Some good DualCor info

I’ve been talking with Dave Ciccone, Director of Strategic Alliances at DualCor, and I’ve learned some more information about the upcoming DualCor cPC that we’ve all been hearing about lately.

• First of all, the DualCor MSRP will be $1999 and they will be selling the cPC via authorized resellers nationally within 90 days. That means it will be available to us all and not just enterprises – good move. There will also be special Government and Educational pricing.
• It will support both portrait and landscape modes, and support up to 2048 x 1536 when connected to an external monitor via the VGA port. They have only tested it up to 1600 x 1200, though.
• When asked about why there are no radios embedded in the cPC, Dave said that their market research indicated that users wanted choice – some want EDGE, others want EVDO. Dave wanted to reiterate that the cPC is built for flexability and allows the end-user: “Choice”.  I’d look for GSM / GPRS /EDGE / EVDO USB solutions to be available through carriers very soon, thus the cPC reliance upon these peripheral solutions for connectivity. They have to know that these things are about 90 days from being released. No word on who those carrier partners are.  I’m assuming at least a couple have to be national carriers: Verizon, Cingular, etc.
• When you buy the cPC, it will come with an 802.11G Compact Flash card. For phone support, you’ll need to purchase either a CF (GSM / GPRS) or USB ( GSM / GPRS / EDGE / EVDO) peripheral. CF or USB peripherals will be available through carrier partners that DualCor has certified. Seeing how DualCor and cPC is built around “Choice” and flexability, I would think non-partner peripherals would work, but we’ll have to wait and see.
• Can we talk on the cPC and be on WI-FI at the same time? Yes – using the Compact Flash card for 802.11 and the USB phone peripheral.
• Support for syncing with the Macintosh (iCal, etc) is in the works and will be available later.
• Syncronization between the Mobile side of the cPC and the XP side of the cPC is handled through proprietary software and ActiveSync.
• There are no PC card slots on the cPC  because the cPC is too small and they typically require too much power.
• Now, here is some interesting info regarding the harddrive on the Tablet OS side and Windows Mobile. First of all, remember that Windows Mobile resides on ROM – it boots instantly. The Tablet side of the cPC resides on the harddrive – slow boot. According to Dave, they are adding a feature that accesses the hard drive from Windows Mobile without booting or bringing the Tablet side out of hibernate. That means you will be able to access the harddrive via Windows Mobile without bringing the Tablet out of hibernate. Very cool – instant access to that 30gb harddrive!

If you guys want to know anything else, post a comment and I’ll look through my notes. If I don’t see it there, I’ll shoot an email to Dave.