HP's Obsidian becomes iPAQ Glisten, officially comes to AT&T
By Darren Murph 
posted November 24th 2009 1:39PM
posted November 24th 2009 1:39PM
posted November 24th 2009 1:39PM
A look back on popular stories from today in a specific year.
Now that we've thrown 'em off the trail, use the form below to get in touch with the people at Engadget. Please fill in all of the required fields because they're required.
Perfect Phone for Business clients who don't care for social networking all phones are trying to migrate too.
@(Unverified) this looks too much like an 8800
So, what does this unit offer that no one else does? Because for $229, they better be offering SOMETHING.
@KidDynamic nothing, one can get E71x unlocked for the same price
It looks good, but they need to add some zazz to the internals
$229? AFTER scam-in rebate? Yet another fake subsidy by US wireless carrier.
Hm... I'm surprised they're sticking with the 'iPak' name, given that many non-technical users (ie, business users who they are marketing too) might intrinsically associate it with 'iPod.' I wonder what Apple thinks of this.
The "iPAQ" name was around long before Apple started adding "i"s to everything.
Maybe HP/Compaq should douche up and sue Apple, eh?
@(Unverified) sure it was, but let's be serious, not even more technical people know what an iPak is, and even my grandmother knew what an iPod was.
@(Unverified)
He is being serious.
You are floating some dumbbell logic that says because Apple's use of the "i" being the most widely known, HP should stop using the brand name they've had since 2000.
Not much of a shock seeing that Apple illegally used the name iPhone from another company, and Apple fans thought that was perfectly ok too.
iPAQ? Really? REALLY?
The "i" prefix is in everything now. My school has like 4 different online class and email systems and they all are called iMail or iEval or iSomething. It is the new "e", like email and ebay from the 90's.
The name iPAQ has been around since 2000, at least.
@Uncontrol
But what do you PAQ?
@Uncontrol
probably the same thing he "pods"
@Uncontrol
ahhh... the good old days.
The Compaq iPaq H3630 was in the Guinness Book of World Records as the "World's Most Powerful PDA" back in DECEMBER 2000. Over six years before the Dawn of the iPricks. And that name was used in a line of desktops as well.
http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/press/2001pmc/pr2001041201.html
Boring looking.
@poematik14
Yes, because business phones are supposed to be flashy.
@(Unverified) Actually I just looked into the i usage cus I remember selling iPAQs back when I worked at Frys years ago. It looks like Mac used the i on iMac on August 15, 1998 while the first iPAQ didnt get announced till April 2000. Altho the iPAQ predated the first iPod which released on October 23, 2001. So technically Apple probably owns the i. Which finding that out I wish HP did do something else with the name. Cus I sure do hate me some Apple.
Dated OS? It just came out a month ago. Seriously, we get that you don't like WinMo 6.5 but for those of us that actually use it the reviews are usually great.
As for the phone - nice looking competitor to the BB. That said, probably no reason to get this unless you hate BB OS.
@bjsguess
Dude i have a WinMo 6.5 phone the HTC Imagio and for something that just came out it seems 5 years old. Worst phone ever can't believe I missed taking it back for something else or anything else
Actually this has better video, music, audio, and touch screen(except Storm line) over BB. Plus, you can run the nice Opera Mobile 10 beta which last I checked is better than the BB web browser. That could be a good reasons to get it over a BB.
@bjsguess
I hate BB OS
@bjsguess How bout how the BIS keeps going down nationally or globally? Thats reason enough for me to not get a Curve 8530. I decided to buy American and get a Palm Pixi instead.
@bjsguess
I really wish someone would explain to me what "dated" even means.
These folks just toss it around like it the thing you have to say, like they are just mindless parrots.
They never really give you examples of what makes what they say even remotely true.
I like WinMo way more than my BB 8800. However, for business purposes I still think BB is the better bet. For the other items you mentioned then, yes, WinMo is superior IMO as well.
WinMo 6.5 is nothing more than a slightly more finger friendly version of WinMo 6.1. WinMo six was not much more than a cosmetic upgrade to WinMo 5 which was released in 2005, and with that release came DirectPush, the last bit of innovation that was added to WinMo. So the interface design and style was 4-1/2, almost 5 years ago. That is what is meant by dated.
Even Microsoft has admitted that the OS is "behind the curve" and released 6.5 after WinMo 7 hit some delays.
So, no I guess they don't explain it in every discussion about WinMo because... it is sort of common knowledge at this point.
@(Unverified) and that's supposed to alleviate the fact?
The "iPAQ" name was around long before Apple started adding "i"s to everything.
Maybe HP/Compaq should douche up and sue Apple, eh?
This looks eerily like the Blackberry Curve.
about as exciting as the 'samsung jack'
If I was in the market for a Blackberry-esque phone I'd get this over an actually Blackberry just because, IMO winmo 6.5 is better than the BBOS.
Wonder what type of CPU it's got.
@(Unverified) Why? I'm deciding between winmo and bb os, and everyone just says winmo sucks blah blah blah. I'd like to hear some counter arguments
@(Unverified) cheap a** Qualcomm 7200A 528 MHz. Taking after HTC. Where's the ambition? There are better processors that could've made this device more attractive in addition to it's obvious BlackBerry design
@JBundyLive
I am confused as to what you are trying to do with a PHONE. Its a phone, not a netbook and not a PC. You guys kill me wanting all this power in a dang phone. What the heck are you going to do with it except to tell your disinterested buddies how much CPU power you got in your phone. Nothing! LOL
Beautiful hardware poised by awful OS. would be nice to crack it and install something else on this obsidian.
@h0rus Really? Are you sure? Looks like it's running 6.5, a wonderful OS.
Looks exactly like my 2007 Motorola Q9h with BB keyboard graphics. Way to go HP!
http://www.motorola.com/staticfiles/Consumers/Products/Mobile%20Phones/MOTO%20Q9h%20global/_Images/Static%20files/B2C_MOTO_Q9h_CA-EN_lg.png
@junktrunk
exactly what I was thinking.....moto Q
Fugly computers....fugly phones, HP is right on track!
oh yeah....really original name too. (rolls eyes)
@(Unverified)
as previously stated the iPAQ name was around way before Apple's "i" lines..
The iPAQ name brings back bad memories of Pocket PC. No thanks.
Why is everyone saying that HP copied off Apple with the "i" prefix? I remember going with my parents in a staples, near 10 years ago before iPods came out and saw iPaq handhelds. And even so, adding an "i" at the beginning of everything isn't copying off Apple, but hell, everyong thinks Apple created everything.
@Lucas The iMac was released in 1998, a full 2 years before the first iPAQ's release in 2000. It's very doubtful that Compaq didn't know what they were doing when they chose the name.
I guess now that Palm has backed off doing vanilla WinMo business phones, someone has to step in and fill the void. iPAQ's used to be the staple WinCE PDA's back in the day, so they're as good a choice as any.
I'd still rather have a Blackberry.
@jeremywc
And you really are so dumb that you dont know that the i prefix was used on a variety of devices in the late 90s?
It was used with others like:
e = electronic
d = digital
The i stood for internet and it wasn't the first to use it.
I really dont understand why HP would make a phone like this.....if you are going to get in the phone business why not go all out and create something awesome, not this old copied junk.....a few people should get fired for this one.
@(Unverified) "If you are going to get into the phone business..."
This isn't HP's first WinMo phone. They were making smartphones in 2004, long before even the rumor of an Apple iphone existed.
They have released a large variety of phones over the years:
h6300, hw6500, hw6900, rw6800, 110, 210/211, 614c, 510, 910c, 912
As I said before here:
http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/24/htc-hd2-can-be-coaxed-into-doing-802-11n-if-you-know-how-to-swe/comments/23364508/
Repeat Adnausem
Let me tell you something...This is going to sell for $50.00(or even FREE) within 6 months after release. It just doesn't have specs to drive someone crazy enough to shell out $229 on phone with a 24-month contract!
No, thank you AT&T!