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CONTACT: DOT DESIGN TECHNOLOGIES ANNOUNCES MILESTONE DESIGN OF NEXT-GENERATION WIRELESS INFORMATION APPLIANCE SAN MATEO, CA -- March 18, 2002 -- DOT Design Technologies announces today the design for the X-tend, a second generation information appliance platform based on the National Semiconductor® Geode Integrated Processor. The X-tend features a Linux® based OS with a customizable graphical user interface, 802.11 enabled wireless networked access to the Internet, Email, or the family's PC, as well as powerful built in universal remote control capabilities. - Second Generation Device: Solid Design From The Ground Up "The X-tend was designed from the ground up to be a wireless information appliance and an extension of the home's personal computing and communication infrastructure", says Todd Shafer, President and Founder of DOT Design Technologies. Design constraints and limitations inherent in previous unsuccessful attempts in the information / Internet appliance market were avoided from the beginning. The X-tend is presented in a form factor that is mobile, light, pleasing to use, and designated to be attractive in the home environment (the X-tend features user replaceable face plates to allow it to gracefully blend in with the home's existing décor). The X-tend is completely portable, taking advantage of both the latest advances in wireless networking, low power consumption design, and advanced battery technology. "We feel that the X-tend's design takes everything that has proven to work in past information appliances and improves it with a number of revolutionary elements like an improved form factor, improved usability, open design standards for hardware and software, universal remote control capability, and a customizable user interface, all at reasonable price point," said Todd. The X-tend form factor is perfect for reading websites or email, or accessing information or applications from your primary computer from anywhere in the house. You can read your Email from the deck, catch up on the day's news from the couch, or read an on-line magazine article at the breakfast table. You have complete access to the files and applications located on your primary home PC via the wireless network. The possibilities are endless, and will provide for a whole new way for families to interact with technology in their homes. "The resources and information on the internet have grown at an exponential rate. What has lagged behind are ways to access and integrate that information into the home," Shafer noted. "The PC is great for a lot of things, which is why so many families own one, but it's not the most friendly or accessible way to do a lot of the things that most families do with their PC. What's needed now are ways to elegantly extend and integrate the access to that PC and other sources of information like the internet." - Open Design Principals The X-tend is based on open design principals for both software and hardware allowing developers an easier time to increase the value of the X-tend. "The choice to create an open design philosophy was a pretty easy one," Shafer adds. "Mainly because we know that even if we didn't, within weeks, if not days, people would have been posting info on the boot process of our Linux-based OS, or providing detailed schematics of how to connect a RAID array!" "The level of development energy in the open source world is pretty amazing, and we feel that enabling and encouraging it is going to prove to be an amazing way to make the X-tend fill its full potential." By providing such an open and extensible platform, built from the ground up with both physical and technical design considerations of important elements like form-factor, usability, and stability, DOT Design Technologies fully expects that the X-tend can find a valuable place in just about any home. - Price Point and Business Plan DOT Design Technologies' X-tend is expected to sell for approximately US$699 when it is available. "We feel that by designing the X-tend from the ground up as a next-generation information appliance, we were able to make some significant cost-improvements over designs that say, take a laptop computer design and try to rework it into an IA form factor," says Shafer. "We feel that there is ABSOLUTELY a market for the X-tend", he adds. "We fully realize that the trail behind us is littered with previously failed companies and attempts at creating a product like the X-tend. However, we feel that our business plan, which is completely based around our faith in the value and usefulness of the X-tend, is sound. We are not relying on selling our product at a loss and attempting to generate the necessary revenue with schemes (that at best were unproven and in most cases proved to be completely unsound) like forcing the user to use a specific ISP, or replacing 1/4 of the screen to advertisements." Shafer adds: "Just the power of our universal remote control application, remoteX, when compared with the prices of some of the top of the line remote control ONLY devices justify the addition of the X-tend into the household." Leveraging a state of the art next-generation design, open design principals, extensive and powerful capabilities out of the box, and a sensible price point, DOT Design Technologies' X-tend is poised to finally fulfill the promise of a truly useful and valuable information appliance in the home. ABOUT DOT Design Technologies -- DOT Design Technologies was founded to design and develop interesting and useful technology products that are missing from the marketplace today. Our latest product line, the X-tend second generation Information Appliance, fulfils our idea that products should be simple, open, and extensible. Our goal is to create those solutions that are built on an evolutionary framework, but when taken as a whole are truly revolutionary. Linux is a registered trademark owned by Linus Torvalds. National Semiconductor and Geode are registered trademarks of National Semiconductor. All other products, services, companies and publications are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. For Additional Information, Please Contact: DOT Design Technologies |
