Thursday, March 9, 2006
Origami News Roundup + What the Heck Is Alexandria?
Posted by Ekkie Tepsupornchai in "OFF-TOPIC" @ 06:00 AM
The news and buzz surrounding Origami is reaching its crescendo! First, Intel has also launched their official Ultimate Mobile PC site which includes flash video showing off some consumer-oriented usages though no official specs. Now, according to a slew of reports from News.com, InfoWorld, and Engadget, we're looking at a Windows XP PC with a 7" display, standard x86 processors (900MHz - 1GHz), 30-60GB hard drives, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, WiFi, GPS (depending on manuracturer), and will weigh just under 2 pounds.
The Samsung unit scheduled for display today at CeBIT (Engadget has a load of snapshots) has been installed with XP Tablet Edition, though News.com implies that other standard desktop operating systems should work as well. InfoWorld goes a step further by reporting on the scheduled developments for Origami in 2007. The main differentiator between Origami and OQO? It appears to be price, as the initial cost for these devices is expected to be under $1000 ($500 is the eventual aim of Microsoft). You can also find a CeBIT Newsletter (in PDF form) that notes an interesting SIP keyboard that is circular in shape (rotating around the lower left and right-hand corners of the screen) allowing for two handed (or should I say two-thumbed) input. Samsung is planning on releasing a number peripherals for their device that includes a GPS unit, a DMB TV tuner (in Korea), a Bluetooth keyboard, and a DVD drive. If all this this news isn't enough, ctitanic spotted a site called OrigamiPortal which is dedicated nothing but Origami.
Finally, Engadget is speculating on a mysterious advertisement (codenamed Microsoft "Alexandria") that was supposedly pulled last-second from a Gates CES keynote. The ad (which has since been taken down from the website of the ad designer) only mentions that the "Future of Entertainment" is coming in the Summer of 2006. According to an enlarged Origami image at ActiveWin, Alexandria appears tied to Windows Media Player somehow. Speculation runs from this being a special version of WMP to an iTunes competitor to some joint solution/service from both Microsoft and Apple. Let the hype machine begin anew!
The Samsung unit scheduled for display today at CeBIT (Engadget has a load of snapshots) has been installed with XP Tablet Edition, though News.com implies that other standard desktop operating systems should work as well. InfoWorld goes a step further by reporting on the scheduled developments for Origami in 2007. The main differentiator between Origami and OQO? It appears to be price, as the initial cost for these devices is expected to be under $1000 ($500 is the eventual aim of Microsoft). You can also find a CeBIT Newsletter (in PDF form) that notes an interesting SIP keyboard that is circular in shape (rotating around the lower left and right-hand corners of the screen) allowing for two handed (or should I say two-thumbed) input. Samsung is planning on releasing a number peripherals for their device that includes a GPS unit, a DMB TV tuner (in Korea), a Bluetooth keyboard, and a DVD drive. If all this this news isn't enough, ctitanic spotted a site called OrigamiPortal which is dedicated nothing but Origami.
Finally, Engadget is speculating on a mysterious advertisement (codenamed Microsoft "Alexandria") that was supposedly pulled last-second from a Gates CES keynote. The ad (which has since been taken down from the website of the ad designer) only mentions that the "Future of Entertainment" is coming in the Summer of 2006. According to an enlarged Origami image at ActiveWin, Alexandria appears tied to Windows Media Player somehow. Speculation runs from this being a special version of WMP to an iTunes competitor to some joint solution/service from both Microsoft and Apple. Let the hype machine begin anew!
