" as it is now.
Well, I think it would have been better to make it a little more expensive and give it real 32 or 64 mb ram...

[Surur]

I spoke to someone who is in a special way related to p1 ..

As he told me, it seems to be quite sophisticated to produce a pda that has cache, real ram and a hd in that way its done now as "cheap" as it is now.
Well, I think it would have been better to make it a little more expensive and give it real 32 or 64 mb ram...

He meant as cheap to produce for Palm, not as cheap as it is on sale, as it clearly not. If, retail, a Dell Axim x50v and microdrive can cost the same or less than the LifeDrive, the cost of the LifeDrive is clearly about stretching the profit margin as far or further than it could reasonably go. I'm sure they were very sophisticated in doing this.

Surur

[trickypuss]

How can you get an Axim X50V plus a microdrive for less than an LD? Even on sale, the Axim is around $400 before the microdrive (which I understand can be dodgy when used with this model and really sucks power through the CF connection) or any other external memory. LD's have been found discounted at retailers like Office Depot for as low as $325 after rebate with no need for additional memory. Oh yeah - if you're switching over to the Axim you will need to invest in all new software too. So I'm curious how that deal can possibly stack up to be comparable in price for a current palm user.

[Ezikial Anta]

From that post, I thought Surur was reffering to the new Axim's which supposedly have the microdrives...
Well, Surur?

[Surur]

Add it up for yourself. Hitachi microdrives are from $155, Dell axims x50v's are cheapest $340.
http://froogle.google.com/froogle?price1=50&price2=&scoring=p&price=between&q=4gb+microdrive+hitachi

http://froogle.google.com/froogle?price1=200&price2=&btnP=Go&q=dell+axim+x50v&price=between

Yes, you can get the LifeDrive for $400, but the MSRP is $500. The are having to discount to account for poor sales, as they have had to discount the whole line (T5 etc's). Are they making a profit at that price? If they are the components must be less than $250.

Also remember the combination above has 128MB of the supposedly super-expensive writable ROM, which Palm could not afford to put any user-accessible in at all. It also includes 64MB ROM, also so expensive that Palm could only include 32MB. Add to this a VGA screen, still beyond Palm.

I'm sure many LD owners here paid full retail $500. In short, the cost the above bundle for less demonstrates Palm's main skill is gouging people.

Surur

[Stevo]

Surur,

The Office Depot $100 rebate was not limited to the LD or even to pa1mOne units but a blanket rebate on all PDAs over $250. So it is NOT an example of just pa1mOne trying to make up for poor sales. If anything it was Office Depot's own effort to prop up PDA sales.

A Happy LD Owner
(who doesn't mind the occasional 3 second "lag" and loves 4GB of storage for movies, music, photos and ebooks)

[PDAJah]

..
I'm sure many LD owners here paid full retail $500. In short, the cost the above bundle for less demonstrates Palm's main skill is gouging people.

Surur

I paid UKP299 and I am very happy with my LD. The battery life is wonderful but shame about the low tech web browser (when you've used Opera on a Symbian device you'll appreciate how backward Blazer is).
:)

[Surur]

Or multi-tabbed Netfront (which is also cross platform), or even pocket IE. The biggest problem web browser wise is that there is nothing else you can use. No choice in Palm world.

Surur

[trickypuss]

I know, this is sort of hacked, but I'm running PicselViewer on my LD and it's a great alternative. And, um, free. :D

But back to topic - Six gigs would be nice. And real RAM.

[duc748_bip]

It could be covered like an removable battery and people can upgrade their memory ( micro drive ) as newer drive is released. So your "life drive" will never look out of date?

Oh yeah.. they are just trying to sell more units :o

By the way anyone who actually have the life drive ever took theirs apart to see id the micro drive is removable?

[zeronine]

If they ever go to a 10g or 20g I might have to give up my iPod. Between my cell, ipod and palm it just to much to carry around.

[jjesusfreak01]

How about a PalmCellPod? Here are the specs:
64MB of RAM, 10GB HDD
HVGA screen
Runs on all GSM, CDMA, Edge, and other next Gen networks
250Mhz processor with dynamic clocking
Runs OS6 Cobalt
Includes a DSP and Graphics chip in compliance with the Cobalt APIs

[hope]

The processor could be in the 400mhz but you have to consider battery life and you'd probably want EV-DO for that wireless high-speed internet. You also forgot BT 2.0 and 802.11g or even n but WiFi would suck battery as well. What about a 2mp camera. I know we really don't need one but hey, a lot of use have been spoiled by having a camera on our Clie's for so long. I think the form factor of the N90, as diplayed in all these ads is pefect. It's kind of like a small NX80. To maintain size you might want to keep it flash and not microdrive based which would mean more along the lines of 4-8gb not 10 or 20. VGA might be possible but you can't make it to big or the screen to high a resolution since the screen size should remain a good size not huge. Definently should have a MS duo slot(or SD, miniSD, or MicroSD)Maybe I got to into this, I just think this is possible and may have some of the resources to actually do it. It would just cost somewhere between 800-1200 and take a while to engineer and would be a big risk as people love their iPods separately over anything else. A device like this would just be hard to negotiate the compromise needed as people will not replace a great product with a sub par multipurpose device.

[Insane]

Well from what I've read the biggest micro drives they have/ or are just bringing out are 8 and 10 gigs, which is by seagate. hitashi will follow very soon.

I've loan stocked a LD from work yesterday, and besides the 'less that stella' loading times for only some applications. on the whole its a great device!
I'm really thinking of selling my zire72.....

whether the next DL will have all thse features you've all speculated would be great, but at the end of the day its all about good business, and it makes sense to release devices with only small improvements. my making major changes and putting all the stuff we'd like, they would have nothing to suprize us with for the next few years.....

I really cant see them using a VGA TFT, cos the hVGA in my mind is great for the physical size of the screen. Its sharp and clear, and VGA would only drain more battery.

My biggest gripe with palm devices is the lack of good usefull software out of the box. Now sure I'm sure most ppl have either bought or through some other means gotten hold of all the best software and thats what really makes the devices. A palm with all the latest and greatest hardware is nothing in my mind without the support of great inovative software.

never the less, I'm sure now that palm has found its identity once again as palm and not palm one, they will give us something to show to those PPC users.

All I hope for besides lots of cool SW, is battery life! after having my zire72 for 5 months, I know whats important :)

cheers

insane

[Adrenochrome]

I'd like to see a Treo-Drive. Take a Treo and give it a slider like the T3. The keyboard could just slide down to reveal a full 320x480 screen. If they did this alone, I'd get a Treo in an instant, but what if (dreaming) they could pack an HD in there, as well as wifi? That would be my dream machine. Well, BT 2.0 and GPS would make it a true dream, but we're being (semi-) reasonable here.

[whoopiddydo]

This is my idea of an ultimate mobile manager. I envision it being a media machine to basically replace a multimedia laptop (other than watching DVDs, imaging work, etc.). Handtops are nice but cost too much, are too large for pockets, and have poor battery life. I'd hope with the hardware listed below and proper software it would be largely achievable. I would guess that this would run near $900. That's costly but still half what handtops cost.

-retain same approximate size and build quality as the LifeDrive (if length and width grew .5" I wouldn't be upset)
-128 MB flash RAM (no harddrive for this function; if possible, utililize a replaceable flash memory like Transflash/MicroSD for user upgradability)
-10 GB or up harddrive (enough for plenty of MP3s, pics and at least ten 300 MB AVI movies)
-new stable OS and stable firmware that won't cause wait times (ability to have multiple apps open at the same time and switch back and forth between them; ability to actually close apps not just bring a new one up)
-both Compact Flash and SD card slots
-dedicated graphics chip (16 or 32 MB)
-minimum 624 MHz processor (1 GHz processor if available and not too power hungry; OR better yet have a 624 MHz dual core processor developed with firmware to: handle multiple apps, thread a single app through both cores when only one app open for speed, and a power saver setting to use only one core at variable speeds)
-user replaceable battery (easy fix) that lasts 5-7 hours
-full wireless connectivity (WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0, IrDA and drivers to pair with CDMA bluetooth phones)
-4" to 5" VGA touch screen (I have good eyes and prefer small print over having to side scroll)
-one or two USB 2.0 ports and drivers for keyboard or other device like a camera or iPod and/or change the bottom connector to a USB port instead of the current goofy 12 pin connector
-faster web browser (current LifeDrive loads pages too slowly, though downloads are quick)
-full-featured media player supporting more formats (MP3s, OGGs, AACs, WMAs, MPGs, 3GPs, WMVs, AVIs, MOVs, and their protected versions; ability to edit meta tags)
-microphone
-speaker and headphone jack
-portrait/landscape button
-volume buttons
-4-way circular directional pad with mini-joystick at center in place of the button (crazy idea I know, D-pad for navigation/scrolling and moving between fields, joystick for games and moving cursor, click/press joystick down to select)

Used for:
-documents (MS Office types)
-email
-instant messaging
-web browsing (full pages, streaming media, downloading capability, maybe VoIP)
-gaming
-watching movies
-listening to music
-viewing pictures
-PIM functions (calendar, contacts, task list, memos, handwritten notes, etc.)
-reference/utility (dictionary, thesaurus, encyclopedia, navigation, calculator, measurement and currency conversion, language translation, etc)

Obviously, a device like this is pretty ambitious but possible. It's certainly no more ambitious than today's handtops. Once created, a company tackling the ultimate mobile manager can create scaled-back, lower-cost versions too. This is a good marketing tool for companies. This way they get to showcase their best technology in a product which, at a premuim price, may not sell many units but will spread word of mouth. The showcase models will appeal the diehard gearheads (who create buzz). The lower cost variations will sell more units to turn a profit. Many car companies are using this strategy today...to their benefit. So hell, why not?

Carl.

[poissonsouriant]

whoopiddydo, I get the feeling that a device that big would collapse in upon itself and become a neutron star.

[loki2486]

whoopiddydo:

I believe that the device that you are looking for is the OQO model one. It's a full power windows XP unit that's just slightly bigger than the LD. It basically almost has everything that meet your citeria. Except at twice the $$ :eek:

Here's the review: OQO (http://www.mobiletechreview.com/notebooks/OQO-model-01.htm)

There's the LD side by side with the OQO

http://www.mobiletechreview.com/notebooks/image/OQO_size_compare.jpg
http://www.mobiletechreview.com/notebooks/image/OQO_side_size_compare.jpg

You mentioned the handtops, IMHO,I think that that's the direction that we are heading toward. There will be two classes of mobile computers: the cellphone/PDA combos and the mini-computers.

The cellphone/PDA combos will emphasize a small footprint packed with features mostly for entertainment. Check out what they are producing in Japan and Korea. (http://www.akihabaranews.com/en/index.php?cat=7) These gadget phones are cool to play with, sent email, take pictures, listen to music, etc...

The mini-computer like the OQO and the Sony VAIO U71 (http://www.dynamism.com/u71/) (which I have :cool: ) be a full functional computer in a portable body. Use for travel business, internet surfing, multimedia, etc...

Unfortunately, unless Palm do something different with their mobile managers, I don't see why anyone would go with a Palm OS devise when they can get a full windows units at the same size, maybe not price...yet.

Maybe that's why Sony dropped the Palm OS.

Just my opinion.

[whoopiddydo]

ahh poissonsouriant, if it would only come to that..... ;)

loki2486, I just dreaming out loud. I thought about the OQO too. I think the problem is the OS itself. Windows is a flexible OS and has tons of software written for it. But the amount of code the OQO's little processor has to plow through has, from what I've read, really slowed things down...not to mention very limited battery life and reports of it running quite hot. Right now the LD is as quick opening and running apps as my desktop (and sometimes that's not saying much). It's not that the LD is all that powerful but the OS and apps are tuned for mobile devices. The LD is great and can do most of what I ask of a computer. I was merely conjuring up an LD type device that had a bit more flexibility and the quickness of traditional Palms. Sort of a hybrid between current PDAs (OS and apps) and handtops (hardware).

I think you're right the direction mobile computing seems to be headed. (I'm probably going to get chew out for this but this is a pipe dream again so here goes...) Maybe if Microsoft came up with a Windows XP/Vista Lite, handtops may get far more interest from mainstream users than they currently do. By Windows Lite, I don't mean their PDA/smartphone OS. More like a version of Windows that's been cleaned up and thinned out but can still run programs meant for a full-blown Windows system. Maybe it is more a skeletal shell OS and you add OS components when you need new functionality. Maybe some new Linux-based OS will fill in nicely. Who knows, I'm just wondering if there can be some happy medium between full blown Windows and a PDA OS.

One more because I can't resist :rolleyes: ....maybe a dual boot OQO with both Windows and a PDA OS.......

OK everyone, pick up your stones and take aim at the blashempher.

Running for cover,

Carl.