The Real Competetor

[syam]

http://www.engadget.com/2006/12/18/i-station-netforce-navi-gps-device-comes-fully-loaded/

Product site, it's not English, I think it's Korean.
http://www.i-station.co.kr/products/nfdmbnavi.html

[bac522]

Competitor too what?

[Arjun]

Competitor too what?

:cool:

Syam meant competitor to Nokia 770.


:cool:

[thoughtfix]

This is another apples and oranges comparison. The 770 is an internet tablet. The i-Station device is a GPS. Sure, they LOOK similar.

[fpp]

Apart from the screen resolution I don't think there is much of a comparison. Doesn't look "open" in any way, and from the comments on that page it seems that the brand has a less than stellar reputation for buggy firmwares...

[Milhouse]

This is another apples and oranges comparison. The 770 is an internet tablet. The i-Station device is a GPS. Sure, they LOOK similar.

If you added GSP navigation to the 770 does it resemble the i-Station, and if you added internet browsing to the i-Station does it resemble the 770?

On a hardware level both devices appear very similar - not sure what connectivity the i-Station has other than GPS though. Any other differences may be more cosmetic - ie. software related which could be changed/improved for no real cost.

If the i-Station platform is closed however, then it's a lame duck - aside from the great screen the best thing about the 770 is the accessibility of the software platform.

[Arjun]

If you added GSP navigation to the 770 does it resemble the i-Station, and if you added internet browsing to the i-Station does it resemble the 770?

On a hardware level both devices appear very similar - not sure what connectivity the i-Station has other than GPS though. Any other differences may be more cosmetic - ie. software related which could be changed/improved for no real cost.

If the i-Station platform is closed however, then it's a lame duck - aside from the great screen the best thing about the 770 is the accessibility of the software platform.

;)

The link mentioned in Syam's post mentions ' WINCE.NET 5.0 '. This is on the 4th line just after it says NetForce NAVIGATION. So it could probably be running that OS. That could mean that it is closed platform.

;)

[Milhouse]

Well done for making the effort to decipher the Korean page! :)

A WinCE device with a "non-standard" screen resolution (ie. not QVGA or VGA) should be interesting - resolutions seem to be a hard-coded feature of the WinCE OS so any change of resolution usually comes with a degree of pain until all apps support the new resolution (or you have to make do with the OS playing tricks and driving the screen at pixel-doubled resolutions etc.).

Since it's WinCE it should be possible to install apps such as Opera etc., unless i-Station have taken steps to prevent this.

Opera and other apps on WinCE running at the full 800x480 resolution could become a credible 770/870 competitor.

[freeman]

Actually it's more like a cross between 330&770.
800x480, playing MPEG1/2/4, H.264, DiVX, WMV9 all fullscreen 30fps
To play all that, the CPU must be very decent, probably 400mhz if not 800.
WinCE 5.0
composite, s-video, component out. 30GB harddrive?
At the same time it probably cost like 770+330+a few more.