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Freshly back from an unexpected extended Christmas break, I started going through my various lists, reminders, and old To-Do’s.  Amazing what you can find on these lists!

Something caught my eye – a device that I had been impatiently waiting to hit the market. My dream device: Imagine, a fully functional PC, which could run Windows XP Home or Professional, a 1 GHz processor, a 30 GB hard drive, 3D graphics card, a USB 2.0 port, full QWERTY keyboard, built-in WiFi and Bluetooth, a 1024 X 600 high-resolution screen. Add in a small external display that can keep monitoring your email in real time and a power scheme that allows a two day stand-by time, one full day in low-power mode, and 2-3 hours in full XP running mode. And all this in a device that is less than 6" X 4" X1" and weighs under a pound! (Yes, I am drooling as I type this!)

But this was not just a dream – it was the Vulcan FlipStart MiniPC. And it was to be released late in 2004. What happened?

Vulcan is a small Seattle-based company founded by Paul Allen, one of the founders of Microsoft. He pulled together what he called "…a dream team of PC industry design and engineering luminaries". Their purpose? Another quote from Allen: "Scour the globe and find the best technologies available to make a computer as powerful and easy to use as a desktop model, but small enough to fit in a pocket." If the technology didn’t exist, they were to invent it themselves, according to the "Vision" statement on Vulcan’s website.

The Vulcan was actually released for review to several members of the press at the DEMO 2004 show. But I haven’t seen nor heard anything from Vulcan again.

I knew that I most likely could not afford one, but I still waited because I just had to see this thing. We all have such things that we know will one day be real, and maybe, just maybe we will somehow be able to find a way to have one for ourselves. The FlipStart looked to me to be the ultimate in miniature devices. Since then many innovative small computers have come to market. But I’m still waiting and watching.

The Vulcan FlipStart WILL happen. Really. And I personally asked Santa Claus to reserve one just for me!

Website: http://minipc.vulcan.com/default.asp 

Chris Leckness (3531 Posts) - Website | Twitter | Facebook

Chris Leckness is the Owner/Administrator of Mobilitysite. He is a Microsoft MVP, Mobile Devices and a member of the exclusive focus group, Mobius. Chris runs a Mobilitysite, GotZune, and a few other smaller sites and blogs. His personal blog is chris.leckness.com.