Have you seen any of the Charbax CeBIT videos? You really must. When I saw the first one I was turned off. They were too fast and annoying but now I’ve watched a few more I have changed my mind. They are still too fast and jarring but I see what Charbax is doing. He’s blasting as many questions as possible to the interviewee and seeing what comes back. Invariably, you get really good snippets of info coming out. Great job Charbax! Take the Hanbit interview for example. In it you’ll hear the Pepper Pad 4 mentioned, Slingbox and even Skype video support. There’s a mention of design changes on the PP4 and even of lawyers looking into the issue of the Q1 Ultra keyboard to see if there are any patent infringements. Well they would be silly not to check that out wouldn’t they.
I also had a meeting with Hanbit and was able to give them my opinions about how the Pepper Pad 3 should change for the next version. I told them that the design needs to be hardened up so that developers get more interested, that the edges of the device could be shrunk down by probably 10mm on each side, that its too heavy, that the pen should be moved from the front, that the screen quality could be better and that I’d like to see a mouse pointer button. I told them to consider bringing the digital audio out onto a connector, offering S-video (y/c) video out and thinking about the LX900. I told them that if the design was made less feminate it might attract more developers and that they should further incubate a bigger community by offering subsidized models to people active in the community. On the software side I told them that complete Skype and IM support was needed along with UPnP, CIF/SMB support, Bluetooth DUN and A2DP and that the home window look needs a re-design. Its not stylish at all. Too many clashing colours and an icy background.
As it turns out, I needn’t have said much at all. Hanbit and Pepper know about all these things and, as you’ll see in Charbax’s video, and as I heard in the meeting, they are working on most of these features. The Pepper Pad 4 is likely to be a refinement of the Pepper Pad theme with continuing use of the split keyboard layout and an AMD processor running the Pepper software. Hanbit agree that the white version needs a big makeover (pen, grey rubber not attractive) and that it needs to be slimmed down slightly. Skype video support is high on the software list (I guess this is something that will come for the Pepper Pad 3 too) and pricing will remain competitive. Hanbit/Pepper sound like they are aiming for the sub $500 price as soon as they can and I believe its possible.
I now have a black Pepper Pad 3 and I’m even more happy with it now. I would never have taken the white one out with me but (if it had BT DUN support) I would definitely take the black one out and feel comfortable. I noticed that they keys have slightly changed from the early white version that I had. They are slightly less raised and have a softer feel. The touchscreen issues have gone too. Its already getting better!
Existing Pepper owners should expect at least two software releases this year with some significant changes coming in the release planned for Q3.
More info on the Pepper Pad 3 is available on the info page.
