I-Appliance BBS The Official Source for Internet Appliance Upgrades and Mods BBS Main List | Sign In | Sign Up | Search | Help | Linux-Hacker.net Reply to Thread | Printer |

Home / I-Opener Areas / I-Opener General Posts Comdex Pictures of new i-opener Comdex Pictures of new i-opener

Comdex Pictures of new i-opener (modified 0 times) Turbo3 Profile I have just uploaded sixteen pictures to a new Comdex folder on my picture page showing the new i-opener reference design. http://photos.yahoo.com/bc/turbo3pictures Broadband Ready (Ethernet, Optional Internal DSL or 802.11b {wireless 11Mb/s}) Two USB connectors Compact Flash socket Switchable color front bezel Runs Windows CE 56K Modem Internal mini-PCI slot Optional touchscreen 11-16-2000 23:51:56

RE:Comdex Pictures of new i-opener (modified 0 times) YouBecha Profile Any idea if they have new guts in the machine,or just modified guts? Is the screen still DS? Did the Netpliance guy tell you anything important? http://www.geocities.com/mr_bubba_zanetti/ 11-17-2000 08:24:41

RE:Comdex Pictures of new i-opener (modified 0 times) redwood Profile dam, I wonder is _these will be the 27,000 units they have to sell? that would be nice... 11-17-2000 09:46:44

RE:Comdex Pictures of new i-opener (modified 0 times) Tackhead Profile Gotta be *some* new guts there. Since NPLI's no doubt reading - suggestion for software feature: That CF socket would be a beautiful way to: - cross-market a digital camera - make downloading pics from a digicam (Whether NPLI's cross-marketed one or the user's own cam) really easy - since the IO has limited storage space onboard, it could upload the pics at night to a web page so that other IO (and regular PC) owners can "see your friend's photo album" The user experience could be as simple as: Take pictures, plunk CF card into IO, click on "photos", and mail goes out to the user's friends pointing them to the (NPLI-hosted) web site with the pictures. My hunch is that it's new guts. I expected the broadband to be USB-based Ethernet. But it appears to be built directly into the mobo. Ditto the CF socket - it's on the bottom of the unit, which is in the "wrong place" if it's just a minor revision of the mobo we're already used to. I guess we now know why they cancelled their contract with Quanta and have 27000 first-generation units to sell. 11-17-2000 10:59:18

RE:Comdex Pictures of new i-opener (modified 0 times) Turbo3 Profile I talked with Ken their VP of Development and he said they used a different motherboard manufacturer than Quanta for this reference board. In the HiRes back picture you can see the MB through the holes in the back. It looks nothing like the old one. The screen looks the same (ie DS). These would NOT be the 27,000 left in stock. They are just a reference design. 11-17-2000 11:47:11

RE:Comdex Pictures of new i-opener (modified 0 times) Linuxguru Profile | Email From the blurb on the poster in one of the pictures, it appears to be a National Semiconductor Geode reference design. The bad news is that the CPU upgrades that we've got used to will probably no longer be possible. On the plus side, the industrial design as well as the features seem to be improved over the 1G version. Let's see what it's priced at - $199 will keep it in play; $399 and you can forget it. Of course, they're not going to be selling it themselves any longer, so it depends on their OEM partners. 11-17-2000 13:02:03

RE:Comdex Pictures of new i-opener (modified 0 times) ckbone Profile Thanks for the pictures, Turbo3. Nice looking new design, but until we see the guts of the thing, who knows? You know, there's a big catch22 with this whole thing. In order to make this a first class computer, it needs a new screen. Dual scan just doesn't cut it. For any moving images, DS is useless. I can't even play the MS pinball game....can't follow the ball. If it had an active screen it would be a great computer. The catch22 is, if it had a good screen it would not sell because the cost would be too high. So I guess we're stuck with a nice little computer with a poor screen. Whether this will change in the future, with new sellers of the I-Opener, only time will tell. I for one, have been having second thoughts about sinking so much time, energy, and money, into a computer with such a poor screen. 11-18-2000 06:08:30

RE:Comdex Pictures of new i-opener (modified 0 times) Turbo3 Profile Things could be a lot worse. I have a WebPlayer and after using that for a while and then switching back to the i-opener it almost seems like it is a TFT screen. But yes, motion is a problem and TFT is currently a lot more expensive. 11-18-2000 10:27:05

RE:Comdex Pictures of new i-opener (modified 0 times) ckbone Profile On the subject of dual scan screens and video.....can someone answer me this question: Why won't the video driver support more than 2megs of system memory? Is this simply a driver problem? After all, the driver uses system memory anyway, so could a new driver use more memory.....which might give a better picture, might handle motion better. I posed this question to Trident and they absolutely refused to answer any questions, saying something like the chip they supplied the manufacturer(Netpliance) had special drivers written for it, and they could not, would not help me.(Thanks a lot) Anyway, if anyone gets any leads in this matter....please post info. 11-18-2000 14:28:10

RE:Comdex Pictures of new i-opener (modified 0 times) AlainDelon Profile Just curious,where exactly did you find the display since they were not in the A-hall?Also ,i receved my $20.00 check from the philips usb speakers so everyone should be getting them soon. 11-19-2000 04:12:19

RE:Comdex Pictures of new i-opener (modified 0 times) Tackhead Profile ckbone: As for "Why only 2M?" 800x600 = 480,000 pixels. Even at 32 bits per pixel, you can still fit it into 2M of RAM. Anyone caring about 32bpp vs. 24bpp isn't gonna be using a dual-scan display, nor are they likely to be working at 800x600. So there's no "need" for more RAM on a screen at 800x600. It's an LCD, so you can't use the RAM for more pixels. It's dual-scan, so you can't use _anything_ to make it refresh faster. So on a cost/benefit basis, there's no point in using more RAM. 11-20-2000 10:25:17

RE:Comdex Pictures of new i-opener (modified 0 times) Wild_Pencil Profile | Email The IOpener can do higher resolutions if you hook up a display to the VGA port. I've got one of mine running at 1600x1200 at 256 colors. Of course, the LCD portion won't support 1600x1200. As to why it's 2Megs.. it's probably in the VGA ROM. Notice in the bootup screen, it automagically reserves the 2Megs. If anything, you'd likely have to patch the VGA ROM, or directly in the BIOS code . . . 11-22-2000 23:50:38

RE:Comdex Pictures of new i-opener (modified 0 times) Wild_Pencil Profile | Email The IOpener can do higher resolutions if you hook up a display to the VGA port. I've got one of mine running at 1600x1200 at 256 colors. Of course, the LCD portion won't support 1600x1200. As to why it's 2Megs.. it's probably in the VGA ROM. Notice in the bootup screen, it automagically reserves the 2Megs. If anything, you'd likely have to patch the VGA ROM, or directly in the BIOS code . . . 11-22-2000 23:52:21

RE:Comdex Pictures of new i-opener (modified 0 times) Programmer Profile My friend the pencil.. It is NOT the VGA rom.. it is merely a setting.. if you decompress and snoop around in the VGA rom it has variables for 1 to 8 megs, changing the BIOS front end to store the different values should suffice (not that I know what the values are, but probably something like &H01, &H02.. 11-23-2000 09:41:09

Reply to Thread | Printer | All times are PST Powered by UltraBoard v1.62

I-Appliance BBS General - NEWS, Breaking NEWS - linux-hacker.net BBS on CD Questions - User Groups in Your Town - E-Bay, Yahoo Auction LINKS ONLY (MODERATED) - Jokes & Humor - usdtv box I-Opener Areas - I-Opener General Posts - I-Opener Technical Stuff - I-Opener Technical Info Reference (MODERATED) WebSurfer Areas - WebSurfer General Posts - WebSurfer Technical Stuff - WebSurfer Technical Info Reference (MODERATED) Other I-Appliances - Virgin Webplayer - WebPal - MailStation - 3Com Audrey - ThinkNIC / Oracle NIC - Gateway/AOL Connected Touch Pad - Philips/AOL-TV - ACER NT-150 STB - MSN Companion - Compaq IA - Emachines IA - IBM NetVista IA - Intel dot.station - MSNTV2 Network Computers - Fujitsu-Siemens Scovery Linux Net Computers - GallantWeb Server Consoles - Dreamcast - xbox hacking Web Pads - Epods One General Post - Panasonic CF-01 - Fujitsu Stylistic 1200 - Cybiko Thin Clients - Thin Clients DigitalVideoRecorders - DTV Recorders, Replay, TiVo, Etc... - Tivo Hacks Linux - Midori Linux General Board - ITX MotherBoards Single Board Computers - Earth Computers mARMalade Elite Member Area MISC Areas - The Swap Meet WE TAKE NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY TRANSACTION HERE AND NO COMMERCIAL POST PERIOD !!! - Wireless Net - Cameras - Robotics - Routers/Gateways - Mattel JuiceBox