The IMOVIO iKit: everything you ever wanted in a PDA, save for a bunch of stuff you wanted

A company called IMOVIO has introduced the iKit -- a twisted combination of a Nintendo DS and your favorite old-school PDA (Psion anyone?). Predicting a rip in the fabric of space which tears all sense of reason and linear evolution of technology asunder, IMOVIO figures that there's a group of people who just want a small, underpowered handheld with WiFi as opposed to a smartphone or netbook. The device packs a 312MHz Marvell CPU running Linux, a 2.6-inch QVGA display, 128MB of ROM, 64MB of RAM, microSD support up to 8GB, Bluetooth 2.0, optional 0.3 megapixel webcam, and a full QWERTY keyboard. Sounds kind of okay, right? Take into account that it only accepts USB 1.1, has no proper headphone jack (again, USB), and gets a measly four hours of battery life while playing Java games and, well, it starts to seem less than exciting. If you're not deterred by the aforementioned facts, one of these can be yours in black or white for £99 (about $172), no word on street date.

[Thanks, T.I.]

[Sarig @ Oct 20th 2008 10:02AM]

This isn't useless! I could use this one for...

Yeah, I got nothin'

[Matthewmongan @ Oct 20th 2008 2:17PM]

tell that to all the people who purchased a sharp zaurus.... all 5 of them.

looking at the product site it runs Trolltech QT/E, seems like a cl3200 without the rotating screen, hard disk, cf card reader, sd card reader, and years of open source hacking. at the least it has wifi, which sharp left out.

you can overclock that cpu to 500MHz without too much trouble, but why. without a 4 gb harddrive alternative distrobutions like pdaXrom might be out of the question so anyone buying this is stuck with stock or maybe a modded cacko rom.

[Diamamet @ Oct 20th 2008 10:10AM]

Or you could get the Pandora http://www.openpandora.org (albeit for slightly more cost)

[Gavin @ Oct 20th 2008 10:06AM]

0.3 web cam, this thing ain't worth the plastic it's made with.

[JStro @ Oct 20th 2008 10:05AM]

So maybe I should just buy one of these to compliment my soon to be Storm? (for the wifi)

[htd @ Oct 20th 2008 10:08AM]

why java? how come it's $172?

[Zach G. @ Oct 20th 2008 10:53AM]

I dunno... T'would seem as though they calculated the exchange rate incorrectly. 1 Euro = 1.33 USD => 99 Euro = 131.91 USD

[biohazard @ Oct 20th 2008 11:08AM]

to zach... at least you could get the symbols right... € = euros
£ are pounds... that's why it's 172$

[MyHeadisFed @ Oct 20th 2008 10:10AM]

Ha what a piece of crap.

[David Rankine @ Oct 20th 2008 10:25AM]

I like the design, but it needs at least a 4 inch sreen and usb 2.0. IM sold

[FRZ @ Oct 20th 2008 10:47AM]

I second that.

[ZSX @ Oct 20th 2008 3:09PM]

I remember using a device almost identical to this in form factor and general purpose (as a mobile phone companion) called the Siemens IC35 (the unifier). It had a black and white screen and a QWERTY keyboard with dual SD slots for your data.

http://images.google.co.uk/images?q=siemens%20ic35%20unifier&ie=UTF-8&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&sa=N&tab=wi

That was back when smart phones were rare and chunky, and regular mobiles were significantly more compact. The value proposition was that you could add functionality without sacrificing the size of your phone. Even so no-one bought one then, and given that most smartphones are smaller than that device, there is even less incentive to buy one of these now.

[High Ranks make you sterile @ Oct 20th 2008 10:13AM]

Maybe it has copy and paste because then they would both....

Oh wait.

[thedesolate1 @ Oct 20th 2008 10:13AM]

Race to the bottom.... anyone? Do I hear a $150 subbook? $150!! come on $150! GOING ONCE GOING TWICE! Come on im looking at you china!


ok fine! How bout $169.99???? DO I hear anyone readying a netbook for $169.99?? Come on people! 250 mhz! It will play doom......... videos. at 15fps.

[chefgon_ign @ Oct 20th 2008 1:14PM]

For the record, it takes exponentially less processing power to play Doom than it does to decode a video... even at 15fps.

[Rollins @ Oct 20th 2008 10:20AM]

Looks like fun to me. There's a decent chance that if it comes to the States, it'll be cheaper than a direct pound-to-dollar conversion. At $150 this'd be a decent deal, assuming the software's even vaguely up to snuff. And even if it isn't at first, the Linux community will probably help it out.

[OCEAN 'CLAK' 20th @ Oct 20th 2008 10:36AM]

agreed my macbook air more powerful and affordable

[Steve H. @ Oct 20th 2008 10:39AM]

I just need a little bluetooth keyboard to work with my iPhone, so I can do some on-the-run word processing. With cut and paste. Hmm. Maybe there's a place for this.

I miss my Psion Series 5.

[tino @ Oct 20th 2008 2:13PM]

iPhone bluetooth doesn't support anything but headsets, lolz.

[lucas @ Oct 21st 2008 12:05PM]

my understanding is that the cut and paste issue ain't just the keyboard but the software.

eventually it will happen. although 'eventually' could mean 10 years from now.

all I can say about this thing is that it has a vibrator. now THAT could be useful.

[konshuss @ Oct 20th 2008 11:27AM]

more powerful yes, but saying something that's base model is $1628 more expensive is more affordable... doesn't quite work.

[lowdef @ Oct 20th 2008 10:43AM]

your macbook air is affordable?? thats a first

[strider_mt2k @ Oct 20th 2008 10:46AM]

This would have been awesome 7 years ago.

[OCEAN 'CLAK' 20th @ Oct 20th 2008 10:53AM]

yeah i got my mba free, earlier in the year, so happy

[Jon Acheson @ Oct 20th 2008 11:19AM]

Did you notice that none of the photos actually shows the thing open and running?

I don't think that's a coincidence. I suspect what they are hiding is either pathetic software, a bad screen, or the fact that they don't actually have a working prototype.

[Fusion Fuzo @ Oct 20th 2008 11:34AM]

NICE OR FUGLY The outside looks good, so it could be the full oposite inside like too ugly for the internet to see considering every photo itsclosed, so yeah you could be right

[Canoo @ Oct 20th 2008 11:40AM]

http://www.comsciences.com/img/Imovio-iKIT-Product-Presentation-1.82.pdf

theres a couple pictures in there.. the screen looks no bigger then the one on my curve hah

[Benson @ Oct 20th 2008 5:13PM]

Or a half-mile of bezel?

[ran @ Oct 20th 2008 11:48AM]

@ OCEAN 'CLAK' 20th: Courtesy of mommy and daddy?

[ran @ Oct 20th 2008 11:49AM]

Underpowered? You surely mean underperforming right?

My 3 year old Axim has more juice than this!

[Esat Dedezade @ Oct 20th 2008 2:09PM]

I sincerely hope for the sake of the future human race that iEye and Ocean are the same person. To know that there are in fact TWO people in the world with such ignorant worship of anything (in this case apple) is simply just depressing.

[tino @ Oct 20th 2008 2:11PM]

None of these linux device developers has heard of Nokia n800/810, I don't get it.

[john @ Oct 20th 2008 2:16PM]

Let me guess... this is a "Pandora for Idiots"?

[dbzeag @ Oct 20th 2008 2:25PM]

The raw processing power means nothing if you aren't asking the device to do much. For instance my Centro can playback mp3s and surf the web at the same time as well as have an IM program running in the background with 312mhz xScale ARM architecture. If call up times of the programs are quick, it doesn't matter how fast the core is.

That being said, I think this thing is missing the point. It looks and acts an awful lot like an old school Zaurus but without actually being that good. The screen is too small and at too small a resolution for web surfing. Not having 3G or cell abilities in general even for data really limits the usefulness. Not having a proper headphone jack (why are more and more devices shying away for the good old 3.5mm jack?) makes this useless as a media player. And that's pretty much all that's left to this device besides email.

Better money would be spent on a GP2x Wiz. $180 USD with same screen but OLED for sharper picture. You trade the keyboard for gaming controllers, but it will do the same playback functionality and websurfing as the ikit. True USB hard drive hosting, larger battery, smaller packaging.

Or better still is the Pandora. Much larger screen, even longer battery life, ability to run full blown Ubuntu (and all that entails), proper head jack, with keyboard AND gaming controls. $330 for that doesn't sound too bad.

[noyp @ Oct 20th 2008 8:24PM]

I find it annoying how companies use i in front of their products. This is a good example. iKit my ass.

[Sploo @ Oct 20th 2008 8:37PM]

Personally i think this would be a pretty good, cheap, mobile hacking tool. Even if it sucks horribly it's only 170.

[Quito @ Oct 21st 2008 2:34AM]

It's "monophonic".

[Raven @ Oct 21st 2008 11:19AM]

This looks similar to the Pandora I ordered a little bit ago, except smaller, slower, and far more useless. If you have any interest in this thing. Check out the Pandora:
http://openpandora.org/

[w @ Oct 21st 2008 3:41PM]

not much progress in 7 years

http://mobile.softpedia.com/phones/Motorola/Motorola-Accompli-009.shtml

[JJ @ Oct 21st 2008 8:48PM]

I would like something very portable that I can use to surf the web....check yahoo & hotmail accounts and maybe some websites (extremely light surfing) Don't need to watch videos on line. Not interested in a phone because of all the network problems when traveling overseas.