

Microsoft Origami (2006) [video] - hiharryhere
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXHKCS28z1s

======
Hamcha
I still kinda miss the era of UMPCs (how much has it been since I last used
that term).

I always wanted tablets to be small PCs, not big phones. The whole mobile
thing strips them of most of their productive potential, as they have most
apps thought for quick glances and activities (social networks, feed readers,
small games) rather than something that might take a considerable amount of
time to do.

Thankfully there are exceptions in both fully tablet-oriented apps (just look
how well Frozen Synapse works on Android tablets) and, as of lately,
x64-powered tablets that can run intensive desktop apps.

Here's a photo of.. 9 years ago(?) of me running Halo on a Samsung Q1 ultra
(on Windows XP!)
[https://s3.amazonaws.com/f.cl.ly/items/1C3n3Z3F0o0w3f3L2N1q/...](https://s3.amazonaws.com/f.cl.ly/items/1C3n3Z3F0o0w3f3L2N1q/DSC00987.jpg)

It had a weak CPU for the time (Celeron 1Ghz single core or worse) and bad
battery life, but featured some pretty quirks (mouse could be controller
either via the resistive touch screen or an analog stick on the side, also
arrow keys are mapped to a dpad, pretty handy for gaming I guess?) which I
hoped would set the future for tablets to come, but they failed miserably, and
now we're stuck with laggy capacitive screens covering the whole device with
no decent haptic feedback whatsoever.

~~~
currywurst
I would encourage you to check out Windows 8.1 (soon to be Windows 10) tables
like the Dell Venue 8 Pro ([http://www.dell.com/us/p/dell-
venue-8-pro/pd](http://www.dell.com/us/p/dell-venue-8-pro/pd)). They are
essentially what the UMPC dream was about. And you can find great deals
(usually <200 USD, once I even spotted them for 100 USD).

------
hiharryhere
This is the first video I ever watched on YouTube. Revisiting it makes me
realise just how far tablets/phones have come to surpass this vision. It also
shows how much we are blinkered in our imagination by what is currently
possible.

------
peterclary
When I first watched this in 2006, the most appealing thing about it was that
it showed people using devices that they didn't have to baby. They were
lightweight and robust devices, and the people in the video didn't seem
worried about knocking or dropping them, in marked contrast to laptops. And
then what came out? UMPCs, which were expensive and non-robust.

------
helmsb
The thing I always liked about the concept was buttons. These days buttons on
a device are out of style but they can make certain tasks easier or more
enjoyable. Look at the guy playing the game. Games that try to emulate buttons
on screen never work right. Also I kinda liked the chunkiness of it. Easy to
hold, doesn't look like you're going to break if you look at it wrong. I'd
love to buy a Windows 10 device in this form factor.

------
programminggeek
You know, this is one reason Microsoft needed to be making their own hardware,
about a decade ago...

They are more on the right track now, but it's not in their DNA yet.

