![[Thumbnail image of Sony's new UX50 handheld computer, which starts to look a lot like a miniature laptop.]](/log/img/200308/sonyUX50.gif "Sony's UX50 handheld computer")
The gap between PDAs and laptop computers continues to diminish. I just noted Sony’s upcoming release of the UX50 CLIÉ handheld. With built-in wireless 802.11b, Bluetooth, a low-end digital camera, MP3 player, video recording, and a larger “keyboard” than the typical thumbpads of today’s PDAs and smart phones, devices like this take a another step closer to their larger notebook cousins.
With only a 480x320 resolution screen and 29MB of memory, this handheld will be a far cry from even the most sub-compact full-featured notebooks. But we would certainly be remiss if we don’t keep an eye on the effect these devices will have on the way users will see and experience the Web of tomorrow. Micro-technology which fits in palm-sized computers is here. Just look at Apple’s 30GB hard drive used in the latest iPod. A 512MB DDR memory module which fits in my new laptop is half the size of the standard SODIMM. Subnotebooks slightly larger than the UX50 handheld, with computing power equal to low-end laptop computers, have already hit the mainstream in Japan, and are available in the U.S. from small-quantity importers. North American markets may adopt micro-technology more slowly, but it will certainly be here eventually. The real challenge falls on industrial designers tasked with designing tiny computers which remain usable, efficient, and attractive to a typical consumer.
Some subnotebooks will support 800x600 resolution and higher. Other devices like these handheld-wanna-be-notebooks won’t. Along with these devices, a whole new crop of web browsing apps will surface in addition to the ones we already have. Hopefully, they’ll support the CSS handheld media type, and encourage the use of leaner, structured XHTML. However, once devices like this begin to fill breast-pockets of executives and shoulder bags of early-adopting gadgeteers, kiss goodbye the assumption that one “minimum resolution” exists to which we can design any interface.
Posted at 11:17am in Technology, Web
13 comments (Comments closed)
Now these devices are out in force, I hope the software guys club together and build a better browser. In the same way that cut down OS don’t suit handheld devices, I find that cut down browsers are just as kludgy.
CSS (and even basic HTML) support on handheld devices is so abysmal right now and the companies involved don’t seem to be terribly interested in fixing it. It feels like 1998.
Anyway, I posted about this a few days ago, but I’ve been drooling at the tiny notebooks at Kemplar, which looks similar to the site you linked to, except better prices. Now I just need a good excuse to get a new notebook.
There is only so far we can go as designers/developers to accomodate the various devices that are out there, if we produce valid XHTML and CSS designs that follow WebStandards then for now that is all we can do isn’t it ? It all depends on context doesn’t it ?
Absolutely one of the best arguments for using CSS for positioning (of course, this was preaching to the choir at least six months ago in this forum). Keeps the content flowing so it scales down to any device’s display.
Anyone know how well style sheets are supported in Palm/WAP/mobile devices? I’d love to keep my pages very unstyled (as they are now), but set most images’ display to none. Are we there yet?
In the spirit of the campaign-starting that has been in the air, perhaps the handheld software vendors could be prevailed upon to support standards by the WSP or similar group. Off the top of my head, faster adoption of the technology due to better usability seems to be the best bait. It’s still up to those of us on the development end to code proper pages, but I think that is coming around as evidenced by recent commercial site redesigns.
I’m an optimist but also a realistic. With billions of pages out there built for large computer screens it’s kind of silly to think that a few designers, designing with the latest standards, can make these technologies viable. We should all just stick to using standards because there are so many benefits for those large computer screens, as well as screen readers… etc. Those stupid little devices (all but the ipod) won’t be around in there form much longer anyway. Let them change.
I have another small grip about the all-in-one wonders. Why are electronics companies always out to build these. All you get is one PDA that has 5 poorly designed applications. Take a hint from the universal remote control people. Even the best of those don’t do everything well. I don’t want to replace my phone and camera just because a new portable media or new wireless convention comes along. Not to mention there is no way I’m skiing or mountain biking with a phone that costs 1k! Sorry, this topic drives me up a wall.
Or maybe they’re just waiting for us to build websites that support the CSS handheld media type first…
handheld, like other CSS media types that aren’t screen, print, or all, isn’t gonna go anywhere. It’s too ill-defined. The best I can see it used for is strictly-linear presentation, which I don’t see as anything much different than unstyled HTML or HTML with only inline-level styling applied (i.e., typography).
I speak as someone with perfectly valid sites that crash handheld devices. I personally crashed someone’s Treeo once.
What became of Danger Inc’s ‘Hiptop’, which T-Mobile branded as ‘Sidekick’? I don’t recall substained buzz.
The version of PocketIE that is installed with Windows Mobile 2003 supports the handheld media type. And NetFront is a great (although not free) standards supporting browser for most versions of PocketPC and the Symbian OS (SmartPhones). A site I’m developing right now at work uses the handheld media type and it works perfectly on those two browsers.
kiss goodbye the assumption that one “minimum resolution� exists to which we can design any interface.
Like anybody, I bought my first Palm (a Visor) for scheduling, etc. Now my Clie is my main reading experience (Plucker offline browser and Palm books). I think that my case is fairly representative of PDA users. When this will be recognised, I’m confident that designers will discover or enhance new solutions to reach this new population of readers (CSS, CMS, proxys).
I’m planning to abandon my slightly outdated, yet very efficient, Palm V for the new Treo 600. Does anyone know how stable the PalmOS browser is these days?
Replies to a couple of topics here:
1. T-Mobile still promotes the “Sidekick”-branded Hiptop in fairly clever animated U.S. TV spots and on its Web site. Saw one two nights ago on network TV.
2. Until the “handheld” or “wireless” CSS implementations actually mean something, I tend to think it’s best to serve structurally sound XHTML, anticipating a worst-case scenario for handheld devices: no CSS support whatsoever.
In fact, it makes sense for at least the next year or two to use whatever hacks or scripts you can stabilize to make absolutely sure no handhelds see your CSS. Otherwise, you’re shooting at far too many moving targets.
Meanwhile, a simple and structurally sound XHTML document, with the content presented in a logical order (and with minimal, sane formatting) should be usable right down to the five-line monochrome screen on most mobile phones.
What I’m saying isn’t all that different from what many of us do to ensure a graceful degrade for poor ol’ Netscape 4.x — find a way to hide CSS from it, then make sure that the markup that’s left will look passable and be serviceable. That’s as good as it gets in a limited-functionality, limited-resolution client.
Thanks and best regards!
Comments no longer open for this entry.