Having only recently marked its return to the handheld computing space with the
iPAQ Glisten, HP seems intent on forging ahead with more hardware in the coming year. The above trademark applications -- filed in September and October 2009 -- mark out some very broad categories, but we can narrow them down a little with the help of some context. Given all the industry excitement over
tablet devices, the Zeen could well be the name of a forthcoming slate-shaped machine and accompanying software, while Airlife seems to be planted firmly in the smartphone arena. The moniker suggests a software ecosystem rather than actual hardware, but that would make little sense with just one handset out there; if we were the betting type (and believe us, we aren't), we'd probably expect to see more mobiles coming from the computing giant in order to take advantage. Of course, companies don't always
follow through on trademark applications, but it sure seems as if HP is casting a wary eye over the burgeoning handheld market (and / or planning to not get left behind in the months ahead).
posted December 30th 2009 9:25AM
Well, HP was the manufacturer of the best hand-held device of the previous era, the HX4700 PDA. Over 5 years later (it was released in Oct of 2004) this true VGA device running on a 624MHz CPU still tops most of the available hand-held devices of the current day. If not for the crappy and long since unsupported versions of Windows Mobile it ran on, the HX4700 would still be a serious contender now.
I still use mine more than any other of my half dozen handheld devices because of its pocketability and flexibility - video playback, book reading, internet surfing, gaming.
So, I think HP deserves some respect in this field, even if they haven't done much lately. Here's hoping...
@UMPCman
Only problem with that ipaq is that it run windows mobile 2003, when the battery dies you loose all setting and everything stored on the device (exclude rom and sd card) and has a useless touchpad considering it has a touch screen
@UMPCman
i still have the last multi media based consumer based ipaq from 2005 with 32GB SD Card,
Dell Axim x51v tops all.
@UMPCman : There's hacked ROMs out there for it all the way up to Winmo 6.1. I currently run Winmo 6.1 on mine I'm reasonably happy with it. Pop a 16GB CF card in it and it makes for an awesome PMP. Plenty of 3rd party software out there for it. And as for the 'useless' track pad, yeah...I laugh whenever I see it. Which isn't all that frequently since I use the snap on QWERTY thumboard. All in all a pretty useful (and amazingly durable) little device.
My only real gripe about it is that you can't upgrade the WIFI to 802.11g (although you can double the ridiculously small RAM from 64mb to 128mb...a must if you own one of these). It's not really the speed that bothers me, it's the lack of WPA2 support that holds it back...
@OddManOut
i did the same thing with my 2 HP iPaqs added the SDHC driver from xda, then added 32 GB SD Card, then turned it into a PMP with TCPMP with support for all these formates
H.264 (AVC), AVCHD, MKV, MPEG-1, MPEG-4 part 2 (ASP), DivX, XviD, WMV*, Theora*, Dirac*, MJPEG, MSVIDEO1, MPEG-2, H.264, Flash/FLV, Matroska, ASF, ASX, AVI, PS, M2TS, TS, 3GPP, MOV, MPEG-4, OGM, NSV*, MP3, MP2, AAC, MKA, WMA, Midi*, WAV, OGG, Speex, WAVPACK, TTA, FLAC, MPC, AMR, ADPCM, ALaw, MuLaw, G.729, GSM
HTTP, UDP, UDP Multicast, UDP Unicast, RDP, RTP. RTSP, RTCP (keep alive), ASX, ASF, Multicast, HTTP Tunneling, FLASH
JPEG, BMP, GIF, PNG, TIFF, MJPEG
Not even the iPhone, iPod touch, have that many formates, Plus i can add more sofware
Zeen sounds pretty similar to Zune. If it's going to be some sort of entertainment device, I'd expect someone (I'm looking at you, Ballmer) to start saying something about this...
@Michiel
Zeen sounds similar to Zune
iPod sounds similar to iPaq
Z is the new I
'Zeen' sounds akin to 'Magazine' - which makes me wonder if perhaps this is an e-book of some sort. Airlife could be their wireless distribution network.
@iSynic You know, "zines" were independent magazines magazines that catered to niche markets before the Internet made them completely irrelevant in the late 90s.
@iSynic That's a great point. My first thought was also about ebooks, but the part about sounds and images seems to make a straight-laced e-reader unlikely.
Creative started all this with the Zen.
I already have a Zune and a Zino... wouldn't mind adding a Zeen to my collection.
Zeen, most definitely is a reader.
Way to be original HP. What happened, you couldn't think of your own product names so you ripped off Microsoft (Zune) and Apple (MacBook Air and iLife)?
@MRPysnik
huh? what did they rip off?
@MRPysnik
Dont forget apple ripped of iPod (2001) from HP/Compaq iPaq name (2000)
Forget innovative products! What most companies focus on nowadays are catchy names that look good in their advertising! What a world!
do either patents imply cellular radios?
Both "Zeen" and "Zune" sound like something a bunch of pink, middle aged fat guys sitting in a conference room would come up with as names that will "connect with the youth demographic".
"Vista" is similarly soul-less and santitized.
Good thing the blogoshphere pretty much forced Microsoft to use the name X-Box way back when. God knows what name they would have slapped on it.
@BdgBill1 How is X-Box any different I'd take Zune over the name Zeen or X-Box any dat.