Touch Book, ARM netbook/tablet - Page 14 - maemo.org

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nikolajhendel	2009-06-26 , 08:17
Posts: 362 \| Thanked: 145 times \| Joined on Jan 2008 @ Sydney, Australia	#131

Originally Posted by munky261

Im really hoping we wont have to have all those slots taken up...I for example was going to want to be using 3 of them...one for a 64gb+ usb drive, another for gps, and the other for 3G.

Well - the best solution would be to get a bluetooth gps - but of course, if you already have the usb gps, the idea is moot.

Last edited by nikolajhendel; 2009-06-26 at 08:27.

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attila77	2009-06-26 , 08:59
Posts: 3,319 \| Thanked: 5,610 times \| Joined on Aug 2008 @ Finland	#132

The inside is pretty spacious so if you can find a flat-enough non-powered hub, you might use that to get internal usb ports... What I'm more concerned about is power management. USB devices are not that easy sometimes to completely turn off and usually does unnecessary power conversions as well (as everything has to work from 5v).

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	danramos	2009-06-26 , 09:18
	Posts: 4,672 \| Thanked: 5,455 times \| Joined on Jul 2008 @ Springfield, MA, USA	#133

Originally Posted by nikolajhendel

As I understand it - you can attach the display both ways - so default config it will look like a standard notebook - flip the screen and it will look like a tablet with a folded keyboard (but to use it in normal mode you would have to detach the screen and flip it - so no swivel).

Yes, you most certainly can. I saw it demonstrated that way in the video. (see below)

Originally Posted by munky261

I cant wait to see a video of the finished product in action! Will there be any support for viewing pdf's? Would love to see evince on this.

Your wish is granted. (clap-clap)
http://www.demo.com/demonstrators/demo2009/165388.html

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nikolajhendel	2009-06-26 , 09:26
Posts: 362 \| Thanked: 145 times \| Joined on Jan 2008 @ Sydney, Australia	#134

man, bad presentation - but hardware is nice. Screen scared me a bit when they showed the wall-e clip, backlight uniformity looked very poor.

Last edited by nikolajhendel; 2009-06-26 at 09:29.

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	johnkzin	2009-06-26 , 10:03
	Posts: 1,878 \| Thanked: 646 times \| Joined on Sep 2007 @ San Jose, CA	#135

Originally Posted by attila77

The inside is pretty spacious so if you can find a flat-enough non-powered hub, you might use that to get internal usb ports... What I'm more concerned about is power management. USB devices are not that easy sometimes to completely turn off and usually does unnecessary power conversions as well (as everything has to work from 5v).

Or you could try to get an internal USB dongle that has linux drivers, and does both Wifi and bluetooth (assuming you care about bluetooth ... I don't ... nor do I care about GPS).

I could easily make do with either:
Wifi, keyboard, storage, (other) (3G via a Mifi maybe)
or
3G, keyboard, storage, (other)

And if I don't come up with another USB device to put in there, I could do:
Wifi, keyboard, storage, 3G

(though, honestly, I'm probably going to get a Mifi)

On the other hand, T-Mobile-USA even has a combined wifi and 3G dongle (but I don't know if it has linux drivers). With a combined wifi/3G dongle, you could even do:
Wifi+3G, keyboard, storage, (other)

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nikolajhendel	2009-06-26 , 10:07
Posts: 362 \| Thanked: 145 times \| Joined on Jan 2008 @ Sydney, Australia	#136

Well - the unit comes with wifi + bluetooth dongle, so somewhat irritating to go out and buy another bundled unit. Too bad they didn't go for this in the package (wifi+bluetooth), leaving 3 internal usb ports.

Another option is to have storage in the 3g dongle. The 3g dongle I have includes a micro-sd slot (which of course limits the expandability to 16 GB).

- on the other hand, it's obvious that the keyboard works with the connector - so the spec sheet on their website must be referring to a keyboard usb dongle for extra keyboard.

Last edited by nikolajhendel; 2009-06-26 at 10:11.

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attila77	2009-06-26 , 10:20
Posts: 3,319 \| Thanked: 5,610 times \| Joined on Aug 2008 @ Finland	#137

Originally Posted by nikolajhendel

man, bad presentation - but hardware is nice. Screen scared me a bit when they showed the wall-e clip, backlight uniformity looked very poor.

Note that the presentation in question was given quite a few months back, so it was a pre-pre-preproduction unit (the backlight could be caused by bezel reflection, etc), I hope they had that resolved - now that is a thing that IS good to check on reviews

- on the other hand, it's obvious that the keyboard works with the connector - so the spec sheet on their website must be referring to a keyboard usb dongle for extra keyboard.

That doesn't really make sense. Why *reserve* a port for an extra external keyboard ? You could plug it in any port you like and it should work anyway.

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	eiffel	2009-06-26 , 10:55
	Posts: 600 \| Thanked: 742 times \| Joined on Sep 2008 @ England	#138

The keyboard works with the connector, but I bet the connector is wired up to one of the external USB sockets, so you can unplug their keyboard from the connector then plug your own full-size keyboard into the USB socket instead.

Here's my interpretation of the USB ports:

Four internal ports. One is reserved for WiFi. One is reserved for Bluetooth. Two are free.

Three external USB ports. One is reserved for the keyboard. Two are free (one mini, one regular-size).

Overall, this looks like a really nice device for travelling. A second SD socket would have been nice, but nevermind.

Regards,
Roger

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attila77	2009-06-26 , 11:39
Posts: 3,319 \| Thanked: 5,610 times \| Joined on Aug 2008 @ Finland	#139

Ah, right. I kind of missed this change, the original USB spec for the touchbook was (in fact, on the web page front still is

):

6 USB 2.0 (3 internal, 2 external, 1 mini)

Obviously there has been some port juggling going on there - I think the touchbook already has some sort of built-in hub/extra USB chip (IIRC the OMAP3530 has 3 host ports + 1 OTG).