Intel/Microsoft's Origami - WTF????
 

Well, Intel and Microsoft have finally unvelied Origami, a graphical shell to XP running on Intels new Ultra Mobile PC form:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/03..._umpc_clunker/

Apparentlly, we need this to get the "full web". IMO, all we need to get the full web is a larger format Axim or iPAQ (or just the Nokia tablet device) with a higher resolution display; not something this big with a hard disk and two hour battery life. What were Microsoft and Intel thinking??????

I'd buy it (if the price is right). I've been waiting for a device like this for ages.

I guess if you needed full PC functionality without having to cart a laptop around, this would be alright. Personally, I'm lucky enough never to need this unless travelling for my employer and the iPAQ has been perfect for my vacations.

I'd quite like to get hold of the Nokia device for surfiing anywhere in the home though...

I had a similar reaction this morning....why do I need this?
I think it does round out an interesting market for tablet based handhelds. For instance, I'd love to have one at home to control my multimedia and whole house audio, etc...but at $800 or so, I'd rather have the Nokia 770...I think.

I'm relitivly unimpressed....which is good since I've been moving away from windows to OS X.

Totally agree with you. If I'm traveling and don't need the full power of a laptop, this is an interesting product. Hopefully, they'll be able to get longer battery life soon. For an ultra-mobile device, 2-3 hours isn't much.

reminds me of a Newton (with a few incremental improvements).

did Moore's Law die or something?

all I gotta say is, it better play the slingplayer!

Eeeeeuw... You want mine? The 770 is a total waste of money. It is amazing how Nokia/Maemo were able to take Linux and mess it up so badly.

The 770 is like any other Linux box; you need to hack you way into getting it to do what you want. Limited applications and very unreliable. Real shame.

This is what all the fuss was about? Seems like the worst of all worlds to me. It's an impressive feat to create a device that combines underpowered-ness with short battery life, and is too large to be truly ultramobile, but not big enough to have reasonable input methods. Meh.

A thread was posted on this in Omni a while back. It seems that Microsoft touted this as their answer to the PSP. Now, I love ultrasmall notebooks and such and will get one, but an answer to the PSP? No way, not unless they do some severe OS slimming and customize it for the hardware.

Price will be from $599 to $999 depending on configuration. I'm really interested in getting one, although I may wait one generation to see how it evolves. For my use (SSH, Firefox, Outlook/Office, Trillian, emacs, Eclipse, and the occasional game) it's plenty powerful. It's bigger than a PDA, but that's a good thing when you want the screen real estate, while being smaller (more portable) and cheaper than a laptop.

And for all the "limited hardware" complaints I've been seeing on various forums, it's an UPGRADE from my current laptop (and ancient Sony Vaio R505 -- 750MHz Pentium III, maxed out at 384MB of RAM, and a meager 1-2 hours of battery life...)

I'm willing to bet the initial pricing will be higher. If I had to bet; I'd bet $1199.

I suspect it will take anywhere from 2-3 years till the $599 price point is reached.

me
 

i'll take that bet!

Me too.

I can see it as a good fit for field sales and service personnel to name two potential target markets.

Ditto. I've been waiting for a usable UMPC for a long time as well. The technology now approaches my definition of "usable".