Until we see the size of the thing and how it works in practice, it's going to be hard to judge whether this is a killer product or not. But it certainly sounds interesting and something genuinely new, rather than a rehash or redesign of something.
The device appears to be designed to get around the fact most pocketable computers have severe limitations imposed upon them due to the need to keep them small. This, in turn, means that few people would ever choose to use a pocket computer as their primary device. Yet it would seem to stand to reason that the current situation of having machines tethered to desks (and yes, even laptops are a little too bulky and too reliant upon external power to be carried around everywhere) is awkward and makes computing less useful.
A million years ago, when I was young, I wanted a computer where the keyboard had an integrated LCD unit, CPU, and storage, and could be carried around all day separate from the main unit. When plugged in to the main computer, it would benefit from the faster CPUs, increased memory, and large, high resolution, monitor.
I think something with a more modern idea of what you would "take with you" and what you would "leave behind" would still work pretty well. Something the size of an iPod, with your primary disk, a touch sensitive full screen display, perhaps a pull out keypad, Wifi and BT connectivity, and a battery that lasts for days, that has a "dock" with more CPU power, a better display, and full size keyboard and mouse, would be a great device to have. It's very hard to build that kind of thing though where the entire system will feel entirely integrated without essentially designing the thing from the ground up and throwing out conventional operating systems. Might have been easy if you based the platform on something Newton like, but the 1970s OS designs we use today aren't really what I'd be looking for.
It'll be interesting to see what Palm has come up with.
The device appears to be designed to get around the fact most pocketable computers have severe limitations imposed upon them due to the need to keep them small. This, in turn, means that few people would ever choose to use a pocket computer as their primary device. Yet it would seem to stand to reason that the current situation of having machines tethered to desks (and yes, even laptops are a little too bulky and too reliant upon external power to be carried around everywhere) is awkward and makes computing less useful.
A million years ago, when I was young, I wanted a computer where the keyboard had an integrated LCD unit, CPU, and storage, and could be carried around all day separate from the main unit. When plugged in to the main computer, it would benefit from the faster CPUs, increased memory, and large, high resolution, monitor.
I think something with a more modern idea of what you would "take with you" and what you would "leave behind" would still work pretty well. Something the size of an iPod, with your primary disk, a touch sensitive full screen display, perhaps a pull out keypad, Wifi and BT connectivity, and a battery that lasts for days, that has a "dock" with more CPU power, a better display, and full size keyboard and mouse, would be a great device to have. It's very hard to build that kind of thing though where the entire system will feel entirely integrated without essentially designing the thing from the ground up and throwing out conventional operating systems. Might have been easy if you based the platform on something Newton like, but the 1970s OS designs we use today aren't really what I'd be looking for.
It'll be interesting to see what Palm has come up with.
