The memetrackers are buzzing with this new device being planned by Microsoft, code-named Origami Project. Microsoft’s new toy that will change everything comes out later this week, but the buzz around it is as loud as an Aerosmith concert. Even The New York Times has gotten in on the action.
Intel has been working on multimedia tablet-style PC’s running Windows for some time. One prototype, called Ruby, was shown to some industry analysts last year. According to one analyst who saw Ruby, it was about the size of the device in the Digital Kitchen video.
I just saw the video, checked out the photographs and came to this conclusion – it just might be a thinner, smaller and simpler Tablet PC optimized for multimedia and communications functions, much like Nokia 770 Internet Tablet. Nokia 770 in my opinion, is a good idea (though severely underpowered) especially since we are living in an ever connected world. On that note, don’t you think Palm missed an opportunity. They were messing around with Lifedrives, when they should have been working on a proper, nice Internet mini-tablet, that was light weight and could handle a lot of multimedia functions. Given their developer community, it would have been a good direction to take. Missed opportunities…..
And it’ll have Halo! ;P
What’s to prevent this from suffering the same fate as the PDA? Are people willing to pay $800 for a smaller device which is more weildy than an iPod and seems thicker than the first Mac portable and has less to offer than a tablet. Usual Microsoft Spinal Tap 10+1 strategy.
I agree, Om. If the Origami device is what it appears to be, it’s the kind of thing Palm should have had — and arguably could have had — a year or two ago, instead of that ridiculous LifeDrive thing.
I think that sometime soon somebody is gonna hit a homerun in this category. I have a Dell Axim x50v that I use all the time to browse the web (primarily bloglines which looks great on the device).
Even though it has some sever limitations (crappy browser, not so great battery life, etc.) it is very handy since it is instant-on, Wi-Fi enabled and has a 640×480 screen.
Oh, I don’t use it as a PDA as all… just a web browser.
LOL… that would be “severe limitations” not “server limitations”. Too much web work today.
what if apple’s patent for touch screen device is basically the same thing as this? how is ms going to compete with the ipod tablet?
interesting video:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6381789873197028811&q=origami microsoft
-njoy