SHARE

Microsoft Co-Founder To Ship Handheld PC

Attention Blackberry addicts, your mastery of typing with both thumbs now has an application outside of just answering e-mails. FlipStart Labs, which was founded by Microsoft-co-founder Paul Allen, announced its plans to ship a super compact PC, almost as small as a Blackberry or other smartphone, with full Windows support. The first units for sale […]

Written By

DS

Datamation Staff

Mar 8, 2007

3 minute read

Datamation content and product recommendations are editorially independent. We may make money when you click on links to our partners. Learn More

Attention Blackberry addicts, your mastery of typing with both thumbs now has an application outside of just answering e-mails. FlipStart Labs, which was founded by Microsoft-co-founder Paul Allen, announced its plans to ship a super compact PC, almost as small as a Blackberry or other smartphone, with full Windows support. The first units for sale are slated to begin March 27.

FlipStart weighs less than two pounds but has a basic PC inside. The 5.6-inch screen provides 1024×700 pixel resolution. Under the hood is a 1.1GHz Pentium M low-power processor, 512MB of memory, a 30GB hard drive and integrated graphics. These specs are at the very minimum required to run Vista.

FlipStart comes with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity. It has a backlit QWERTY keypad, mouse buttons and a touchpad for input, and in a stroke of genius, a single button for ctrl-alt-del. There are also zoom buttons that allow for zooming in on a specific section of the screen.

The unit also sports built-in speakers and a microphone, a built-in camera and USB ports. A full featured port replicator will allow for plugging in the unit so it can be used in a desktop environment with a full size keyboard and monitor and a wired Ethernet connection.

The FlipStart InfoPane allows for quick access to information in the users Outlook store, such as e-mail addresses, contacts and calendar without having to fully boot the unit or even open it.

Allen, a multi-billionaire from his Microsoft stock and numerous investments, said the FlipStart addresses a problem that needs solving. “Years ago, I began to imagine a super compact computer that would allow us to connect, communicate, work and relax, no matter where we are — one that is intrinsically intuitive to use,” Allen said in a statement. “FlipStart is the first commercial product to meet that vision; it simply works as expected.”

FlipStart will priced starting at $1,999. For now, the company plans to only sell it directly from its Web site.

A prototype unit Flipstart showed in 2004, used the low-power Transmeta Crusoe processor, but the company has since switched to Intel.

This article was first published on InternetNews.com. To read the full article, click here.