3Com Ergo Audrey: Қолдан тоқтатылған интернет құрылғысы

Discontinued internet appliance

The 3Com Ergo Audrey is a discontinued internet appliance from 3Com. It was released to the public on October 17, 2000, for USD499 as the only device in the company's "Ergo" initiative to be sold. Once connected to an appropriate provider, users could access the internet, send and receive e mail, play audio and video, and synchronize with up to two Palm OS based devices. Audrey was the brainchild of Don Fotsch (formerly of Apple Computer and U. S. Robotics) and Ray Winninger. Don and Ray had a vision for a family of appliances, each designed for a specific room in the house. The brand Ergo was meant to convey that intent, as in "it's in the kitchen, ergo it's designed that way". There were plans to serve other rooms in the house as well. They considered the kitchen to be the heart of the home and the control room for the home manager. Don coined the phrase "Internet Snacking" to describe the lightweight web browsing done in this environment.

The Audrey is a touchscreen, passive matrix LCD device and came equipped with a stylus. All applications were touch enabled. Since the standard infrared keyboard was only needed for typing tasks, it could be hung out of the way on the rear of the unit. The stylus was to be placed in a receptacle on the top of the screen with an LED that flashed when emails arrived. Buttons on the right side of the screen were used to access the web browser, email application, and calendar, and a wheel knob at the bottom selected different "channels" of push content. The 3Com Audrey is powered by a 200 MHz Geode GX 1 CPU, with 16 MB of flash ROM and 32 MB of RAM. It measures 9 x 11.8 x 3.0 inches (22.86 x 29.97 x 7.62 cm), and weighs 4.1 pounds (1.86 kg). It is powered by the QNX operating system. The Audrey is equipped with a modem, two USB ports, and a CompactFlash socket. A USB Ethernet adapter was commonly used for broadband subscribers. The Audrey was also available in such shades as "linen" (off white), "meadow" (green), "ocean" (blue), "slate" (grey), and "sunshine" (light yellow).

After the demise of official support, the Audrey drew the attention of computer enthusiasts. They quickly discovered an exploit to launch a pterm session. Using privilege escalation techniques, the root password in the passwd file could be edited, opening the box to further experimentation. Many of the tools for the QNX operating system development platform were quickly adapted for use in the Audrey, including an updated web browser (Voyager), an MP3 player, digital rotating photoframe, and other applications. The CompactFlash slot was also investigated. Although it could not be used for storage expansion, the Audrey was set to flash its operating system from the slot. Soon, a variety of replacement OS images were distributed among enthusiasts. As the device could utilize an optional Ethernet connection, it was an easy task to mount a remote disk drive served up by a neighboring desktop system, thus allowing for virtually unlimited storage capability.

Devices similar to the Audrey included the i Opener, the Virgin Webplayer and the Gateway Touch Pad.