Miss PDAs and UMPCs? You wouldn’t be the only one, and it’s a joy to see someone take the future into their own hands. [Icepat]’s dream is reviving UMPCs as a concept, and he’s bringing forth a pretty convincing hardware-backed argument in form of the Pocket Z project. For the hardware design, he’s hired two engineers, [Adam Nowak] and [Marcin Turek], and the 7-inch Pocket Z7 version is coming up quite nicely!
The Hackaday.io project shows an impressive gallery of inspiration devices front and center, and with these in mind, the first version of the 7-inch UMPC sets the bar high. With a 1024×600 parallel RGB (DPI) touchscreen display, an ATMega32U4-controlled keyboard, battery-ready power circuitry, and a socketed Pi Zero for brains, this device shows a promising future for the project, and we can’t wait to see how it progresses.
While it’s not a finished project just yet, this effort brings enough inspiration all around, from past device highlights to technical choices, and it’s worth visiting it just for the sentiment alone. Looking at our own posts, UMPCs are indeed resurfacing, after a decade-long hiatus – here’s a Sidekick-like UMPC with a Raspberry Pi, that even got an impressive upgrade a year later! As for PDAs, the Sharp memory LCD and Blackberry keyboard combination has birthed a good few projects recently, and, who can forget about the last decade’s introductions to the scene.
When someone mentions “pocket size” I wonder: which pocket? Cargo pants, for example, can carry some hefty items.
For designs, I’m reminded of the 701 “Butterfly” keyboard: when you opened it, the pieces would slide out to make a wider keyboard. If you use a banner style LCD, you could have a “Moth” keyboard.
Opening would convert the keyboard layout from 60%, to 70% (or 75%).
The Sharp Zaurus that’s on the right in the article photo was definitely pocket sized – if your current phone fits, it would too (although it was about 2x thicker.) I still miss mine. Got sort of close with the GPD Win Mini from last year, but that one definitely wants a cargo pants pocket.
I still miss my Palm (iiie, tungsten, zire), which I am sure saved me a year of highschool and a year of university.
I’ve had small (Windows) computers for 25 years. I’m still using my quad-core GPD Pocket from a few years ago and it’s been faultless. The Asus Eee900 has been retired and is only used for playing Fallout2 and as a ZX Spectrum emulator.
Pocket size is kinda vague term. Depends on the generation. Doubt a gen-z kid fit it in their skinny jean pockets.
Well, Mr. Packard wanted the calculator to fit in “his” shirt pocket.
It was Hewlett and not Packard.
Not to be pedantic, but Gen-Z is into pants that could fit a small laptop in just about any pocket. Millenneals were all about then skinny jeans.
Still enjoying my 1994 HP100LX running DOS, though the lack of backlight limits its use. Thinking about how to shoehorn a Pi Zero W into its PCMCIA slot — easy to fit, and get power, but how to arrange communication to it? Either need to make it look like a PCMCIA device (how?) or come up with a way to repurpose the PCMCIA lines for communication (lots of software on both sides), or take the easy way and just use the sole HP100LX’s serial port (ugly).
Hmm. With all the investment in the rest of the design, the CM4 looks ideal for this purpose. Using a Zero 2 to shave those few dollars?
two model is beatifull, please bring linux to it
sony clie ux50 palm os https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_CLI%C3%89_UX_Series
and sony vaio P with wide screen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_Vaio_P_series
why not create similar dev with mechanic low profile keyboard and 2-3 days working time.
PDAs were defined by their battery life and by OS hacks to enable that battery life. pi is the opposite. we truly live in a golden age for homebuilt PDAs. don’t do it this way.