I retired from personal blogging in July 2008 but you can find me over at blog.xero.com
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I had my first play with an Origami (ultra mobile PC) device today.
I was quite impressed especially with the handwriting recognition. Couldn’t fault that. The device was running Vista, which was probably too heavy for a mobile device. It took a while to get going.
The devices themselves are too thick and too heavy, but you can see the technology is getting there. One with a keypad on the back like this key board game controller would be cool. I worked quite well as presentation device but I couldn’t think of a scenario in which I would use it.
I think one of two things have to happen.
1. Its connected to a mothership so that you can work on your normal machine but can just grab and go this device if you need it. Great for meetings and flying. The software is not yet there for that scenario.
2. That it becomes powerful enough to be your primary machine and you plug it into a screen and keyboard at your desk. This is probably more likely.
A very mobile device for the masses doesn’t need the heavy Vista OS. It really needs an instant on, RAM based model, like CE. Perhaps the answer to some of Microsoft’s current issues is to gas up Windows Mobile to be rich enough for the very mobile Web/Email/Word/Excel/PowerPoint scenario.
So cool to look at, nice step on the way to nirvana, but I’ll be surprised if they sell even one.
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