Compulab's EM-X270 brings DIY to smartphones
Compulab may start a trend in the do-it-yourself world with its introduction of a fully functional -- less screen -- handheld computer. Starting at $122 you get the basic module running an Intel Xscale CPU up to 520 MHz with either Linux or Windows CE and for a bit more cake can add cellular radio, WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, camera, or VGA touchscreen to your handset. Of course, you'll need to design yourself a nice housing as they don't seem to carry any, but hey, that's half of the DIY fun right there. Good luck with those projects, and if you make something cool send us your pics.
[Via Redferret]
[Via Redferret]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Fernando @ Oct 18th 2007 9:50PM
That is seriously awesome
kashif @ Oct 18th 2007 11:25PM
Hell yes, now if they only offered an HSDPA radio. Maybe one of those Broadcomm 4 in 1 chips...
tnkgrl @ Oct 19th 2007 12:36AM
Wow.
Jeremy @ Oct 19th 2007 2:21AM
Holy crap. Put it in landscape mode would be a better option...
That's sweet looking. Definitely needs a case though.
nick @ Oct 19th 2007 2:38AM
No, no, no, not even remotely. "Starting at $122 (in units of 1000)" is how that should read. You can't buy this, and you probably never will be able to. You can purchase an eval board for a few grand, but that's not congruent with your original message. If you really want this "tech" you're better off getting an iPaq off of eBay and breaking open the case.
Also, as a reply to the previous poster who suggested the new Broadcomm SoC, good luck getting your hands on that if you're name isn't Nokia. Finally, cell phones have been DIY from the beginning, just not DIYWE (without education).
Which brings me to the real point; Engadget either needs to hire an engineer or stop merely reposting material from other blogs indiscriminately, because any time you try to post on something like this* it ends up being more funny than informative. If you reach beyond your domain and make an error, you'll end up degrading whatever journalistic integrity you may have had. Then again, this is the company that killed Apple stock by reporting rumors as truth, so maybe fact checking is too much to ask.
*Like new physics research, which genuinely makes me laugh out loud.
http://www.engadget.com/2007/08/20/ibms-next-gen-flash-storage-to-feature-spinning-electrons/
http://www.engadget.com/2007/08/16/german-scientists-claim-to-have-broken-speed-of-light/
Chris Przybycien @ Oct 19th 2007 9:39AM
Wow I never saw that one mistaking electron spin for actual physical spinning motion. That's excellent.
You can't expect much from journalists, though. You tell them that you can create a wave packet velocity which exceeds the speed of light and they'll instantly print "ZOMG GUYS!! SPEED OF LIGHT BROKEN!!!!!111 [pic]". A journalist's job is to bring eyeballs to advertisements not to educate readers :)
nick @ Oct 19th 2007 2:28PM
I even looked past their word choice, I was thinking "Oh really, it will feature 'spinning electrons' [sic], you mean like ever piece of matter in the universe?"
I get your point though about their goal of just pushing ads, but I still have a problem with the fact that the person with the megaphone has an implicit authority and they are using it to legitimize misinformation. An occasional error is nothing to talk about, but this is a chronic problem and blogs as a whole seem to be undermining the idea of journalism (and together with Wikipedia, they will put the final nail in the coffin of objective truth). Based on the comments, it doesn't seem to matter much, as most of the people who post here seem to be junkies looking for their next fix of acronyms. This however, is a whole other can of worms, and I don't think this is the forum to discuss my problems with techno-optimism.
Chris Przybycien @ Oct 19th 2007 9:33AM
Brilliant idea but GPRS data? Do not want.
Kim @ Oct 20th 2007 5:13AM
it's more like $450 if you want just a semi interesting piece (if you only buy a single unit). And thats even without the GSM module (add 2.5*$94 for that)