Origami as a PDA

Neal, if you do it right I think the Origami project is on to something. So
far, tablets have been too big and too expensive to make sense. Give me
somethng close to what I want for under $1000 and I'll buy one.

A 7" screen may be just a bit too large. My measurements put the ideal size
closer to 5.5" to 6". It would help if the bezels were much smaller so the
overall size wasn't too much larger than the screen. Sunlight readability
is critical. A power hungry backlight trying to match the brightness of
sunlight is a loser. Why not use electronic paper or one of the newer high
brightness OLED screens.

Why the larger screen? Well, with a 4" screen, if you zoom a map out so
the maximin glide extent is within the screen boundary, details become an
unreadable jumble. If you zoom in so the details are readable, you can't
see the all the glide possibilities. The larger screen lets you see both
details and scope.

As for a hard drive, the data needed in a glider doesn't seem to require
huge hard drives. A GB or two of flash drive would be fine. I'd rather
have a removeable flash card for mass storage anyway.

What I REALLY want is full time high speed internet access in flight so I
can see the latest BLIPMAPS and satellite images.

Bill Daniels

"Neil Allison" wrote in message
...
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

"What I REALLY want is full time high speed internet access in flight
so I
can see the latest BLIPMAPS and satellite images."


Can't help with the blip maps but XM can provide you with Nexrad and
satellite images. Unlike the internet images you see your actual
position and intended course overlayed by the current weather. (Yes, I
got a 396 for Christmas).

Andy