14 DAY TRIAL // It seems that Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia does not have only the release of new phones on its mind for the ongoing year, since some other devices are reported to be in the works as well. Among them we should be able to see a compact mobile computer based on ARM’s multi-core Sparrow chip, which has been unveiled only last week.
According to the news, the upcoming Nokia Sparrow multi-core computer will be running under Linux OS. Sadly, although its specs are highly elevated, it seems that the actual device is expected to hit the market at a later time, perhaps sometime in 2011.
On the other hand, it seems that the company already has a prototype of the device, which would show that the upcoming Nokia Sparrow does not feature the same design line as the current netbooks do, but rather that it comes closer to the MID area, while also resembling in a way Nokia's N800 Internet tablet.
As for this compact mobile computer, it is expected to come with multi-slide keyboard, providing different layouts/keys in accordance to the direction in which it is slid. At the same time, the display of the device is also able to slide in different directions offering this way different functionalities, somehow like the Nokia N97 tilting display.
In addition, the keyboard of the upcoming Nokia computer seems to come with a diamond shape and elevated keys inverted to each other. Although it might look as being rather difficult to operate, given the small size of the keys, and that of the device as well, the typing goes on rather smoothly, and users won't find themselves in the position of hitting multiple keys at once.
Another interesting thing about the Nokia Sparrow is its new, transparent widget-based interface. Each application that is running on the computer will get its own semi-transparent widget where it will place its content. At the same time, multiple applications can be stored in the memory for long periods of time.