Well.. first of all, I got my IT because it's tiny. Why would I want to carry around a second device that's even larger than the original?

Video out would be pretty nice, and I guess 3G would be pretty nifty, but for that why not just get one of those fancy new iphones?

These suggestions may very well be included in new ITs, so I don't think I could justify spending money on a giant "companion", when I could just save up for the newer all-inclusive device... Rather than having to carry around an extra piece of obsolete hardware.

http://www.targus.com/uk/print_produ...sp?sku=ACP50EU

I agree this is not exactly what jolouis described, But...pretty close.
It does seem to be closer than a " laptop docking station" would be.

Size / portability (4.3 x 3.9 x 1.2) - check
Mass storage -check
Wired / Wireless -check
VGA -check
A/V processing - ?
Tablet control? - VNC/RDP/etc. - Half a check

Sounds like the devices allnameswereout references are similar.

Yes, they do, but whether they're portable enough to carry around? Many are low W though.

Linuxdevices.com is a good website to find out about (embedded) devices running Linux.

Also, it might be important if the device has hardware MPEG2/MPEG4. Then you can also use it to record from a source, and then play it on NIT. That way, one could in theory record something from TV, convert it, and watch it later on the NIT. No need for DVB-H.

What would be really really cool. Is if the companion is Wireless. 802.11G may not be fast enough however.

You get a high speed connection to the device where ever it is and it has perhaps a 40GB disk in it along with the other ports mentioned. You can stream from or to it.

It would function like a NAS and replicator all in one.

As expected this device would be sold separately

That's the exact idea. The device would act as 1) NAS 2) 802.11 access point 3) port add-on sort of thing. The trick to the whole concept though is that it wouldn't be a battery powered leave it running and access it as you walk down the street sort of deal (that's one of the primary purposes of the tablet after all!). Instead it would be designed to be small enough to carry with you when you travel/etc, and when you get somewhere like hotel room, presentation hall, etc you pull it out, plug it in and there you go. The big key though is not so much the NAS concept (as you could just bring a USB harddrive with you and connect it directly when you're somewhere near a wall outlet), so much as it is the added hardware capabilities/companion concept. For example, imagine your job is to travel around and give presentations to people on a specific product. Traditionally you cart your big ol' laptop with you, plug it into an overhead projector somewhere, and connect a USB remote control (ir if you're most people, rf if you're lucky) to the laptop so you can control the slides/etc. Any "live" demoing of stuff you want to do beyond that requires you to go to the laptop and physically do it.
Now, say you're that same person but have started moving into the tablet world and are trying to get away from your laptop. Even if, theoretically, the tablet had VGA/video out, it still doesn't really make things any better as you'd have to leave the tablet tethered to the overhead projector, and get some kind of remote control device to keep in your hand. (And this is all assuming you can get some sort of VGA out working).
Instead of that, what you do is take this "companion" device, connect it's VGA out to the projector, and then use the tablet (over the wifi connection) to run and control the presentation (i.e. by running the presentation on the companion device and VNC'ing into it). In this way you have all the benefits of the original approach, but you also get a proper wireless controller (instead of a little remote), with the ability to do full interaction, plus keep say a "notes" window open on the tablet for presentation notes/etc.... AND, the device still works as your NAS/Wifi Access Point/etc when you go back to your room at night.

The fitPC looks like a pretty good candidate, I've just got to do some more research on it to see if it's the best product for the price.

Thanks,
-Rob

For any such device, there are some obvious form-factor considerations.

• It should be weighted.
• It should be a cube, with beveled bumpers on the corners to protect against damage when, e.g., waving it around to deflect High Energy Pellets.

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/2008/08...ves-at-pc-pro/

So, to get it straight:

1) The NIT doesn't have VGA/DVI out.
2) The NIT doesn't have ability to function as NAS.
3) The NIT doesn't have ability to function as WiFi AP.

I believe there are already many, small embedded projects out there which allow one to build (or buy) a device which does have these 3 capabilities. You can buy a cheap, energy efficient motherbord from AMD, Intel, or VIA (or ARM or POWER) right now. The question is: whats the best price/performance.

As you point out, a laptop serves this purpose. A nettop serves this purpose as well. Option 2 I disagree with because this requires a HDD which eats W for breakfast (30W to spin up, 9W in use). A 16 GB SD card can contain your data just fine if you plan well what to put on it. The same would be true for a NAS (or laptop/nettop) though, it could just hold more data.

I've been thinking about Rob's original idea, and what I'd personally like to see is a pocketable server with innate bluetooth, wifi routing ability, static storage, etc. Think about LAN parties taken to the next level: WLAN parties with MIDs of any kind that share a game hosted by the pocketable server. In such a scenario multiplayer games can happen ANYwhere. Anyone toting such a server could enable it to broadcast its identity (it could even be a GPS POI) so that ad hoc multiplayer games could spring up anywhere, anytime. HTML-based lobby would list the games supported, which could even be downloadable from the pocketable server or internet as needed (same for maps).

The pocketable server takes the hosting load so that all participating MIDs are able to focus resources on just the client-side stuff.

I have some 770s that are unusable for normal use... maybe I could use one as the breadboard for such a thing...

Or use this: http://news.softpedia.com/news/OpenB...nd-82111.shtml