Re: What If the Next IT Was This?
 

We already have a version of that, sorta. It's called an ATM :) There are three immediate problems I see. Scarcity (are you going to wait for that guy to finish his irc session to check your mail ? Who's going to upgrade ALL peripherals every other year ?), Accessibility (not everybody has the same requirements for screen size, keyboard size/layout, I'd even put here bandwidth), and Security (keyloggers anyone ?).

But seriously, you described an Internet kiosk with a no-exec storage USB port. :)

Re: What If the Next IT Was This?
 

Huh. I thought qgil described the IBM Meta Pad.

Re: What If the Next IT Was This?
 

"And who will fund these millions of ubiquitous computers?"

The consumer, who else?

Re: What If the Next IT Was This?
 

In what way is the metapad (conceptually) different from, say, a beagleboard ?

Re: What If the Next IT Was This?
 

The correct answer is "US Military". Especially if you equip each one with a microphone, camera, and/or explosives.

Re: What If the Next IT Was This?
 

They differ in much the same way a locomotive and a large diesel engine do. The later is one of a number of alternatives that might be used as the fundamental, driving core of the former. However, on its own, the later is but a component part that cannot independently provide the features, nor meet the specifications, that make the former a functional, usable tool.

Re: What If the Next IT Was This?
 

Hell no! I'm not funding any computer that I'll never use!

Re: What If the Next IT Was This?
 

Let me rephrase. What specification and features does the beagleboard lack to call it a metapad core implementation ?

Meta Pad computer core SPECS:
* 9 ounces,
* 3x5 inch, 3/4 inch thick,
* 800 MHz processor,
* 128 MB SDRAM,
* 10 GB hard disk drive,
* 3D Graphics chip with 8 MB RAM

This is awfully close to the beagleboard specs (just replace the 10GB harddrive with a 8GB SD). Nobody prevents you from making different form factor enclosures for the beaglebox to provide PDA/netbook/desktop layout for the same unit (in fact, the touchbook did almost exactly this).

Re: What If the Next IT Was This?
 

I see the interesting bits of the Meta Pad idea a little differently from you, I suppose.

I see the key ideas of the Meta Pad being a well defined, well designed, fairly rugged physical enclosure with a connector interface that's well defined both physically and electrically. These are what allow the Meta Pad to be a transportable, pluggable computer core--its core concept, and the bit that, to me, sets it apart.

The Beagleboard's core concept is to be a small, inexpensive, ARM systemboard for developers and hobbyists. It could certainly be used as the guts of a Meta Pad-type system, but so could many other things.

I'm less interested in, "If we had a system like the Meta Pad, at how many MHz would the CPU run?" than, "If we had a system like the Meta Pad, how would it change how we use, and think of, computers?"

Re: What If the Next IT Was This?
 

It looks like the E75, but without edges.
http://www.raitala.fi/media/nokia-e75-official.jpg

Perhaps I'm a bit jaded, but it doesn't look even that good. Why such a small screen? How you're supposed to use that? Would that be a touch screen, I guess not. The copy text on that page is quite funny. It's the worst kind of "a weird design = revolution = awesome" attitude.

The future is a bit brighter than that concept device, I would say. ;)