Quote:
Originally Posted by mogui
The Pixel Qi is an exciting development that I had not been aware of, having been tuned out for a long while. Combine it with an economical low-power SoC like the Arm and it offers the potential to extend the between-charge utility of a device even further.
I have seen tablets that dock to their keyboards, providing a small, e-reader sized handheld that can turn into a Smartbook in a flash. Freescale's reference design is one such. Can similar ones be far behind?
Is convergence a bad word here? As the e-readers develop more capabilities and retain their astounding battery life, and the smartbooks grow more efficient screens, we will evolve something that better fills a broad existing niche. The smaller niche of e-books and their fans might be filled by devices which offer greater advancements in compactness, lightness, foldability/rollability and battery life.
Personally, I want an e-book heads-up display on my glasses. And as for the lovers of various devices that have been described here, a wise man once told me that we are all correct in our own unique ways. |
The PixelQi is an interesting development. But I don't think they are there yet. From the specs and comments about colors, etc it seems you get a lousy black and white and a lousy color screen. They have a way to go.
Convergence is great, as long as the converged devices are just as good in every single way as the separate devices they replace. The only allowance I make here is for my phone, which is used to replace every other device in a pinch due to its extreme portability. Thus to replace the ereader a convergence device must be a tablet small in size, very light, not run hot, have a comfortable reading screen and a long battery life. Since they would also have to replace a computer they would also have good sound, video, great processing speed, lots of memory, big hard disks, and a way to use an external keyboard. No small order. I would buy such a device next time I buy a new computer and then also use it as my main reading device. But for the moment the convergence devices seem to be computing devices with reading as an afterthought. That is not what I want, as long as that is the case, I will be on seperate devices.
I will gladly give up my dedicated reader for something at least as good and convenient that can do a lot more. But I have reading and computing devices already. Why should I buy something new without compelling reason?