OESF Portables Forum
General Forums => Off Topic forum => Topic started by: nilch on April 08, 2004, 09:50:58 am
-
So the Simputer - which was once a lofty social idea goal, has now been launched with more of a commericialised flavour and less of a \"social-change\" goal.
Too bad, but this seems to be typical of my home country India - where there are not enough backers for a good idea - the Simputer died, or rather fizzled from its inital goal of a sub $200 everyman\'s handheld for the common Indian to a more corporate and upscale urban handheld in the $400 range due to lack of support and backers.
Anyways, the three models are indeed good with the last one for $480 having quite a range of features - two USB host, a USB Client, serial, QVGA etc.
Whats the take on the software though ?
If this seems really interesting I might try to lay my hands on a unit sometime later this year.
Here the link
--] http://linuxdevices.com/news/NS5108992809.html (http://linuxdevices.com/news/NS5108992809.html)
-
Not too impressive, I think the loss of those social goals tainted it before it\'s launch, it seems very corporatised and doesn\'t seem even close to any of the Z range. It also appears to use it\'s own environment, not Qtopia which is a shame, a bit of interoperability with the Z would have been mutually beneficial. I wonder how many people in rural villages will be able to afford one, or more importantly even want one.