Fujitsu F-04B - Must Have Now!
 

IMHO, the following is the coolest hardware announcement in the smartphone world ever:

http://www.akihabaranews.com/en/news...s.php?id=19314

It's the first phone I would buy sight unseen just to encourage Fujitsu to continue down this path. Breaking a phone into components offers so much flexibility, both to the user and the manufacturer.

Now if they'd just offer the phone with their U820 screen.

Re: Fujitsu F-04B - Must Have Now!
 

To be able to break your phone into components is a nice gimmick but it really isn't what I'm looking for in pocketable devices. I'm not saying that it isn't a good phone but you're not going to find it in my pocket. Thanks for the hint anyway.

Re: Fujitsu F-04B - Must Have Now!
 

Dang, that's pretty slick. And as much as that doesn't work *here* for the consumer market. This is a device that I'd love to see and use in many of my personal mobile conditions.

Re: Fujitsu F-04B - Must Have Now!
 

Yeah, this is in the direction I wish everything would go. Why are we in such a small minority? It must be a Computer Science thing; modularity and reuse is pounded into our skulls from early on. I also like some of Modu's ideas.

Re: Fujitsu F-04B - Must Have Now!
 

Modularity is a good thing if we can each select our favorite keyboard and then keep using it with many different phones. Not so much if it's just a device that splits in two.

As interesting as it sounds, I don't see users constantly attaching and detaching something like that. They'll use it either always or never. First case, it's thicker than it could be. Second case, it's an unnecessary cost.

Can't wait until we get integrated projectors, though.

Re: Fujitsu F-04B - Must Have Now!
 

Well, what about something like this?

http://tech2.in.com/media/images/200..._2_450x360.jpg

The sky should be the limit Mr. livefreeordie. :)

Re: Fujitsu F-04B - Must Have Now!
 

I admit to my share of Computer Science courses. I also have been to innumerable seminars stressing modular design and reuse. But you don't even have to get that sophisticated. Why can't somebody with a desktop computer see that separating the screen, keyboard, and processor makes sense?

My ideal portable device is almost possible. I would have a screen with nothing but a Bluetooth radio and battery. I'd send the signal to the screen from a black box (with a CPU, GPU, RAM, SSD, and battery) via Bluetooth 3.0. The box would also connect with a keyboard via Bluetooth.

The main problem to be solved is heat. The x86 processors are getting cooler and ARM processors are getting faster. Eventually we should get a fast processor I can stick in my pocket without worrying about frying the motherboard.

Re: Fujitsu F-04B - Must Have Now!
 

People do it all the time with other devices. Take your MP3 player. You attach and detach it from a speaker dock and/or a computer dock not to mention you attach and detach earbuds. With portable game consoles, you attach and detach game cartridges.

Even with cellphones, many people attach and detach them from a carrying case all the time. Who's to say you couldn't build the keyboard into the carrying case?

Re: Fujitsu F-04B - Must Have Now!
 

Yes, that's the good kind of modularity. Attaching third party accessories, rather than having one keyboard you can attach to one phone. But as you see from the picture, that's already possible with current devices.

Although I should add that game controller accessories never turn out well, because the initial user base is always too small for anyone to develop games for them.

Re: Fujitsu F-04B - Must Have Now!
 

It's a mystery. But I give it about 30 more minutes before someone chimes in with one or more of the following:

• Research shows there's no market for that
• Research shows there's no market for that
• Research shows there's no market for that
• It's not economically and/or physically possible
• It's not economically and/or physically possible
• It's not economically and/or physically possible

Re: Fujitsu F-04B - Must Have Now!
 

You can already build a keyboard into the carrying case, using bluetooth. What I'm saying is that having a keyboard that snaps to the phone, I think most people would have a preference, period, and not sometimes have it attached and sometimes not.

Game cartridges are extremely annoying. Apt-get ftw :D

Re: Fujitsu F-04B - Must Have Now!
 

Maybe it will start a new category:

Handled in Harmattan :D

Re: Fujitsu F-04B - Must Have Now!
 

That was yesterday. It seems there's an article every week or so about dedicated handheld game devices on the decline because of smartphones and handheld computers.

Mobile devices of a certain type are starting to have smaller size-differentials. These controllers, whatever they may be, should be able to transcend the usual hardware updates. The only dimension change from the original iPhone and the 3G/3GS is a depth increase of .5 mm. That's close enough that it can be said that the iPhone dimensions will have stayed constant for at least 3 years. At least! The iPod touch saw the same depth increase.

Have you played any of the higher-end games on a recent generation iPhone OS device? They're very good, but they beg for a controller (and maybe an 800x480 screen). There's no reason we shouldn't be able to have a premium gaming experience on most, if not all, of the Cortex A8/SGX offerings. But I do wonder if WebOS and Android don't slightly shoot themselves in the foot with their app layers.

Re: Fujitsu F-04B - Must Have Now!
 

Ask and ye shall receive (or at least ye shall be able to preorder). ;)

http://gizmodo.com/5401275/new-icont...al-analog-nubs

More and more commercial games will find their way to smartphones. The speed of the N900's Cortex rivals that of a mid-level Pentium III and the Snapdragon pushes that up to a low-level Celeron M. Admittedly these are five to ten year old desktop processors but those specs were enough to run games as complex as Morrowind (and they had to deal with Windows layers which should make WebOS and Android layers a piece of cake).

The only obstacle is becoming the small screen. Ideally, hardware manufacturers will start developing graphics subsystems that can display at higher resolutions (800x600 would be a start but 1024x768 would be nicer) with the device screen becoming a virtual, zoomable, scrollable window that can be moved around the larger GPU output.

Just what I need. A new, pocketable way to waste time. :D

Re: Fujitsu F-04B - Must Have Now!
 

Very good demo, thanks. But I don't understand all the wires. I have an excellent Logitech wireless gamepad that has a USB 2.0 transceiver. It looks like they're going to a lower level than I thought would be necessary. If they are using USB, why wouldn't they have gone through that proprietary jack? Maybe it's a power thing; my gamepad does take batteries.

Exactly. Which is why we should have had these products yesterday. Aren't these guys trying to sell us stuff so we can waste more time?

Re: Fujitsu F-04B - Must Have Now!
 

Now you've got me curious. I found that at least part of the reason for the wires is power going into the iPhone from an internal battery on the game pad. It's also just a prototype at this point so I would assume the wires will be covered up better when (if) it hits production.

http://www.icontrolpad.com/

Re: Fujitsu F-04B - Must Have Now!
 

I love modularity!


Off-topic (but relevant):

I have a Fujitsu P7230. I have a modular bay.

I swap out my optical drive for a second battery or filler.

And I took a thinkpad modular harddrive tray, dremeled it down to 7mm (was 9mm), attached Fujitsu optical drive connector and stuck in a 320gb 2.5" into my DIY tray. A big upgrade from my internal 40GB 1.8".

I also love the battery design. The main battery is easily removable, just a couple of slide locks. Then I have an external charger that they call a "digital charger" and I can charge my primary and modular battery with it (it has two connectors, charges in series).

I'm not getting a new laptop unless it sports modular design.

Re: Fujitsu F-04B - Must Have Now!
 

Is it just me or does the keyboard part look like a bottle opener?

Re: Fujitsu F-04B - Must Have Now!
 

i thought exactly the same thing :D

Re: Fujitsu F-04B - Must Have Now!
 

daperl you forgot:

• modularity always drives cost up
• modularity always drives cost up
• modularity always drives cost up

:rolleyes:

Re: Fujitsu F-04B - Must Have Now!
 

Well, it took longer than 30 minutes. I don't mind discussing this with you, but if you don't just match me point for point I'll drop the conversation. You have a tendency to retort with a barrage. Then, when I respond to less than all of your items, you have accused me in the past as either not understanding what you said, or quoting you out of context. That derails the dialog and it doesn't interest me, and responding to this might not interest you at all, but I'll give it a try anyway by starting small and simple.

I consider the ability to expand my storage space with an SD card as something modular. I can do this with my n8x0's, but I can't do this with my iPod touch. Apple made the decision that this wasn't needed in their product and Nokia decided otherwise. Was Apple wrong and Nokia right? If yes, why? Does it even matter? If not, then why would Nokia do it? If you think I'm comparing apples and oranges, I disagree.

Re: Fujitsu F-04B - Must Have Now!
 

Woosh! My hair's a mess.

Sorry texrat, my bad. You must have been right last time too: I didn't understand what you were talking about.

Please accept my humble apology.

I thought something was strange. You've always been the one championing multiple offerings.

Again, very sorry. I seem to have reached maximum density.

Re: Fujitsu F-04B - Must Have Now!
 

Sure, I'd want eSATA too on the device. Adding hardware comes with a drawback: weight, size, power usage, price.

On top of that, making the hardware modular such as with SIM card, keyboard, and other hardware components such as WLAN (e.g. in PCMCIA, MiniPCI-Express, ExpressCard 34) comes with a drawback: weight, size, power usage, price. This is in addition to previous mentioned drawback.

Then it is question which standard to add, what exactly should be modular, and if its not possible to simply hide the hardware (slider). It is also question what is inserted to hide the 'empty space' when add-on is not in use.

Judging from the pictures in referred article in this case the size of product is clearly influenced! Wow, what a bulk! :D

Also, I don't think you can use the keyboard as remote control for the device which is a bummer. I can do that with my foldable Nokia SU-8W.

Because ARM-based mobile hardware must be viewed from an embedded hardware point of view, then thinking of modularity features instead of from a PC desktop point of view. You don't 'check out what a PC can do and then mimic this'. You check what your embedded hardware is capable to do in its target size and budget.

I actually find it is usually those desktop people who are not able to discern are the ones who are making the unrealistic mistakes of 'why doesn't device have hardware feature X', 'being able to compile and use Linux desktop applications is a godsend', or 'why is there no iPhone or Windows emulator'.

BTW, you do realize not everything in a PC is modular? You realize tons of aspects are nowadays put on-board? IGP cannot be put off. RS232 is not put on board anymore. eSATA is often not on board. PS/2 is still sometimes on board. DVI is put on board. Sound card is put on board. Why? Catering to common customer.

Is the screen modular? Is the CPU modular or soldered on board? Is the GPU modular or soldered on board? Is the RAM modular or soldered on board? Is the flash memory modular or soldered on board? Is the battery modular or soldered on board? Is the Bluetooth modular or soldered on board? Does the device have USB? WiFi? HDMI? eSATA? FW?

USB is cool because then you can add your own USB-based protocol such as Bluetooth. The disadvantage it doesn't integrate well with the hardware size-wise, it is asynchronous, and may require USB-powered hub.

What I think is a good idea is one touchscreen which is light and can be used as remote via different protocols (Bluetooth, WiFi, IrDA/Infrared and even GPRS) for e.g. servers. Hmmm, seems like N900 can fill that role, and a lot more :)