Origami Q&A

Bob Russell · 03-14-2006, 10:19 PM

Dustin, from the Microsoft Origami project team answers some questions about the Origami ultra mobile PC platform.

Some exerpts (I've edited the questions for clarity):

Q: Does the origami have instant on?
A: Since these devices are XP based, there is nothing special that increases the boot sequence speed for them, but the resume from standby is quite good and fast. Most of us have begun setting our untis up to default into standby mode which allows you to save battery life when not in use without having to go through the entire XP boot sequence everytime...

Q: Does Origami have Voice Recognition?
A: The XP Tablet PC Edition does have speech recognition built in and the Samsung I know has an array microphone that should work pretty well, honestly I haven't tried it on the Samsung devices yet.

Q: No one will look twice at a device that has a life of 3 hours.
A: Battery life has a long way to go before it meets the holly grail of lasting all day, but I think you'll find you have power available enough places, enough times of the day to find the product really fun and functional even with 3 hours of battery life. Using it at home you'll have power near by if you need a charge and the car solutions like Samsung showed at CeBIT have a power cord built into it. I'm not saying all day battery life isn't ideal, but the units are still super useful and most people will use it on and off throughout the day not all day long, nonstop.

Q: Where is the good old keyboard?
A: A lot of interesting work continues to be been done to offer multiple text input methods. While a traditional keyboard is ideal when sitting down typing it's a pretty lously solution when standing up, or using one hand. This is where our explorations in things such as Dialkeys, handwriting recognition and others come into play. Companies such as T9 have proven that there is more than one way to skin the text input cat, thumb based qwerty keyboards like those on Smartphones are another example. The real question is what is the best text input alternative for the UMPC form factor when you're most mobile. I love Dialkeys, so I think it has a lot of possibilities but we'll continue to look into many other alternatives as well. Also, partners wil be offering a range of keyboard for those on the go such as the Eleksen fabric keyboard prototype that was shown at CeBIT to Bluetooth keyboards that fold up.

Q: Will Vista run well on the UPMC?
A: The Vista requirements aren't out yet, but realistically if the units have the hardware specifications that Vista requires they should be able to run it. My group will be doing a fair amount of testing to see how Vista runs on the various devices over the upcoming months.

Be sure to check out the rest of the article for the full Q&A, and check previous posts for a history of Origami (including how it started from a concept called "Haiku.")

Snappy! · 03-15-2006, 01:41 AM

I think its ridiculous that they should tell consumers that having a power cord is not a big deal and that there is enough power outlet around. *DUH*, of course there are power cords around. The thing is if its so small and light (2lbs may not be that light to some), its sad to have it tied to a power cord. And to think that you have to further lug a power cord around. ... And worry about power running out! *bum*

Quote:

Battery life has a long way to go before it meets the holly grail of lasting all day

This holy grail was met by *many* products in the past. Even right now, you can get a EOL product called a HPC (HandheldPC) such as a Sigmarion III or NEC MobilePro 900/c running CE.NET 4.2 and they all have whole day computing functionality.

I currently own a like-new 2ndhand HPC (HP Jornada 720) running HPC2000 (wince3.0) and it has about 6hr batt life because the batt is not new. When retailed, it had 8+hr batt life easily.

All these products are < 2lbs, with the 720 being just over 1lb. They do not have a 7" screen (6.5" wscreen for the 720) but they are good enough.

I really don't see why after 5yrs of R&D, MS and its cronies cannot deliver on all day (8+hr) computing when they have done it before.

Today some notebooks from NEC or Fujitsu have 8+hr batt life. Why a 2lb UMPC cannot do it is a mystery to me. grrr

Chaos · 03-15-2006, 03:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Snappy!

Why a 2lb UMPC cannot do it is a mystery to me. grrr

And the reason is just that... because it's 2 pounds. Batteries take up space and are heavy. Most of the recent improvements in battery life are not because the battery tech is getting better - it's because the rest of it is getting less power-hungry.

TadW · 03-15-2006, 05:24 AM

I must admit I am surprised of the buzz generated by the Origami. Why would I want a portable device if I then need to carry a power generator with me at all times? My Centrino-based notebook lasts for five hours, it has a wonderful keyboard, and a huge screen. And it's yet portable in the sense that I don't collapse under its weight.

Unless the Origami offers something totally new, such as a miraculous battery, it's not even close to being worth its price.

rsperberg · 03-15-2006, 07:33 AM

The battery life in the Nokia 770 is just about double if you go into offline mode and turn off the WiFi and Bluetooth radios -- and don't set the screen brightness all the way up.

That is, Nokia promises 3 hours' browsing, typically delivers 4 (at least new), and offline use tops 6 hours.

II'm sure the UMPC's will benefit similarly if you read an e-book from Flash memory and not off the hard drive.

Also, I'm talking continuous use, which won't be the case very often. On-off, on-off is much more typical.

Snappy! · 03-15-2006, 07:54 AM

hmmm ... I was relooking at the 770 and now it really seem like a good alternative to me. Its screen is smaller 4.13" but should be ok for a reader.

rsperberg, UMPCs would use XP, not sure how the hdd can remain off even if one were to read stuffs from only memory cards. I think XP will still click away at the hdd every few minutes or secs.

jah · 03-15-2006, 08:05 AM

My Vaio ultra light laptop gives me 6.5hrs battery life today! Not sure what planet M$ is on or their partners. Having said that PPC/WM5 devices are pretty poor on battery life so it should be no surprise that the trend continues with the UMPC. The BBC reported a global survey on what people want from their cellphones - the main feature was battery life! Personal portable devices need to have a rock solid OS (not WM5!), instant on and a good battery life.

Snappy! · 03-15-2006, 08:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jah

My Vaio ultra light laptop gives me 6.5hrs battery life today! Not sure what planet M$ is on or their partners. Having said that PPC/WM5 devices are pretty poor on battery life so it should be no surprise that the trend continues with the UMPC. The BBC reported a global survey on what people want from their cellphones - the main feature was battery life! Personal portable devices need to have a rock solid OS (not WM5!), instant on and a good battery life.

Totally! That's so true ... many ultra light notebooks today already deliver on 6.5hrs or more ... but they only give 2.5hr ... and have the cheek to say that its not really a big deal because power outlets are everywhere. *duh*

Point to note however is that HPC (the original HandheldPC devices dating from 1997~2001) used wince1.0~4.1 and they had 8+hrs batt life, so I doubt PPCs have poor batt life because of the OS. A PPC running PPC2002 uses WinCE3.0 as its core and has paltry batt life while a HP Jornada 720 HPC running HPC2000 uses the WinCE3.0 core as well but has 8+hr batt life. The distinctly I believe goes into the hardware and also the use of TFT (PPC) vs DSTN (HPC) screen.

However the later HPCs such as Sigmarion III, Intermec 6651, NEC MobilePro 900 series all uses TFT LCDs but still have 6~8hrs batt life, so I believe its the hardware design itself and not the OS.

Either way, I agree with jah that MS and its OEM partners are really messed up with hw design and batt life. *BUM*

03-14-2006, 10:19 PM	#1
Bob Russell Recovering Gadget Addict Posts: 5,381 Karma: 676161 Join Date: May 2004 Location: Pittsburgh, PA Device: iPad	Origami Q&A Dustin, from the Microsoft Origami project team answers some questions about the Origami ultra mobile PC platform. Some exerpts (I've edited the questions for clarity): Q: Does the origami have instant on? A: Since these devices are XP based, there is nothing special that increases the boot sequence speed for them, but the resume from standby is quite good and fast. Most of us have begun setting our untis up to default into standby mode which allows you to save battery life when not in use without having to go through the entire XP boot sequence everytime... Q: Does Origami have Voice Recognition? A: The XP Tablet PC Edition does have speech recognition built in and the Samsung I know has an array microphone that should work pretty well, honestly I haven't tried it on the Samsung devices yet. Q: No one will look twice at a device that has a life of 3 hours. A: Battery life has a long way to go before it meets the holly grail of lasting all day, but I think you'll find you have power available enough places, enough times of the day to find the product really fun and functional even with 3 hours of battery life. Using it at home you'll have power near by if you need a charge and the car solutions like Samsung showed at CeBIT have a power cord built into it. I'm not saying all day battery life isn't ideal, but the units are still super useful and most people will use it on and off throughout the day not all day long, nonstop. Q: Where is the good old keyboard? A: A lot of interesting work continues to be been done to offer multiple text input methods. While a traditional keyboard is ideal when sitting down typing it's a pretty lously solution when standing up, or using one hand. This is where our explorations in things such as Dialkeys, handwriting recognition and others come into play. Companies such as T9 have proven that there is more than one way to skin the text input cat, thumb based qwerty keyboards like those on Smartphones are another example. The real question is what is the best text input alternative for the UMPC form factor when you're most mobile. I love Dialkeys, so I think it has a lot of possibilities but we'll continue to look into many other alternatives as well. Also, partners wil be offering a range of keyboard for those on the go such as the Eleksen fabric keyboard prototype that was shown at CeBIT to Bluetooth keyboards that fold up. Q: Will Vista run well on the UPMC? A: The Vista requirements aren't out yet, but realistically if the units have the hardware specifications that Vista requires they should be able to run it. My group will be doing a fair amount of testing to see how Vista runs on the various devices over the upcoming months. Be sure to check out the rest of the article for the full Q&A, and check previous posts for a history of Origami (including how it started from a concept called "Haiku.")

03-15-2006, 07:33 AM	#5
rsperberg Zealot Posts: 114 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: NJ Device: Kindle Voyage	The battery life in the Nokia 770 is just about double if you go into offline mode and turn off the WiFi and Bluetooth radios -- and don't set the screen brightness all the way up. That is, Nokia promises 3 hours' browsing, typically delivers 4 (at least new), and offline use tops 6 hours. II'm sure the UMPC's will benefit similarly if you read an e-book from Flash memory and not off the hard drive. Also, I'm talking continuous use, which won't be the case very often. On-off, on-off is much more typical. Last edited by rsperberg; 03-15-2006 at 07:38 AM.

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03-15-2006, 05:24 AM	#4
TadW Uebermensch Posts: 2,583 Karma: 1094606 Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Italy Device: Kindle	I must admit I am surprised of the buzz generated by the Origami. Why would I want a portable device if I then need to carry a power generator with me at all times? My Centrino-based notebook lasts for five hours, it has a wonderful keyboard, and a huge screen. And it's yet portable in the sense that I don't collapse under its weight. Unless the Origami offers something totally new, such as a miraculous battery, it's not even close to being worth its price.

03-15-2006, 07:54 AM	#6
Snappy! Addict Posts: 260 Karma: 4256 Join Date: Feb 2006 Device: SHARP Zaurus C1000	hmmm ... I was relooking at the 770 and now it really seem like a good alternative to me. Its screen is smaller 4.13" but should be ok for a reader. rsperberg, UMPCs would use XP, not sure how the hdd can remain off even if one were to read stuffs from only memory cards. I think XP will still click away at the hdd every few minutes or secs.

03-15-2006, 08:05 AM	#7
jah Member Posts: 10 Karma: 30 Join Date: Dec 2005 Device: SE P990 SE M600 Nokia 9500 XDA Exec	My Vaio ultra light laptop gives me 6.5hrs battery life today! Not sure what planet M$ is on or their partners. Having said that PPC/WM5 devices are pretty poor on battery life so it should be no surprise that the trend continues with the UMPC. The BBC reported a global survey on what people want from their cellphones - the main feature was battery life! Personal portable devices need to have a rock solid OS (not WM5!), instant on and a good battery life.

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