In the Press!

"Harbinger," -- Linux Journal (April 2000)

"They've Got Designs on You," -- New York Post Article (June 27, 2000)

Our flagship product was featured in Issue #72 - April 2000 of the Linux Journal in a review by Doc Searls.  The text of the review follows:

From the beginning, Linux has been something of a hermit crab operating system because it tends to inhabit boxes designed first for other operating systems.  This has been especially true for clients.  While special purpose servers have been built around Linux for years, clients have mostly been Windows boxes with Linux flowers instead of the more familiar sort.

Portables have been especially vexing to Linux hardware manufacturers.  All your familiar laptops are packed with arcane drivers and embedded characteristics that make running Linux somewhat of an iffy proposition.

Not any more.   Now we are seeing a new generation of portables designed from the ground up to run Linux.  One of the first out of the gate appears to be a remarkable new machine from Boxx.   Described as “the first portable/slim desktop hybrid computer designed from the ground up for Linux compatible multi-platform computing,” it’s a veritable arsenal for the road warrior.  Despite its extreme variety of physical features, its best talent may be its dual-boot capabilities.  The user can install and run two x86-compatible operating systems, one off the primary hard drive and the other off the swappable device bay, key selecting between the two…it’s like having two computers in one.

Here are a few more features of Boxx computers:

• Convertible from notebook to slim desktop, presentation easel, and pen tablet configurations.
• Detachable wireless (IR) keyboard and wireless entertainment remote control 14.1 or 13.3 inch TFT VGA LCD Screen with resisive touch sensitive panel laser pointer pen stylus.
• Swappable device bay allowing a second HDD, CDRW, DVD ROM, CD ROM, LS 120, FDD, or battery.
• 3D stereo sound with built in active diaphragm subwoofer
• Power system with 3 batteries for up to 12 hours of running time.
• Available in Summer 2000

- Doc Searls

Recently we were also featured in the New York Post article on PC Expo.  The text is below:

NEW YORK POST, TUESDAY, JUNE 27, 2000

PC EXPO

They've got designs on you

By Joseph Gallivan

By now everyone has heard about the so-called "proliferation of devices" -- the billion or so digital "thingies" that'll be beeping, downloading  and streaming in our pockets in the future.  But the clunky gray box is also mutating into  other shapes.

Take the Boxx.

New York-based Boxx (www.boxx.net) has a laptop slated for release this fall that can contort like Kerri Strug doing her floor exercise.

The Conportable aims to solve an age-old (well, 10-year-old) problem faced by any road warrior who has to give a demonstration to a potential client: How to show off the screen without having five people all bending over and bumping their heads?

The Conportable's screen swivels up on an arm, rotating 360 degrees, so the operator doesn't get in the way. The keyboard also detaches and operates wirelessly so four or five people can keep their noses to the Powerpoint presentation in comfort.

The screen also doubles as a tablet, flipping so it lies flat on the body of the machine. A stylus allows you to draw directly onto it and handwriting recognition software makes sure you don't end up with nothing but doodles when you get back to the office.

Another nice thing about this machine - which contains a Pentium 3 Processor and has all the horsepower you'd expect in the year 2000 -- is that it's rugged.  Very rugged.   You can throw it down a flight of stairs and it will still work.  The designers say they've made it tough because they know all that recycled airplane air and bad coffee makes road warriors into a clumsy bunch.

Talking of tablets -- and people have, ever since the Be operating system was supposed to change the world in the 1980s -- there's life in them yet.

All they were waiting for was more powerful processors, better screens, and better software.  

Fujitsu's Stylistic 3400 has the power of a good laptop: Pentium III processor, 400MHz, 6GB shock-mounted hard drive.

Compared to the traditional outdoor reflective displays, the new display works just as well indoors as in full sunlight.

It supports Windows Pen Services as well as CIC PenX for handwriting recognition.   

The real market for these tablets is mobile professionals -- not road warriors, but people who traditionally use a clipboard: doctors, warehouse workers, camp counselors.     

The tablet docks into a frame to become a desktop again, and a full-size wireless keyboard attaches.    

As with all tablets, what counts is being durable because workers are bound to drop them.  Fujitsu also guarantees it can be docked 100,000 times before the contacts give out.

The unit is only 1.1 inches thick and weighs only 3.2 pounds. The price, however, is a hefty $4115 so get it cleared by your boss before you check it out on www.fujitsupc.com.

Others have been more creative in their attempts to break up the boring formulation of the PC -- box, keyboard, monitor.

When NEC launched its Flat Panel "Microdesktop" in February of last year, they hailed it as the "form factor of the future." 

Neither history nor the NEC marketing department records how many of these were sold, but despite the full page ads in all the major papers, I've never seen one in real life.  A variation on the pack-the-guts-into-the-monitor idea  is the Zerofootprint PC, which packs it all into the keyboard. 

This is a real PC, running up to a 533MHz Celeron and 512 MB hard drive with plenty of ports and a passable graphics card.

It may be ugly, but at least it's cheap, ranging from $650 to $915.

Yes, the keyboard is as beige and chunky as ever -- no radical overhaul there -- but the disk drives are out of the way.

Or are they?

The floppy disk goes in the right hand side, under the number pad, while the CD-ROM pops out from the top left side of the keyboard, near the Escape key.

Just don't keep your cup of coffee too near it, or you could find yourself mopping up all that spare desktop space you recovered.