Psion
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Former Psion designers return with a fresh take on the PDA
Way back when, in the days before smartphones, folks had to use a PDA to get work done when they were out and about on the go. The form factor was typified by Psion, which died off at the turn of the millennium when it was clear other devices would take its place. But now the spirit of Psion lives on in a couple of its former engineers, which have developed the Gemini, a clamshell smartphone with a physical keyboard.
Motorola Solutions buys Psion for $200 million
Psion has mostly slipped out of the public eye, but that's about to change -- Motorola Solutions just bought the company for $200 million in cash to bolster its work with industrial companies. The deal will mostly focus on improving Motorola Solutions' toughened-up handhelds and in-car terminals. Not always exciting out of devices like the ET1, but it ends Psion's 32-year history as an independent company and a legacy that includes some of the very first PDAs, like the Psion Organizer. We won't miss the fight over the "netbook" name, mind you. Regardless of how you feel, you'll have until fall to wax nostalgic, as that's when the two sides expect the deal to close and the Psion name gets subsumed into that of another mobile pioneer.
Switched On: Pen again
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology. Last week's Switched On discussed how some next wave notions from a decade ago were trying to reinvent themselves. Here's one more. Surging smartphone vendor HTC is seeking to bring back an input method that many wrote off long ago with its forthcoming Flyer tablet and EVO View 4G comrade-in-arms: the stylus. A fixture of early Palm and Psion PDAs, Pocket PCs and Windows Mobile handsets, slim, compact styli were once the most popular thing to slip down a well since Timmy. Then, users would poke the cheap, simple sticks at similarly inexpensive resistive touchscreens. After the debut of tablet PCs, though, more companies started to use active digitizer systems like the one inside the Flyer. Active pens offer more precision, which can help with tasks such as handwriting recognition, and support "hovering" above a screen, the functional equivalent of a mouseover. On the other hand, they are also thicker, more expensive, and need to be charged. (Update: as some have pointed out in comments, Wacom's tablets generate tiny electromagnetic fields that power active digitization, and don't require the pen to store electricity itself.) And, of course, just like passive styli, active pens take up space and can be misplaced. The 2004 debut of the Nintendo DS -- the ancestor of the just-released 3DS -- marked the beginning of what has become the last mass-market consumer electronics product series to integrate stylus input. The rising popularity of capacitive touch screens and multitouch have replaced styli with fingers as the main user interface elements. Instead of using a precise point for tasks such as placing an insertion point in text, we now expand the text dynamically to accommodate our oily instruments. On-screen buttons have also grown, as have the screens themselves, all in the name of losing a contrivance.
Psion veteran Charles Davies leaves Nokia for TomTom
Charles Davies might not be as immediately recognizable as some other industry veterans, but anyone that's been following this business since the early days of PDAs will no doubt be familiar with his work. Davies was Psion's very first employee way back in 1981, and stuck with the company all the way up until 2003 when he left to join Symbian, before moving on to Nokia with the rest of the Symbian staff a few years later. During that time, Davies helped Psion pioneer the use of flash memory and custom silicon in handhelds, served as Symbian's CTO, and helped Nokia head up the strategy and architecture team for its R&D division. What's more, as The Register notes, Davies move to TomTom only further bolsters the ex-Psion ranks at the company -- he'll be joining former Psion CTO Mark Gretton, and former hardware exec Ken McAlpine, who joined TomTom two years ago after a stint at Apple. Still no word on what Davies' exact role at TomTom will be, but the company has confirmed the move, and promises to provide more details at some point. [Thanks, johnny99]
Psion relents: 'netbook' ok to describe chubby cheap laptops lacking power
As the world's attention turns from netbooks to smartbooks, Psion and Intel have ceased battle over use of the former term. Remember, this ridiculous case escalated to the point of Psion claiming $1.2 billion (billion!) in damages suffered as a result of infringement on its netbook trademark for a product few have heard of outside of the highly specialized supply chain logistics area. The "amicable" agreement reached with Intel has Psion voluntarily withdrawing its trademark. What wasn't said in the press release is how much money was extorted from the industry or the net effect on Psion sales from all the free publicity. Regardless, we're sure it's been a profitable exercise for Psion Teklogix. Now, could the obscure owner of the "smartbook" trademark please step forward to collect your prize?[Via Slashgear]
Psion countersues Intel over netbook trademark, asks for $1.2b in damages
Well, this was sadly predictable. Following filings by Dell and Intel with the USPTO requesting that Psion's "netbook" trademark be canceled, Psion has filed a $1.2b countersuit against Intel, claiming that the chipmaker knew Psion owned the netbook mark but used it anyway. That's interesting because Intel's efforts to push "netbook" on the industry went basically nowhere from March until June of 2008 -- when Atom-powered laptops ran amok at Computex -- but we're guessing Psion doesn't care. As it has in the past, Psion claims that it's been selling Netbook-branded machines continuously since 1999, along with some interesting sales figures to back it up -- as Ars Technica notes, the numbers seem to add up oddly at all the wrong times, with $2m of Netbook accessories sold in 2006, three years after the product went off the market, and just 4100 total Netbooks sold over 10 years. We'll see how the court decides to pull all this apart -- it's certainly starting to look like a showdown's brewing, but we're still convinced that Intel and Dell have money, time and momentum on their side here.
Psion responds to "netbook" challengers, says it does so still sell the NetBook Pro
Well, it looks like the dust up between Psion and those using the "netbook" name to describe, um, netbooks, isn't showing any signs of going away anytime soon, with Psion now responding to Intel and Dell's latest charges by saying that, contrary to their claims, it does indeed still sell its NetBook Pro. According to jkOnTheRun, while Psion says it "can understand why people might have assumed that sales ceased a while back," it does in fact still sell the device, with the bulk of its sales being in the "highly specialized supply chain logistics area." As Psion points out, that continuation of sales is key to its argument to keep the trademark from becoming abandoned, and it says it has "all the invoices to prove multi-million dollar sales in the US in 2006 and sales that continue even to this day," adding that, "just because we're not selling tens of thousands through Best Buy doesn't mean we're not entitled to our trademark." That said, we're still a long ways from folks being forced to pay up or stop using the netbook name, although it's at least becoming clear that Psion isn't about to just let this one slide.
Intel also sues Psion over 'netbook' trademark, general stupidity
Intel has finally broken its silence regarding Psion's attempt to bludgeon the industry into submission with its trademark on the term "Netbook." Important stuff seeing as how Intel is credited with (re)introducing the term in its modern meaning back in March 08. Granted, it took awhile for the name to catch on (we asked you to name the emerging laptop category in May) but ultimately stuck with the deluge of Atom-based ultra-portables launched at the Computex show in June of 2008. Unsurprisingly, Intel's position essentially mirrors that of Dell although it was Intel that actually filed its lawsuit first: 1) the public already uses the term in a generic manner, and (2) Psion's Netbook has been out of production since 2003 with no intent of being reintroduced into the market. Stupid is as stupid does, right Psion?[Via Electronista] Read -- Intel sues Psion Read -- Intel's "Thoughts on Netbooks" (March 03, 2008)
Dell files to strip "netbook" of trademark status
digg_url = 'http://digg.com/tech_news/Dell_Files_to_Strip_netbook_of_Trademark_Status'; Well, you knew this was going to happen: Dell's filed a petition with the United States Patent and Trademark Office requesting that Psion's "netbook" trademark be canceled. It was only a matter of time before something like this happened, of course -- the word "netbook" is in such widespread usage that Psion's nastygrams are unlikely to have any meaningful impact, and the company's weasely claims that it was only going after those "making a direct financial profit" basically guaranteed it was chasing after one of the big players. Word to the wise, Psion: it's almost certain that you'll lose this legal battle, but the PR war is easily won -- and coupled with an interesting product, like, say, an all-new Ion-powered Psion Netbook, you could actually come out way ahead. Think about it, won't you?[Via thegadgetsite]
Psion says it's only going after those "profiting" from the term netbook
Psion, Psion. We hadn't really heard from the British portable maker since the halcyon days of the Series5, but it's back and making waves with a series of nastygrams asserting its trademark of the word "netbook." Psion's legal team followed up with jkOnTheRun, and according to them, it's only going after those sites and companies "making a direct, financial profit from use of the 'Netbook' trademark." (As opposed to profit in kind, we suppose -- did you know our advertisers pay us in toaster waffles and aviator sunglasses? True story.) Psion says it's mostly focused on retailers and manufacturers using the term netbook to sell machines, not "straight blogs" and other sites. Of course, that means next to nothing, since Psion says it'll still go after those sites that have sponsored ads or for-profit links containing the word "netbook" -- including automatically-placed ads and links like AdSense and Amazon affiliate ads that site owners typically have no control over. +10 weasel, dudes. Anyway, considering the widespread adoption of "netbook" in the past year with nary a peep from Psion, we'd say the term is pretty well generic and no longer a valid trademark at this point -- we'll see how it goes when it drags the first heavy-hitter using the term (like Intel) into court. Disclaimer: Nilay's a lawyer and secret Asian netbook ODM, but he's not your lawyer and this isn't legal advice or analysis.
Psion Teklogix sending out cease & desist letters to netbook-centric websites
Wow, talk about spreading that holiday cheer. Psion Teklogix has apparently hired a legal team to write up cease & desist letters that are being sent out to select netbook enthusiast websites. One particular letter is pictured above, and we can only assume the URL is hidden for the safety of those involved. jkOnTheRun dug a little deeper into the matter and found that the outfit did indeed produce a Netbook and Netbook Pro back in the day, and while the surprisingly netbook-like devices (imagine that, right?) have since been discontinued, it is still making compatible accessories. Something tells us Psion waited a touch too late to pick this fight, but just in case Engadget is next in line for one of these letters, we'll be utilizing the term smallcheap(er)book for the foreseeable future. Hope that's okay.
DIYer becomes inundated with spare time, crams Wikipedia onto PDA
Portions of Wikipedia have been living on disconnected pocket-friendly gizmos for years now, but one particular DIYer just took the whole process to an absurd new level. For starters, you'll have to procure a relatively obscure Psion 5mx PDA, not to mention a CF card (and adapter), Linux-based PC, static HTML dump of Wikipedia and an enviable amount of unused vacation time. If you just can't stand to be too far from knowledge, and you're way too vintage to just pick up a WiFi-enabled UMPC or halfway decent smartphone with web access, load up the read link and prepare to get (really) busy.
