MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Jackito TDA - a fingertip-touchscreen PDA!

Colin Dunstan · 03-10-2005, 05:05 AM

Novinit, a French company, has developed Jackito, the world's first TDA or Tactile Digital Assistant. The TDA is based on touch-screen technology and relies entirely on your thumbs for input. Supposedly, on average, when a user presses a touch screen, the finger's contact area is 100 times larger than that of a stylus and the stylus exerts 100 times more pressure on the screen than a finger. Sounds good, but wouldn't you also hate those ugly thumb prints on your gadget screens? You can read more about fingers vs. stylus here.

The Jackito device features 3ACTIL, a fingertip-sensitive 4.5" screen (now that is big!), which doesn't require a stylus and offers an unlimited number of touch-sensitive virtual keyboards, designed for both thumbs. More interestingly, one variant of the device is available with a high-contrast bistable display, something along the lines of the Sony Librie e-book reader! Read more about the specs here.

Now the big bummer: Jackito's printed circuit board also features a silicon chip that provides a unique logical ID number for each PCB, from a billion possible combinations (the same type of chip is used on smart cards in secure payment systems). DRM-fans will love it, others (us) will hate it.

The price: starting at USD $600.

03-10-2005, 05:05 AM	#1
Colin Dunstan Is papyrophobic! Posts: 1,926 Karma: 1009999 Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: USA Device: Dell Axim	Jackito TDA - a fingertip-touchscreen PDA! Novinit, a French company, has developed Jackito, the world's first TDA or Tactile Digital Assistant. The TDA is based on touch-screen technology and relies entirely on your thumbs for input. Supposedly, on average, when a user presses a touch screen, the finger's contact area is 100 times larger than that of a stylus and the stylus exerts 100 times more pressure on the screen than a finger. Sounds good, but wouldn't you also hate those ugly thumb prints on your gadget screens? You can read more about fingers vs. stylus here. The Jackito device features 3ACTIL, a fingertip-sensitive 4.5" screen (now that is big!), which doesn't require a stylus and offers an unlimited number of touch-sensitive virtual keyboards, designed for both thumbs. More interestingly, one variant of the device is available with a high-contrast bistable display, something along the lines of the Sony Librie e-book reader! Read more about the specs here. Now the big bummer: Jackito's printed circuit board also features a silicon chip that provides a unique logical ID number for each PCB, from a billion possible combinations (the same type of chip is used on smart cards in secure payment systems). DRM-fans will love it, others (us) will hate it. The price: starting at USD $600.