All Things D
Well today’s the day, at various points two things I’ve been interested to hear will be happening at D5. First up at 11:30 PST is that Jeff Hawkins should be introducing his all singing, all dancing new product that will hopefully reverse Palm’s current fortunes. Palm says this will be a “new category of mobile device”. I remain both skeptical and hopeful - skeptical that there’s a form factor out there that is neither phone nor sub-notebook that is something that anyone really wants, but hopeful because I think Hawkins is genuinely innovative and will be displaying something super damn cool.
Here’s the slightly wierd thing. That press release says that the product announcement will be at the conference but Hawkins’ presentation will be via webcast afterwards in which Hawkins will “describe a new category of mobile device” (emphasis mine). I was a little surprised at this - he isn’t on the D5 speakers list, either. What that means to me is that they don’t actually have a product yet, they just have a description of one, or maybe a very early proto of one. If that’s true I’ll be really disappointed unless they give firm ship dates not too far in the future and the product is really, genuinely revolutionary. Sigh, I can’t believe he’s just going to describe a new category of device. I could describe some categories, too.
The other interesting thing to be happening is Steve Jobs and Bill Gates getting on stage together to have a discussion about technology. I’ll be curious to see if they stay civil and undefensive and also what they think about the direction of technology. The comparisons will be difficult to make since their stage presences are at opposite ends of the spectrum - Steve Jobs can do no wrong on a stage and Gates, well, Gates just sits there hunched over, umming and otherwise being very un-charismatic. Nevertheless, they’re both giants of the industry with, I’d suspect, starkly different predictions and it should certainly be enlightening to hear the back and forth between them. I hope it shows up on the YouTubes or something soon after.
May 30th, 2007 at 1:31 pm
I am highly underwhelmed by the Foleo. Then again I wasn’t expecting to be whelmed to begin with. =p It’s kinda cool I guess for all those Treo owning traveling businessmen out there who don’t own a laptop….. all, uh, none of them.