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ePDA : The world’s first bluetooth, Unix, ARM based PDA

June 28, 2008

I would like to share some of the rare pictures of ePDA. A brave project started by MediaSolv in 1999. It was ahead of its time, just like many other projects MediaSolv tried hard to commercialize.

The idea for a hand held device came while I was discussing my (then) current activities with Vasee. If my memory is right this was in October 1999. I was explaining my new found gadget, the Rabbit processor evaluation board and bluetooth radio technology. I was busy building a robot control board that can be operated wirelessly with a PC. This was also the time MediaSolv was experimenting with WAP. The idea was to access BizOA through a mobile phone.

Both of us spent the rest of the evening discussing how this idea of bluetooth and the embedded controller can be used to design a low-cost access device for the masses. I was given the fullest support and a free hand to conceptualize idea and to come up with a plan to get this done, as usual, ASAP :-)

The rest, as they say, is history…

BTW here are the features/functions we experienced:

  • Full QWERTY keyboard
  • Bluetooth radio
  • Works on two AAA batteries
  • Graphic mode LCD screen
  • uCLinux
  • Full office application suite (diary, email, calendar, etc…)
  • Input/output in both English and Sinhala

I guess Flickr would be more appropriate for this purpose. Please click here to see the album. Dont forget to add your comment too.

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Written by Azmeer · Filed Under Mechatronics 

5 Responses to “ePDA : The world’s first bluetooth, Unix, ARM based PDA”

  1. Vasee

    on June 23rd, 2008 8:34 am

    Az…

    Thank you for putting this up. When I install and use some of cool new applications on my phone, I gain satisfaction that today’s cool new technology is in sync with our ideas from over 8 or 9 years ago.

    Of course, ideas are useless if we can’t make them happen and I can’t imagine that would have been possible without you, the World’s first ‘techno-creative’

    Sometimes I forget how high we tried to fly and even though we may not have flown all the way to the desired destination, it was a trip that was well worth the effort.

    With the success of Millennium Office we learned that “nothing is impossible”
    but afterwards, we learned that attempting lots of things at the same time makes
    the “impossible, possible”

    :-)

    The destination, in the end, was the journey itself.

    Cheers my friend

    Vasee

  2. kushith

    on June 24th, 2008 3:46 am

    Nothing’s impossible (I came up with that tag line as a bonus to go with the logo btw) but somethings are difficult. Living on the edge has its price. I sometimes feel I was born in the wrong space and time myself. Yet we should never leave what others call flops in the past but treat them as very expensive lessons. I’m not talking just money but emotional toll, time better spent on other things and the time we reduced from our life expectancy. Sombody still has to keep pushing the limits and while we should try not to fall in the same hole twice, the possibility of failing isn’t scary enough of an outcome to keep us from trying something new.

    Besides let’s not forget why we happened to be doing this stuff in the first place - it is nice to earn a living from it as a side effect, but we are in it because we love doing it!
    -K

  3. Ranil Kumar

    on June 24th, 2008 12:18 pm

    Az, Your the man…any thing good, you have my help…keep it up buddy….

  4. Zackey

    on July 1st, 2008 7:20 am

    WOW, even after eight long years, one man from the team still works on the concept, commercializing it.

  5. kanabona

    on July 16th, 2008 11:33 am

    architecture schematic?

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