Forget the PDA, Here Comes the TDA

Roland Piquepaille writes "A French company has just started to sell the Jackito, the first 'Tactile Digital Assistant' (TDA). This new kind of PDA has no stylus, doesn't offer handwriting recognition and has no keyboard. Instead, it is based on touchscreen technology and relies entirely on your thumbs for input -- which are harder to lose than a stylus. And as Jackito has two simultaneous touch points, you can operate it with your two thumbs at the same time, at least according to the company. For an entry price of $600, you'll get parallel-processing capabilities with 7 processors and plenty of brand new technology, including 3ActilOS, a multitasking OS, which is not even referenced by Google. So be warned before purchasing one! However, the approach is pretty unique and I wish them good luck. Before opening your wallet, you'll find some selected pictures in this summary."

Hmmm

[wbav]

Now I don't want to sound cynical, but I remember a product a few years ago on slashdot which numbers didn't add up, and it had all these pretty pictures. Something about a seti@home pci card.

If you ask me, it's a joke, especially since it's using an OS that google can't find.

Not exactly no keyboard

[Anonymous Coward]

If you look at the product demo it shows the touchscreen being used as a keyboard. A very big keyboard. I see how this could appeal to the those peoplewho insist on running a 640x480 display but the screen area overhead that this thing will need for regular operation will turn off everybody else.

7 CPUs?

[autopr0n]

Why in gods name would they include 7 processors? That just dosn't make any sense. My guess is that some idiot just counted up all the chips in the system, or something.

Re:Is it just me...

[mindstormpt]

Are you excited about it as as a ham sandwich, or are you excited about it as about a ham sandwich?

Couldn't figure out

Re:Fraud!

[chill]

Damn, I had to read further! :-) A color screen is $138 extra. Add a few options and you can easily hit $1,000!

Re:I smell a hoax

[SparafucileMan]

Yeah, this reeks of fraud. 7 processors. touch display. color screen, backlight. runs on 1 AA battery. 1337 unknown OS. Deposit to confirm order, but no credit cards accepted, so no fraud protection. Don't let your ass get burned, people.

Re:Their new slogan:

[rleibman]

All monkeys have opposable thumbs, that is in fact one of the defining characteristics of primates. Of all the primates, I believe only humans have 2 opposable thumbs, the rest have 4.

Piquepaille is a spammer anyway

[Anonymous Coward]

Piquepaille is a known block spammer [slashdot.org]

Re:must ... resist ...

[UserGoogol]

The Chevy Nova is a myth. To cite Snopes [snopes.com], Nova and No va are very different things in Spanish, (as different as No Table and Notable) and they wouldn't say No va anyway.

Bite the wax tadpole is pretty close [snopes.com] though.

Re:7 CPUs?

[randyest]

Why in gods name would they include 7 processors?

Power management. They have one chip, implemented as a cMOS gate-array ASIC, which includes 7 CPU cores. More or fewer cores activate as needed (via gated clocks). It's a very good way to minimize power use (hence the 1xAA battery lasting several weeks, under "normal use," which is to say "waiting for input, usually") while still providing decent performance when needed.

Re:A single AA gives several weeks of life?

[Anonymous Coward]

Isn't it counter-intuitive to imply Parallel Processing and powerful Gate-Array would give better battery life??

This sounds like a hoax.

Not really counter-intuitive, if what they mean by "powerful" is that the technology has the power to do a lot with a little. "Power" doesn't always mean MIPS on a Von Neumann machine. It may mean the ability to get work done efficiently. Actually, it sounds like quite a good idea to have custom chips that cut out the need to do all this extra work with a general purpose (and thus more complicated) CPU.

Having said that, I'm develop PDA software for a living, and if I'd say the odds are 90% that this thing is a hoax. Nobody has ever heard of any of the technologies (operating system, processor, etc.) they're using as far as I know, and they want a $100 deposit to place a pre-order. That's $100 to secure your right to buy what is, as of right now at least, vaporware. Plus they nickel and dime you on add-ons if you look at their ordering page. I could order it without a USB cable, but how useful would it be? Oh look, the USB cable is $25. Oh yes, and despite all these other revolutionary technologies, it doesn't come with an internal rechargeable battery, so you've got to spend $14 on NiMH AA batteries. (You can get much better NiMH AA batts online for $11.)

Re:The numbers don't add up

[randyest]

My understanding is the several weeks / 1AA battery figure is for "normal use," which is "mostly doing nothing, waiting for input." They have a 7-CPU core processor (a gate-arry ASIC,) custom-designed, so that more or fewer cores can be activated as needed.

Good for power management, and can still be snappy when you need it.

Re:The numbers don't add up

[Anonymous Coward]

1 Mitsubishi CPU (M30803)
1 Texas Instruments CPU (MSP 430)
Spartan FPGA with 5 Automata

I'm guessing that the 5 Automata are pretty simple. Also, they all run at 10Mhz

Re:taking notes

[C10H14N2]

...especially given that god-awful A-Z keyboard. UGH. Does it at least have the ability to map into a more friendly layout? That one sucks. Also, part of the appeal of Graffiti was that it took up a tiny portion of the screen realestate. The on-screen keyboard takes up more than half of it.

Besides, I've been using my finger as a stylus for years, so "hey look! you don't need a stylus!" is about as attractive as marketing a soda can as "look! no glass or straw needed!" Erm, yeah, thanks for the 411.

Re:The numbers don't add up

[NanoGator]

"Not to mention an unimpressive display? Backlight?"

Huh? This is a disadvantage when a new product is less than impressive, but it's an advantage when comparing Palm to PocketPC?

Re:HOAX / SCAM - $100 needed for "Escrow Account"

[KFury]

Good call. Also, the picture looks a like a photoshopped Newton 2100. [google.com]

Don't think it's a hoax

[Dr. Mojura]

After seeing all the comments of people thinking it's a hoax, I did some searching and I don't think it is a hoax. First, I did a whois on the actual company, Novinit and found the following:

Organization:
novinit
Arnaud de La Fouchardiere
66 bis avenue Jean Moulin
Paris, 75014
FR
Phone: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]

Registrar Name....: Register.com
Registrar Whois...: whois.register.com
Registrar Homepage: http://www.register.com

Domain Name: NOVINIT.COM

Created on..............: Fri, May 18, 2001
Expires on..............: Wed, May 18, 2005
Record last updated on..: Mon, Oct 06, 2003

If the Jackito is their first product, and only recently named, it would make sense that the domain for "jackito-pda" was only recently registered.

Also, searching for their management team of Arnaud de la Fouchardière: Founder, President and CEO; Patrick Thomsen: Vice-President Marketing and Finance; Noël Pietri: Vice-President Sales turned up (among others) these links: Noël Pietri [wanadoo.fr], Arnaud de la Fouchardière [indexa.fr]. I haven't found anything on Patrick Thomsen as of yet, but if this is a hoax, it is extrodinarily elaborate.

For those who think that this is a fake..

[miradu2000]

I could not find any patent apps, or any FCC approval documents by Novinit, BUT they did trademark the name jackito for use in laptops/pdas/handhelds and the like back in 2002: http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=s 0knan.2.1

Trademark's aren't free, and this was years ago, so I take this as proof that it's real.

France?

[n0alpha]

Don't buy it -- boycott France! Oui oui!

Re:HOAX / SCAM - $100 needed for "Escrow Account"

[LadyLucky]

Result of WHOIS

Domain Name: JACKITO-PDA.COM
Registrar: NETWORK SOLUTIONS, INC.
Whois Server: whois.networksolutions.com
Referral URL: http://www.networksolutions.com
Name Server: NS1.HOST7X24.COM
Name Server: NS2.HOST7X24.COM
Status: REGISTRAR-LOCK
Updated Date: 28-may-2004
Creation Date: 28-may-2004
Expiration Date: 28-may-2005

Note the creation date.

Hmm.

Re:HOAX / SCAM - $100 needed for "Escrow Account"

[zurab]

To complicate things even more, look at whois info for 3actil.com [3actil.com]. First of all, it's an (almost) empty web page, but the info says the domain is registered to

TACTIL GROUP LTD
16F STANDARD CHARTERED BANK
BUILDING 4-4A DES VOEUX ROAD CENTRAL
HONG KONG, 00000

Sounds extremely fishy; seems like they couldn't throw a phony website together for the OS.

Re:it's a hoax

[anticypher]

A quick reverse directory [pagesjaunes.fr] on that address turns up no company called novinit, but the offices of a couple of shell companies, MMSA/Digiplace. Web design and hosting, with not much history according to google.

Novinit is not a registered company name in France. Perhaps it is the operating name of another company. The website does not offer the required information of a tax number, physical address, and other contact details.

Arnaud de la Fouchardière is the money behind the fly-by-night Marcopoly online store. They've got a bad reputation for shipping various bits of kit which probably fell off the back of trucks, and no after sales service. He made his money from online pr0n, mostly doing the technical front for prostitution rings using the old Minitel service.

There are two sites, novinit.com and jackito-pda.com, one is hosted in France, the other in California. They seem identical in content, but the one hosted on 7x24net in the U.S. has bogus registration information.

The photos of the device on the website are of an Apple Newton.

There is no way to get in touch with this company except through a paypal link. The phone number given for the registrars is a pre-paid anonymous GSM phone on the orange network.

All the hallmarks of a scam.

the AC

Re:I agree - it's a scam

[Vermifax]

Need to read the site better.

Comes with a basic black and white screen. The bistable B&W is an additional charge.

Still a scam.

Google searching 101

[rjamestaylor]

• including 3ActilOS, a multitasking OS, which is not even referenced by Google

True "ActilOS" is not googlable, but "actil OS" is [google.com]. Common boogle -- not trying alternate spacing for acronyms and product names.