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Palm creating palmtop computer with detachable, dockable cellphone?
Hold on to your Foleos, folks, because it looks like Palm still hasn't given up on the idea of a little laptop that pairs with a phone for wireless communications. However, where that former (failed) experiment called for entirely disparate hardware, here the relationship between the two would be rather more formal. In a patent filed in April and just dug up by Unwired View, Palm describes a "compact removable voice handset" and an "integrated palmtop computer." The two can communicate wirelessly, but more interestingly they can be coupled such that "there is minimal increase to the overall size and weight" of the palmtop -- in other words, the "phone" bit isn't particularly large, making it more comfortable to hold up to your face in a conversation than your Streaks and the like. Is there actually any hardware behind this application or is this just Palm daydreaming about a Foleo 2? We'll all just have to wait and find out.
FlipStart handtop now shipping; Sprint EV-DO Rev. A available
It's been in the oven for almost four years now, but Paul Allen and team Vulcan have finally deemed the Flipstart handtop / UMPC well-done and ready to serve. You should already know most of the specs from our several posts about the device (not counting the older ones where we mock it as vaporware) -- 1.1GHz Pentium M ULV CPU, 512MB DDR RAM (just enough to run Vista!), 5.6-inch SVGA screen, three wireless radios -- but what's been kept under wraps until now is that the starting-at-$2,000 machine rocks EV-DO Rev A courtesy of Sprint for getting your mobile broadband on. Now this sub-sub-notebook is certainly not for everyone -- not to mention the fact that it faces stiff competition from OQO, Sony, and Samsung, among others -- but if you have a few extra bucks laying around, there are worse things you could do with your money than pick up this gadget lover's dream. [Thanks, Thomas L.]
OnHand wrist PDA unstrapped
The last time we heard anything about the OnHand wrist PDA was probably close to two years ago. So, given its almost complete lack of marketing, distribution, buzz or sales, we're not exactly surprised that manufacturer Matsucom has decided to call it quits and stop producing the device, which managed to incorporate a full set of PDA functions into a fairly ugly watch. The OnHand was hobbled not just by a laissez-faire approach to marketing and a poor design, but by its use of proprietary technology and limited PC support (despite being introduced in 2003, it used a serial cable instead of USB). The small OnHand community did come up with some decent hacks, including a GPS hookup and an external keyboard, but that wasn't enough to keep this going. If you're still dying to get a wrist PDA, though, all hope isn't lost. Despite constant rumors of its death, Fossil's Palm-based Abacus wrist PDA is still available from TigerDirect for about $50.
