Re: Universal Handheld Bus?

[Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

[vjp2.at@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] on Friday 30 December 2005 23:37

>    I look at all the handheld clutter. But at the same time I can't
> see one size fitting all. Some folks have big hands, others small
> one. Some want keyboards, others stylus, others voice recognition.
> What we need is a universal handheld bus. The outside that keeps all
> the gadgets together can vary, the inside stuff, PDA, cellular,
> remote, calculator, mp3, radio, camera, can all fit the user's
> needs. But ther's no way one manufacturer can combine everything the
> way one person wants them. C'mon someone's got to have designed
> something like this by now? no? I know, we have a hard enough time
> getting power adaptors that match. That's the "Japanese way of doing
> business" we adopted in the mid80s when we abandoned the old USA
> backwards compatible requirements.

As  regards  connectivity, Palm moved to USB with the introduction of  the
Tungsten  5 if I recall correctly. They have broken Universal Bus compati-
bility,  thus deterring any upgrades that makes long-accumulated peripher-
als useless.

The  USB  (maybe  USB2 yet to come) move was probably  a  strategic  move.
Whether  it's to do with Linux kernel handling of USB ports, I don't know.
In  the long run, it appears as if more and more vendors see the value  of
interoperability  (Open  Source software particularly) and hardware  stan-
dardisation.

Roy