Alan dismissing the handhelds at AmiGBG

[Dan]

 "Its a nice concept, but I.. I don't find palm-top computers
      particularily interesting, personally, but you know, thats..."

Why ?!!!!
It would really make those Windowsconsumers shut up:
Yes, of course i can run exactly the same apps on the same OS at my handheld!
That would be the ultimate way to show of AmigaOS flexiblity and effectiveness.
They don´t need the money to license a handwriting recognition program, just build a Psion series 5 like device but with a flippable lid so it can be used in a Palmmode for reading/viewing.
And put some  joypad buttons on there for games.

I mean even the biggest selling handhelds is
1)Phones
2)Gameboys
3)Musicplayers (mp3,MD,mp3enabled palmtops)

What could be provided by an Amiga handheld in order of importance:
1) Games (old and new, through UAE we already have more good games than Gameboy)
2) mp3player
3)calender
4)textviewer/ebook
5)picviewer
6)mail
7)movieplayer

"MicroATX AmigaONE, which is already in design. Now clearly this is aimed mainly at the server side"
"server farm of 10,000 servers"
"the A1SE Lite" "a module which will go into kiosk systems, set top boxes, things like
video surveylance systems. "
[color=0000FF]Naah, think BIG think SMALL![/color]
Besides then the DE crap really would get ported to an Amiga.
An Amiga in every living room is a smaller market than an amiga in everyones pocket.
Then if the Amiga gamemarket took of on the handheld, the Amiga would once again be a name in the gameindustry.
That would mean  that they would consider doing games for the Amiga DVD64 when it´s launched, maybe it wouldn´t beat the PS3 but it would wipe the floor with the Xbox and Gamecube.

Anyway, everybody always wanted portable amigas.

[Rob]

An Amiga based PDA in the near future would be a bad idea.  The market
for any Amiga based system needs to be established first.

As for games and movies, it would be more a novelty geek toy and
too small a niche for our market.

A better starting point would be an Amiga PDA with spreadsheet,
database, organiser etc aimed at the business market.

I have recently been working for a food hygeine inspection business, a
few months ago they spent around £15,000 equiping their field workers
with Compaq Ipac's.  Eyetech would do well to get these kind of
contracts.

[xaccrocheur]

Dan wrote:
(...)
Yes, of course i can run exactly the same apps on the same OS at my handheld!
That would be the ultimate way to show of AmigaOS flexiblity and effectiveness.

(...)
Anyway, everybody always wanted portable amigas.

Wow. Have you ever used a Palmtop ? Do you realize the order of magnitude by witch a PalmTop OS is different from a desktop one ? Most of all, do you want AmigaINC to make the same mistake sa Microsoft did with WindowsCE ?

I did dream about a PalmTop Amiga. then I bought a Palm5000, and realized it was about that !

pX

PS - BTW, has anybody used a recent OS5 Palm with Spitfire or APilot ? Like, say a Tungsten-t (Boy do I want one of those...) :crazy:

MorphOS is everything you're describeing that you want... why not give it a try???... so far Genesi/BPlan havent lied about release dates/etc... the Eclipsis looks like it might be just what you want... the psylent was already demo'd ... the Pegasos1 is done... the Pegasos 2 is on the way... MOS is shipping... they have plans to give it away for free to Phase5 cards...

its cool man... just check it out... they are not the enemy... their fellow amigans who got sick of the BS and made their own OS.

An Amiga based PDA in the near future would be a bad idea.

A better starting point would be an Amiga PDA

a bit contradictory are we?

[Valan]

I understood from Alans comment is that he personally doesn't find them interesting as a hardware base from a productivety POV.

I think that is true. Watching a mm presentation or doing work is not what people buy a PDA for.

At the moment a PDA is mainly for entering data and accessing it again.

And games have been and will be on every hardware platform.

I think that the Amiga would best serve PDAs through the AmigaDE. AmigaOS would serve only as a 'Kickstart' type of system.

[Warface]

Am partly disagree, that an Amiga (like/based/etc.) palm is a bad thing. Stuffing an A500 category machine into a palm size today is not that impossible task as it may seem.

Remember it had 512K memory (1Mb with expansion), while my Palm505 has 8Mb. (And 510 16Mb, and it just increases) It had a much slower CPU than which is in my Palm505 too, and the dragonball is pretty much compatible. Custom chips may be problematic, but the idea of having programs and an OS with the footprint of A500 programs and OS3.1 in a palm sound pretty realistic, methinks. I'd definitely buy one.

[Darth_X]

http://www.geek.com/news/geeknews/2003Jan/bpd20030123018304.htm

IBM PowerPC 405 based PDA. Both MorphOS and AmigaOS4 should be able to run on this device, instead of linux.


*yawn*

(that MCC term is still kicking around too! eeks!)

[Warface]

Yes, having the PPC OS-es on a palm has a more viable future, yet ATM the 32Mb RAM it has is not that much. (Considering the footprint of PPC programs (mnemonics occupy larger space), and the extra ram needed for legacy 68K support (JIT buffer, etc.))

Both a 68K or a PPC based handheld can be a good solution ATM, while I agree that the PPC one has better future.

What is the performance of the PowerPC 405LP compared to a 603e or a G3?

[Khephren]

Motorola produce a 66mhz 68020 dragonball mobile processor, boxer produced a one chip amiga chipset, why wasn't a mobile classic ever produced from these parts?
Even today it would be far more powerfull than my psion, or winCE devices. Lightwave on the move anyone? or alienbreed3d2? I think amiga should have produced a PDA/mini note (with OS3's low foot print in terms of processor and memory requirements, it would be ideal) rather than the amiga anywhere they are touting at the moment. It would have been one last shout from the classic before OS4. Besides, i'm sick of lugging a heavy laptop around just so I can emulate my Amiga

[Agafaster]

Absolutely, but bear in mind these things:
a) the HEAT off that CPU would be significant.
b) have you seen the size of those Altera Flex PLDs that Mick Tinker used ?
the thing would end up as a laptop anyway -
especially considering the Battery that would be required.

how about a 5" kneetop ? ( :-P half a lap ! )
if a slimline 2.5"HDD, a 4" TFT screen and a low profile keyboard could be crammed in, all you would then need is a USB port (or two) and an external monitor connection. plus a DC connector to a recharger. - the form factor I'm thinking is like those sony Vaio laptops built around the Crusoe. (8.95" wide-aspect XGA screen ? 1280-600)

[amigamad]

I dont think there that much use myself more a geeky toy you never use i hava a psion series 5mx i hardly use so i agree with him. :-)

[olegil]

So what? The pope supposedly doesn't like porno either, does that mean I have to agree? Err, I didn't say that out loud, did I? :-)

Look, Alan is (like everyone else) entitled to an opinion. The question was "what do you think about..." and the answer was "well, personally, I...". Calm down.

I seriously DO NOT SEE how you can ARGUE with PERSONAL opinion. That's just TOTALLY WRONG...

[Dan]

@xaccrocheur

Wow. Have you ever used a Palmtop ? Do you realize the order of magnitude by witch a PalmTop OS is different from a desktop one ? Most of all, do you want AmigaINC to make the same mistake sa Microsoft did with WindowsCE ?

I did dream about a PalmTop Amiga. then I bought a Palm5000, and realized it was about that !

pX

Not Palm or WinCE, but i use my Apple Newton Messagepad 2000 everyday :roll: and it´s nothing like an desktop OS, can you say "objectsoup" :-) . It can´t even use standard Flashcards because of it.
But what would the AmigaOS need to run as a PDA? It already is small memory footprint and instant-on, it´s just a matter of some save RAM and open documents to Flashstorage module, even Windows has that. Although I wouldn´t use it, just save your work and turn it off as always with Amigas :-P

[Dan]

@Valan

I understood from Alans comment is that he personally doesn't find them interesting as a hardware base from a productivety POV.

I think that is true. Watching a mm presentation or doing work is not what people buy a PDA for.

At the moment a PDA is mainly for entering data and accessing it again.

And games have been and will be on every hardware platform.

And what is productivety?
Office,CAD,3D modeling, videoediting and coding is not what most people use their computers for.

Doing what i do most of my time in front of the computer,running games, paintprograms, surfing, e-mail and some textediting  is perfectly doable on an PDA.
And i prefer to write with a pen instead of pressing keyboard buttons, my brain works much better with a pen. As they said in programmingclass:
"Write the design down on paper first"

I think that the Amiga would best serve PDAs through the AmigaDE. AmigaOS would serve only as a 'Kickstart' type of system.

I don´t care about DE it has nothing to do with Amiga they are just using the name, and you can´t really belive that they can compete with Sun Java???