I'm a software guy not a hardware guy, but I work with a bunch of hardware nerds and we make a product that uses an Atmel something-or-other (it's a harvard architecture based chip, that's all I know).
Strangely enough we were at lunch today and one of those guys was bitching about the memory scheme and how they had to jump through a few hoops to get gcc to interact properly with data that belonged in Flash vs. Program memory. He was wishing for an ARM alternative. I mean, we've solved any issues with the Atmel a while back, but it was one of those niggling little oddities that he was hoping would just go away one of these days.
The problem with SMART boards is that they're front projection. When you try to write on them, your hand (and arm, and/or body) create a shadow on the board, obscuring what you're writing or the object that you're pointing at.
If by beeper you mean pacemaker, then I'm sure they'd let him keep it. Though I'm guessing they'd make a few "security" modifications.
And when faced with a Palm Pilot, I'm sure that McCain would say something like, "I was a pilot you know, and I've never heard of a blasted 'palm pilot'. Sounds like some sort of dirty phrase that the kids are using these days. Get off of my lawn!"
Holy crap... this past Friday, I was searching for something like this - essentially: a big, inexpensive Nokia n810 - and not finding anything. I wanted something that could hang on the wall of various rooms and wirelessly display passive information (weather, calendar, news feeds, photos, etc...), but could also be taken down and used to surf the net. A full blown computer is overkill, and most things in the "web pad" space are much smaller (e.g. the aforementioned n810) or somewhat smaller and under powered/featured (e.g. the shogo sg 80 picture frame).
This concept needs a healthy dose of industrial design, but otherwise looks promising.
The real question isn't whether or not it's 100% hydrophobic, rather it is "does it allows water from the inside to move to the outside, while preventing entry of water from the outside to the inside?"
Otherwise clothing made from this would be like wearing clothing made from rubber. You'd get disgustingly sweaty in mere minutes and that's just as bad as having no water proofing at all.
Gore-Tex not only repels water, it actively absorbs sweat and "wicks" it away from the body to the fabric's surface. This is what really keeps you feeling dry. I'm not reading anything in that article to suggest it behaves in this manner so I won't assume it can be used for clothing.
However, I can see it being used for totally water proof enclosures for electronics (and other sensitive stuff) where you don't want the bulk of a hardsided case. This could be very cool for laptop and camera bags.
I still like the "mobile companion" concept, but the execution, both Palm's and Redfly's, is sub-par. Not outright shite, just not good enough to make them compelling.
The deal breaker in this case is the price vs the price of a full-fledged netbook. If this thing was $150, it might be competitive, but at $499? Hahahaha... they're dreaming.
Speaking of which, why isn't it $150, or even $100? The boast that it has "no CPU"* and no storage. It's basically a battery, small keyboard, crappy screen, bluetooth radio, several ports for connecting it to various things, and a lobotomized embedded OS all running on some sort of ultra-low-cost system-on-a-chip thing.
There's probably more tech in a $149 Nintendo DS than in this pile of parts.
The only way that this concept will get off of the ground is if it's brought to market by a company that can leverage economies of scale to get the price down to where it really needs to be. However, right now those companies are focusing on netbooks.
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Strangely enough we were at lunch today and one of those guys was bitching about the memory scheme and how they had to jump through a few hoops to get gcc to interact properly with data that belonged in Flash vs. Program memory. He was wishing for an ARM alternative. I mean, we've solved any issues with the Atmel a while back, but it was one of those niggling little oddities that he was hoping would just go away one of these days.