With just a few hours to go before Microsoft opens the kimono on its mysterious Origami Project,
we thought it would be helpful to summarize a little of what we know and don't know about the project. We know that
Origami is likely to be a handheld, wireless device, based in part on
claims by
Microsoft execs (along with hints dropped by
Robert Scoble) that the company was
working on just such a project, and on
the year-old video that surfaced on
the site of a company with known links to Microsoft (which was later confirmed by Microsoft as authentic -- and old).
We've also seen other pics of
similar
conceptual products from Microsoft, though we don't know whether or not these are related to Origami. And that's
about it. Sure, we have our own thoughts about what Origami may be -- we still think it's more likely to be a reference
model than an actual hardware product. But that, along with everything else we've seen and heard, is simply speculation.
Oh, actually, there is one other thing we can confirm: we know for sure that Origami -- whatever it is -- will come with
a speaker system and leather case, though both will be overpriced and optional.
posted March 1st 2006 6:53PM
I don't think we will learn all that much. I think tomorrow is just going to release another video. At the bottom of the page it has "1 2 3" with the number 1 right now being a link to the page itself. I think that it will just be a little more of the advertising and we won't learn a whole lot at least until the third movie.
"year-old video"? I though it was more recent and that we knew more about the Origami. Even so it'll probably be along the same lines, hopefully with a better interface & smaller size...
What time does this start?
If you are intersted in this product, then THIS DEVICE is exactly what you want:
http://dualcor.com/
I love the line at the end. I'm looking forward to the leather case and speaker system. I read through all the comments for the apple announcement, people commenting about engadget buying the hype, selling out to apple. I have to admit, I was looking through the announcement and hoping to read a couple of "wtf" statements in the posts. One of the reason I love reading engadget is the sense of humor, and it was lost in that article (there were a lot of easy shots to be taken at apple in that coverage). That being said, great site, keep up the great work and feel free to ignore my comments...
With a typically butt-ugly Microsoft design standard...
I just hope that photoshop image isn't inspired by the Origami project.
I've seen little stories like this on engadget a few times now, but I just wanted to push people in a different direction. At IGN, they had an article as well as a video of the new microsoft handheld. What's crazier is that in the demo video, someone is playing Halo on the device. Check the link for the video.
http://gear.ign.com/articles/691/691935p1.html
check it out!
It looks like the same form factor as the OQO but without the sliding thumbboard underneath. Will this flop like the OQO?
Did anyone else get the marketing email from OQO saying that they now deliver the OQO with the Tablet Edition of Windows XP? I guess this is a pre-response to Microsoft's announcement of the release of Origami running on Vista. I guess its more monopolistic leveraging of Microsoft's OS to take market share away from an innovative competitor by copying their innovations and branding it as their own.
HAHA, thats so funny at the end of the story...where it says "we know for sure that Origami -- whatever it is -- will come with a speaker system and leather case, though both will be overpriced and optional." (APPLE)
but of course im lookin forward to this...any ideas on a well speculated price?
True, consumers don't typically associate "Microsoft" with "popular, catchy design" (for lack of better words). One needs to look no further than the original Xbox to see that. However, we can't forget that over the past few years, Microsoft has learned from it's mistakes. Xbox 360 was clearly a step in the right direction from a design standpoint. Yeah, I realize it was outside design firms that created the system, but you can't help but think the experience of the 360 design process opened the eyes of many Microsoft execs and encouraged them to listen to some of their internal designers that have had ideas like these all along. All I am saying is I am not counting Microsoft out just yet when it comes to the design of this project.
The main problem with this project is there is a huge chance the Microsoft will not even be building the thing. It is hard to keep a good image for a product like this when there are four or five companys making their own. We then have another Portable Media Center problem.
I heard it's a boom box that takes 8 D-cell batteries and only works with iRiver MP3 players......
Viral marketing, huh? You mean gossib on the web? I think that is all this is. It isn't cleverly marketed. Engadget and other sites of the ilk just pick up on this stuff. Same thing would happen if MS simply announced it. You guys are doing the marketing for them. Kind of funny.
Another link showing ms origami:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rV1WGDW37c0&search=project%20origami
pure genius noah
way to go stickin it to the gadget/tech sites
M$ copies everything frm apple even the marketing strategy...
Man, between Origami and the FREE flash drive, Microsoft is really hogging up the homepage of Digg. Oh yeah, details on how to get the free flash drive from Microsoft are here:
http://www.cybernetnews.com/?p=371
RJ
As I too am under NDA on this thing, I cannot comment directly on what I know will be reality in the V1 models (yes, I said models with an S). However, I can tell you that what I have seen, I like. Alot. I WILL own one, and I will then proceed to take it apart (at least figuratively, possibly physically) and comment on what I think. Is this marketing hype helping or hurting the launch? I'll wait to see the results later before commenting on that, but I am convinced this is a good thing to bring to market, and a good time to do it. I am also sure that we will have no shortage of people out there trying to maximize the disappointment over the lack of features. That's fine, but I won't be one of them. I will offer honest feedback, which will include what I do not like and what is missing, but I will also look at how it can help me in my mobile lifestyle, and celebrate those features!
http://www.gottabemobile.com/CategoryView,category,Origami.aspx
#7, what has microsoft made that makes you think they have but-ugly design? vista looks pretty slick, and they have some damn sexy mice and keyboards. they have already said that the device in the video is not a final design
So what time will this event occur tomorrow?
Sooooo, it's a tablet. At least based on the old promo video. And based on that, you can't convince anyone that it is NOT a tablet PC, in the vein of OQO, Flybook, FlipStart, etc.
I was excited for a few minutes until I realized that this "unveiling" would be, at most, a reference design, perhaps not even with real hardware, just a tech demo running on some cobbled-together prototype.
Meh...
I'm betting dollars to donuts that the hardware is going to be linked to some sort of data plan (cellular most likely).
Otherwise, I can't really see the profit for Microsoft if the device is going to cost $500.
I think this is a step in the right direction for microsoft, based on the video, i think this is an amazing device, and i really feel that MS is going to get on this before apple does (for now). I think if apple were to realease something like this before MS, it would absolutely kill this idea.
I'm sure this is what MS is thinking and their trying to build the hype. I would love to own one of these devices, and probably will.
"whatever it is -- will come with a speaker system and leather case, though both will be overpriced and optional."
Love the hidden jab to Apple's lame and overpriced new products.
I have a feeling it's just going to be a Microsoft *branded* type of Tablet PC. They're going to build a ton of hype about it, make it seem like the greatest thing in the world, and people will buy it JUST becuase they think it's better than all those "3rd parties" that make Tablet PCs. It's not like Microsoft to create such a mysterious hype about a new product. It kinda seems like what Apple's doing... a keynote invitation is sent out that slightly hints at what type of new product(s) will be announced, but absolutely nothing is known about it until the day the information is released. I think it's a good thing - Microsoft is finally learning how to build Apple's type of hype.
Its gonna take three weeks until we actually find out what is going on. The site has links at the bottom for 'week 1', 'week 2', and 'week 3'. Only the week 1 is operable.
www.umpc.com
another piece to the puzzle?
^^^ nice spam from the guy above ^^^
i really don't think microsoft would be buying their domain names from godaddy.
Maybe Microsoft is trying to get good deals on domains. :)
But anyways, the video is everywhere on the internet right now. A website called http://www.origamiportal.com archived the video and even extracted each screen and talked about them. I saw a link at IGN that did the same thing but I can't find it.
I'm excited for tomorrow though.
I'm interested to see what new info is going to be released on the 2nd, and how different the actual product will be from what we've seen in the promotional video.
If you don't want to sit through the whole video, these guys did a scene break-down: http://www.origamiportal.com
don't look for too much tomorrow...they still have another week to go....
The new video is out now.
http://www.origamiproject.com/2
The week two link at the bottom of the page is now lit up but nothing happens, it just sits there. hmmm i wonder whats going on?
More details will be revealed on the 9th.
There is a 2nd week video up saying this on OrigamiProject.com
I am thinking that talking graph is speaking in riddles.
Does anyone think the answer is WiFi?
Yeah it says Hi there.
http://www.origamiproject.com/2/
Interesting. Did you check out umpc.com? Intel site. Seems like Intel will announce something on 3.7 while Microsoft is saying 3.9. Anyone know what's happening?
Looks pretty awesome to me, a tablet that plays PC or XBOX titles? Handheld device small enough to be nice and portable, but reteain enough functionality to be worth using? What could be better?
Microsoft doesn't care too much about hiding the truth in this viral marketing of theirs, right in the beginning of the source code ""
Just noticed something. Might not be anything... but if you look at this pic:
http://images.longhornblogs.com/winhec/umpc-2-large.jpg
And then you look at the top and bottom borders of the flash animation here on the origamiproject.com
http://www.origamiproject.com
Don't those borders look like the device she's holding. To me it feels like the flash animation is trying to simulate that you are looking at the screen of the origami. If it looks like what she's holding I'm sold.
Yeah, i noticed that too... It says running XP, not Vista... Will it work with Vista, or is it planned to release before Vista?
Leave it to Microsoft to delay an announcement. First their video said March 2nd, now it says March 9th.
In the old concept video, if you look at the lower left part of the tablet screen, you can see this quarter-circle of icons that reminds me of a pen-based interface design I'd seen on a university human-computer-interface lab website a few years ago. (http://dub.washington.edu/projects/denim/) Denim was a pen-based design tool for "sketch"-phase web design. The people involved used to be at Berkeley but now...yup, you guessed it...are at University of Washington in Seattle! This is not to say that the two have ANYTHING to do with one another. I doubt they do. But it wouldn't surprise me if there was some cross-pollination of ideas that has happened. (Of course MS has there own expertise from all their work on the Tablet PC)
Though the device itself seems like it will be quite amazing, the real innovation might turn out to be in the user-interface design.
"I am everywhere you are, but *never* in the way"
Oh, so it's NOT Windows... that's ALWAYS slowing us down
Then what the hell will they leverage to make this work ;)
"if you look at the lower left part of the tablet screen, you can see this quarter-circle of icons that reminds me of a pen-based interface design I'd seen on a university human-computer-interface lab website a few years ago."
Now... while it looks absolutely nothing like any of the screenshots on that research page... It does look strikingly like, the actual application that's running: Alias Sketchbook Pro.
(See bottom left corner of webpage)
http://www.alias.com/glb/eng/products-services/product_details.jsp?productId=1900006
From the comments of week 2:
Origami Project: the Mobile PC running Windows XP
If it´s anything like the supposed ads that have been showing up on the web i think it looks ugly. It might have some cool features tough.
You guys are buying the marketing shit too easily.
It's just Windows XP tablet rebranded, and a OQO-sized reference design for manufacturers.
anticool: Well, duh, after such a lame Apple 'unveiling' I think there's a lot of pent-up interest out there this week for something new...
And 'just' a WinXP tablet rebranded could be pretty damn sweet if the price point is low enough, and if it's available quickly enough to take advantage of the buzz from the past week.
43: that's the interface for Alias Sketchbook art software aimed at the tablet pc market, and as an artist/technophile, the coolest thing I saw so far o/
Is it just me, or does #19 sound like some astroturfing microsoft employee paid to post positive opinions about the thing here? Yup, probably is.
On a more important note, this thing is butt ugly, but if it truly does have good specs, then I can't wait till someone throws linux on it.
Who knows, this might actually also prompt apple to release something like this, but that looks good and actually works. We know they've got something of the sort in the works...