IBM and PowerPC 405 linux based PDA's

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terran74

The thread killer
The article can be found here:

http://news.com.com/2100-1040-981443.html?tag=fd_top

IBM is using its technological might to back Linux for personal digital assistants.

IBM's Microelectronics division announced on Tuesday it will offer a PDA blueprint aimed at fostering the development of new versions of handhelds based on its PowerPC 405LP chip and MontaVista Software's Linux. The companies are exhibiting their wares at this week's LinuxWorld trade show in New York.

The reference design, which will allow people to create several different kinds of PDAs, will be available from IBM Microelectronics and a few partners in March, the company said.
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I wonder if Apple is going to jump on this with their devices. Not a PDA persay but PDA-like iPod-like hybrids. Could Apple run the GUI on top of a linux kernel? Could they even do the dirty and get Mach to run on top of it then put a dumbed down Aqua interface on top for an advanced iPod with mpeg4 video playback?

I think this is an awesome idea. I don't think apple should jump into the PDA market but they could make PDA-like hybrids with this. Like adding advanced PDA functionality to their simple iPod interface. Not to say they should dump the chip they use for that, just that they could pump up the interface design. Since the hard drives on those devices are stabalizing in price and coming down would this be the next big leap for the iPod? The API could just borrow from cocoa and since Aqua is PDF based, it would not be too hard to vector calculate the apps down to the small screen.

What if they had mini Keynote and mini iLife apps on a 10GByte multimedia device. Look at Sony with PalmOS 5. Already the NZ90 is like 900 bux. I dunno... I don't think Apple should make a new PDA but could they add PDA-like functionality to their iPods?
 
Don't expect iPod to become a graphic-intensive video-playing PDA. While it may gain more PDA features as extras, one of the key selling points of the iPod is the 10 hour battery life. If you have the chip handling color graphics and video playback, expect a hit to battery life. I don't think Apple wants to do this... no more long runs with your iPod!
 
modern reflective LCDs at small sizes are quite good. the backlight of the iPod is already a bit power hungry. set it to always on and you'll see... reflective displays are good in sunlight - no need for a back-/frontlight (other than sunlight, of course).
 
There are a slew of Mpeg-4 video players/mp3 players similar if not better than iPod that debuted at CES this year.

RCA is entering the game with a nice video player. Apple is going to be getting stiff competition by this summer. That's why I brought it up.
 
"modern reflective LCDs at small sizes are quite good. the backlight of the iPod is already a bit power hungry. set it to always on and you'll see... reflective displays are good in sunlight - no need for a back-/frontlight (other than sunlight, of course)." --fryke

what about the lighting used on the 17" pb keyboard? what kind of power does that take, would it be an option to light up the edges of the screen/controls?
 
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