What If the Next IT Was This?
 

From the folks at Symbian-Freak (because I don't know where else this was posted before hand)...

..would this work as a possible (hardware and UX) design direction for the IT/N-series Nokia devices?

http://www.symbian-freak.com/news/00...ne_concept.htm

http://www.symbian-freak.com/images/...03/e97_01s.jpg

Re: What If the Next IT Was This?
 

I really can't help thinking: "Detachable screen? As if I'm never going to lose that".

Also, why is the keypad so small? It seems there's a lot of wasted space on the bottom section for what I can only perceive as "kewl style" reasons.

Re: What If the Next IT Was This?
 

Clamshell? Hmm no thats probably succesor of E90, aka 'Nokia Communicator'.

Re: What If the Next IT Was This?
 

http://www.coroflot.com/public/indiv...io_id=2186638&

This seems to be a graphics design made by a 23 year old student on his own. Nothing "by Nokia", as the images say.

Re: What If the Next IT Was This?
 

How many people spend any substantial portion of their days away from a relatively large place to put a computer-like device?

I don't. I'm either in a car or in a house, usually. When I go jogging, I need a cell phone, perhaps, and that's about it. I don't do a lot of typing on the run.

So, when the real future gets here, I think all we will need to bring with us for most purposes is an eye or fingerprint for identification. We'll just plug in to whatever is wherever we are. A cell phone might still come in handy, but a do-it-all portable device? Why? We just need built-in computers everywhere.

Re: What If the Next IT Was This?
 

And who will fund these millions of ubiquitous computers?

Re: What If the Next IT Was This?
 

SKYNET

(come with me if you want to live...)

Re: What If the Next IT Was This?
 

This is a bad idea unless you know of an algorithm that lets you trust just any ol' input device. If so, please share. Otherwise, always bring your own.

Re: What If the Next IT Was This?
 

Memory is becoming really small these days, and it gets easily replicated online. Why not having the memory and processor with you and using the convenient peripherals you will find when moving around (screens, speakers, keyboards...)

Re: What If the Next IT Was This?
 

as if "kewl style reasons" would ever influence design decisions these days. ;)

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. ;)

Re: What If the Next IT Was This?
 

The beagleboard includes I/O ports (keybooard, mouse, USB, etc.) and the metapad core does not. If you are familiar with Intel desktop architecture, the metapad includes only everything north of the bus between the northbridge and soutbridge.

Re: What If the Next IT Was This?
 

Mmm quite, but no. I'm talking about the devices companies like Nokia know how to do that fit in your pocket and contain all the essentials to keep you going. Then you arrive at home, at school, at a bar, public library, airport, whatever and then you have the peripherals acting as amplifiers of that experience, waiting to be connected wirelessly just by placing your device there and type some credentials. And pay for the service, sure, just like we are paying for the Internet somehow in public access points.

Re: What If the Next IT Was This?
 

Meta Pad sounds cool but wouldn't make a good product. If you're going to use it handheld, you need to carry the core plus the handheld module. So why not just incorporate the core into the handheld, making it more compact and convenient.

Then, when you're at a desktop, just plug your monitor and keyboard into the USB ports and you're set to go. You can even use the handheld as a touchpad so you don't need a mouse. No need to extract the core from the handheld and dock it with an expensive custom workstation, when you can just connect it up to commodity hardware instead.

Regards,
Roger

Re: What If the Next IT Was This?
 

OK, in that case I got a bit mislead by the article - it puts permanent storage within the metapad core and says you just would need a cradle to interface a display and the keyboard - that read like southbridge on the core to me just needing physical interfaces. Also, leaving out the southbridge sounds like a recipe for driver disaster, especially as the original device claimed to want to do all this without rebooting. For me the only sensible interface point in that case would be the PCI bus (kinda like a PICMG backplane host board).

Re: What If the Next IT Was This?
 

Ah, but when you cool folks get to see devices on the design board before the rest of us, then you can feel a bit jaded and have a clearer view of what's to come.

Brighther than the concept device ye say... I do have ideas :)

Re: What If the Next IT Was This?
 

I stand corrected - not a southbridge, but not a PCI bus either. Decoupling the I/O port drivers from the core OS I think was part of the concept from something I read before. Instead of an integral OS, think of the metapad and the cradle as separate devices sending messages over SAN, Infiniband, etc..

In any case, as to the original question of how it's different from a Beagleboard, it's the I/O connectors and the way that data is transferred back and forth. Remember, it was a concept and not intended to be commerically feasible.

Re: What If the Next IT Was This?
 

I see, so, technically that would be almost like the PoP itself in a standardized rugged package with maybe a tiny microSD thrown in for good measure ?

Re: What If the Next IT Was This?
 

I like it. :p