It's Raining Mobile PC News
Posted by Anne B. McDonald | Thursday, March 02, 2006 2:24 PM PT
Well, we all fell for Microsoft's stir of the Web pot with the secretive
Origami Project site earlier this week. The site updated today and, with its lovely photos of sites both indoors and out, appears to confirm that the device is keyed to mobile computing. Here's an
Origami story we posted earlier this week.
By the way, the next refresh for the Origami Project site is set for March 9. Our colleagues Liz Montalbano and Ben Ames at the IDG News Service
wrote today that Microsoft says it will only speak for 'about 30 seconds' on Origami at
CeBIT 2006, which starts on March 9. However, Intel, which--with Samsung--is partnering with Microsoft on Origami, according to IDG News, will also be at CeBIT, and we may hear more from them at the world's largest tech show in Hanover, Germany.
Intel also has its own
secretive Web site, where it is giving very little information on something called Intel Ultra Mobile PC, or UMPC.
'How Do You Turn a Big Idea Into Something Really Small', the Intel site asks and urges readers to stay tuned for more info on March 7. That's day one of the Intel Developers Conference here in San Francisco.
And Paul McNamara, writing in Networkworld's BuzzBlog, also has some
choice bits on Origami if you care to read them. NetworkWorld and PC World are both owned by IDG, by the way.
Older Mobile PCs
These handheld horizontal PCs aren't completely new. Harry McCracken, our editor in chief, wrote about Motion Computing's tiny tablet PC,
the LS800, last July. It's about the size of a paperback book. Here's what it looks like:
And we were all thrilled at the demo of the PDA-sized
OQO several years ago, but when Senior Editor Tom Mainelli
reviewed it in fall of 2004, he wasn't wildly impressed. It now comes with more RAM, a slightly larger hard drive, and model 01+ runs Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005.
All this, coupled with the rumors that Apple is considering a
movie download service, makes for a very interesting day!
Are you interested in small handheld PCs?
screw 'em! They're lame.
i own one, and they are very fun. Especially when they are packaged into cellphones. Games are funner, picture taking is more innovative and the internet just got a while lot smaller. Check out the nokia 7610
Does it have motion sensors? I think not...
pointless. just lug around a Thinkpad X series and u'll be fine with a whole lot more power.
The opportunity to carry IN YOUR POCKET a machine with full scale app?s, instead of dealing w/applets and the hours of a non-tech user and his/her tech?s time and $$ to cram a square peg in a round hole should not be discounted.
As much fun as it is think about sitting on a plane and pulling out your Palm to watch a movie, listen to some music, take a picture and email out love notes, the fact is, those of us who don?t have the time to decipher every new release and it?s inherent bugs are reeeeeeeealy tired of spending more time getting stuff to work than working with it.
The opportunity to load the programs and files I use at the office, put them IN MY POCKET and walk away with a device I don?t need a new degree to operate is one I?ll pay $$ more for. Hint to Intel: if it doesn?t fit in my pocket, I?m buying the Oqo.
My only question, ?Why has it taken this long??