Friday, September 6, 2002
Does BSQUARE's reference design tell the future?
Posted by Andy Sjostrom in "NEWS" @ 12:17 AM
http://www.bsquare.com/news/press/story.asp?PressID=305
BSQUARE is a mobile solutions engineering power house and spans both device development and software design. They have a close relationship with Microsoft's mobile groups. A couple of days ago they published a news release containing an offer to OEMs and carriers containing a handheld reference design. The reference design is built on Intel XScale technology and used the Windows CE .NET operating system. Right off the bat: this is NOT a Pocket PC, this is NOT a Pocket PC, and this is NOT a Pocket PC. Eventually, future releases of the Pocket PC platform will be built on top of Windows CE .NET, but that we happen only when the Pocket PC group is finished building the user interface, applications and so on.
That said, I do think it is interesting to see a company like BSQUARE bring a hardware reference design that features a VGA display, a slide-out retractable QWERTY thumb-type keyboard, dual-band GSM cell phone, and built-in GPRS support, and support for email, SMS and IM. The "400 MHz-64 MB RAM-SD slot-backlit TFT-16 bit-640x480-1900mAh" device weighs 280 grams (9.88 oz) and measures 140mm x 87mm x 19.6mm (5.5” x 3.4” x .77”). A remote device management technology that enables carriers to roll-out new features and applications is included, which reduces "the risk of expensive product recalls by permitting devices to accept remote updates." (Source: Brian)
Does this device contain any fragments of the future of Pocket PCs?
BSQUARE is a mobile solutions engineering power house and spans both device development and software design. They have a close relationship with Microsoft's mobile groups. A couple of days ago they published a news release containing an offer to OEMs and carriers containing a handheld reference design. The reference design is built on Intel XScale technology and used the Windows CE .NET operating system. Right off the bat: this is NOT a Pocket PC, this is NOT a Pocket PC, and this is NOT a Pocket PC. Eventually, future releases of the Pocket PC platform will be built on top of Windows CE .NET, but that we happen only when the Pocket PC group is finished building the user interface, applications and so on.
That said, I do think it is interesting to see a company like BSQUARE bring a hardware reference design that features a VGA display, a slide-out retractable QWERTY thumb-type keyboard, dual-band GSM cell phone, and built-in GPRS support, and support for email, SMS and IM. The "400 MHz-64 MB RAM-SD slot-backlit TFT-16 bit-640x480-1900mAh" device weighs 280 grams (9.88 oz) and measures 140mm x 87mm x 19.6mm (5.5” x 3.4” x .77”). A remote device management technology that enables carriers to roll-out new features and applications is included, which reduces "the risk of expensive product recalls by permitting devices to accept remote updates." (Source: Brian)
Does this device contain any fragments of the future of Pocket PCs?
