Windows XP Tablet + Windows Mobile 2005!?

Oh just read it!

http://www.dlmag.com/news/44/01-05-2006/197-ces-2006-exclusive-coverage-of-dualcor.html

Verrrry interesting. Might even draw some interest from those young whippersnappers - it looks a lot like a PSP.

Isn't it classic? Article on Microsoft products and the video is in .mov format!
No, not that it mattered much to me anyway!

Ok, I hate links with insufficient info, so here: The DualCor cPC is a PDA that runs on both XP Tablet and Windows Mobile simultaneously. Official website:
http://www.dualcor.com/

It's about the size of the Sony Vaio U70, and it has a similar pointing device. It seems thicker tho. The screen is 5" 800x480.

The link to dlmag has an "exclusive" video clip of a guy demostrating the device. He showed how to switch to Windows Mobile from XP desktop, did a few things in WM, and then switched back to the XP desktop. No he didn't do anything in XP, or what appeared to be. He said it has two processors (which makes sense because of the two OSes). He also said they'll ship the product in March and it'll sell for $1500.

I think it's a load of crap.

First, considering the amount of hardware needed in it, it cannot hit that price point with a profit. Add the cost of software, and you get the picture. Not to mention any development and support costs... For a simple comparison, look at the pricing on the Vaio U50/70 and OQO Model 01. The Flipstart looks more plausible than this.

But let's give it the benefit of the doubt and say it does come out. What kind of specs will it have? What about battery life? What about heat?

The idea of running CE on laptops is old. And when I started looking at small laptops like the Fujitsu Lifebook P1000, the fantasy of "dual-boot" into XP and CE did come to my mind. But let's face it, it's not practical to do that on a PDA sized device.

One good thing I always hoped to see tho, is the potential of using WM5 on a 800x480 screen, which this DualCor "incident" has realized. Do that to my Smartbook, or a Sig III or Nexio, and I'd be much happier

hmm, does it really run WM and not CE?

why would you want stupid WM5 though.

i have had a debate about "palm vs ppc" now and had to realize hpc's are so much smarter in the exact same things that people hate about ppc's. (still i didn't give up my view about ppc's being better than palms )

ok this is just me then.

as for the dualcore, i think it is a great idea, i'd use it definitely but only if it is done right. maybe attach a proper keyboard huh?

Edited by cmonex 2006-01-07 9:50 PM

Yes it's running WM.

I agree that the CE interface is many times better than the WM one. The former being the same basic Windows interface since Win95, designed for true multitasking. Whereas the PPC interface was a stupid immitation of the PalmOS interface, which is anti multitasking really.

Functionally, CE can do everything WM can do, and in some cases do them better because of its interface (limitation of WM's). Technically tho, WM can run all CE software (if screen is big enough), but CE cannot run most WM software simply because of missing/outdated/simplified libraries in CE.

The significance of running WM on an HPC form factor machine is that we can have a lot more support from 3rd party vendors, for both application software and driver software for peripherals. They would no longer have to write different code to handle the different requirements in CE.

On the other hand, a few PPCs got thumbboards, and applications and games pop up with support for that form of hardware input right away. If a PPC became an HPC, a lot of the applications which already runs on standard PPCs will run on it, and eventually take advantage of the different screen size and orientation. Yes I'm guessing, but I don't see why not.

In a perfect world, the Palm-sized PC interface would never have been replaced by the PPC one, and software would be written to support both Palm-sized PC and Handheld PC form factors because they're so similar. However, this isn't a perfect world, and PPC has changed in a weird way mostly thanks to Palm's past success. Now if a new HPC comes out, it would be a lot more useful running WM5 than CE5, despite the fact that CE is more user friendly.

Why do you need both in one mobile device is what i cant understand...?

WM5 is okay, however, I really miss not having a real desktop and the GUI is too simple for me...

Well, Windows XP for PC tasks and WM5 for PDA tasks
EDIT: Hey it just hit me... 3 USB ports and Windows XP... The smallest PC to connect to an H/PC [which is bigger] or Palm or PPC... Now that is syncing on the go

Edited by tenjeangosi 2006-01-07 11:15 PM

Nope, not a good enough answer for me you can do pda task on a mobile Xp

I'm still working like a mad man to try and get hold of one of these to review.

A friend of mine said that he got a demo of it at CES this week and said it looks and operates great...

Is anyone posting from CES? If so, check it out and give you throughts...

It's at CES, thus it is most likely real.

The battery life will probably suck when using XP.

The battery may not be as bad when using WM5 and an xScale processor.

They are saying 3-8 hours battery, that I will call out as unrealistic UNLESS they are using a very low brightness setting, and processor speed stepping.

It is chunky, but imagine what could be replaced with one of these.

I don't like the controls. Leave off the buttons, they're useless w/ tablet pc. Just give us quick launching buttons, or memo buttons.


Overall, I like it. The price point has to be do-able, OQO's are going for about 2 grand why can't this go for $1500?

I'm excited about this year in tech. It will be AMAZING. Imagine what could happen if an OEM gets ahold of this design.


Been following all the Engadget CES coverage, and I love it all...

It is 1500 USD [MSRP]...

nah, for me WM is not that useful, because not just the GUI is changed, the apps are changed too (for example, IE and office - both are very important for me!)

btw a hpc could never run palmsize pc apps until dummy dlls came along. palmsize pc's already used aygshell...

why not... i just think it is great... you have one device for two tasks... (and isn't it a phone as well? then three devices in one!)