Re: real (future) competition
 

Wow, cool-- I never knew about that work! I feel so vindicated!

And yes, its time has (almost) come. :)

Aside to ragnar: I'm back in Helsinki this week. So glad the clouds cleared!

Re: real (future) competition
 

There was another company, not too long ago that had something similar. Found it.

http://ouchmybrainhurts.com/Articles...-_Antelope/39/

Re: real (future) competition
 

We were having this exact same discussion in work about the future of mobile devices. I was suggesting that in 5-10 years time, when wimax (or whatever) is promiscuous, we'll be carrying a portable device the size of the n800, but probably with the equivalent processing to a p4 4ghz. Out and about it will have a decent screen for checking email, browsing the interweb or whatever, but take it into your office and it will wirelessly bond with the monitor and keyboard/mouse on your desk (NFC maybe?) giving you full screen usability. Pick it up, take it home and put it by your TV and it will again bond allowing you to watch the movies on your 8terabyte SD card :) in full glory, or link to your hifi for wall-shaking volume.

Damn, I'm drooling again :) But in all seriousness, we're sooooo close. we've got bluetooth keyboards, and pdas with mobile graphics processors (HTC released a windows device with an nvidia chip in it). One little push and we're they're.

Re: real (future) competition
 

I doubt 5-10 years time, because 5-10 years ago we were all saying the same thing

Re: real (future) competition
 

Yeah, but this time we have good evidence that it's possible. ;)

Besides, if it happens in 5 years, a 10 year prediction is still valid. :D

Re: real (future) competition
 

I think Antelope brought the rights to the MetaPad. More pictures of the MetaPad look very similar to what Antelope is showing.

http://www.research.ibm.com/Wearable...d/metapad.html

Re: real (future) competition
 

Competition like what? It cost a hell of a lot more there"s nothing out that can beat my n800 :) by price

Re: real (future) competition
 

I think the biggest obstacle we've got at the moment isn't price, or size, or cpu power. All these have been shown feasible (mostly) with the UMPC type platforms. The problem we've got is battery life. There have been a lot of press releases about "breakthroughs" in battery performance in the last 6-12 months, most of them talking about some kind of nano-tech. If any of these come to fruition then we're a BIG step closer to the dream. Tech like this is just going to make portable devices more practical.

And with the Antelope-type platforms, they're nice but I'd rather have the display permanently attached. Why plug the "core" into a screen? The device could automatically disable the in-built screen and upscale to a higher resolution; just like a laptop in a docking station.

Re: real (future) competition
 

Something like the N800 should have 2 batteries like the one it currently uses. Both hot swappable. Period. IMO.

Re: real (future) competition
 

I just used an iphone recently for the first time. I'd so buy one if they supported third party apps, like SSH. The responsiveness in the UI is absolutely amazing. And the multi-touch is nice too.

So, IMO, the n800's market has been reduced to those of us who want to install third party apps as the ipod touch seems to be in direct competition with the n800 in every other respect. I suppose the n800 still holds some VoIP market potential too, but without SCO Bluetooth headset support, it's probably rather limited.

The n800's successor could compete, but it would need hardware 2D drawing support (and it would need to make heavy use of it in the UI) or a GPU to keep up with the iphone's interface, IMO. Currently, SDL draws with screen tearing on the n800 and it doesn't seem to support hardware accelerated 2d drawing as it's rather slow.

A GPU would be wicked sweet. And SCO and A2DP bluetooth audio built in to the firmware would be quite nice too.