One of My Favorite Gadgets

oqo has issued a press release announcing updates to the really cool oqo model 02. If I were a big time blogger I'd get a demo version of this device and write a review, but since I'm not I'll just have to drool....

SAN FRANCISCO – September 10, 2007 – OQO Inc., creator of the model 02, the world’s smallest PC running Windows Vista® and the first ultra mobile PC (UMPC) with embedded 3G mobile broadband, today announced new model 02 products with high performance features that deliver increased Anytime/Anywhere Productivity™ and extend OQO’s lead in the category. To accelerate consumer and enterprise adoption of the model 02, OQO is aggressively pricing its upgraded UMPCs starting at $1,299.
Better Storage: Bigger HDDs, New Flash Memory SSD
The improvements to the model 02 product line start with a choice of high-capacity storage options. In an industry first, OQO now offers an ultra-mobile PC with a 120GB hard disk ideal for video, audio, and data-intensive applications. At the same time, HDD capacities have increased across the board: to 40GB in the entry-level model, and to 80GB in the standard high-end configuration. For users requiring an even more advanced storage solution, OQO now offers the model 02 with a flash-based 32GB solid state drive. The SSD provides up to 50% faster boot and application launch times, as well as increased battery life and the ultimate in rugged physical data protection.
Faster CPU Speeds and Improved Wireless Connectivity
The new model 02 delivers faster CPU speeds of up to 1.6GHz, another industry first in a UMPC. WWAN configurations of the model 02 are now available with higher-speed wireless connectivity provided by EV-DO Rev. A with mobile broadband service from Verizon Wireless or Sprint. EV-DO Rev. A offers data rates of up to 1.4Mbps, improved upstream speed, and lower latency. Users will find Rev. A particularly useful for online video, interactive web content, and bandwidth-intensive enterprise applications.
Reduced Prices
Due to increased volumes and new technologies, OQO is delivering the new model 02 with a lower price point or improved functionality at every level of the product line. The entry-level price for an OQO model 02 has been reduced by $200 (to just $1299) while increasing disk drive capacity by 33%. Additional pricing is available at OQO’s online store at www.oqo.com/store.
“With today’s announcement, OQO further extends its lead in the fast-growing UMPC category,” according to Bob Rosin, senior vice president of marketing & alliances. “OQO created the UMPC and our new products offer performance, wireless and storage options that further advance our vision of anytime/anywhere access to information, applications, corporate networks and the full PC internet.”
The updated OQO model 02 can be ordered today at www.oqo.com/store, by calling OQO sales at 877.676.6688, and through a range of distribution partners with a base price starting at $1,299. Retail locations where the model 02 can be purchased are listed at www.oqo.com/about/retail_locations.html. The OQO enterprise sales team can be reached at www.oqo.com/about/oqo_corporate_sales.html.
About OQO
Based in San Francisco, California, OQO, Inc. has redefined mobile computing with its groundbreaking products, including the new ultra-small, powerful, ergonomic, and connected model 02 released in 2007. The OQO model 02 is a full-featured computer running standard Windows® XP or Vista with embedded EV-DO wireless broadband capability and award-winning design, in a pocketable, dockable form factor that gives the mobile individual or workforce true Anytime/Anywhere Productivity.

Another Writer Muses About Wi-MAX

I've found another writer interested in Sprint's Xohm Wi-MAX 4G network, Ross Rubin. Mr. Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about technology, multimedia, and digital entertainment on Engadget.com. He has written a two part story about the Xohm service and the consumer electronic devices that Sprint would like to see utilize the mobile broadband service. Mr. Rubin also references an article from telephonyonline.com that’s worth a read. I’m looking forward to a mobile XBOX that has Xohm service so I can play Tiger Woods 2008 or Halo 3 on XBOX Live while on my lunch break.

Check out the links below:
Switched On: The WiMAX window (Part 1)
Switched On: The WiMAX Window (Part 2)
Rethinking WiMAX

New From Apple

Apple held their fall product launch yesterday and two big things came to light. First the new iPod Nano will have video capabilities. Secondly the iPod Touch was introduced. What's a Touch? It's basically an iPhone without the phone. It has WiFi for internet connectivity and will supposedly support any and all iPhone applications. If I were to buy an iPod this would be it. Check out the Apple product site.

Palm Foleo Ditched

I'm not going to bother writing a lot about this and let the email that I received speak for it's self. I received this email because I registered on the Palm website to receive email updates about the Foleo. All I can say is wow!

As many of you are aware, we are in the process of building our next generation software platform. We are very excited about how this is coming together. It has a modern, flexible UI, instant performance, and an incredibly simple and elegant development environment. We are working hard on this platform and on the first smartphones that will take advantage of it.

In the course of the past several months, it has become clear that the right path for Palm is to offer a single, consistent user experience around this new platform design and a single focus for our platform development efforts. To that end, and after careful deliberation, I have decided to cancel the Foleo mobile companion product in its current configuration and focus all our energies on delivering our next generation platform and the first smartphones that will bring this platform to market. We will, of course, continue to deliver products in partnership with Microsoft on the Windows Mobile platform, but from our internal platform development perspective, we will focus on only one.

Because we were nearly at the point of shipping Foleo, this was a very tough decision. Yet I am convinced this is the right thing to do. Foleo is based on a second platform and a separate development environment, and we need to focus our efforts on one platform. Our own evaluation and early market feedback were telling us that we still have a number of improvements to make Foleo a world-class product, and we can not afford to make those improvements on a platform that is not central to our core focus. That would not be right for our customers or for our developer community.

Jeff Hawkins and I still believe that the market category defined by Foleo has enormous potential. When we do Foleo II it will be based on our new platform, and we think it will deliver on the promise of this new category. We’re not going to speculate now on timing for a next Foleo, we just know we need to get our core platform and smartphones done first.

I would like to thank our customers for their interest in Foleo. I know there will be disappointed folks who were looking forward to carrying a Foleo for all their mobile computing needs. I am certainly one of them. I would also like to thank the developers who have supported our Foleo efforts. They have been loyal to Palm and have worked hard to deliver some compelling solutions on the Foleo platform. I know that they will understand that the right thing to do for the long run is to focus on one platform that will live for years, rather than invest energy in a one-off solution. We will make every effort to make sure we bring our developers forward to our next generation platform.

This decision will require us to take a limited charge of less than $10 million dollars to our earnings. This is a lot of money, but it is a small price relative to the costs that would be required to support two platforms going forward. This decision is in the best interest of our customers, our team, our products and our shareholders. I hope this renewed focus at Palm will allow us to deliver more compelling solutions to our core smartphone market, and it will allow us to position ourselves for the long run around one Palm experience.

Ed Colligan
President & CEO
Palm, Inc.

New Samsung F700

Gizmodo has a post about the Samsung F700 picked up from Tech Digest. New pictures of the device are available from PMP Today as well as the new name of the device, Newly christened Samsung Croix, it has a four-directional touch input, which explains why it’s called “Croix.” Tech Digest did a story about this phone back on February 8, 2007. I really hope this device is headed to the states via Sprint.

gPhone Update

As more and more news services write articles about the possibility of a Google Phone it seems the details just get repeated over and over. There is little new in the stories I have links to below, but worthy of a quick scan. In the "Five Facts..." article there is reference to two different posts by Simeon Simeonov from the Open Gardens blog that are really interesting reads, so I added unique links to these two posts below. Kudos to engadget for the post with quotes and links to the articles below.

“The Ideal Mobile Software Stack” by Simeon Simeonov, February 19, 2007.

“The Real Google Phone” By Simeon Simeonov, March 7, 2007

Boston Globe "Introducing the Google Phone" by Scott Kirsner

"Five Facts About Google Phone" written by Om Malik

Sprint Sees Growth Beyond Cell Phones

There's another good article by Peter Svensson an AP Technology Writer about the Sprint 4G/Wi-MAX/Xohm effort. The stock market analysts are almost all taking a wait and see attitude towards this new technology and network roll out of Sprint's. I'm also a "believe when I see" type of person, but I can't pretended that the idea of the network isn't exciting. Read the article on Yahoo.