(no subject)

[reldnahkram]

So, I've been thinking about gadgets lately. This is only partially inspired by ultranurd's recent purchase. This thinking comes in two flavors.

So I've always been an advocate of one function devices. My camera is for taking pictures, my cell phone is for talking to people, my MP3 player is for listening to music, etc. But I've been rethinking that of late. I'm warming to the idea of a cell phone that's also an MP3 player and has some basic palm functionality. But that gadget is a few years away, due to flash memory limitations. Any MP3 player with <20 GB is something I'm not interested. Period. But put 20 GB of storage on my cell phone, make it easy to listen to music and make calls, and make the interface not suck, and I'm sold. Even better if I can scribble some notes to myself on it and sync a .ics calendar to my computer. The issue, of course, is keeping the device small enough to still be useable as a phone - I really don't like the Treos or the Blackberries - they're too wide and too big. Then again, I've never used a bluetooth headset - this may be the way to do it - just leave the phone in your pocket and only pull it out to dial, but only use the bluetooth headset for talking - never hold the phone to your head.

So I've also been thinking about my server usage. And realistically, I don't use them much, but I'd like to have the option. But powering a full PC can be expensive. Back of the envelope calculations show a 200 W computer (which may be on the high side for what my servers actually draw, given that it's a PII and a K6) runs about $15 a month (at 9 cents / kWh). Cut the power usage, cut the cost. Enter miniITX. 17 cm on a side motherboard. Power usage (for the processor) in the single digits (with whole systems able to be powered by a laptop supply, ~65 W). Fanless operation. I guess it won't be much faster than my current encoder (which is at 700 MHz, I believe), but I suspect the 8X CD drive is holding things back. But it'll be quiet, and it'll be small. On the other hand, I'll need a new bedside table. But consolidating my servers into one small and quiet machine would be, well, nifty, if not useful. Oh right, that was the other function - get something with TV out and throw a DVD-drive in. I own, well, one DVD, so there's no real point in getting a real DVD player, but it'd be nice to have DVD functionality.

Comments

[tirerim.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I object to multi-function devices that just do everything poorly, or that have lots of things I don't need, but if it could be done well, combining some of them would be nice. What I'm really waiting for is the day when I have something as powerful as my laptop in something the size of my phone, and all I have to do is pull out my folding pigment-based display and my folding keyboard. It's a ways off, methinks...

I'm also not looking forward to the amount my power bill is going to go up when I get a desktop.

[sildra.livejournal.com]

Do OLEDs fold? I think you can roll them up and put them in a small poster tube, but I don't think you can fold them. But you can definitely make a computer moniter out of them (in fact, moniters have been made, they're just not mass producable yet). Then you could have wall scroll moniters.

[greebsnarf.livejournal.com]

Weirdly coincidentally I just commented to someone tonight that I can't wait for the day when we have cell phones, a/v downloaders/players, and portable video games all on one system (and done well). I used to hate the idea but I'm getting more and more fond of it the more portable electronic devices I acquire...