This is a Cybiko. It just had a huge launch in big retailers. I found mine at Target for $99. Here's some of the specs. . .
- 256k RAM and 512K of flash ROM
- 16 Mhz Hitachi H8S processor running a stack-based VM to run apps
- Radio antenna to communicate with other Cybikos within about 50 feet (for playing games or chatting during class)
- Email send and receive support (must connect to computer to send and receive)
- 4-grayscale LCD with 160x100 resolution
- Rechargable battery pack and serial cable
The neat thing about this is their little sync-app. First off, it's dirt-simple. You just hook your Cybiko to a serial port. In one window, there's all the stuff you can put on it (updated daily on their site). On the other side is all the stuff on the device. Their premiere app is CyLandia, which is apparently a cross between a Tomagotchi and The Sims. It's loading up right now, so we'll see.
The screen is pretty low-resolution, but it's razor-sharp. Reminds me of the high contrast displays on the Palm V.
It's got a stylus, but no touch-screen. The stylus is to help you type on the tiny keyboard, and it helps.
It's funny. Quite a while back I said that if somebody came up with something like a gameboy, except you could load up games from the internet, it'd be a big hit. This is apparently an attempt to do just that. It's got a few warts (the keyboard is just as bad as it looks), but if a few hot games got on this thing, it could be a hit. There are currently about 75 games on the site to download, including two-player games you can play over the radio link.
Another nice thing is the SDK. It's a free download, and they apparently don't have any content-police if you want to develop your own games. No C++ compiler, just C, but they've got a nice utility to convert .bmp and .mid files to work with its format.
Anyway, it's a cool toy.
