Scott -
Here're some excerpts from an article in Scientific American posted by ecma1 on Agora today. Please read this and a following post (also copied/pasted) that I submitted to Agora after some exchanges between members. I'd be very interested in any responses you might have:
not so complimentary review of our POMA in Scientific American , August, 2002 issue pages 88-90. Article written by Mark Alpert
Some direct quotes from the article.
''My disappointment began when I tried to do something useful with the device. I was able to create text files using Microsoft Pocket Word, but I found that writing with the software keyboard is maddeningly laborious. I couldn't deftly maneuver the mouse with my thumb, and I had to put the letters in gigantic font to make them legible.''
The writer states that the POMA can excess the Internet via the standard 802.11b and slipping a LAN card into the device to connect to networks in many airports, hotels and coffee shops.
''But this feature is of dubious value, because in most of these places you're more likely to be sitting with the device than walking. And if you're sitting, it would be a lot easier to surf the Internet with a PDA or a laptop than with the POMA.''
Mr. Alpert had technical difficulties that even help from the Xybernaut folks didn't help resolve.
''I was amazed to see that the POMA contained no games-not even solitaire, which would be a nice distraction for a bored commuter wearing the device. The people a Xybernaut said I could down-load games to the POMA using a serial input/output card hooked up to a desktop PC. But this was easier said than done. When I tried to connect the POMA to a PC, I was stymied by a series of error messages. After several hours of effort and numerous calls to the technical folks at Xybernaut, I ran out of patience. This failure also made it impossible for me to evaluate the POMA's presentation of video and audio clips, because I couldn't down-load any multimedia files.''
Mr. Alpert's comments on the HMD used by the POMA was the following:
''I also learned that the POMA works best on overcast days. Whenever the sun broke through the clouds, the images on the computer screen paled and the text became unreadable. …….. I tried to stay in the shadows. But after I'd traveled about 10 blocks, I noticed a more intractable problem. A sharp pain was spreading across my forehead. My ocular muscles were feeling the strain of keeping my right eye focused on the screen . The pain became so intense that I finally had to rip the POMA off my head.
Mr. Alpert considers the price of $1,499,''eye-popping.'' And when he asked Xybernaut how many of them they had sold, ''the answer was depressingly low: just over 20.
In his last paragraph Mr. Alpert expresses what most people including we investors feel.
''Still, I haven't given up on wearable computers. Voice-recognition software may be the key to improving the devices; it would be a lot easier to compose letters and sonnets on the fly if one could dictate to the machine. Until manufacturers work out the kinks, however, I'm not going to make any more high-tech additions to my wardrobe.'' |
