On a mobile press luncheon company, in the menu which had been on two new models of handheld computers from the first Russian producer, who called attention to this activity, the company Rover Computers, visited our correspondent Konstantin Vorontsov. I must say that "food" under the name Rover PC P5 and P3 occurred to him to taste ... Rover PC P6 became Russia's first handheld computer. Six months, he remained single, but today the situation has changed. Rover Computers Launches New PDAs in a line of Rover PC - P5 and P3. It seems that after the first "pancake", which came out very unappetizing lumpy, Rover began to offer at least edible. And considering the price, still quite attractive.
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Rover PC P6, the hardware for a copy of the very old PDA @ migo, frankly, was not too successful in marketing for the product. No work, it worked pretty well, but to buy the "brick" (everyone immediately apparent massiveness of the PDA) would like a few. Even by its own estimates Rover, were sold about a thousand "P-sixths, and some experts believe that even less. Very small percentage of the market, given that in general it is estimated at 60-100 thousand units, with the Pocket PC has a noticeably larger "piece of the pie" rather than on the Palm and other platforms. Despite the polished shiny plastic cover, the machine looked clumsy, awkward, and the slot PCMCIA, used in laptops and such exotic products for PDAs, not added P6 attractiveness (at least among ordinary users who are not related to the implementation of corporate objectives). It seems, Rover took into account the shortcomings of his first creations, and new items were quite stylish and contemporary.
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On the "get" ... Rover Computers is not itself engaged in the development of internal design or "iron" stuffing. His PDA in hardware terms - full of duplicates of some South Asian (Taiwanese, obviously) model, which is itself Rover, of course, tries not to talk. Made cars, apparently, the same place in Taiwan. Official information on this subject not to use the rumors about specific designers and factories do not want to, so we assume that the PDA - a true "roverovskie" ours. " So, like almost any presentation, first a few words were said about the market situation. There are some interesting figures: according to Gartner Group, worldwide PDA market is growing at 18% each year and by 2006 the world will reach 80 million of intelligent wireless devices (ie PDAs with wireless access), and already by 2005 the number of mobile users Internet will exceed the number Stationary connections. Attractive high-tech prospects ...
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However, it was especially nice, Rover quickly told about his strong position in the market and most of the "mobile press breakfast" (so called event) devoted to the story of two of its new models. Thus, Rover PC P5. The new flagship of the company. Production of Rover PC P6 discontinued - there only to sell off stocks in the warehouses of dealers. There he and the road. Features are pretty standard for Pocket PC 2002, and not very modern. Processor Intel StrongARM 206 MHz, 64 MB RAM, 32 ROM. RAM - "honest", as opposed to, say, ViewSonic V35, in which part of the claimed memory "eaten up" to the needs of the operating system. Screen normal size (as Mitac, Casio E-200 and others), the diagonal of 3,5 inches, reflective.Fairly bright with a fine pitch adjustment illumination power, but in general, nothing special. Illumination from below, because of what the top of the screen, as in the Mitac Mio 528 or a Toshiba e310 is slightly dark.
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On the body was found - two (!) Dynamics, which really are stereo, unless to bury his nose in a screen machines, the unusual power switch - so come down plastinochka (during the test check whether it is convenient), jog-dial, push button voice recorder, two expansion slots (Compact Flash Type II and SD / MMC), IrDA, four buttons for quick application buttons and a joystick. No surprises, except that the inclusion of nutrition is very curious. But the real surprise, and, nice, hidden inside. In Rover PC P5 is two-dimensional graphics accelerator chip MediaQ 1132 with built-in video memory. Maxim Donchenko of the company "Quarta Technologies, which managed to test the machine, uverzhdaet that thanks to this chip, video and graphics-intensive applications Rover P5 works even faster than the P3 c XScale processor at the core of PXA250, especially noticeable when playing flash cartoons. Let's look at testing. Even for a short time spinning in the hands of time to notice that the joystick does not have a central position, ie can not be used as a button "action". And so, in the hand is convenient, easy.
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Separately want to draw attention to the cradle. Stand, which holds the PDA in an upright position, it folds itself the cradle is very flat and generally compact, so it's not too hard to carry on the road. And be worth at least due to the fact that there are some valuable connections - COM, USB-Client and USB-host, which, as the Rover, you can connect the most different peripherals and which is still up and running faster than your competitors with integrated hardware USB controller on the chip MediaQ. P5 is already beginning to sell for $ 399. We managed to agree with Rover Computers on testing, so that soon will be able to share more personal and more detailed impressions of working with Rover PC P5. And at the presentation focused on opportunities to expand and multimedia features PDAs. Attended by journalists photographed by the camera, then showed a small commercial (funny about bears and the salmon:) and gave a listen to the music. P3 attention was paid considerably less. Machine made on the basis of Mitac Mio 338, her heart - Intel Xscale PXA250 200 MHz (so little - to reduce energy consumption). Maxim Donchenko, incidentally, said that the video playback rate increases up to 440 MHz, but everything works, sort of, still slower than the P5 with video accelerator. Physically, RAM - 64 MB, but it takes half an operating system that during rewrites itself from a slow NAND-memory ROM (as in the ViewSonic V35). Rover, however, in contrast to the same ViewSonic'a honest with clients and in performance indicates 32 MB of RAM. Machine itself is just a weightless (in particular, and due to the fact that an expansion slot - SD, possible connection of the periphery), and very beautiful.
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Silver body, illuminated neon blue hardware buttons ... Sweet Home Alabama, in general, girls enjoy. As, probably, like the price - $ 299.
Both models installed in-ROM on crack "Quarta Technologies, which is why Russian and English versions of the interface work the same fast and reliable. Unfortunately, select the language "in a simple" can not, it should be done immediately at the beginning of work. Or after a hard reset. Another pointed to the new version of Windows Media Player on machines and new wallpapers - under Windows XP. In general, at first glance, interesting and quite competitive cars, especially considering the price. Wait till the moment when they can be potestirovat potschatelnee. The authors, translation:
Konstantin Vorontsov
