Hmmm lotus and wordstar are / were office apps...

I did a side-by-side picture and spec comparison.
I doubt it represents any threat to existing UMPCs or Nokia Internet Tablets. It's big like a UMPC but comes with all the limitations (except mass storage) of the Nokia tablets:
http://thoughtfix.blogspot.com/2007/...some-idea.html

The differences from the Hildon UI are such that IMHO it's a clone, rather than the Maemo we know and love:

1. Number of shortcuts on task navigator.
2. Clock on task navigator.
3. Desktop icons etc.

If it is Maemo (which would be very cool: Nokia would be forced to separate Maemo releases from Nokia hardware and software releases), it's either a fork which they've been developing in-house for a while, or they've got a private deal with Nokia: otherwise we'd have seen more traffic from them on maemo-developers.

Cheers,

Andrew

...or it's Photoshopped :-)

Very nice write up Daniel, and how many of these things can China, Japan, Korea etc. keep kicking out ? And I love and read tech sites like Engagdet, Gimodo etc. but exactly how many of these devices actually make it to market ? Mainstream USA/UK markets ? Where one could go to their local electronics/big box store or online shop to buy these products..

Good Point TT -- even if this is everything they say it is and even if it runs Maemo, it will not be something that magically appears in CompUSA or Fryes (don't know any UK or other country stores). You'd have to track it down through Dynamism or something similar...

Regardless, It's still interesting to be considering what will happen next on our platform.

Thanks guys. If I understand Maemo correctly, the skin CAN be customized to include applets like a clock. But then, I'm no programmer.

Well, I am ;-)

"Skin" is usually synonymous with "theme", and Hildon Desktop themes can't add a clock, or change the number of shortcuts on the left hand side.

If by "skin", you meant user interface (UI), then yes - it could be changed to add a clock, and change the number of shortcuts. However, that then goes back to my "it's a fork, if anything" argument, as the source available from maemo.org does not support that customisation without rewriting large swathes of code.

The only areas easily changed on the Hildon Desktop are the home screen applets (clock, RSS feed reader) and additional status bar applets. Anything else needs the framework itself changing.

HTH,

Andrew

I'm going to side with blatant ripoff. Whatever it is, it's available now (or appears to be) so I doubt it's photoshopping. The company has 12 years of experience behind making cell phones, etc, which reminds me slightly of a company who made this 770 I have kicking around.

It's common in that corner of the world to rip off UI, hardware design, etc. Remember the PSP clones that had those old LCD Tiger games in them? Hilarious.

We won't see this thing unless it's via import in my opinion... but it's an interesting direction. Sounds like it'd have the same support we've come to know and love from Nokia.

Competition is good!