Mysterious T-swivel handset appears on Korean site, keeps us guessing
Here's a Sunday challenge for you -- what in tarnation is this thing? The mysterious T-swivel type handset has appeared on a Korean site, presumably signifying its status as a simple concept. Obviously, the device packs a full QWERTY keyboard, a front-mounted camera, a rather sizable display and a swivel contraption to keep things horizontal when texting and the like. Beyond that, your guess is as good as ours here. Any clues on this thing's origins? We only ask because, you know, we'd love to actually toy around with one.
[Via Pocketables]
[Via Pocketables]



















And a mouse pad! Looks kinda Interesting...
No, that is not a mouse pad. I assume you meant touchpad/trackpad. FAIL
@CapnShiner
Thanks for telling us you failed but good look in life.
I don't see why I'm the one getting low ranked and insulted when I'm not the one who called it a mouse pad. I admit I didn't need to put "FAIL" in my comment, but come on. There's a huge difference between a mouse pad and a trackpad/touchpad. Just picture a handheld device with a mouse pad attached. It's funny.
Lol @ people who take low rankings personally. Internet: serious business.
I upranked you because what you said is true...i just dont think it necessarily had to be said.
We low ranked you just to fu(k with you.
You just don't get it.
kidcanuck, that's what she said
is that a trackpad?
Looks like it is.
The original prototype, the "Yahoo! UMPC" had a mini joystick instead. This looks like an updated version.
http://images.google.co.uk/images?q=yahoo%20umpc&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&sa=N&tab=wi
I hope it isnt... look at the size of it compared to his finger >_>;
my friend has a phone, it's a nokia I think, not sure which phone, but it has a trackpad on the directional buttons. It seems to work quite well, they adjust the sensitivity and such so it is usable.
it's a DMB phone as in
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Multimedia_Broadcasting
not Dave Mathews Band.
The things that Palm needs to bring to the table, in regards to from factor, are landscape mode and the familiar one handed capabilities!This device would work. Maybe the mouse pad is to accomidate the new Palm OS2?
No the thing that Palm needs to bring to the table is an actual OS. Palm is irrelevant at this point. No one other then the remaining Palm fanbois think they are even remotely in the "game". They may still sell, but its like overal game console sales....No one gives a shit about the PS2 anymore even though they are still selling. Screw Palm.
Omnia has one, and it works pretty well! I use it in the non-default mode, where it controls a cursor.. if implemented well, it can be a really nice touch.
Yes, apparently a UMPC prototype.
http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http://media.blogtimes.org/86&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&sl=ko&tl=en
Is it a phone?
Is it a plane?
Is it a bird?
Is this madness?
This is Sparta!!!!
Nooo... It's G2 already.
Spartans!!?? IN KOREA???? I really want this phone/plane/bird now!
no it's superman
ohh man not him again...
I wish it was a phone, or you know anything you can leave at home and never try to put in your pocket because people, wake up, this thing must weight over 300 g !
it's a FAT phone.
Is that a mini touchpad under the QWERTY?
looks kinda like an older i-mate etc.(the rebranded HTC Win-Mo phones)
holy ugly!
I think the term you are looking for is fugly
(http://onlineslangdictionary.com/definition+of/fugly)
Maybe if I was a noob.
maybe if you were "Proffesional [sic] - Fusion Fuzo"
http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/06/bellperre-adds-silver-and-golden-collection-to-capitalize-on-b/
http://www.engadget.com/profile/2388656/
Look the at the "P" in the keyboard, it's a Palm device: you can see the small icon that indicates the function to change the screen bright... it's exactly the same layout of my treo!!!!!
Well, who knows, maybe the new centro!
Are Palm devices manufactured in Korea? Since when does Palm use a trackball(if that's actually a tracfkball and not just a button)?
I don't know, that little symbol on the P key doesn't convince me that this is a Palm device. Pretty much everything else about it is completely different from anything Palm has released in the past. If it does end up being a Palm device, I will be very surprised. This would be a radically new direction for them.
I was just thinking, it has the exact same keyboard layout. Even the alt-functions, from what I can see, are the same. Weird.
Looks like the poster "LiveFaith" has another of "his" designs realized:
http://i202.photobucket.com/albums/aa125/livefaith/Roteo.jpg
linked from the TreoCentral post:
http://discussion.treocentral.com/showpost.php?p=1523383&postcount=5
Just noticed what appears to be a body crack across the "top" of the unopened device - further "proof" that it's a Palm device!
http://discussion.treocentral.com/showthread.php?t=173784
I found the eejit!
Yes, Palm Devices are Made in Korea. Heck if you set your way back machine, Taiwan, China, Japan for a Time and Korea.
Do your research.
This is most likely a prototype of the next Palm Device aka Quatro.
Also it will be on the new Palm II OS. Not Garnet or ALP.
That means compatible with the old Palm OS devices for apps. But the cleaner newer look and feel of ALP. Aka the Edlewies
I wonder who thought to themselves, "You know what? The only thing wrong with a phone in landscape mode is the keyboard is too wide! Let's figure out a way to make a landscape phone with a narrow keyboard! THAT's what consumers want!"
Correct, there is not 1 good reason i can think of to have a rotation layout like this phone to exist when a landscape-sliding one can exist in the same universe.
Also, this thing looks HUGE, see the guys hand!
It is pretty big and is it just me or does it look very thick too? It makes me wonder if this may not be a phone but some weird MID or UMPC running Windows XP/Vista or something. I just don't see the obligatory "Windows key" on the keypad anywhere.
Except that I doubt it's a phone.
Article is plastered with the words, UMPC. It also mentions MID's.
It largely states why UMPC's are failures in that they're:
1. Weak performance
2. Poor battery life
3. More or about as expensive as a notebook
4. The market for UMPC's is limited; market strategy for UMPCs, netbooks are "unknown." Meaning we're familiar with where our notebooks will be headed, but not with UMPCs, MIDs, etc.
Anyhoos, thats what I took of the article with my horrible 2nd grade Korean profiency and Live Translator. :P
@BlissX
Oh ya, you're right. I don't know any Korean or even have the language pack installed, but I still see MID, UMPC, Netbook, and Atom in English in the text and the other pictured devices are not phones, except maybe the Anycall branded ones.
Still, I wonder...
Actually that's just a guy with a really small hand.
> ...some weird MID or UMPC running Windows XP/Vista or something...
If it's Palm's predicted-sometime-in-1st-half-2009 "device" (they didn't predict a phone explicitly, I don't think!) then it's running their predicted-by-end-of-THIS-month "Nova" (Linux) OS.
This is what I'm having trouble understanding. Why not just have it slide out, and why the trackpad, why not use a touchscreen? This just seems like something that would have been cool 10 years ago.
The narrow keyboard enable one-handed use for when you have a drink or bag or baby in your other hand. For quick replies and short tasks it's amazingly usefull to not have to put every thing down. If this device is balanced properly, it should be a decent solution to the one-handed/QWERTY/large screen conundrum.
I vote for Palm....
Thick enough?
That's what she said
sigh....
It's a new phone for.........TEE mobile......cause.....you know......T shape......man.......
Sorry, I had to do it. I couldn't resist.
Wow. That was pretty bad. How do you sleep at night?
one reason i could think of is that with a landscape keyboard, using the phone one-handed is not an option. this allows you the ability to use a landscape mode without having to use both hands. I will agree though. the form factor is atrocious.
I thought it was a kids toy.
I'm Korean. I read that article, but they say just why UMPC and MID failed. There is no comment about that device.
Oh, maybe it is there own concept. In that website, MIU Technology says they are developing HDPC that mean mobile IPTV + Smartphone + VoIP + Mobile PC + Navigation + Media Player...
This signals what I expect out of Palm.
The convergence of devices. The ability to have the video communicator that has been fabled. This device could deliver this. I wondered when someone would finally try to make it real. This would me Video Phones would be possible and now finally mobile too.
Maybe its the new Helio Ocean:)
Ow, it's the new JingGongGae with WingDoors Mobaile tixtinPoinFav, with hovaSkrin technology and WiyaLess FoutMassaging therapy.
...wow. What accent are you even trying to impersonate here? If it's Korean or anything Asian you're attempting then you are the worst.
It definitely is an iPhone clone! I mean look, it has a screen!
i lol'd
And I'm pretty sure it has icons all over its screen..
Total rip-off.
And the screen I'm almost certain it's a touch screen.
When you know Apple almost invented the concept of the touch screen... really it's a shame !
(yeah they almost invented because there were some rumours about other devices using touch screen more than 10 years before the iPhone but it was really not widely implemented, Apple really made the touch screen mainstream)
I mean it's not like each and every other smartphone manufacturer had produced a touch screen device before the iPhone...
But you know it's like the 3G, Apple got it and then everyone felt compelled to use it.
It's really the story of this company to LEAD and be followed.
Look Folks,
Palm had EVERYthing save the turning landscape screen and the stretch and contract screen before iPhone did. Just it was ahead of its time. Even a browser was possible. You had to use Java to get many of these things. It was not a clean transition at all.
If Palm had made it a clean and updated OS a long time ago and just updated the motif we all would be carrying Palm Devices.
So go figure. Apple did to the Mobile Phone what it has done for PC's.
I applaud Apple for doing so.
However, Give credit where Credit is due. Palm has just missed the boat in time line. The Accountants won. The Developers lost.
That is what it all comes down to. Apple has the financial part of being a Technology Company nailed. Palm has to learn again how to do that or become a foot note in History.
It's fugly.
It IS fugly!
It looks like a PSP combined with Blackberry. LOL XD
You think you're funnier than you actually are.
Probly the next Android phone.
trackpad that small? for lilliputians and their itty bitty fingers?
If the sensitivity is high enough, not really.
I assume you're supposed to treat it like a trackpoint; a small amount of movement in any direction means a large amount of movement on-screen, something like 1:2 or 1:3
man its ugly..
iPhone 3T.
You heard it here first, folks.
white balance - AUTO
image quality - FINE
metering mode - Matrix
exposure mode - Manual
iso speed - 500
focal length - 40.0 mm
flash - Yes, auto, return light detected
exposure bias - -1/3
aperture - F5
exposure - 1/160 s
date - 2008:06:03 16:59:01
orientation - top, left
camera model - NIKON D70s
camera make - NIKON CORPORATION
size - 470x436
resolution - 96x96 dots per inch?
mimetype - image/jpeg
Obviously the data is the important part, it was shown at Computex 2008. Have at it
http://media.blogtimes.org/86
appears to be the first site with that picture posted, but as far as I can tell no more information on it
and I had meant date above
Using babelfish.altavista.com to translate various paragraphs, it doesn't appear that any mention is made of that device (just, as noted elsewhere in this comment section, discussion of UMPCs/MIDs in general).
Freakin:
true, but the fact that the metadata for all the pictures on that site are from the same day and camera means we found the source. I e-mailed the blog in English about it but if someone wants to e-mail in Korean as well that would be great.
Incidentally for the Art and Design Challenged in the midst. The item that appears to be a crack is none of that. It is a design line that goes across the entirety of the top of the unit when it is slid to the compact mode. It is a curve that goes from just above the camera eye to the same location on the other side and it dips towards the screen.
I remember seeing a sony patent for something like this a while ago. It was dubbed the PSP Phone, and had this exact form factor.
Could be that, but no game buttons...?
http://www.unwiredview.com/2007/11/22/omg-psp-phone-is-coming-no-its-not
It's a special PC/TV/Phone racket.Best way to be used is just to hit people.
Is it just me or is there a massive crack on the left side of the swiveling bit?
it looks to me like a hair
I think it's part of the design. The "crack" in question seems to curve perfectly under the receiver and continues on the other side of the camera.
It is you. That is a curve from above the camera right side to the top left side. It is a style piece.
That's definitely a Palm Treo keyboard! Please don't let this be the new NOVA based Treo coz if it is my beloved PALM are dead :-(
I don't believe Palm ever said a =phone= was coming in 1st-half 2009...I think they've always said "device".
it will never be as good as the iPhone, whatever it is, the iPhone just rules everything, people should stop making cellphones because they can never reach the iPhone, they might as well just go and kill themselves. And eek, look at this thing, it has physical buttons, the iPhone doesn't have any, you know? That's why it's so revolutionary, I mean, there are only like 10 other phones out there that have the same touchscreen, but the iPhone is just… different, it's better, that's what makes the difference, it's from Apple.
No, but serious, this thing doesn't look half bad, it sort of reminds me of these phones you can watch TV on…
Looks like a Pantech Atom concept.
Hope its a phone and not just a UMPC.
Get that running Android!!!
Anyone else think its design with Android in mind?
Nokia, N97. Not sure if the swivel is a design change or was abandoned.
Its holy BIG. I don't think I would like to have that in my pocket when i am working.
Nice idea... but shave off some inches (not Iphone skinny either)
That's what she said
(I'm sorry, I couldn't help myself)
If the trackpad is anything like the one on the late HP hx4700, it will surely be disappointing and useless.
This is the Phone that Tony Stark uses as a video phone in IRON MAN
False. That was this phone:
http://www.mobiletracker.net/archives/images/lg-vx9400-open.jpg
Nice try though.
Looks like something that we'll never see in this form factor here in the states........