Post by Black Angel on Jul 5, 2005 18:24:11 GMT -5
This is for discussion about the flipstart... it is a handheld pc with a lot of cool features..here is some info about it..
While I have no hands on experience, going by the FAQ there are multiple mentions of the fact that "FlipStart is a full Windows XP Professional computer. No modification, no "light" versions, no special "viewing applications" required."
Which quite blatantly dispells any worries that the FlipStart PC might be crippled in any way. Installing software will be a matter of downloading from the net (via the 802.11b/g), installing via home/office network or attaching the optional mini dock and installing from an optional CD drive, thus allowing you to install any software you want.
Additionally, the unit will ship with MobileMail which "enables a more efficient email experience on low bandwidth connections while preserving battery life", and MiddleMan navigational software, which most likely refers to navigating on screen (scrolling and the like) which is aided by the scroll wheel on the right side of the unit.
Specifications
The CPU powering the FlipStart is a Transmeta Crusoe TM5800 1GHz with the following specs:
• L1 Cache - 128KB
• L2 Cache - 512KB
• DDR/SDR SDRAM Support: (100-133, 66-133MHz respectively)
• 32bit, 33MHz PCI Bus
• Max TDP (Thermal Design Power) - as low as 6.5W
• Max Temp - 100C Tj
Size
The size is the biggest reason we're all drooling over this -- 5.8" wide (from palm to palm, when held), 4 inches long (from palm to screen) and a scant one inch thick, this is obviously without the optional mini-dock. That's 148mm x 101mm x 26mm and just under 1lb (450g) in weight.
One thing that's fairly hard to judge is the 'feeling' of holding something of this dimension and weight. To compare, some PocketPC's (no, this is not a PocketPC) can feel quite light and cheap due to the material they're housed in, while others have a satisfying weight and at least decent quality architecture so that you don't get the sense that you just spend loads of cash on something that's prone to break easily. With a unit that's inteded to be taken out often, one would assume that Vulcan has put in time and thought into the construction of the unit itself and not just the function.
Screen
I've seen other laptops in the ultraportable category, and in addition to none of these laptops having ever gotten this small, the FS just about trumps the others with a great screen resolution -- 1024x600 in a 5.6" diagonal width @ 212dpi, while most ultraportables only sport a 800x600. As this is a 1ghz CPU running XP (more info below), you'll be able to watch audio and video files to your heart's content, or at least until the battery runs out (more on that below in the Battery and LID module sections).
No information on viewing angle or colors (65k presumably) but it will have "near HDTV-quality display" which they say is "far better than those used in portable DVD players". The graphics chipset is powered by a 8MB video RAM chip, no word on the chipset make.
Battery Life
I've seen the words "always on" being used quite often in initial highlights of the unit. Obviously anything that draws power can be "always on", the point and hope is that it will be "on" to the extent that you won't have to wait for XP to load up everytime you want to check on something, write an email, etc and then last long enough to be useful in your day. A longer battery life will be accomplished partly by the various power modes and use of the LID module (LID module explained below). According to the FAQ, the FlipStart can last for 2 days in standy power, 1 day in low-power mode and 2-3 hours while running XP and Office. Perhaps I'm being a little nitpicky, but the FAQ does say "two full days" and "one full day", so one can only assume they mean 24-48 hours and not a full 8 hour working day. So hopefully those of you doing marathon 24 hour flights to Signapore will be covered for sporadic FlipStart use in-flight.
An extra battery will be optional, extending battery life to 2-6 hours.
Keyboard and Interface
First and foremost I can imagine there are people who are concerned about the size of the keyboard. I've had experience with much smaller devices like Danger's Hiptop / Sidekick which is still quite easy to use even though the keys are considerably tinier. The tactile experience is an important one, so let's hope that the keys on the FlipStart are softer and less stiff than those found on PDA's.
Having a detailed look at the keyboard and interface part of the FS, we see the traditional keyboard layout, with Ctrl, Alt and shift all on the lower corners and on both sides, and those of us you who use laptops won't be too surprised by the Fn, or function keys, which allow access to extra functions which cuts down on physical keys.
Starting from the top, in the middle there's a power button, just below that are 3 buttons with various functionality assigned to them. The leftmost button is labelled 'Desktop', presumably to mirror the same functionality as the desktop shortcut in a default installation of XP? If that's the case, it simply hides all windows so you can view your desktop without having to scroll the mouse and minimize all windows. The icon above this button seems to indicate a sleep mode. To the right of that is a white button with a key icon, presumably some sort of security function, and then everyone's favorite Ctrl+Alt+Del functionality when used with the above mentioned Fn key. Next to that we have a Mute button, with a hard to decypher icon above.
Moving right clockwise we have a standard-looking trackpad and what appears to be a touchpoint as found in some laptops, allowing for easier mouse use. The pictures of the touchpoint in the online brochure and those describing the keyboard features look to be completely different, with the latter looking to be more functional on account of it being smaller and less flush (in appearance at least) with the rest of the keyboard. And to the right of that we have the thumb-operated track wheel, which is most likely for scrolling in applications and web pages.
The rest of the keyboard is your typical A-Z affair, with some strange function keys on the left side above some of the letter keys, for example a home icon, music icon, phone, camera, alarm and a few others the meaning of some of which we can only guess at. There are four lights below the keyboard, the first being the power indicator, the second appears to be a battery status light, the third either a battery light or external peripheral connection light, and the final one being either an alarm light or perhaps a WiFi usage indicator. It would be great if this final light was in fact a Wi-Fi detector, alerting you to the presence of a hotspot, one can only dream
On the upper left-hand side we have 3 buttons set apart from the rest, the only discernable one I can guess at is at the bottom which seems to be a application switcher, akin to Alt-Tab perhaps. To the right of those are the two mouse buttons and a directional pad, pressing Fn+Up will get you PgUp, +Right will act as the End key, +Down will do a PgDown and +Left will be the Home key.
All in all, they seem to have crammed quite a bit of functionality into such a small space, let's hope Vulcan put this thing through a fair few usability tests so in a few months time we're not all crying about keys that no longer work or awkward button combo's.
LID Module
I'm sure no one saw this coming, but what a great concept to save on battery life -- most of us really just want a way to check email or listen to music, so it's somewhat pointless to have to go into XP to do such a simple task, but there haven't been any alternatives, until now. There are 8 icons on the LID (Low-Power Interactive Display) module which itself is on the base of the unit, with space for two more. From top, left to right, we have a mail icon, contacts, calendar, music, settings, phone, lock and an airplane icon (reminders?). The order varies on FlipStart's pages, but that's to be expected of an unfinished product.
There is also a row of information at the very top of the LID, namely, date / time, number of new emails, battery charge and Wi-Fi strength. The functionality of the actual LID application seems to be fairly full-featured for such a small size. For example, you can flip through playlists, artists, albums, genres or songs, and you can check emails both new and read in various boxes. Thus allowing you to conserve battery power and still making use of the FS. Though I'm quite dissapointed to have read that you will require access to an Exchange server in order to access your email, contacts and calendar.
There are two different versions of the buttons that accompany the LID module, or at least two different visual interpretations of the same thing. The functionality appears to be the same, so we can only assume they're playing with aesthetic and tactile preferences. Starting at 12 o'clock and going clockwise we have a UP arrow, then a HOME button, a fast-forward button, a STOP button, a DOWN arrow, a GO or DO button, a REWIND button and finally a button that takes you back to the LID icons (email, contacts, calendar, etc).
I can't wait to see how usable the LID actually is, but it almost seems like two gadgets in one, with both complementing the other, but the Exchange server requirement is a let down, and hopefully I'm misunderstanding it's need or perhaps there will be alternatives.
Connectivity and Extras
Just above the LID, above the Vulcan logo, is what appears to be a digital-camera lens, which is a 1.3MP digital camera - adequate for print quality photos at 5x7 inches - 1280x1024. There is integrated 802.11b/g, and optional Bluetooh/WAN. There is a USB 2.0 port, internal mic, speaker and heaphone/ear bud jacks (1/8").
You will also be able to buy a port replicator which has 10/100Mbps Ethernet, additional USB 2.0 ports, VGA / NTSC TV-out and stereo i/o and mic-in. The optional Mini Dock has more USB 2.0 ports, a DVD-CD/RW drive and a modem with RJ-11 jack.
Handtop of the Future
There have been many attempts at giving people an internet capable, portable device whose software isn't crippled by it's size. With Wi-Fi becoming more prevalent and the power-efficiency of Transmeta's CPU, the time is ripe for a device which runs programs we already use on a day to day basis, allows us to view webpages, keep in touch via email, and not weigh us down with an additional backpack and heavy batteries. Realistically, if portable PC's were to get any smaller, I can't imagine they'd be very usable. Aside from improving CPU/Memory and perhaps maybe storage, and depending on the durability of Vulcan's FlipStart PC, this could very well be the dawn of a new computing era not seen since laptops first came out and for full effect, I feel that the FlipStart PC should be more aptly dubbed a 'handtop'.
this info has been adapted from www.handtops.com/show/news/5 i know that i would definitely love to get one of these, would you? you may discuss why or why not here..
While I have no hands on experience, going by the FAQ there are multiple mentions of the fact that "FlipStart is a full Windows XP Professional computer. No modification, no "light" versions, no special "viewing applications" required."
Which quite blatantly dispells any worries that the FlipStart PC might be crippled in any way. Installing software will be a matter of downloading from the net (via the 802.11b/g), installing via home/office network or attaching the optional mini dock and installing from an optional CD drive, thus allowing you to install any software you want.
Additionally, the unit will ship with MobileMail which "enables a more efficient email experience on low bandwidth connections while preserving battery life", and MiddleMan navigational software, which most likely refers to navigating on screen (scrolling and the like) which is aided by the scroll wheel on the right side of the unit.
Specifications
The CPU powering the FlipStart is a Transmeta Crusoe TM5800 1GHz with the following specs:
• L1 Cache - 128KB
• L2 Cache - 512KB
• DDR/SDR SDRAM Support: (100-133, 66-133MHz respectively)
• 32bit, 33MHz PCI Bus
• Max TDP (Thermal Design Power) - as low as 6.5W
• Max Temp - 100C Tj
Size
The size is the biggest reason we're all drooling over this -- 5.8" wide (from palm to palm, when held), 4 inches long (from palm to screen) and a scant one inch thick, this is obviously without the optional mini-dock. That's 148mm x 101mm x 26mm and just under 1lb (450g) in weight.
One thing that's fairly hard to judge is the 'feeling' of holding something of this dimension and weight. To compare, some PocketPC's (no, this is not a PocketPC) can feel quite light and cheap due to the material they're housed in, while others have a satisfying weight and at least decent quality architecture so that you don't get the sense that you just spend loads of cash on something that's prone to break easily. With a unit that's inteded to be taken out often, one would assume that Vulcan has put in time and thought into the construction of the unit itself and not just the function.
Screen
I've seen other laptops in the ultraportable category, and in addition to none of these laptops having ever gotten this small, the FS just about trumps the others with a great screen resolution -- 1024x600 in a 5.6" diagonal width @ 212dpi, while most ultraportables only sport a 800x600. As this is a 1ghz CPU running XP (more info below), you'll be able to watch audio and video files to your heart's content, or at least until the battery runs out (more on that below in the Battery and LID module sections).
No information on viewing angle or colors (65k presumably) but it will have "near HDTV-quality display" which they say is "far better than those used in portable DVD players". The graphics chipset is powered by a 8MB video RAM chip, no word on the chipset make.
Battery Life
I've seen the words "always on" being used quite often in initial highlights of the unit. Obviously anything that draws power can be "always on", the point and hope is that it will be "on" to the extent that you won't have to wait for XP to load up everytime you want to check on something, write an email, etc and then last long enough to be useful in your day. A longer battery life will be accomplished partly by the various power modes and use of the LID module (LID module explained below). According to the FAQ, the FlipStart can last for 2 days in standy power, 1 day in low-power mode and 2-3 hours while running XP and Office. Perhaps I'm being a little nitpicky, but the FAQ does say "two full days" and "one full day", so one can only assume they mean 24-48 hours and not a full 8 hour working day. So hopefully those of you doing marathon 24 hour flights to Signapore will be covered for sporadic FlipStart use in-flight.
An extra battery will be optional, extending battery life to 2-6 hours.
Keyboard and Interface
First and foremost I can imagine there are people who are concerned about the size of the keyboard. I've had experience with much smaller devices like Danger's Hiptop / Sidekick which is still quite easy to use even though the keys are considerably tinier. The tactile experience is an important one, so let's hope that the keys on the FlipStart are softer and less stiff than those found on PDA's.
Having a detailed look at the keyboard and interface part of the FS, we see the traditional keyboard layout, with Ctrl, Alt and shift all on the lower corners and on both sides, and those of us you who use laptops won't be too surprised by the Fn, or function keys, which allow access to extra functions which cuts down on physical keys.
Starting from the top, in the middle there's a power button, just below that are 3 buttons with various functionality assigned to them. The leftmost button is labelled 'Desktop', presumably to mirror the same functionality as the desktop shortcut in a default installation of XP? If that's the case, it simply hides all windows so you can view your desktop without having to scroll the mouse and minimize all windows. The icon above this button seems to indicate a sleep mode. To the right of that is a white button with a key icon, presumably some sort of security function, and then everyone's favorite Ctrl+Alt+Del functionality when used with the above mentioned Fn key. Next to that we have a Mute button, with a hard to decypher icon above.
Moving right clockwise we have a standard-looking trackpad and what appears to be a touchpoint as found in some laptops, allowing for easier mouse use. The pictures of the touchpoint in the online brochure and those describing the keyboard features look to be completely different, with the latter looking to be more functional on account of it being smaller and less flush (in appearance at least) with the rest of the keyboard. And to the right of that we have the thumb-operated track wheel, which is most likely for scrolling in applications and web pages.
The rest of the keyboard is your typical A-Z affair, with some strange function keys on the left side above some of the letter keys, for example a home icon, music icon, phone, camera, alarm and a few others the meaning of some of which we can only guess at. There are four lights below the keyboard, the first being the power indicator, the second appears to be a battery status light, the third either a battery light or external peripheral connection light, and the final one being either an alarm light or perhaps a WiFi usage indicator. It would be great if this final light was in fact a Wi-Fi detector, alerting you to the presence of a hotspot, one can only dream
On the upper left-hand side we have 3 buttons set apart from the rest, the only discernable one I can guess at is at the bottom which seems to be a application switcher, akin to Alt-Tab perhaps. To the right of those are the two mouse buttons and a directional pad, pressing Fn+Up will get you PgUp, +Right will act as the End key, +Down will do a PgDown and +Left will be the Home key.
All in all, they seem to have crammed quite a bit of functionality into such a small space, let's hope Vulcan put this thing through a fair few usability tests so in a few months time we're not all crying about keys that no longer work or awkward button combo's.
LID Module
I'm sure no one saw this coming, but what a great concept to save on battery life -- most of us really just want a way to check email or listen to music, so it's somewhat pointless to have to go into XP to do such a simple task, but there haven't been any alternatives, until now. There are 8 icons on the LID (Low-Power Interactive Display) module which itself is on the base of the unit, with space for two more. From top, left to right, we have a mail icon, contacts, calendar, music, settings, phone, lock and an airplane icon (reminders?). The order varies on FlipStart's pages, but that's to be expected of an unfinished product.
There is also a row of information at the very top of the LID, namely, date / time, number of new emails, battery charge and Wi-Fi strength. The functionality of the actual LID application seems to be fairly full-featured for such a small size. For example, you can flip through playlists, artists, albums, genres or songs, and you can check emails both new and read in various boxes. Thus allowing you to conserve battery power and still making use of the FS. Though I'm quite dissapointed to have read that you will require access to an Exchange server in order to access your email, contacts and calendar.
There are two different versions of the buttons that accompany the LID module, or at least two different visual interpretations of the same thing. The functionality appears to be the same, so we can only assume they're playing with aesthetic and tactile preferences. Starting at 12 o'clock and going clockwise we have a UP arrow, then a HOME button, a fast-forward button, a STOP button, a DOWN arrow, a GO or DO button, a REWIND button and finally a button that takes you back to the LID icons (email, contacts, calendar, etc).
I can't wait to see how usable the LID actually is, but it almost seems like two gadgets in one, with both complementing the other, but the Exchange server requirement is a let down, and hopefully I'm misunderstanding it's need or perhaps there will be alternatives.
Connectivity and Extras
Just above the LID, above the Vulcan logo, is what appears to be a digital-camera lens, which is a 1.3MP digital camera - adequate for print quality photos at 5x7 inches - 1280x1024. There is integrated 802.11b/g, and optional Bluetooh/WAN. There is a USB 2.0 port, internal mic, speaker and heaphone/ear bud jacks (1/8").
You will also be able to buy a port replicator which has 10/100Mbps Ethernet, additional USB 2.0 ports, VGA / NTSC TV-out and stereo i/o and mic-in. The optional Mini Dock has more USB 2.0 ports, a DVD-CD/RW drive and a modem with RJ-11 jack.
Handtop of the Future
There have been many attempts at giving people an internet capable, portable device whose software isn't crippled by it's size. With Wi-Fi becoming more prevalent and the power-efficiency of Transmeta's CPU, the time is ripe for a device which runs programs we already use on a day to day basis, allows us to view webpages, keep in touch via email, and not weigh us down with an additional backpack and heavy batteries. Realistically, if portable PC's were to get any smaller, I can't imagine they'd be very usable. Aside from improving CPU/Memory and perhaps maybe storage, and depending on the durability of Vulcan's FlipStart PC, this could very well be the dawn of a new computing era not seen since laptops first came out and for full effect, I feel that the FlipStart PC should be more aptly dubbed a 'handtop'.
this info has been adapted from www.handtops.com/show/news/5 i know that i would definitely love to get one of these, would you? you may discuss why or why not here..
