The HTC Shift. A fantastic design that failed due to overly heavy operating system, a short battery life, low screen resolution and limited Windows Mobile implementation.
Over a year of rumors and false-starts the HTC Shift became the most viewed device on UMPCPortal by a long shot. Videos of it were always popular and even after it launched, communities grew quickly and great things were done with the device. The short battery life and high cost killed it in the end through and as smartphones took off and even due to Intel moving towards the MID, it lost ground quickly.
Still, it’s an amazing bit of engineering and there might even be a few use case left for it. Certainly a 30 minute session in the coffee shop could be worth a lot of fun and a few discussions!
At $199 it’s worth a but of fun and maybe worth trying some Ubuntu, ChromeOS or other lightweight OS. Unfortunately this isn’t the 3G version. Anyone up for it? Or maybe you’re waiting for the updated version?!
It’s up for another 8 hours at 1saleaday.com
Via Brad Linder
April 12th, 2012 at 9:50 pm
Brings back some memories, Chippy….had one briefly a few years back…nice hardware design, but does have some limitations as you mention….but for $199, it is tempting to have one again perhaps to play with as you suggest…
Hmmmmm……………
April 13th, 2012 at 4:08 am
Trying so hard to resist…if I can just hold out for two more hours…this would totally be a nostalgia purchase…but I have been trying to reduce the amount of electronic flotsam in my house. Still…so tempting, to try out the device that I passed on to get a Samsung Q1b and then an Ultra Premium…would be nice to go back in time and see how the other side was living…
…interesting note here, too, from the Wiki page:
“In November 2011 the team from DistantEarth have succeeded in loading the developer preview of Windows 8 onto the HTC Shift.”
April 13th, 2012 at 7:11 am
Hehe, i think i’ll rather get that Asus slider instead.
Or perhaps look into getting a Cupp module installed into that ultrabook slider you were buzzing about the other day.
April 13th, 2012 at 1:15 pm
well, throw in one of these portable external powerpacks (almost the same size as the device itself) for 30 -40$ and you will get 10+ hrs on the go. then kick vista for win 7 (should’t be a problem using the existing vista drivers).
April 15th, 2012 at 10:43 am
These guys need to bring back good designs like this. Designs like these were ahead of their time and that’s why they failed. The software was too big, the processors were too slow at those times. Now things are almost good to give them another try for sake of productive serious users.
April 16th, 2012 at 6:07 pm
what is named history for RICH people, is still far away from poor people.
shame on name.
April 20th, 2012 at 5:33 pm
this looks like a sweet tablet deal
April 28th, 2012 at 9:12 pm
salem online polling page
More easily said than performed I presume. salem online polling page
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April 30th, 2012 at 9:36 am
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May 1st, 2012 at 6:27 pm
I just install windows 8 on mine, its a amazing machine now! Buy it!
May 3rd, 2012 at 4:11 pm
Sorry Yu. We had someone hack our server and bypass wordpress spam protection. Everything should be back to normal now.
May 7th, 2012 at 12:53 am
Spam again…
May 11th, 2012 at 1:32 am
That thing is a classic and only $200! Sign me up.
May 17th, 2012 at 6:35 pm
I thought it’s htc shift without the “t”
)
where can we buy one of these?