Handtops, UMPC - Ninety days

05/11/06 + boughtonp

Three months to go for those of you still waiting.

I got fed up myself, and got a MacBook Pro & XDA Mini S instead.

05/14/06 + MeanSquare

MeanSquare said: "

jo2k said: "
Sad to see this is becoming a general practice for almost all companies now - initial announcements and ads are just bunch lies on speculating features and set to an impossible launch date which never intented to be met in the first place.
Then they break out the uglies to you, slowly."

While I agree for the most part, the other side to the story is the way the Internet works to make every rumor and every speculation available on a wide scale nearly instantaneously. Back when the planet was young and dinosaurs roamed the earth the first source of specifications was the pamphlets that were released along with the product itself. We never saw the original design or watched as specs changed when reality landed like a cPC brick on the heads of the engineers trying to make it all work Now, specifications are released (or leaked) when the product is still in development. We get the specs before reality rears its ugly head. I mentioned this in another thread, but I really think the reason why the radios were left off was because the two sides of the cPC would fight over which one controls the radio. The operating systems and drivers weren't written with the idea that another OS, resident on the same machine, would be engaged in a tug-of-war over connections.

" 'nuff said. Moving on.""

OK, not quite enough said. Here's a blast from the past about the OQO. Note that the specs mentioned and "promised" in the article did change a bit when the OQO was finally released.
link

Recent Blog: MeanSquare's Review of the Sony UX (with comparison to OQO)

05/15/06 + slickster

Amen! Nice response! Lets give DualCor some sort of chance.

edited: May 15 2006 + mensrea

"Note that the specs mentioned and "promised" in the article did change a bit when the OQO was finally released."

Note also that some this particular misinformation was expressly noted as coming from an "undisclosed source." The entirety of the misinformation we're getting here is coming DIRRECTLY from Dualcor, including from Steve Hanley himself (including during my meeting with him at CES). Note further that many of the final specs. of the OQO where better than this article supposes (hard drive space foe example). And finally, and most importantly, OQO certainly did not back away from the basic principles that where at the core of their device. You still despite some spec changes ended up with a highly connectible computer that you could put in your pocket.

"Amen! Nice response! Lets give DualCor some sort of chance."

Uh, no. That's THEIR job. Market crap, your sales will be crap. No radios? Simply imbecilic!

This is 2006 A.D.! You can hardly buy a toaster without some sort of wireless connectability! Woe to the fool who thinks the "holy grail of mobile computing" is achieved by a device that has NO BUILT IN CONNETIVITY OPTIONS!!!! Every telephone I've had since 2001 fits that description better than the CPC will at launch.

05/19/06 + slickster

Dualcor made another announcement on JKOntherun! They will support 802.11G and EVDO, EDGE!! I cant wait!

05/19/06 + Christopher

Link?

Of course they'll support it...by way of CF or USB dongle, yes? ; )

edited: May 19 2006 + illucid

said: "DualCor will ship the cPC with a Compact Flash WiFi card in the box so customers can enjoy 802.11g connectivity out of the box. Customers wishing to add GSM/ GPRS / EDGE/ EVDO connectivity for data and/ or voice can add any of a number of USB or CF peripherals that have been tested with the cPC to create the user experience tailored to the individual’s needs. These peripherals work under both the Windows XP and the Windows Mobile 5 operating systems that are preinstalled on the cPC, something that in my opinion is a big feat."

Its about halfway down the page on JK's site... Which is There --> link

So yup.. CF card and USB.... But it will work under winmo and XP.

05/19/06 + mensrea

Uh, yeah. There's no news here. We already knew you could support BT and Wifi through CF. PPCs have been doing that for 5+ years. And as I noted DAYS AGO...

mensrea said: ""And no radios... None, zip, nada, niet!"

OMG! That's Insane!!!!!!! So let me get this straight... now you've got a big clunky brick shaped device that can't fit into your pocket and can't connect to anything without wires, dongle's or CF cards sticking out all over the place? And that's supposed to be competition for the O? That's the rough equivalent of marketing a circa 1980 boombox with a pouch to carry tapes as competition for an iPod! Hee Haw!

No phone, no WiFi, no Bluetooth. $1500? No way in hell!

Well, maybe if they threw in a Mr. Microphone and an AMC Gremlin. (Chortle). Tnkgrl already said all there is to say about this... "moving on.""

My portable HP 460 can connect to BT and WiFi via CF!!!! It's a GD printer!!!!! Dumb, dumb, dumb. The CPC is DOA.

05/20/06 + MeanSquare

The question is not whether the CF cards will work in both Windows XP and Windows Mobile (whichever you prefer). That's a plus, given that it requires two different drivers, but a lot of cards already do that. The question is whether those cards will work in both XP & Mobile, whichever happens to be running at the time, with essentially seamless switching. That would be a feat as I'm sure it would require custom drivers of some sort. I'm convinced that this is why DualCor backed off of internal radios, regardless of the "security" spin that the article puts forth.

mensrea: I see your point and agree. Just because (I think) I understand why DualCor changed the specs doesn't mean it's any less excusable that they did it. DualCor stated the specs before they recognized the issues inherant in having two operating systems resident and switching back and forth. That's never a bright thing to do. You're also correct in noting that the OQO specs were from an outside source (spec-ulation?

) where DualCor's were not. The first happens all the time and is one of the reasons I read the non-Sony UX specs with a grain of salt. The second shouldn't happen (or when it does, there should be some sort of public retraction). DualCor's exec should have used language like "We're trying to...", "We hope to...", or even "We're working on..." instead of stating it as done.

Recent Blog: MeanSquare's Review of the Sony UX (with comparison to OQO)