Comments on: 'Origami project' unveiled

'Origami project' unveiled

londontube — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 10:25:19 -0800

Microsoft finally unveils its mysterious 'origami project'

By: zeoslap

zeoslap — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 10:29:26 -0800

Little-ler tablet PCs. Could make for a decent all around media thingy. Like a fancier portable DVD player.

By: aladfar

aladfar — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 10:29:30 -0800

Meh. Given all the hype, I was hoping for something really cool. Like a gyroscopically balanced personal scooter thing . . .

By: bardic

bardic — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 10:31:32 -0800

Enjoy your 2.5 hour battery life.

By: djseafood

djseafood — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 10:34:51 -0800

Hasn't the PSP been doing this for a while now?

By: sourwookie

sourwookie — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 10:35:03 -0800

How much is it? I may be happier with the Cingular 8125 I was planning on getting for pocket WIFI.

By: willmize

willmize — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 10:35:10 -0800

Useless. Pass. Next!

By: lodurr

lodurr — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 10:35:36 -0800

Cool. Origami is about the same size as and a little heavier than my c.-2001 Sony Picturebook. But with far less battery life. And no keyboard. Though if it sells at all well, we can hope that it drives down the price on really useful form-factors like the OQO and its ilk.

By: Space Coyote

Space Coyote — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 10:35:39 -0800

I can't think of a single place where I would want to use this. If I was on my couch I could just as easily use a laptop. If I was on the go it' would be too cumbersome to use as a PDA. No keyboard so it would suck for taking notes, and the battery life is terrible. Somehow I don't picture the makers of the PSP, Palm, iPod or iBook are going to be losing sleep over this.

By: Busithoth

Busithoth — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 10:38:32 -0800

PSP doesn't have bluetooth, djseafood. but damn, this would have been so cool 3-4 years ago.

By: djseafood

djseafood — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 10:40:30 -0800

I bet PSP 2 will.

By: blue_beetle

blue_beetle — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 10:41:17 -0800

I really, really want to be excited about this, but it looks like the execution falls short. Boo I say, Boo!

By: b_thinky

b_thinky — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 10:42:08 -0800

I still have my Apple Newton.

By: prostyle

prostyle — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 10:42:40 -0800

I'd recommend checking out the video so you can witness how truly devoid of purpose this is. Everything old is new again.

By: BlackLeotardFront

BlackLeotardFront — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 10:44:21 -0800

Asus is making one, that's good hardware... if it has a built-in laser keyboard that'd be nice. But do we really need one of these at this point? Laptops are small enough for me.

By: laptop_lizard

laptop_lizard — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 10:46:09 -0800

Paul Allen is cooking up a similiar machine called Flipstart. He doesn't seem as enthusiastic about the tablet style of input.

By: pkingdesign

pkingdesign — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 10:47:14 -0800

I'll second the Apple Newton comment... essentially this Oragami gadget is about 8 years behind, at least in terms of the form factor and concept. I'll keep waiting.

By: tweak

tweak — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 10:47:27 -0800

Hmm, it looks kind of like the Sega GameGear. But there does appear to be some sort of keyboard on the LCD panel, at least in one of the photos on this page. What market niche is this product supposed to fill? I mean.... where does it fit in this list, put in descending order from smallest to largest: - Cellphone - Cellphone/PDA combo like Treo or Sidekick - PSP/NGage - Origami? - Tablet PCs - Laptop Color me confused.

By: joegester

joegester — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 10:50:48 -0800

Everytime I see one of these mobile devices, it has huge clunky borders around the screen. That's like a whole 3 inches smaller the thing could be, or three inches larger the screen could be. If you want it to be mobile, it has to be as small as possible with as big of a screen as possible.

By: joegester

joegester — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 10:53:26 -0800

Also. Do you think they realize it's going to fail? Like is someone somewhere doing a calculation where they say, "Eventually a product like this is going to be profitable. It will cost us X to develop it. If it has a Y% chance of success, we should proceed." They can't actually expect this to be a smash hit, right?

By: three blind mice

three blind mice — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 10:54:18 -0800

I'm with willmize. Useless. Pass. Next!

By: Busithoth

Busithoth — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 10:56:05 -0800

that video is pretty funny. all the same capabilities of my old PocketPC phone, but bigger! that thumb/type interface looks like the only neat part of the device, though asking people to relearn how to type is a bit ambitious, let's say. that, and Microsoft Live Mobile? Does that mean that I'd have to subscribe to some asshat service to get the thing to perform communciations? I really like the ideas of tablet PCs, and came close to getting the thinkpad model, but my current laptop really does afford all I need right now. and what the frak are those people laughing about so much in that cabin? it's like they escaped some nuclear holocaust and are smug in their survival. okay, maybe I'm reading into it a bit. but really, 2.5 hours? that's long enough to get you up one side of a mountain, but then you're screwed if you want to come down the other side. Hooray!

By: loquax

loquax — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 11:01:21 -0800

Paul Allen is cooking up a similiar machine called Flipstart. I want one. Is the dream as dead as it appears to be from their website?

By: priorpark17

priorpark17 — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 11:02:01 -0800

If it dont fold dont call it Origami.

By: b_thinky

b_thinky — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 11:03:32 -0800

The Origami looks kinda like a black etch-a-sketch.

By: GuyZero

GuyZero — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 11:05:55 -0800

Man, people are jaded. The specs on the Origami hardware are better than the laptop I'm typing on right now. 1Ghz Pentium M or Celeron M, half a gig memory (some had a quarter, which isn't enough, true), WiFi, Bluetooth, a full hard drive and generally full PC functionality. My laptop has a mere 600 MHz processor, less than half a gig ram and no built-in networking functionality. The Samsung machine is better than a top-of-the-line laptop circa 1999 - which is still a pretty good machine. Plus the price! If the example machines go for the stated low-end price of $599 USD, that's a pretty damn good price. It's a very impressive piece of hardware. I mean, the damn thing runs Office. It's what most people actually want out of a PDA. Most laptops only do 3 or so hours of battery life and if you turn up the screen brightness and play some audio... 2.5 hours of actual runtime is fine. I, for one, am jazzed to try one out and buy one.

By: mr_crash_davis

mr_crash_davis — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 11:07:52 -0800

"Man, people are jaded." If it said "Apple" on it, GuyZero, rest assured we'd be drowning in fanboy jizz.

By: priorpark17

priorpark17 — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 11:13:05 -0800

Where is that house the loverly Asian couple took the blond girl with the fake grin? There is more going on there than meets the eye. It looks great, but they stay in playing Suduko. And the blond's guy has a very steady hand or is it a fake hand, and a train and a big backpack. Oh yeah somethings going on.

By: slatternus

slatternus — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 11:13:22 -0800

I also would love to be excited about this, especially given the failure of handhelds to do anything about the piddling screen real estate they all seem to have settled on. But there just isn't anything here that triggers the WOW reflex.

By: beowulf573

beowulf573 — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 11:13:48 -0800

Despite all the nay-saying, I could actually go for one of these. I'd like a small portable device to check mail/browse the web/take notes on. And I've been playing around with writing kiosk-style software to manage stuff around the house; I had been planning on building a micro-ATX system with a 7" touch screen to run it but this looks much nicer. I had hopes for TabletPC but they turned out to be over priced and more laptop like than I wanted. A friend bought a rugged HP tablet last year when they were discontinued and I regret not buying one then. The LS800 is the closet thing I've found to buy but I can't bring myself to spend $1700. If they can increase the display resolution to 1024x600 and get the battery life to 4 hours with normal use, this would be an ideal device for me.

By: Mr Stickfigure

Mr Stickfigure — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 11:15:38 -0800

Jadedfilter: This is so totally not worth the nightmare it is going to cause those of us trying to search for paper folding instructions. At least it doesn't also have a e-paper display.

By: jefbla

jefbla — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 11:15:54 -0800

According to the picture on this page, this product is aimed at soccer moms who ride the bus.

By: drgonzo

drgonzo — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 11:16:39 -0800

yawn.

By: justgary

justgary — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 11:17:32 -0800

If it said "Apple" on it, GuyZero, rest assured we'd be drowning in fanboy jizz. When the iPod came out a lot of those fan boys had the same negative reaction, so I think that's a bit of an overstatement. The Samsung machine is better than a top-of-the-line laptop circa 1999 - which is still a pretty good machine. Maybe I'm confused. Are you touting the fact that its specs are better than a laptop from 7 years ago?

By: Gungho

Gungho — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 11:22:20 -0800

Its craptacular. There have been literally dozens of half-assed attempts at tablet PCs. This one is wrong in so many ways. Too small to be a "laptop" too big to be a personal portable device. Not a phone, not an iPod, not a DVD player. Not a PDA, Too big for a shirt pocket, not a TiVo to go, and for fuk sakes it runs Windows XP! I would have given them points if it was their first LongHorn device. The sad part is Windows people will buy this because it runs Windows. Holy jeebus pass the koolaid.

By: Robot Johnny

Robot Johnny — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 11:22:45 -0800

I'd recommend checking out the video so you can witness how truly devoid of purpose this is. I'd recommend checking out the video so you can witness how truly shitty Windows Media is.

By: lodurr

lodurr — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 11:23:33 -0800

GuyZero, I suppose we should look at the bright side: It's not a Poquet. But let's look at your implicit criteria: Why does it need a 1GHz processor? Why more than 1GB RAM? (More than about 768 would be a waste of money and juice, IMHO.) And your comparisons against 1999 are apt: When I bought my Picturebook in October 2001, it was about the same size as these origami devices and had a keyboard, camera, FireWire 400, PCMCIA, USB 2.0, 6GB hard drive, and 128MB of RAM (I've upped that to 384MB -- more than enough for Win2K Pro, though admittedly a bit spare for WinXP). And the base battery live was a then-exceptional three hours. I added a WiFi card and was quite happy with it for several years -- even used it as my primary for about a year at one point. Point being that this thing is just not that impressive. OQO is impressive. This isn't. OQO is based (or so it seems) on a really interesting modular concept pitched by IBM about three years back, that treats the CPU+storage[+minimal] display as the core modual that can be coupled into many different configurations. Take it out of your coat pocket and slot it at your desk, and you're working. The vision for this is much narrower, AFAICS, and maybe that's what's necessary. I don't know. Mr. Crash, I'm as big an Apple critic as anyone on this site, but you know what? With Apples, it's effectively feasible to decouple the system from the CPU. My main work machine is a G4 that boots off of a Firewire drive, and when I hook that firewire drive up to another Mac, it boots up just fine, thank you. That's just really not very feasible with Windows, but it works pretty much just fine out of the box on a Mac, and that's pretty much a function of the fact that Apple went with SCSI so many years ago. Weird how small choices like that can echo a couple of decades later...

By: shmegegge

shmegegge — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 11:26:34 -0800

man, this really reeks of typical microsoft's typical poor decision making. "there's a gap in the laptop to pda market. fill it! we must have living rooms full of MS devices, where every thing in your home can check email and operate as a universal remote! make it so!"

By: junesix

junesix — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 11:27:25 -0800

From a marketing perspective, Microsoft really fumbled the ball on this one. They created a lot of buzz early on with the origamiproject website. Rumors and glimpses at the device helped drive the excitement further. Finally it's revealed and they splash a few generic pages on the Microsoft website with as much fanfare as a new keyboard model. Did they learn nothing from Apple or even their own Xbox 360 division?

By: mr_roboto

mr_roboto — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 11:31:55 -0800

Too big. Way too big. If I need a backpack to carry it around, I might as well use a laptop.

By: I Love Tacos

I Love Tacos — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 11:34:12 -0800

Mr. Crash, I'm as big an Apple critic as anyone on this site, but you know what? With Apples, it's effectively feasible to decouple the system from the CPU. I didn't realize how sweet this was until my firewire booting G5 died, and I was up and running, with all of my apps and data, in about an hour. (the time it took to go to the apple store, buy something that was in stock, come back home and plug it in). On Topic: I like the idea of these tiny tablets, but I've yet to see one where the execution really impressed me. Here's to hoping that Origami version 3 will kick some ass.

By: five fresh fish

five fresh fish — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 11:34:27 -0800

If it said "Apple" on it, GuyZero, rest assured we'd be drowning in fanboy jizz. Yah, just like with the last set of Apple products. Oh, wait, no, the Mac fanboys thought the new Apple announcements were shite.

By: doctor_negative

doctor_negative — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 11:34:37 -0800

800x480 resolution. - So not quite big enough to show even smaller websites (and that would not include room used by the browser UI). Although you look at RSS feeds. - Too small for effective PC gaming. - Too small for Outlook or Word or Excel. - Much too small for any graphics program. Hmm, who are the selling this to? If it had IR support it could be a killer TV remote, if a bit overpriced.

By: mk1gti

mk1gti — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 11:34:48 -0800

I like the comment someone made somewhere in their little marketing thingy 'And it can fit in a large pocket.' Oh yes, all of us wear bulky coats 365 days a year or cargo pants just so we can carry all our junk around. . . I was expecting something more than this, which I see as rapidly falling into the category of 'Wow, that think plopped like a useless turd, didnt' it?'

By: Olli

Olli — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 11:36:39 -0800

Despite all the nay-saying, I could actually go for one of these. I'd like a small portable device to check mail/browse the web/take notes on. I agree. The form factor seems to hit just the right spot between PDA and Notebook. Right now I tend to carry my 12" Powerbook round in my bag. If they've managed to work out a good input system for this it might be worthwhile. As an aside, where are you all getting the 2.5 hour battery life thing from?

By: marvin

marvin — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 11:36:53 -0800

I'm just not getting it. Anybody who'd begin to conteplate one of these could have a cellphone, that takes pictures plays music, and who knows, soon may be able to play movies. So we're carrying around a highly capable and portable mobile device, and it's being suggested that we pack one of these too? To run Office? Oh joy!

By: IshmaelGraves

IshmaelGraves — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 11:38:35 -0800

GuyZero, I suppose we should look at the bright side: It's not a Poquet. I'd much rather have these specs in a Poqet PC form factor than this misguided thing. For 15 years or so handheld PC designers have managed to fuck up everything that the Poqet PC got right. Bah.

By: pithy comment

pithy comment — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 11:39:03 -0800

jefbla, you mean soccer moms who ride the DC metro (subway).

By: xthlc

xthlc — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 11:41:26 -0800

It looks like they really tried to make this a finger-based tablet, which is a pretty cool idea. A stylus is outmoded and painful to use in a mobile device -- you want something you can quickly tap on and use with one hand. The on-screen thumb keyboard and the menu system seem to suggest that that's what they're going for. But then they completely ruined it by a) making it much more powerful (and thus bulkier) than necessary, and b) sticking it with a generic version of XP Tablet and an off-the-shelf application suite that's still firmly mired in the mouse / trackpad world. My lab might get one for our own research; I could see building some pretty awesome stylus-free custom applications with this, building atop the thumb keyboard and finger-scale touchscreen. But it's otherwise it's a spectacularly unsexy and mediocre device that is probably doomed to failure in the mass market.

By: marvin

marvin — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 11:42:19 -0800

"a highly capable and portable mobile device", Like this for example.

By: tnai

tnai — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 11:45:22 -0800

Oh, wait, no, the Mac fanboys thought the new Apple announcements were shite. sure, they thought the new products were shite, but i bet most of them are sat at home right now polishing the scratches out of their newly purchased ipod hifi.

By: sourwookie

sourwookie — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 11:52:25 -0800

I'm still sticking with Plan A. (Unless, of course, Apple releases a smartphone by October)

By: I Foody

I Foody — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 11:54:08 -0800

Too powerful for what it needs to be, terrible form factor for what it ought be. This is a miss. I want a polymer computer that weighs less than 3 oz, folds or rolls up, displays well enough to read text across it's whole surface, and has a touch screen interface and simple character recognition. I don't even care if it's color, but I want a wide veiwing angle and to be abled to watch it in the sun or shade. What this is is the next Atari Lynx.

By: riffola

riffola — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 11:59:42 -0800

I want one, maybe not this generation's models, but I guess by the time they come loaded with Windows Vista Origami Edition, I'll want to get one. My reasons for buying it are as follows: It has bluetooth, built in memory card readers, and USB, great for hooking up with my camera & 2MP phone pictures, and synching data. It has wifi & ethernet ports, and bluetooth 2.0 with stereo support, so you can use it with skype for on the go wifi-phone. And lastly it looks to be less of a hassle than a laptop.

By: tapeguy

tapeguy — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 12:01:33 -0800

f the example machines go for the stated low-end price of $599 USD, that's a pretty damn good price. Exactly. If I break my iRiver or want to upgrade it in a year or so, I'd rather get one of these for £400 or so instead of just an mp3 player for £250. Stick a camera in it - or does it already have one? - and make sure it can handle Skype and I might even throw away my mobile phone, too.

By: soyjoy

soyjoy — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 12:03:47 -0800

I was expecting something more than this, which I see as rapidly falling into the category of 'Wow, that think plopped like a useless turd, didnt' it?' I heard that when Steve Jobs ~~heard about this product~~ read the comment above, he shit his pants.

By: bobo123

bobo123 — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 12:22:58 -0800

Looks a little large to me. I don't think it's a coincidence that the Sony PSP and Nintendo DS (folded) have very similar dimensions, I think through trial and error they've found out that that's as about as large as you can get and people will still carry it around. Interesting as an alternative to smaller notebooks though.

By: scarabic

scarabic — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 12:27:20 -0800

Nothing that interesting about this form factor. Smaller-ish tablet PC. Big whoop. All the magic in that teaser video they made was in the SOFTWARE. Once it really does control everything in the world from my dishwasher to my stock portfolio, all with a twiddle of my eyebrows, then I'll get excited. But that movie was whacked. People were doing highly complex things with almost no input: just like people in movies always seem to with computers. Llllame. Keep trying, Microsoft. Eventually you might actually innovate.

By: PinkStainlessTail

PinkStainlessTail — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 12:27:53 -0800

Minimum 800 x 480 resolution See that's what burns me the most: I was really hoping this was going to be a US localized version of one of this print resolution readers that have been showing up in China and Japan over the last few years. You know: "Origami", therefore paper, therefore print res- no?

By: delmoi

delmoi — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 12:30:27 -0800

but damn, this would have been so cool 3-4 years ago. ahem. God, I wanted one of those so bad when they came out. Then they stopped making them. Although, looking at toshiba's site the other day it turns out that they are making them again.

By: seanmpuckett

seanmpuckett — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 12:32:35 -0800

I would pay large dollars for a PSP-sized device with an open platform. I want something I can carelessly jam in a pocket, play music on, surf the web in a coffee shop, has a screen I can actually read a book or watch video on, uses a nipple-mouse for navigation, and runs for six+ hours. A few buttons on the sides of the device to keep the screen margin narrow, but no touch screen -- they're too fragile. Use something like Dasher for typing. Anyway, this is another swing-and-a-miss from MS. Too big, too fragile, not enough runtime.

By: mad judge pickles

mad judge pickles — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 12:52:20 -0800

It's weird because, as a handheld, this thing makes no sense. But then, when I looked at it for a while, it seemed sort of familiar. Then I got it: it looks like one of those onboard computer things that are welded into car dashboards. It's the perfect size to be an after-market add-on for a car's dashboard. Plus, when it's using a car's power, the device's battery span becomes irrelevant. If I could be bothered, I'd figure out a way of building a discreet harness to bolt this to a dashboard, add a sat-nav, and plug it in to a car's electrical system. The first company to do that is, in my humble opinion, going to get very rich indeed.

By: me & my monkey

me & my monkey — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 12:52:51 -0800

I've been using something very similar for the last two years. In some ways, it's very very good; in other ways, it's almost good enough but not quite. A lot of people here are saying that Windows XP isn't the right OS for this, but being able to run standard Windows apps instead of their Windows Mobile equivalent is pretty compelling.

By: jefbla

jefbla — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 12:54:13 -0800

This is going to be a fucking disaster. I assume M$ will be out of business within a week.

By: xpermanentx

xpermanentx — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 13:14:51 -0800

The only question I have... This Origami, does it run Linux?

By: Baby_Balrog

Baby_Balrog — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 13:18:10 -0800

Maybe they'll explode like X-Box power cables. or just break. like 360s. However, I suspect we'll never know.

By: lodurr

lodurr — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 13:20:58 -0800

me & my monkey, I would say that XP is the wrong OS -- Win2K would be the right one. It's much lighter, memory- and process-wise. XP is a pig. I also used something kind of similar -- the predecessor of your Sony U, you might say, the Picturebook. I loved it. It's still ticking away at home, plugged into a 19" Fujitsu monitor and a full-sized keyboard. If I plug in the extended battery, I could take it out into a coffee shop and work all day.

By: Doorstop

Doorstop — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 13:24:54 -0800

i'll wait for a writwatch which has a holographic PC interface thanks... ...seriously? until you guys have played with one of them (and i have played with an OQO) don't know it. it's pretty sexy. its only problem is its overpriced and trying to hard. something that small can never be a fully functional PC to be used for more than entertainment or painful attempts at work. i would reccomend it for anyone who needs to be communicating on the go, is addicted to all types of media, and just needs a quick fix of internet every 10 minutes.

By: GuyZero

GuyZero — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 13:34:54 -0800

You know: "Origami", therefore paper, therefore print res- no? So, here's the deal. Every MS product starts out as shit. I used Windows 1.0. No one was rushing out to proclaim Microsoft as the future masters of the universe based on that. So, for now, Origami devices are somewhat sucky to keep the price down. Note that the $/GB rati for iPods has dropped about an order of magnitude since they came out. I figure that in a couple of years, once those high-res paper-type displays are widely available, they'll fit right into this platform. I mean, fawk, I did development for Windows 3 on VGA displays... 640 x 480. Who would run that today? It looks like a display for the legally blind. But the Windows UI hasn't changed a lot since then. Microsoft is always way ahead of what the hardware can do. The second and third gen of these devices will probably be both useful and cheap. As for comparing it to a 7 year old laptop... I use an 8 year old laptop at home. And it works great. I even grabbed video of my camcorder this morning. I've ripped and watched DVDs on it. I've done software dev on this machine. Unless you want to run 3D games, a 7 year old laptop is about what most people need. Ergo, the Origami is probably enough power for the average user. Although, yes,the screen will be a big small for web browsing.

By: Ironmouth

Ironmouth — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 13:35:09 -0800

Who knows what the size and weight feel like in your hands. Might be fine, might suck. At least when we handle one we'll know. The car idea is pretty good.

By: sourwookie

sourwookie — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 13:47:45 -0800

The only question I have... This Origami, does it run Linux? Knowing the Linux community, I imagine it will by dawm tomorrow.

By: marvin

marvin — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 13:49:59 -0800

You could snort your coke off that display surface. Second thoughts, maybe not, after forking over $900.

By: linux

linux — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 14:01:10 -0800

There isn't going to be a leap forward until rollable flexible screens hit the portable consumer market. Then you can walk around with a baton-like device in your pocket that scrolls out a 10" screen (held rigid by telescoping plastic sides... why not). The keyboard, if you need one, can be the clamshell. Years from now, yes. It's why I spent $250 on my new laptop, a five-year-old Latitude L400 to replace a nine-year-old Actius A250 that was killed by the cats. I'm not buying a new handheld/laptop until it's a baton. :)

By: zpousman

zpousman — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 14:08:42 -0800

I was really down on this. But I've come around. All the way. This thing is the future, 100%. Microsoft or not. I run a 15" PB that I run as a desktop at my work (real ergo keyboard, real mouse, 19" display as the second display). But the PB is too big. I need something that is between 80 and 90% of a computer for home and mobile use. And Orgami is that. When I'm at home, I need to get work done, but it's mostly of the "plug and chug" kind, not the deep and extensive coding, or design, or writing work that I do at home. Here's the thought experiment that I've been doing. What is 80% of each of my tasks: 1. 80% of web-browsing? It's just low-key, while-the-tv-is-on browsing. Firefox, tabs, etc. Nothing different here. 800 px is kinda small for this task, I'd prefer 1000 or even 1280 but 7" is pretty good, especially at that kind of resolution (100 px/inch or better). 2. 80% of emailing? It's writing and replying to emails, but not making new mailboxes or tweaking the spam filters and stuff. It's even sorting my inbox (yes, I still do it by hand) during a meeting or talk or on the bus (I don't ride the bus, but...). 3. 80% of writing. It's more editing and outlining and working, not inserting all of my references, creating figures, and the like. It's not desktop publishing, just, well writing. I use text editors for writing a lot these days anyway, and not something like Word. 4. 80% of (web and cs) coding. This is running code and debugging, but not starting a new project. Running eclipse at 800 x 400 is going to be tough, however. So, if the display were 1024 x 768 minimum, this would be doable. And even enjoyable, perhaps. I also use Processing and the Processing IDE, which seems like a perfect fit -- a toy IDE for a toy computer (more nicely stated it's "a casual IDE for a casual comptuer). With a higher res. screen and more battery life, this is the notebook that I want to carry. Imagine being able to take notes on it at school / work...The screen is not in the way of conversation. The keyboard, saying you need it, is flat on the desk in front of it (I'm a touch typist with 60-70% accuracy and tons of speed). This is a huge advantage, even if it's one (like having multiple monitors) that one has to use for a time to believe. I'm sold. Here's to hoping that Stevie J will hear my plea and build me one of these with a nice operating system.

By: fire&wings

fire&wings — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 14:10:42 -0800

Looks like a cross between an Atari Lynx and a Barcode Battler but with a larger screen. Talk about meh.

By: me & my monkey

me & my monkey — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 14:33:54 -0800

I would say that XP is the wrong OS -- Win2K would be the right one. It's much lighter, memory- and process-wise. XP is a pig. This isn't necessarily true. Like I said, I've been using a similar machine, a Sony Vaio U70, for some time. It's running XP Tablet PC (not provided by the manufacturer, since the U70 doesn't conform to the minimum Tablet PC hardware requirements - the touch screen isn't pressure-sensitive). It performs quite well, and the Tablet PC functionality is what makes it useful. MS OneNote makes it worth the price of admission.

By: klausness

klausness — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 14:35:38 -0800

But does it run Microsoft Bob?

By: sien

sien — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 14:36:23 -0800

There is space for something like this. The Nokia 770 is better than these things though. That has, critically, the right price but is still more than a PDA and less than a laptop. If I stop biking/driving and go back to public transport for getting to work then I'll be getting something like this. Reading MeFi on the bus on something like that would be nice, as would reading stuff from project Gutenberg.

By: juv3nal

juv3nal — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 14:39:04 -0800

I don't get it. If I can't stash it in my pocket, why wouldn't I go with a full blown laptop? There's ultralight ones out there with more power & screen resolution at 2.8 lbs, on-board optical rw drive AND boasting more battery life. Don't know if those battery life claims hold up, and that ultralight would cost significantly more, but still...

By: me & my monkey

me & my monkey — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 14:41:22 -0800

Running eclipse at 800 x 400 is going to be tough, however. So, if the display were 1024 x 768 minimum, this would be doable. And even enjoyable, perhaps. Using any IDE on a tablet is extremely unpleasant. That's what docking stations and external displays are for. And I'm sure these things support higher maximum resolutions, just not on the device display itself. On the Sony U, you can view it at 800x600 on the device without scrolling, but it would support 1600x1200 on an external monitor.

By: The Monkey

The Monkey — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 15:00:32 -0800

Is Microsoft having cashflow trouble or something, 'cos if not I don't know how to explain that godawful over compressed undersized video. I use (and prefer) Windows XP, but whenever I have a choice for video format, I click Quicktime, I do this for a reason. Time you caught the fuck on. Anyway, I don't think anything really ground breaking and amazing is going to happen with mobile anything until battery technology (or tiny fuel cells, or those little ethanol powered generators, or whatever) kicks it up a whole lot of notches.

By: solid-one-love

solid-one-love — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 15:15:11 -0800

Jeez. I was hoping that they'd eventually reveal it as one of those foldable, configurable, "transformers" devices: a cell phone with a 60 GB hard drive, a decent camera, an MP3 player and video player all in one, with WiFi and a tiny little keyboard and a 6-hour battery life, all in a package about the size of a pocket camera running some form of Windows, fully syncable with Office. I'd buy that, and the tech exists to make it for about $400. This thing is completely useless to me.

By: Kiell

Kiell — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 15:32:42 -0800

All that aside... Who the hell came up with the name for this thing? And how much are they being paid? It amazes me that so much money can be spent on development and yet when it comes to rollout, their hours of market research, think tanks, decision groups and media consultants come up with 'Ultra Mobile PC'. Give me strength.

By: SweetJesus

SweetJesus — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 17:16:39 -0800

Holy shit, I could have a ton of fun with one of those in about 6 months, when those Linux dorks finish ripping it apart. Expect to see all sorts of home theater/PVR/Myth TV hacks for that thing by the year's end.

By: breath

breath — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 17:25:24 -0800

This is my favorite take on this product. Written before the unveiling, yet so perfectly accurate in every regard.

By: fungible

fungible — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 18:25:23 -0800

It runs Sudoku! Sign me up! My only hope is that when you win, you get a killer cheezy fireworks display like in Spider.

By: quonsar

quonsar — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 19:16:50 -0800

By: Goofyy

Goofyy — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 01:19:23 -0800

I want something similar for mounting in the kitchen. Suited for grocery inventory/shopping-list and displaying recipes. Maybe the quick look at information or email.

By: Samizdata

Samizdata — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 03:02:11 -0800

Rather fond of my Averatec 3700 series lappy (actually a 3715). I drag it around everywhere. Admittedly weak video for gaming, but great for everything else, and small enough to hide in a hanging file folder if I don't take it to lunch with me!

By: acrobat

acrobat — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 06:28:11 -0800

"If they can increase the display resolution to 1024x600 and get the battery life to 4 hours with normal use, this would be an ideal device for me." Plus a built-in mobile phone functionality. Maybe a slot for CDs/DVDs would be nice too. And a lighter. And a torchlight. Why not?

By: Heminator

Heminator — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 15:20:52 -0800

Here's some clever ideas for solving the interface problem. That's what I was worried about with the UMPC. But in conjunction with one of these cases incorporating a fabric keyboard, the damn thing might rock my world.

By: NewBornHippy

NewBornHippy — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 18:39:49 -0800

Metafilter: drowning in fanboy jizz.

By: quin

quin — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 22:58:39 -0800

OK, i'm bugged by the negativity here. So let me lay this out; when the OQO was presented a couple of years ago, i realized that i was seeing the future. A full power PC in a palm sized format. The BIG PICTURE suggested that you could take this device from your home [where it would, while docked, act as your home PC], then, while in the car it would act as your stereo/GPS, and once you got to work [again docked], it would be a laptop/ work-station. i totally geeked on this idea and sold it to anyone who would listen. Not many did. Then the PSP came out. And i explained how the modded Xbox with Xbox Media Center was a thing of beauty to behold, and how the modded PSP would herald the next generation of great design. Apparently i was wrong there as well. But if this thing can be priced low enough, and if the car modding community comes on board [GPS, WiFi, MP3s] i actually think that this could almost be the killer app that vendors have been seeking. As a Mac person, i would love to see Steve J take a whack at this concept, because i really believe that this is the future and for a device this size, form and function are really going to be what sells it, but i will admit that if ASUS can put this thing out for less than a grand, i will probably pick one up. Pay attention people, Sci-Fi tells us that one day, devices like this will be ubiquitous. We may as well embrace in now. /lusts over the idea of a PSP with GPS and an open source OS >/ realizes he just used way too many acronyms and hangs head in shame.

By: juv3nal

juv3nal — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 23:33:47 -0800

OK, i'm bugged by the negativity here. I think most people being negative about this aren't disputing the value of a "full power PC in a palm sized format." But the key, here for me at least, is "palm sized format." This thing, unlike both the OQO and the PSP, is not going to fit in your pocket. At its size, it's outclassed in power by proper laptops/tablet pcs some of which are only marginally heavier (and if you're going to have to stash it in a bag anyways, it's weight that matters more than size).

By: quin

quin — Sat, 11 Mar 2006 03:17:10 -0800

juv3nal, Fair enough. But i guess as one of the original Libretto owners, i've used a laptop that falls in this size range and i don't think people realize how useful or portable something that is this size really is. Once i discovered that that machine fit into a thigh pocket of a pair of cargo pants i started to see the real value of what some now refer to as an ultraportable. i guess i'm just trying to convince people not to dismiss something before they have actually had a chance to use one. But you are right in that, at it's current size, it probably is bigger than most people will think of as 'pocket sized.'

By: five fresh fish

five fresh fish — Sat, 11 Mar 2006 09:57:03 -0800

Think: Psion.

By: lodurr

lodurr — Sun, 12 Mar 2006 05:24:25 -0800

quicn: You should have been right about the PSP. Origami looks at the PSP and learns the wrong lesson. Re. fabric keyboards: Don't get so excited until you've had a chance to actually try one. I love the idea -- was poised on the edge of getting one for my Archos PM430. But then I took my Archos down to CompUSA and tried a few out. They sucked. Bigtime. The few that actually worked at all were absolute murder to type on: Missed keystrokes, unexpected keystroke repeates, stiff/inconsistent action. It required a very strong and extremely consistent strike, dead-center on the key, to make it work.