whabang wrote:
Lysande, Sickan, lysande! :-D
We need to move away from the thought of the computer as a big, begie box, that can only be used by nerds.
If a three year-old can use it, then it's usable by the majority of people.
The key is to target new customers early!:lol:
And also making the thing rugged, rugged computers is expensive because of the small production runs on the other hand toys are cheap because........
And if it costs $200 and is relatively rugged you are more likely to bring your wristwatch/pda/mp3player with you, as a farmer I should know.Markets
1. at preeschool kids.
2.at school kids
4. as a rugged mp3/pocketvideoplayer
5. as a rugged pda/data-entry-in-the-field device
can use the same case for the card that would help keeping cost down.
This is where AmigaDE/Java/Insert-your-favourite-VM-here come in pretty handy: You would like one common UI for everything, though all the components are specialised for their specific applications.
We had a common UI in the olddays of C64 and A500, they key is to place the product in every home. But ofcourse Java should be available.
I´m suprised that there isn´t execute-in-place Java that would mean truly portable. Is Intent/TAO execute-in-place?
Like having a USBstick with the VMs(one for Win, one for MacOS,Linux,BSD etc) and your programs/data and when you use another computer you just start another VM.
That would be better than Linux on a stick because hardwaredrivers would be provided by the OS.
Bluetooth would be excellent for connecting it all.
Yep, in terms of hardware think top off the line current pda. Bluetooth,WLAN, USB2.0 host,1-4 serialports, geekport like Bebox, Ir, CF,SDIO, Graphics capable of 800x600 24bit video out playing mpeg2,
Sounds advanced today but in 2 years or so it will be cheap.
Also keep making the same model for several years like with A500 would reduce price.
In the end, you could use your PDA to control the stereo, the DVD, and the TV.
I dont think anybody would want this bigger rougher pda as a remote. But sure you
could. It would be difficult to shrink smaller than 10x10cm with a PC104+ compatible board.
http://www.pc104.org/technology/plus_info.htmlMaybe by leaving out the old PC104 connector? But it would still have lots circuitry of so I dont think it cold be shrinked to smaller size
In the middle of everything, we'd have a CDTV-like device to control it all. It wouldn't have to be connected to a monitor or so, you'd just control it via VNC.
There is no need to "control it all" everypart is independent, a Bluetooth trackball/remote would be enough. But you could use the STB as a fileserver.
As for control it should be on the pda because thats where you have your schedule. Rather it should be the pda that controls the other things.
Say for example that in the morning the pda downloads the news from the home wlan. On the train to work you notice theres a tv-program that you want to see tonight, you select a reminder for it from a menu. Later you get a phonecall from someone who wants to meet you at the same time, when you put that meeting in the scheduler then the pda automatically tells the STB to record the tv-program.
The pda commands the phone via Bluetooth to send a SMS to your STB/homecomputer.
