wrote:
Sometimes I find myself wishing my PDA was a tad bit bigger. With
Microsoft's 'Origami' being unveiled recently it presents a possibility
to fill that need. Obviously size and battery power is a factor in many
gliders but it would fit in my rather roomy cockpit. Question for the
computer types out there......... would this work

As an engineer I'd say "why yes, it'll work". It would be cool to
implement. I can see it would be cool to only need one device to run
in-flight and flight analysis applications, but then given the amount of
stuff we lug around to support our flying, the extra room for a PDA and
a laptop is not too much of an issue.

As a "Product Development Specialist" I'm interested to know what info
you'll want on your bigger display and what (additional?) functions
you'd like to see? What are the market requirements & how much is it
worth? What is the "killer app" that means we'll improve the
performance or safety of our flying and possibly make squillions from
it? Best to keep that to yourself perhaps

I ask this because I'm still new to gliding (~50hrs) and choose to log
flights for interest sake only using a Palm PDA & GPS mouse (because
that's what I had before I started gliding). I don't use it for Tasks
or navigation but it would be nice to be able to select a radio nav-aid
and have radial and distance displayed for when I'm talking to ATC.
I'll be using a Volkslogger when I need an IGC approved FR. And I'll
still need to take: charts, food & drink, Flarm,...

At 9"x5"x1" I dunno where a UMPC would fit around the cockpit of the
G103 and still be visible? I use a knee board to hold my PDA. Maybe if
I had a Stemme S10, space wouldn't be an issue?

Since I wasn't fortunate enough to be at Cebit last week I'll speculate:
- UMPCs have transflective displays which may be difficult to see in
bright sunlight unless they have some good enhancement films.

- flame wars will abound given a likely 18V or 20V external DC supply
(usually its an AC/DC adapter just like a Notebook PC).

- the Hard Drives may have "drop sensors" to safe-guard the drive heads.
I don't know how this "interruption" affects the OS: will this be an
issue in a lumpy wave rotor?

Here's one UMPC example:
http://www.engadget.com/2006/03/10/t...sk-v-700-umpc/

Disclaimer: I'm on the hardware design team of a Windows Mobile 5 PDA.

Cheers
Neil