[Updated Jan. 10: added photo taken at CES] Royal Consumer Information Products unveiled a new Linux-powered PDA Tuesday at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, NV. Royal's new “[email protected]” PDA sports a full-color graphic LCD display and is based on a 206MHz Intel StrongARM processor with 16MB of Flash ROM and 32MB of system RAM. This latest Linux-based PDA is expected to hit store shelves by mid-2002 and be priced at $299.

Features of the new Royal [email protected] PDA include . . .

• 206 MHz Intel StrongARM processor
  
• 32MB system RAM
  
• 16MB Flash ROM
  
• Full color graphic LCD display (presumably 320 x 240 pixels quarter VGA)
  
• CompactFlash Type II slot for wireless/modem connectivity or other expansion
  
• Universal Serial Bus (USB) expansion port
  
• RS-232C serial port
  
• IrDA port
  
• Jack for stereo headset; built-in microphone
  
• Embedded Linux operating system
  
• PIXIL software suite with Microwindows GUI

(Note: click here for enlarged photo; click here to see a photo taken of the device, in operation, at CES.)

From the application software perspective, the Royal [email protected] includes software derived from Century Embedded Software's PIXIL PDA environment. Applications included with the device include a full featured Internet Browser plus a Personal Information Management (PIM) software suite with Address Book, Calendar with Scheduler, Notes, and Calculator functions. The [email protected] will also ship with an MP3 player application and other multimedia support. Other utilities include functions for display and system customization, a virtual keyboard, and handwriting recognition software.

The Royal [email protected] also includes software for PIM data-sync with both Windows- and Linux-based desktop PCs, as well as software that offers one touch synchronization with Microsoft Outlook. Expansion via Type II CompactFlash cards supports wireless Internet access to email and the web, and the unit also supports a dial-up modem for wired email and web access. Network connections for the [email protected] support standard TCP/IP configurations and additional capabilities include Universal Serial Bus (USB), IrDA port for Infra Red transfers, an RS-232 serial port for desktop synchronizing.

Royal's [email protected] is being displayed this week (Jan. 8-11) at the 2002 Consumer Electronics Show, at the Las Vegas Convention Center, Booth #11223 in the South Expansion.

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