Is Starcom's Knick the ultimate portable blogging platform?
UTStarcom's Knick, revealed in a Radioshack-sourced spy shot, appears to be something of a Sidekick clone. There's a full keyboard, a camera that can shoot video, GPS, email, TV, and internet browsing: all features you'd expect of such a thing.
Something about it, however, suggests a power and technological maturity not associated with the Sidekicks. It looks more like the Sony VAIO UX micro-PC's little brother than something kids would hammer out love notes on. Or is this crazy talk?
Engadget's Darren Murph sounds like he's in the same place I'm at, of thinking that it's pretty damn hot ("Awestruck," is how he puts it) but not quite knowing why we think that way. Skepticism leads me to think it's just a clever combination of Sidekick and UMPC-ish design that flies, laser-guided, to the feature-whore heart in all of us gadgetfolk.
But damn, do I want to get a look at this Knick. You'd better have a good browser, laddie.
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Looks pretty sweet! Hopefully the battery life is longer than 5 minutes. o_O
I'm likely far from the first to call it, but still, I'm going go ahead and take credit for nicknaming it the Brick :-)
Battery life is unimpressive so far (after a weekend of use). Doesn't seem to be usable at all for blogging, except via email, and then only if you use Yahoo, AOL or Hotmail/Livemail. Only supports partner email setup, IOW: MS, Yahoo and AOL, and a few specific access providers like Earthlink, Comcast, Juno and Netzero -- no Google, no arbitrary provider? (Which is frustrating, how difficult coult it be -- must be a revenue issue.)
Web browsing experience is wretched, so web forms, unless WAP, are useless. Chat works on AOL, MS and Yahoo, but not Google.
So, yes, it's pretty much smoke and mirrors: No real capability beyond that of a normal phone, just easier to use thanks to keyboard. No real sync capability as far as I can see, though I'm probably just missing something.