Today in Microsoft Bashing

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Earlier today, Tom linked to an awesome video: What would happen if Microsoft designed the box for the iPod? Not only is it hysterical, it is absolutely true and quite cringeful. It reminds me of a lot of [info]odradak's posts (although his are mostly about web media, not print media and packaging.)

In the past few days, the various tech websites have been making a big deal about a “secret” Microsoft project called Origami. Earlier today, a post on Digg pointed to a video showing what it does. Is it me, or does this simply come off as an awkwardly oversized Pocket PC PDA? You would need big pockets to carry it around and, presumably, deep pockets to afford it.

Guess what? I had one of these in the mid 90's and it was called a Dauphin. It ran Pen Windows (a variant of Windows 3.1), sported a 25MHz 486 chip, was about the same size as the thing in the video (maybe a touch thicker and without the fancy clickwheel button), had a nice (Wacom-style, not simply touchscreen) pen, and a tiny keyboard on a cord. The computer and keyboard velcroed to opposite sides of a nice zippered leather case. It wasn't anything special then (and, in fact, was awkward to carry around and use) and, as best as I can tell and in direct opposition to the popular buzz, it is not anything special now.

Posted in: Gadgets

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