MotivationKaii
Motivated to develop a PDA between the high-end, high-cost Pocket PC PDAs, and the low-end, low-cost Palm PDAs; Infomart (a Bangalore based company, subsidary of Ramjidas Group) is developing a new Linux based PDA called Kaii which means "hand" in Kannada and Tamil, for the global market and specially rural India.
Details
Technical Specifications
- Hardware:
- SH3 processor at 160MHz
- 32-128MB RAM, depending on version
- 32MB masked ROM or Flash, depending on version
- USB interface with both device and host functions
- RS232C serial port
- IrDA port
- CompactFlash Type II slot for memory or peripheral expansion
- MMC slot for memory expansion
- LCD display:
- 2 options: 320 x 240 pixel color TFT; monochrome
- Includes backlight and touch screen
- On-screen alphanumeric keyboard
- Software stack:
- OS: Lineo Embedix Plus
- GUI platform and PDA app suite: Trolltech Qtopia
- Opera: Opera browser
- JVM: Insignia Jeode JVM
- Mechanical:
- Size: 5.5 x 3.2 x .8 in. (140 x 80 x 20 mm)
- Weight: 6.3 - 7.0 oz (180 - 200 gm)
- Batteries: Li-Ion; min. 6 - 8 hrs without BL, 2 with BL
- Applications:
- Mail app
- Multimedia player (MPEG1/2, MP3)
- Games
- Expected Pricing:
- Monochrome: Rs. 10,000 (approx $200)
- Colour: Rs. 15,000 (approx $300)
Features
The Kaii will come with Trolltech's Qtopia PDA suite, which provides a full set of PDA apps and utilities including: "productivity suite" (to-do list, calendar, calculator, address book, text editor), "entertainment package" (mpeg player, image viewer, games), "Internet package" (email client, web access), and "utilities" (screen calibration, backlight control, app installer, network setup, I/O controls).
Infomart is working on Indian languages like Hindi, Kannada, and Tamil, and plan to add a text-to-speech engine in the future, which will make the device useful in the rural markets of India and China
Kaii offers both USB client and control functions allowing it to interface with external devices, thereby enabling niche players to offer vertical and industry-specific solutions like e-governance, ticketing, inventory etc.
It should be noted that it will not be possible to run Zaurus (Sharp's Linux-based PDA) applications on the Kaii, or visa versa, without recompilation, due to the fact that the two PDAs use incompatible microprocessors. Beta boards of the Kaii's electronics are currently being built, with final production-worthy Kaii prototypes expected very soon.
Contact Information
Devesh R. Agarwal dagarwal@infomart.co.in
Managing Director of the Bangalore, India based development company - Infomart
More Information
Links