Nokia 770 vs UMPC
Edit (7/12/07): Since this post, I have owned a Nokia 770 Internet Tablet, an n800 and an eo UMPC. It should tell you something that I kept the 770 and n800 but sold the UMPC.
Update: RogerS over at InternetTabletTalk has a response to Mike Cane’s Nokia 770 complaints. Interesting reading. I think if I had known a little more about the 770, I might have purchased it instead of the Palm TX back in January.
The 770 is nowhere near as exciting as the UMPC. I bet the handheld linux community is actually more excited than most of us about UMPC.
Mike Cane left the following comment in a Scoble post. Normally I wouldn’t reprint something like this in its entirety, but I’ve seen TONS of comments about UMPC being a more expensive 770 and it’s driving me nuts, too. I don’t own a 770, but I’ve been reading what the 770 community has to say about problems with the 770 that are just not going to be issues with the UMPC. Mike discusses the topic in this quoted statement.
OK, now I’m bloody *mad*.
The countless eejits chattering around the web have crossed the line once too often. It’s time to set them straight, shove them back from the line, and show them for the eejits they are!
If I read one more time that a UMPC is “just an overpriced Nokia 770,” I will explode!
Anyone who *has* a 770 can tell you straight: The UMPC is *not* a Nokia 770 in any way, shape, or form.
The 770’s Opera browser mysteriously goes Poof! and suddenly disappears while browsing. I don’t think this will happen with a UMPC.
A site such as Palm Addict takes *over two minutes* to load on a 770. I think it will be a few seconds on a UMPC.
The 770 cannot display embedded video on sites such as Google Video or YouTube. A UMPC can.
The 770 cannot play DiVX/Xvid AVI or QuickTime video. A UMPC will.
The 770 has no browser plug in for FURL. No problem for a UMPC.
Forget word processing on a 770. Its Notes program chokes on as little as 10K of text. And the one free real WP program that’s available is hardly useable because the contortions someone has to go through to have a reliable working keyboard for WP just aren’t worth going through. A UMPC can use any USB or Bluetooth keyboard easily, and there are tons of WP programs available — not just *one*.
Yesterday the 770 I’ve been using for several months had to be rebooted *six times* because of its weak CPU and pathetic RAM. In my first hour of using it this morning I had a crash and reboot. This is its *typical day*. Crash, reboot, crash, reboot. I had a Toshiba GENIO Pocket PC — something infamous for its PPC 2002 OS instability. The 770 is a step *down* from that. Most of you don’t want to know what I call my 770. It is filthy and obscene. *Yet deserved!*
The 770 has a 200MHz CPU with 64MB of RAM. A UMPC will have a 900MHz-1+GHz CPU and most will have half a gig of RAM. If you are *still* dumb enough to think a UMPC is just a larger 770, take your desktop machine and put it in your closet. Replace it with a desktop PC that shares the specs of the 770. Then tell me how the second desktop is just like your original one — only cheaper!
I will be *glad* to exchange the *dysfunctionality* of a 770 for a UMPC with *real* usefulness, *speed*, *compatibility* with all web pages, and the ability to hook up any peripheral.
You eejits harping about the 770 don’t know what the hell you’re talking about. So shut up! shut up! shut up!
And as for UMPC being “overhyped” — baloney. It takes being traumatized by something like the 770 before you can *appreciate* a UMPC. What’s that you say? — it’s just another kind of Sony VAIO U *at less than half the price*? Just what I want! Thank you, Intel and Microsoft!!
Celestron SkyScout Personal Planetarium
Looks like the smart telescope has been delayed. Amazon says it will be released on May 29, 2006. I can’t wait to see the reviews!
Pleo – a $200 Dinosaur Robot – Available Fall ’06
“Pleo is equipped with senses for sight, sound, and touch. He learns as he explores his environment. He will exhibit genuine reactions to sensory stimuli. Every Pleo begins life with certain tendencies but, interaction with his environment has subtle effects on his behavior. Every Pleo eventually exhibits a unique personality.
Pleo is capable of expression. He can feel joy and sorrow, anger and annoyance. When Pleo is tired, he will become drowsy and go to sleep—even dream. Two or more Pleos will recognize one another. Be careful though. They can transmit colds to each other. Achoo! Pleo even sneezes!
Pleo is a one-week old infant Camarasaurus from the Jurassic period. Treat him gently like any other living thing. Your Pleo will let you know how he feels at any moment. That’s because he is capable of actual emotions including joy, aggression, sorrow, and fear. He can also yawn, sigh, sniff, sniffle, snore, cough, hiccup, and sneeze.
Pleo wants to explore his environment. He will be cautious when he walks to the edge of a table. He may cry when he is frightened. Pleo will stretch when he first wakes up. He may stomp his foot for food when hungry. When Pleo grows tired, lay him down and attach his ‘dream cord’ so he can sleep, dream, and gather energy for more exploration.”
Clearly, this thing will be more advanced than a Furby, but how will it compare to the Aibo line? I’m inclined to assume that at 1 tenth the price, the Aibo will blow it out of the water, but we’ll see. Apples and oranges, I guess, especially becuase the Aibo is out of business. I think the “start from $30-$100 and work your way up” approach that the Furby and RoboSapien lines took is a much more reasonable plan than Aibo’s “give me all your money” approach.
While Furby had two computer brains, Pleo will have seven computer brains that control 14 motors and 38 sensors. Christopher says the combination of intelligence, precision movement and personality will make Pleo a believable, lifelike pet.
“This robot is going to have organic movement, so that it seems to move and behave like something real,” Christopher said.
Pleo is starting to find it’s way into the blogosphere. Lockergnome is glad to see good news in this area after the bad news about AIBO, Engadget is excited about the Pleo’s SD expansion slot(ME TOO!), and Gearlog has a shot of a Pleo prototype.
The full press release is here. Excerpt:
UGOBE is made up of a multidisciplinary team of robotics experts,
animators, technologists, scientists, biologists and programmers. Through a
unique blend of life sciences, artistic design and sophisticated engineering,
UGOBE has created its first scientifically authentic designer species. Pleo
has an astonishingly realistic form, which is revealed in his amazingly fluid
motions, advanced sensory systems and lifelike body language.
“UGOBE’s goal is to re-animate life by transforming inanimate objects into
lifelike creatures exhibiting organic movement and behaviors,” said Bob
Christopher, CEO of UGOBE. “Through evolving companionship, Pleo will suspend
disbelief by bringing magic and beauty to life.”
Pleo features include
— 14 servo joints (torso, head, tail, neck, legs) with force feedback
— 38-touch, sound, light and tilt sensors including nine touch sensors
(mouth, chest, head, shoulders, back, feet) and 8 feet and toe sensors
— Fluid quadruped motion
— Ability to avoid obstacles and not walk off edges
— Sound output, stereo sound sensors and music beat detection
— Autonomous interaction with owner and environment including coughing,
blinking eyes, chomping, twitching, sighing, sneezing, sniffing,
growling stomach, tail drift, and yawning
— Distinct moods including anger, boredom, playfulness, hunting,
cautious, cuddling, disgust, disorientation, distress, fear, curiosity,
joy, sorrow, surprise, fatigue, hunger, and a desire for social
interaction
— Upgradeable, Life Form OS and Personality System
— SD card memory expansion
— Ability to communicate with other UGOBE Life Forms
— Rechargeable battery
Pleo will be available in Q3 2006, in time for the holidays, and will MSRP
for $199.
Brings back memories.
AJAX on Smartphones?
I’ve been working on evaluating the abilities of various pda browsers so that mobile interfaces to RSS Aggregators can be a little more smooth. Asynchronous communication with the server is possible, without XMLHttpRequest(AJAX). My test cases are here. Test #15 is the main proof of concept where I swap an image and have the server send down a cookie with useful information when it serves up the image. This functionality could be used to asynchronously mark an item in your RSS Aggregator as read or to tag it. Meanwhile, the cookie that is returned could be used for serving up content asynchronously.
NOTE: After I started down this path, I found Julien Lamarre‘s excellent work on the topic. For some reason, Julien’s tests don’t work in Blazer on the Palm TX, while I have no idea if my tests work on anything other than Firefox and Blazer.
John Tokash 