How about this one:
 

Looks as if they are not ‘brand new’ to the industry.  I have just never heard anyone talk about them.  I guess that should tell me something.

I’ve heard of the Antelope, but not the Tiqit. It looks like a large Blackberry PDA. The Vulcan miniPc Vulcan miniPc and OQO are supposed to be out in Septemberish. They’re all attempts at creating sort of largish PDA with full Windows XP. They sound good and exciting at first until you start to think about what and how your going to use them.

The OQO has a crumby looking keyboard and pointing system, but a touch sensitive screen I think. The miniPC has a better keyboard and pointing system and 1024X768 screen. The cost of these things will be phenomenal if they ever get beyond vapourware (the OQO has been kicking around trade shows since April 2002).

I just can’t see that their big enough for even modest use, you could carry around a proper mouse and small keyboard, but whats the point in buying it? Battery life will be hopeless too. Buy a TR or 505!

Thanks, UHF.  I’ve had a TR for some time now.  I would like to go smaller and still not sacrifice my productivity on the road.  So far the OQO and U70 are the gadgets I mostly keep an eye on.  Neither one is available in the states yet with full english specs.  Additionally, both are just barely short of the perfect system for me.  I guess I can be a little picky when spending $2,000-$3,000 on such a small form factor.

I heard of the Antelope, a central processor unit with memory and hard drive, that can be plugged into different types of screens with differnt capabilities.

The Flip top is paul Allen’s go for the Palm sized desktop, and the OQO is OQO’s go for it, but both have been in production since 2002(?). I’d be surprised if either made it to anything other than corperate sales and cost less than $2000.

Never seen that Tiqit thing, but it doesn’t look very impressive…

There are a lot of these floating around, none of them have yet to ‘make it’ by becoming mainstream or even well known in the industry. If you do a search there are plenty of mini-PCs coming out in the next few years as well.

Erik

Well, I hope somebody makes a ‘breakout’ gadget so we can get some actual market competition in this form factor.

What do you mean?  I heard that only a prototype for the OQO had been completed by the beginning of Q2 for 2004.

What about the little JVC machines? Can’t remember the name now but think the new ones are full Centrino spec.

EDIT:

Found them: MP-XV841 & MP-XP731

http://www.jvc.co.uk/product-list.php?id=100035

http://www.itreviews.co.uk/hardware/h565.htm

Specifications for MP-XP731GB:

Model Name MP-XP731
Operating System (1) Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional
CPU
Processor Ultra Low Voltage Intel® Pentium® M Processor
Clock 1GHz
Secondary Cache Memory 1MB
Mobile Technology Intel® Centrino™ Mobile Technology
System Bus Speed 400MHz
Main Menu Standard: 256MB (256MB onboard), 512MB Max. (PC2100 DDR-SDRAM)
Expansion Memory Slot (free) 1 (1)
Hard Disk Drive(2) 40GB
Graphics Intel® 855GM
Display
Size 8.9-inch TFT(3)
Resolution 1024 x 600 (2048 x 1536 panning), 16M Colours(4)
External Colour Support 800 x 600 - 2048 x 1536(5), 16M Colours
External Colour Support Built-in Stereo Speakers
Wireless LAN Intel® PRO/Wireless Network Connection (IEEE 802.11b)(6), On/Off Switch
Interface/Port Mini VGA (XGA) Port/ USB2.0 Port x 2(7)/ Modem Jack (RJ-11)/ i.LINK (IEEE 1394) S400 (4-pin)(8)/ LAN Jack (10BASE-T/ 100BASE-TX Ethernet)/ Microphone Jack/ Stereo Headphone Jack/ PC Card Slot (Type II)
Keyboard
Key Pitch 16mm
Key Stroke 1.5mm
Pointing Device Stick Type
Battery Operation (JEITA1.0)(9)(10)
Built-in Battery Approx. 2.0hrs (1.8hrs)
Built-in + Standard Battery Approx. 2.0hrs + 3.5hrs (5.0hrs) (included)
Built-in + Long-life Battery Approx. 2.0hrs + 7.5hrs (8.5hrs) (option)
Charging Time (OFF time)(11)
Built-in Battery Approx. 0.8hr (80%), 1.4hrs (100%)
Standard Battery Approx. 1.2hrs (80%), 2.3hrs (100%)
Long-life Battery Approx. 2.0hrs (80%), 3.4hrs (100%)
Dimensions (W x H x D) 225 x 29.5 x 152 mm, 225 x 29.5 x 177 mm (including Standard Battery)
Mass Approx. 905g, Approx. 1075g (including Standard Battery)
Supplied Accessories
  USB2.0 DVD-ROM & CD-R/RW Combo Drive, Port Replicator, External Display Cable, Standard Li-ion Battery Pack, AC Adapter, Modem Cable, Telephone Adapter, Application CD-ROMs (12), USB SD Card reader/writer
Additional Software
Applications Easy Network Changer/ Bootable CD Creator/ JVC DV Camcorder Drivers/ PINNACLE STUDIO 8 SE/ ImageMixer with VCD1.1/ Windows® Movie Maker 2/ Windows Media™ Player 9/ RealOne™ Player/ CC Converter/ Microsoft® Internet Explorer 6/ Microsoft® Outlook® Express 6/ Windows® Messenger/ Windows® NetMeeting®/ Adobe® Reader® 6.0/ Norton AntiVirus™ 2003
Drivers USB Driver (Mass Storage/ Stream), G.726 Decoder, PD-TS Decoder

Notes:
System recovery is done through the internal hard disk. Reinstallation of only the OS is not possible. Support is available through JVC.
The hard disk is partitioned with approx. 5GB allotted to drive D: and the rest allotted to drive C:.
Although the LCD display is made of high-precision technology, there may be pixels on the screen that do not light, or always remain lit. These are not malfunctions, and are characteristic of the display’s structure.
Made possible due to dithering function.
Displayable only on external display device.
Channels 1 - 11 are available with this product. In order to connect to a LAN system or the Internet using the wireless LAN interface, an access point will be necessary. Please use a Wi-Fi® certified device, Wireless Security with 802.1x and Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA).
This is not a guarantee that all USB compatible devices can be operated.
This is not a guarantee that all i.LINK compatible devices can be operated.
The Lithium-ion battery is a consumable item.
The listed battery operation time is for when the unit is set to Power Save mode, and will thus change depending on settings and usage situations.
When charging the battery while using the computer, it may take up to 1.5 times usual.
Necessary for reinstalling the preinstalled software. OS is not included. This cannot be installed into any other computer.

The OQO was shown in April 2002 with Linux on it, since then it now has WinXP. The specification is way below what it should be now and it’s meant to be coming out in September. Expansys have had it for pre-order with no price since early this year.

It’ll be an over-priced, under-specified, near impossible to use brick with a poor battery-life. It’s full of technological compromises. If someone gave me one I’d be very happy, but I wouldn’t waste my own money on something that has such a short life-span.

psikey, those JVC machines would more compete with the TR than the U70 or OQO.  We were talking about PDA-ish gadgets that run WinXP.