Ricavision Sideshow PDAs in-the-wild, to sell for $80?

Texyt got their hands on two of the Ricavision-designed prototype Sideshow PDAs that we first heard about a few weeks ago: specifically, the MK140 eChatter (pictured) and Fridge Magnet models. Winbond representatives said that the Sideshow devices could cost as little as "about $80" for the smaller Fridge Magnet device, and "about $150" for the larger eChatter with a QWERTY keyboard, but as Winbond's background is chip manufacturing, they could have meant that this is how much the devices will cost to manufacture and not how much they'll go on sale for (so don't get your hopes up just yet). We'd love a Bluetooth enabled, 5-inch touchscreen PDA for 150 bucks as much as the next gadget maniac, but we'll try and keep it down until we see it confirmed.

[Thanks, ZSX]

[Scott @ Jun 16th 2007 3:32PM]

I bet they meant "with a down payment of only $80!"

[derek @ Jun 16th 2007 4:08PM]

Absolutely useless. Why would you want a device that needs to connect to a computer for media???

[wiseapple @ Aug 10th 2007 12:12AM]

One use I have for it is running real time temperature monitoring on my vidcards and cpu. It will mount nicely on the side of my pc.

[Lawrence @ Jun 16th 2007 4:19PM]

"Why would you want a device that needs to connect to a computer for media???"

What, like a mp3 player? Who would want one of them ey!

[derek @ Jun 16th 2007 11:40PM]

you don't need to always be connected to a computer to use an MP3 player.

[Ondra Soukup @ Jun 16th 2007 4:20PM]

$150 for the huge one...is fine :)

[Anatoliy @ Jun 16th 2007 4:22PM]

Why the hell wouldn't you? Upload all your movies onto your computer and watch them around the house, play music and if it has wifi surf the web. You are a strange man Derek.

[derek @ Jun 16th 2007 11:39PM]

watch them around the house on a little screen, when you can just go to your TV or computer screen? sounds pretty dumb to me.

[abigsmurf @ Jun 16th 2007 5:51PM]

Looked up the CPU. It's an 80mhz RISC Cpu. You're not going to be watching any video on one of these

[skyline_gtr777 @ Jun 16th 2007 6:12PM]

Why's that?, i can watch videos on my old 16mhz sony clie just fine.

[Leoedin @ Jun 16th 2007 7:26PM]

80MHz? That's slower than my 3 year old Nokia 6630! (220MHz)

Yes, you could watch video, but whats the point of watching video on any device when you have to convert it to get it smaller. My Nokia can play DivX/XviD files at low res perfectly, but stutters and struggles with 480p files. This thing would only be good for native res files - and a waste of time.

[JohnTitor @ Jun 16th 2007 6:41PM]

$150 can still get you an nice on eBay (new and refurb, not just old)
with SD cards you got Music, Movies and Games
and not to mention all other great PDA capabilities
so this is not so special

[Zach @ Jun 16th 2007 11:33PM]

Sneaky headline Engadget, Sneaky.

[murray @ Jun 17th 2007 2:46AM]

I didn't know they were still making PDAs.

[George Orwell @ Jun 18th 2007 4:19PM]

So when are these going to hit the market?