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xStep said:
The report of the CNN article that lead me here says the Origami uses a full size drive. I take that to mean physical dimensions. I highly doubt that is true since a 3.5 inch drive, currently the standard for full size, is well over 1lb. I found one at the Western Digital site this is 1.6lbs. That just doesn't leave much room for the other physical pieces required.

So I think they are likely talking about size. But they are likely wrong there too, because larger capacity laptop drives get pricey. For me it would have to be at least 120GB to be considered a standard size drive.
I think you're right and CNN is wrong - it's way too thin for a full-sized drive. I'm going to guess that they meant a full-sized laptop drive, which has a thinner form factor and weighs a lot less (and better matches the proposed 30GB size).
 
M$

you know what kills me, microsoft is all excited about this new oragami bullcrap. if they would stop focusing on making soo many frigging versions of xp and start workin on vista or whatever the heck its called they might be able to make a decent product. It wont sell, people would much rather have a 12 inch computer.
 
TheMasin9 said:
you know what kills me, microsoft is all excited about this new oragami bullcrap. if they would stop focusing on making soo many frigging versions of xp and start workin on vista or whatever the heck its called they might be able to make a decent product.

Since this is running a "modified version of Microsoft's Windows XP Tablet PC edition" do I smell even one more edition of Vista on the way? What does that make the count now? Ten or something?...
 
I like it! I won't be buying it, but I like it. I Like the way the touchscreen keyboard is implemented. I wish it could be more the size of just the screen. I wonder if Apple had come out with this (in white, of course) if more people would like it as well. I am not so much anti-microsoft, like many people on here. I just think mac OS feels and looks better. If Vista is similar in feel and appearance, I would be tempted to switch back to PC (Not that I would), Because they are less expensive and have more software compatibility.
-Chuck
 
this has disaster written all over it....:p
its 1 inch thick, the powerbooks are 1 inch thick and it has a keyboard and a 15" screen....
Very few people will buy this product
 
dejo said:
Since this is running a "modified version of Microsoft's Windows XP Tablet PC edition" do I smell even one more edition of Vista on the way? What does that make the count now? Ten or something?...
-dejo

Yeah great, another OS iteration with a huge name:
"Microsoft Windows Vista Super Kinda Small Tablet-Thingy 2006 Professional Premium Edition"
"Microsoft Windows Vista Halfway-Between-Tablet PC Edition-and-Mobile Edition 2006 Professional Premium Platinum Edition"
"Microsoft Windows Vista Strange Small Tablet-Like-But-Not-Really-A-Tablet 2006 Professional Premium Platinum Please Buy Our Stuff Because We Do Really Try To Make An Effort To Convince People That We Innovate By Using Re-Baked Ideas Repackaged Edition"
But seriously folks...
"Microsoft Windows Vista 2006 Small Tablet PC Edition"
...no, really, I wasn't trying to be funny on that last one.
 
balamw said:
All in the US$2000+ price range.

At least this seems to top out at US$1000, but would have been much more attractive to me closer to US$500.

Still a very niche-y product IMHO.

B

Yep. Previous attempts have been more expensive and it shows.

I think I'd still rather pay the extra $1000 for the OQO if only it ran OSX.

Also, 800x480 on a 7" screen seems a bit low res and the Samsung at least is 2" thick. OQO's size is spot on for me.
 
jrk07 said:
I think its funny that if it was running OS X then I bet at least half of the people who are saying it is a horrible device would be frothing at the mouth for this thing.

That being said, I can't wait to see one with a big ol' blue screen error. :D

well the thing is if apple were making this there is no question that it would be better. #1 it would be running OS X which we all know is infinitely better then any flavor of windows. #2 it would be designed by Apple and probably look stunning as opposed to this Samsung device that looks like a Sega game gear. #3 it would have a killer feature that none of us have even thought about yet.
 
jrk07 said:
I think its funny that if it was running OS X then I bet at least half of the people who are saying it is a horrible device would be frothing at the mouth for this thing.

Aw come on... give us some credit. This thing weighs three pounds and runs for only three hours! It's way too big to fit in your pocket, and the batteries won't even last through a moderate-length airline trip. Objectively, this is bad design, no matter what OS it runs. What purpose does this device serve? I don't think Microsoft started with a clue about how people might use it, so they shoved every feature they could think of into the smallest possible box. I hope/expect if/when Apple attempts another hand-held computer that they'll actually think about why people would want one, and design it accordingly. Apple excels at this sort of thing. Microsoft never has.
 
IJ Reilly said:
I hope/expect if/when Apple attempts another hand-held computer that they'll actually think about why people would want one, and design it accordingly. Apple excels at this sort of thing. Microsoft never has.

And people will still whine when it doesn't include an FM receiver. ;)
 
IJ Reilly said:
Aw come on... give us some credit. This thing weighs three pounds and runs for only three hours! It's way too big to fit in your pocket, and the batteries won't even last through a moderate-length airline trip. Objectively, this is bad design, no matter what OS it runs. What purpose does this device serve? I don't think Microsoft started with a clue about how people might use it, so they shoved every feature they could think of into the smallest possible box. I hope/expect if/when Apple attempts another hand-held computer that they'll actually think about why people would want one, and design it accordingly. Apple excels at this sort of thing. Microsoft never has.

If Apple had released the exact same thing with Mac OS X Lite or something instead of WindowsXP, I would have been VERY dissappointed. I agree with the idea behind jrk07's post, but I have to agree "more" with IJ Reilly's angle. It's just... too little packed in too much.
 
Man, I don't understood this thing...

This thing is huge... what the point in buying this? A notebook 13.1", or a 12", have a lot more sense to me...

I apreciate more info about it.

Thanks.
 
raggedjimmi said:
wow, a 900mhz Celeron CPU. I think my dog could trump faster.

No. 4 years ago I bought a 1.3ghz Celeron laptop. It's just not worth it. Doesn't really do anything! I'm all for low-clock speeds (hugs P3) but the Celeron is just weak.

Uh, I believe that the Celeron on this thing, is the low-cost version of Pentium M. It has less L2-cache (1MB IIRC), and slower FSB (400Mhz). But for basic stuff it's more than enough.

As to price.... I heard that they are targetting $499 - $799. Price is OK'ish, the concept is interesting, design sucks, and OS sucks. That just about covers it.
 
m-dogg said:
That's sort of what I was thinking too. Once you go past a certain point in size/weight (the pocketable range), I don't think it matters that much. I would probably rather have a full-featured 12" laptop over this. The laptop would be bigger, but it would also be able to do more.

As you said, the capabilities to size ratio, and all about awkwardness of the idea (unable to do what a 12 inch laptop will do, and also unable to go where a blackberry will go), severly limit the thing. Beyond just MS, too-that form factor jut causes too much loss and not enough gain. It's just a hunt for something new, rather than something better.

But lots of people are saying that, and I think it all misses the point. What a device can do and cannot do isn't what kills it- it's how easily these jobs can be accomplished on the device. Any electronics device these days has more features than you use, the limit always comes into what you want to learn to use and how easy it is to do once learned (case in point- ipod market dominance vs. players with much bigger feature lists, but unused features).

Which is all to say this: without a easy input devices (proper keyboard and mouse), features don't matter, because it is way too difficult to actually use them. It's all about the input device (Again, ipod vs. rest, and also apple remote vs. media center remote). A treo or blackberry has as many features as you are possibly going to want to use without the ease of access of a keyboard. But those can fit in a pocket, and this.... just give me a 12 inch computer, please.
 
Screensize is cool, but the rest is insufficient. Too little battery life, too much fat around the screen. Why can't they fit a decent battery into all that plastic?! I truly wonder where people get their design ideas these days. I mean, if you had an incredible amount of r&d money at your disposal, what you fetch off eBay for inspiration:

- a Newton 2100, sleek & ergonomic hardware oozing the touch of Ive
- a Game Gear, battery eating klotz

Yeah, right.
 
Could they put any MORE buttons, slide switches, flip covers, vent slits, and moving parts? Crikey, if you ever dropped that, it'll explode on impact...
 
dejo said:
And people will still whine when it doesn't include an FM receiver. ;)

Next Tuesday, Microsoft will announce the FM receiver headphone set for the UMPC and the Software updates will be available 'Today'. :rolleyes:

I either carry a mobile phone or my 12-inch iBook, anything in between is just an inconvenient size. The UMPC is marketed for "20-30 somethings who are constantly on the move" - constantly worn out from lugging this around all the time.
 
dontmatter said:
As you said, the capabilities to size ratio, and all about awkwardness of the idea (unable to do what a 12 inch laptop will do, and also unable to go where a blackberry will go), severly limit the thing.

Well, Crackberry is not a replacement for a computer with a real OS. It's good for checking email, and that's about it.
 
windows vista... NOW THIS is the face of a man that is going to INSURE excellent workman ship of what is the EPIC of windows vista... YES! :p
 

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I mean, positively, too much fat! You will want to clad this thing in neoprene or leather to avoid damage, that will add even more size. Of course, if it ran OSX I'd be more forgiving, but that would actually mean a point on the positive chart for starters.

Elegant design here.
 
Evangelion said:
Well, Crackberry is not a replacement for a computer with a real OS. It's good for checking email, and that's about it.

It's a communications device, plain n' simple, which is probably why it's fairly successful.
 
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