Beyond PDAs: How BSquare is pioneering portability
David Coursey,
Executive Editor, AnchorDesk
Thursday, September 12, 2002
I can imagine the designers at BSquare, sitting around a table, trying to design something that works better than a PDA but is still pocket-sized.
"To *&^#@ with this!" I can imagine them saying. Quickly realizing that, alas, a better PDA is a bigger PDA, they decide to split the difference, building a somewhat oversized device--only a bit larger than an iPaq--that works more like a portable PC than the handheld you're probably using now.
THIS PROBABLY ISN'T what really happened. But it is what BSquare came up with. And recently I got to see the first sample. (Click here for a video of the demo.) What I saw is a reference design for units that BSquare hopes to have manufactured as early as next spring. BSquare is in the business of providing technology--including reference designs--to other vendors, and the company is currently in negotiations with cellular carriers and others who might actually bring what it calls the "Power Handheld" to market.
The prototype device is both light and compact, weighing a little less than 10 ounces (with battery) and measuring 5.5 by 3.4 by .77 inches. This makes it larger than a PDA and places it in the company of so-called "modular PCs" that companies like Antelope Technologies, OQO, Xybernaut, and even IBM are working on.
BSquare's design uses Windows CE running atop a 400MHz Intel XScale processor and includes 64MB RAM and 32MB Flash memory. But what really makes it different from other PDAs and modular PCs is the screen: a backlit four-inch color LCD capable of displaying 65,000 colors with VGA resolution (640 by 480 pixels) in landscape mode.
WHAT THAT MEANS in practice is that I could bring up the ZDNet home page and actually read the text. Sure, the type was a bit small. But this is the first PDA-like device that has given me a decent Web experience. Its browser, Internet Explorer 5.5, also supports Java, Flash, Windows Media Player, and PDF viewing. The BSquare device includes an Outlook-compatible e-mail client, enhanced with the ability to view common attachment types. Windows CE also includes the same "pocket" version of Microsoft applications as Pocket PC.
These wouldn't be particularly useful except that the BSquare reference design includes a slide-out keyboard. I didn't get to spend much time playing with it and it looks both fragile and hard to use, although that can be fixed before production, presuming the model actually gets produced.
The device also includes two dedicated phone buttons (talk, end); programmable launch buttons (e-mail, Web); a five-way joystick; a dedicated button for integrated 2x zooming (for when I forget my reading glasses); and an onboard microphone and headset microphone for audio input. You can also plug in an accessory headset with microphone.
That last bit comes in handy when you take advantage of the integrated dual-band GSM cell phone (which also allows for speakerphone operation). The phone supports advanced features normally found only on multi-line desktop squawkers.
AS I KEEP SAYING about these PDA/cell phone combos, I don't really see them as useful telephones. BSquare calls it a "convenience" phone, but I don't find it all that convenient to use. I'd rather call it a backup phone, for times when I forget my phone or have loaned it to someone else.
BSquare has done better on the data side of the equation. A GPRS (2.5G) module sends and receives data through mobile telephone networks for worldwide remote connectivity. This design, while stretching the size of a PDA to the very limit, does seem to make using wireless data a decent enough experience.
If BSquare finds a wireless-carrier partner, the final price of the device is expected to be in the $600 range, depending on how much a carrier is willing to subsidize the price.
I'm not ready to make any predictions on how the market will receive BSquare's design. But it's both innovatative and different from the products we've been seeing, perhaps creating a new market for something we might call a hyper-PDA. Whether we're hyper enough to want one remains to be seen.
