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johnkzin's Avatar
Posts: 1,878 | Thanked: 646 times | Joined on Sep 2007 @ San Jose, CA
#17
The PsiXpda was posted on UMPCPortal, as well. My thoughts on it were:

Thinking about that more …

Changes I’d want to see:

a) Android as the primary OS. I’d probably also want dual-booting to Ubuntu. I can understand others wanting to boot it to some from of Windows, as well.

b) put the FN key where the CTRL key is, put the CTRL key where the del key is, and put an Android “home” button where the CTRL key is now, put an Android “Menu” buttonwhere the PsiX key is, and put an Android “back” button where the Alt key is. Maybe change the “FN” key’s name to “Alt”, but that’s of lesser importance.

c) potentially, change it from being based on an Atom CPU to being based on a TI OMAP 3xxx 1GHz CPU. That would alter the Windows choices, but would also greatly extend the battery life.

d) make sure it’s audio port is bidirectional (like a cell phone’s 3.5mm jack), for use with Google Voice, Skype, etc.

e) in the US, options for T-Mobile 3G, AT&T 3G, Sprint 3G, Sprint 4G (WiMAX), and Verizon 3G. Ideally, it’s just a PCI-Express-Mini card that the customer can install or swap as they see fit.

f) the antenna button should pull up a menu with 4 checkboxes: bluetooth on/off, wifi on/off, 3G on/off, and airplane mode (no wireless of any kind; dims the other 3 options without forgetting their state, so you can easily go back to your previous mode of operation when you uncheck this one later).

g) on Verizon, have a Mifi-like capability (there are Android apps for it already, just saying: bundle it). Ideally, it’d be on all of the units, but only Verizon seems to be tethering-friendly with their Android devices (in the US, dunno about other countries and their carriers).

h) hopefully, it also has KVM capability. If that IS a docking port by the keyboard, hopefully it’s DVI-I and not just VGA. And hopefully it has other USB-Host capability (the specs imply it has both a USB-mini and a USB port).

If it has all of that, I could see it maybe being my “one pocketable” device. I’d be a little leery of using Google Voice as my one phone capability. Better would be if they integrated full phone functionality (voice and SMS). But even without that … with a 3G module, Android, Google Voice, and wifi/mifi tethering, this could be an awesome device.

(and, yes, as a “pocketable”, it’s very much at the “upper end” of the spectrum for that … even for a big guy like me, it would be pushing the envelope of pocketability)
And, it would probably also make a great device for Maemo. Esp. with the switch to an ARM CPU. I wonder if Nokia is willing to license Maemo for non-phone devices.
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