Look out PDA, here comes TDA!
First it was the Smart-phone that threatened to oust PDA. Now,
the PDA is all set to take on the heat from next generation PDA
the TDA.
Whats it all about?
Novinit a French company has developed the worlds first TDA or
Tactile Digital Assistant. The TDA is based on touch-screen
technology and relies entirely on your thumbs for input, which
are harder to lose than a stylus. The TDA is named Jackito and
comes with two simultaneous touch points so you can operate it
with your thumbs at the same time and so no need for a stylus.
Using the TDA is very easy, since you can search a database or a
large address book, with just your thumbs. Using the device with
your thumbs is actually much faster than a stylus well at least
thats what the company claims. The device comes with a variety
of features like finger-touch control, battery life, fast
graphics, multitasking, real-time processing, interchangeable
skins and much more. The idea of a device like Jackito was
conceived from the fact that the worlds first touch screen based
PDA was already developed by a US company called Litton in 1978
for the US and German armies. After some years Novinit pondered
If theres a touch screen based PDA for the armies, why not for
the gizmo lovers? Arnaud de la Fouchardire of Jackito says, The
architecture chosen for Jackito focuses on user friendliness.
Fingertips (as opposed to a stylus) are used as a natural device
for touching the options displayed by the LCD touch screen.
About 200 engineers from 10 countries for over 10 years, have
worked on making this device better and $50 million has been
invested in these efforts.
Seven Processors and a larger screen
The Jackito runs on seven processors with full
parallel-processing capabilities (two micro-controllers and five
accompanying reconfigurable cores), a large 4.5 color QVGA LCD
fingertip touch-screen that offers resolution of 320x240 dpi,
display with landscape orientation and two SD/MMC card slots.
The TDA runs on an operating system called 3ActilOS, has 2.5 MB
SRAM and 16 MB NOR Flash memory. The Jackito measures 140 x 80 x
16 mm and weighs just 150 g. It feeds on a single AA battery,
which according to the company, can sustain for several weeks.
Using the touch-screen with your thumbs or index fingers means
that you dont have to carry or use a stylus, keyboard or any
other input device. Also Novinit says that the finger's contact
area is hundred times larger than that of a stylus and a stylus
exerts hundred times more pressure on the screen than a finger.
Arnaud goes on to say that The Jackito is not only an electronic
device, but also a personal companion, supporting the three
essential ingredients of a well-balanced lifestyle works
productivity, personal life and edutainment. The Jackito will
also come preloaded with about twenty applications, which
includes games, puzzles, address book, clock, to-do list,
synchronization feature, backup application, etc.
Want to buy it?
Novinit hasnt yet appointed any dealers for Jackito, though as
of now they plan to make all the transactions through their
website. The Jackito is available for sale on www.jackito.com at
a list price of 600. Novinit says that if you are interested in
buying the product, you will have to order it online through
their website by remitting $100 and then wait for about 90 days
for the product to be delivered to you. However, you can choose
the screen type (color or monochrome), user interface, removable
front cover and changeable stick-on strips of your choice. The
Jackito is entirely customizable you can choose between add-ons
like internal MP3 player, FM radio, microphone, headset,
Bluetooth, solar battery charger and much more at an extra cost.
According to Arnaud, they will target at "early adopters" for
this product, but the product is destined for everybody because
the product has all the facilities that we lack as human beings
gigantic memory, vast capabilities for computation, learning,
games and communications.
TDAs the way to go (or is it not?)
The development of the TDA doesnt stop here in fact this is just
the beginning. Novinit expects that by April 2005 it will be
able to make available innovative accessories for the TDA you
will be able to choose from WiFi modules, GPS, digital camera
(CMOS based), micro-printer, micro-scanner, barcode reader,
smart-card reader, TV module and much more. Though TDA seems to
be an in thing with all the features it talks about, there are
certain things that work against the very concept of digital
assistant. The Jackito doesnt come with character recognition
software built-in. It means that you will have to type through
the virtual keyboard on the TDAs screen if you want to enter a
few important data. This is far more tedious than just
scribbling a few notes on a PDA screen with the stylus and
leaving the conversion part to the handwriting recognition
software. The TDA runs on an operating system called the
ActilOS, which no one has even heard of before. This means that
there wont be any third party applications for the TDA, at least
immediately. Moreover the product is similar to a PDA its just
that the TDA can be used with the fingers / thumbs and supports
landscape orientation too.
Though the TDA seems promising enough, time will only tell
whether it remains stable in the market. So if you want to
experience the magic of TDA, logon to the Jackito's website and
click on buy!