Technology, Books and Other Neat Stuff

Well, the Origami Project teaser site that I mentioned the other day seems to have quite a lot of people all over the blogosphere wondering just what Microsoft's Origami might be. And it looks like my guess is wrong...

The folk at blink.nu tracked down a brand strategy firm called Digital Kitchen, who have a concept video for Microsoft Origami on their Work site (all Flash - so click Enter, then Work, then Brandtheatre, and finally Microsoft Origami to see the video), which shows a device larger than a PDA, and smaller than a tablet PC, with fast wireless connectivity (WiFi and 3G) and handwriting recognition, plus the return of Smart Display.

marypcb instantly recognised it. She was at last year's WinHEC, where Bill Gate's demoed a concept model of a device with all those capabilities called Haiku. It was only a mockup, with a print out for a screen. At Fall IDF, we saw Intel demo a new form factor that would use low power Pentium and Xscale chips, calling it the Handtop. It looks like we're about to see these two ideas come together. I wouldn't expect to see shipping hardware much before the end of the year, though...

I suspect we may see hardware at Spring IDF in a week or so.

Another bit of the spring 2000 .NET concept videos finally coming to life?