FAQ
FAQ
Future EPOC machines
Note: This page contains a few highlights from older pages first put online between Jan 2000 and Jan 2001 (the 'cancellation' news below).
Project ODIN cancelled
Unfortunately, since making this page Motorola have decided to withdraw from their agreement to co-operate with Psion and produce wireless devices. As a result, consumers are unlikely to ever see these products in the shops. Motorola are still due to release a Symbian device in 2002 and Psion will continue to develop PDAs with Bluetooth and DAB technology, however it seems that for the foreseeable future, there will be no Psion Wireless Information Devices. This is a great shame but it's an understandable decision as it would have been difficult for Psion to expand into the well established mobile phone markets on their own. Motorola are also having to make cutbacks and are planning to reduce manufacture and streamline their product range. They have already stopped production in their Scottish plant temporarily, to clear a build up of stock, and have outsourced other production. Ericsson have now outsourced too and Nokia now seem set to outsource at least 20% of their products.
Two devices from the Psion/Motorola collaboration:
The following is a rough translation of this WAPland article
Psion are planning to release a real killer and WAPland have images of it
WAPland have access to images that prove Psion has plans to release a full blown PDA incorporating a GPRS handset, thus we get a mobile phone that can surf through HTML pages three times as fast as we can with a bonded ISDN connection at home.
Of course it has a touchscreen but Psion aren't alone in launching touchscreen Wireless devices, most mobile manufactures will, but the prototypes we've seen of the competitors models all look like rounder versions of today's PDA's.
If Psion can last the distance we will get Email, HTML, WAP, fax, Word processing, Spreadsheet, Agenda, PC-synchronisng and much more all in one simple phone.
Everyone who's used a Psion PDA with it's Symbian EPOC platform knows they have something good to look forward to.
As far as we can see there is only one downside: 16 shade grey screen.
16 greys are ok but of course we want colour screens, and we know Psion can make them!
In the Odin project, Psion and Motorola made a quarter-VGA (240×320) colour EPOC-Quartz phonepad, with a touchscreen but no manual keyboard.
Psion hasn't released details of it's schedule but we can expect to see the EPOC crystal based phone (With keyboard) launched sometime before autumn 2001- Which gives us time to save a few quid!
Psion@CeBIT.2000
Of course these devices aren't new. They were first shown publicly as non-working prototypes at the Cebit 2000 exhibition in Hanover, Germany last February and have popped up at other events since. On the whole the devices shown in these photo's remain largely unchanged with the most notable physical difference being the ancillary screen on the keyboard 'Thor' device having moved from the edge to the centre of the case, and the addition of two buttons either side of it to initiate/answer or end calls. There's also a navigation control above the screen and an opening for the mic below. The device is voice activated though it doesn't have speech recognition. Whether it will feature a touchscreen as claimed in the WAPland article remains to be seen however as ER6 crystal doesn't support this just yet, and although it's planned for later revisions, the phone will be out by then. The 'Odin' Quartzpad will be released carrying both the Psion and Motorola brands, but marketed by Psion throughout Europe and by Motorolla in the US as "Accompli 003". Both will be fitted with a customised version of the ARM9 running at 150Mhz. This chip was designed by Psion themselves who based it on the ARM9 core, optimising it for EPOC similar to the way they designed the ARM 7110 for the Series 5. Psion may eventually use a 200Mhz version in their Sapphire devices.
The Odin device will ship with 32MB high speed RAM for running programs as well as a 16MB internal disk, USB connector, Bluetooth transceiver and can be expanded with Multimedia cards rather than CF cards. Since the front of the removable phonepad case slides down rather than flips, a nice (and familiar) touch by Psion may be a leather bound case like the Series 7 which would roll round as the front slides open. Both companies' devices will use ER6 Quartz (version 6.1, bringing improved Bluetooth, WAP 1.2 and GPRS support to EPOC) which has multimedia capabilities. In addition, it will also feature the Opera Web browser V4.1 for an unrivalled wireless Web experience! You can read more about Quartz on the Symbian Website.
Milan Tjioe was at Cebit 2000 and managed to take some impressive photograph's of both these models and some other prototype devices, some of which are now in the shops! These can be viewed at the Psion User Group UMC website.
Also, you can see a photo of an ODIN prototype in the palm of a user's hand for an idea of scale on Portal PDA.
Sanyo Quartzpad
Not only are Nokia planning to release a new colour EPOC Crystal Communicator in the new year (possibly in February?), replacing the ageing 9100 series, but Sanyo are working on an EPOC Release 6 device too. The colour Quartz PDA (Lyra) should be on sale in Japan in 2002 and will hopefully make it to Europe and the USA sometime in 2003. Weighing just 194g and including a headphone socket, Multimedia Card slot and wireless connectivity, this Unicode device should be the perfect companion to a GPRS or UMTS phone.
The Register currently have an article about the Lyra quartzpad which has some more information about Lyra, but no photo's
Nokia 9210 Crystal communicator
Click here for information about the colour 9210
Ericsson Quartzpad
This fully working Ericsson prototype was unveiled at CeBIT 2000 in Hanover, Germany, however since then it has been abandoned in favour of a lighter design running ER7/UIQ called Linnea (P800). Based on EPOC Release 6 Quartz, it was a fully functional tri-band mobile phone, wireless PDA, media player and much more. As well as support for GSM2, GPRS and 3G networks the device also used Bluetooth and an IrDA port to connect to other devices and peripherals. WAP was to be a standard feature and unlike the R380, it could display conventional HTML pages too. An earpiece looking similar to Walkman headphones was included (on a cable though a Bluetooth version is optional) to allow the user to leave the phone in their pocket while making calls or listening to MP3s, talking-books, live news & information services etc.
The 240×320, 256 colour touchscreen is used in portrait to operate the device though input is very simple and quick thanks to both the highly intuitive and efficient design of EPOC Quartz and the CIC Jot handwriting recognition that allows natural writing to be used without misreads or special pen sequences to be learned. Voice activation is also used to initiate calls and select options though it does not allow speech recognition so Emails, faxes and notes have to be either written or "typed" using the on-screen keyboard (an optional view). Applications are more closely integrated than in previous EPOC releases which makes it easy to get and use information used by other applications in the current program. The contacts database is now a server application allowing all standard and additional apps/functions to read from it and return information. You can move between any two applications in just one click thanks to the top navigation bar, and messages (Email, SMS, faxes etc.) can be sent received with equal simplicity. Another improvement is far better support for synchronising and conversion with a completely rewritten PIM application and improved PC conversion software for the EPOC platform as a whole.
Beyond the phone and PDA functions, the device is capable of playing MP3's and even streaming live video over mobile networks (Ericsson may wait for GPRS before they implement this). In fact Ericsson have been working with the BBC to develop a news and information service for Ericsson users who will be able to take full advantage of the video and audio content with devices like this. SDM cards are used for data storage (Including MP3's) rather than Compact Flash which provides better security for both personal data and Copyright protected material.
