First Square Screen Pocket PC Coming Soon?

[Ed Hardy]

Evidence has emerged that indicates that the first Pocket PC with a square screen will be announced in the near future.

Read more at http://www.brighthand.com/article/Sq..._Soon?site=PPC

[mbk1487]

This is the Treo for Windows. At least that's what my large gut is whispering to me.

[wshwe]

Originally posted by mbk1487
This is the Treo for Windows.

I agree. Why has it taken so long? Blackberries have been a runaway success for the last couple of years.

[imported_PDAholic]

Hey,

I just wanted to say that the 4355 ain't that bad length-wise. I went from a Clie TG50 to a 4355, which is essentially the same form-factor, the 4355 just having a longer screen. The 4355 is maybe a half-inch longer as a consequence. I would take the larger screen on the 4355 any day over the TG50, despite the greater resolution of the latter.

Also, I hope that this doesn't mean we're going to start seeing 240x240 res devices. One of the few things Palm has over PPC devices (except, of course, the new VGA PPCs) is their 360x360 or greater resolution screens. Such a step backward would be embarrassing.

[Siliconaddictio]

Originally posted by wshwe
I agree. Why has it taken so long? Blackberries have been a runaway success for the last couple of years.

Because until PPC 2003 SE (Yah yah it?s WM2003SE. I like PPC better ) is the first PPC OS that supports multiple resolutions other then the cookie cutter 240x320 that every previous PPC has used.

[NewtonDKC]

I agree that anything less than 480x480 would be despicable. Hopefully they won't pull a Treo recap if it is a Windows Treo where the first model has a low res screen - followed by a high res one. 480x480 should be the minimum IMO (of course there's exceptions to everything :-) ).

Regarding the 4355, we have one at work, and if it had been designed a little differently, the lengt would not have been a problem. If they simply could have removed the band where the D-Pad and 4 Program buttons are located (either putting these on the side, extreme bottom, or foregoing them entirely) then the 4355 would have been far shorter and look almost normal in length (I daresay!). :-) These functions could have also been added by simply assigning them to keys on the keyboard (D-pad keys with the F key or something), or, with the space saved, even added another row of keyboard size buttons adding a needed number row and more functions to those. A joystick (ala the Zie 71) could have been added to keep a directional device that doesn't take up room. So anyway, I feel if HP (or whoever designed it) had tried a little harder or been a little braver to forego the standard PPC design, the device could have been far smaller.

Sqare screen-wise, I never thought I'd consider one, but 480x480 is still higher res than most PPC's, but I don't know how most apps willscale to this, nor do I grasp how the OS will scale older apps (assuming that it does on square screens). I assume it would act like an app that has the SIP activated, only there's no SIP of course, but at least most apps should have this ability without too much modification with the SIP allowances in mind. I guessi t's also possible the OS won't scale old apps and we'll simply have unused borders - but guessing is pointless -anyone know? Or more importantly, have any screen shot examples (isn't there a PPC emulator like the Palm one for developers?).

Or perhaps the contest for orientation aware apps an indication of no scaling? Incidentally, isn't the description a little misleading? Orientation aware apps calls to mind landscape vs portrait (and undoubtedly the square screen and varying res resources were probably brought to the necessity list with this event), but it sounds funny since, for the most part, a square screen would hardly receive much benefit from rotation, right? In any case, does the screen rotate in Sqr screen models? Could be useful I guess if you want to use the keyboard to type out a message to your friend seated in front of you at a dull meeting... :-)

[Pared]

Actually doesn't look that bad....

[NewtonDKC]

That's downright cute!! I'll take one.
Good job. :-)

[Mr. Peabody]

These will have to be vertical-market devices. No sane OEM would invest in a device that has little chance of selling. No sane buyer would invest in a device that couldn't run 99.9% of the software regular, non-square-sqweens do. Unless there's a palmos emulator on board, but then that'd be 160x160 or if you pushed it, 320x320, not 240x240 or 480x480. Don't be square!

[Siliconaddictio]

Originally posted by Mr. Peabody
These will have to be vertical-market devices. No sane OEM would invest in a device that has little chance of selling. No sane buyer would invest in a device that couldn't run 99.9% of the software regular, non-square-sqweens do. Unless there's a palmos emulator on board, but then that'd be 160x160 or if you pushed it, 320x320, not 240x240 or 480x480. Don't be square!

All lines have a beginning and you have to start somewhere and at this point who GAF about Palm software and emulating the OS. Why you'd ever want to emu a POS is beyond me.