December 21st, 2005
Commodore back in the Game?
By Chief Gizmateer
Contributing Writer, RealTechNews
The Geeks will visit CES in Vegas early next month so we have been bombarded with meeting requests and new product announcements. One of the more interesting product announcements is from a company called Commodore.
If you’re a geek, you know all about Commodore… yeah, the little company that launched one of the most popular and best selling computers back in 1982 called the Commodore 64. After gobbling up Amiga in 1985, Commodore then released the first multimedia computer called the Amiga 1000. The gaming world owes a debt of gratitude to Commodore’s platforms and games. So what have they done lately?
Fast forward twenty years (several company owners) and Commodore is set to release three new products under the Commodore brand including: Commodore Multimedia Tower, Commodore MediaBox and the Commodore Navigator.
The Commodore Multimedia Tower is a standalone kiosk (or wall unit) which will allow consumers to purchase legal digital media such as digital music, mobile phone ring tones, games and wallpapers. The Tower is compatible with most mobile phones and MP3 players worldwide.
Commodore’s second offering, the Commodore MediaBox is tauted as an all-in-one home entertainment set including not only a hard disk recorder but an ability to play videos, music and photos on television. The MediaBox also will allow customers to purchase via television services such as music downloads, ring tones, games, video on demand and photo printing service. Equipped with an 80GB hard drive and a digital TV tuner, the MediaBox requires an Internet connection to watch thousands of video streams including sports, events, movie trailers and even concerts.
Commodore’s final offering at CES is the Commodore Navigator which is a portable GPS device running Windows CE on a 20GB hard drive for maps as well as loading and playing audio and video. With a nice 3.6″ touch screen, the Navigator can operate in day or night mode using 2D and 3D images to let you know where you are. The Navigator has all the standard features of a GPS unit but is capable of MP3 decoding as well as playing WMA audio as well as playing both MPEG and DivX video files. Unfortunately, the combo is also DRM compatible.
Commodore should be an interesting visit at CES. I really need to take a look at the MediaBox and Navigator, but the products being introduced seem cool enough, but I have a feeling their Commodore 64 Joystick that directly plugs into TV will probably remain one of their hottest products. I’m not sure Commodore’s Multimedia Tower will be used by consumers purchasing digital media as iTunes works well for most people and cell phone media is usually bought through the cell phones connection. The MediaBox will have to contend with some heavyweights in it’s product arena, heavyweights with proven products and market share. Finally, the Navigator sounds like a cool gizmo but with most geeks getting cars with built-in GPS and with portable GPS’ not at the top of most people’s lists, Commodore does not seem to have a C64 type product on the horizon.
We’ll definitely check out Commodore at CES and maybe our minds will be changed.
Source: Gizmos for Geeks
Stephen says:
The probelm with in car systems are theat they are a rip-off at upwards of +$1000 each. Adding to the misery of using one is that they are generally not useable by passengers and the interfaces suck big time. I’m looking for a portable unit and although there are several sub $400 units on the market, I’d definitely look at the Commodore unit if it came in at the right price.
December 21st, 2005 at 8:49 am
Stephen says:
OOOPS …left this out also….for privacy zealots..do you really want your travel info accessible? With the use of black box data increasing, I’m not too sure what can be gotten out of an incar GPS unit but I have the feeling that at some point in the future they’ll put in a link to make saved travel accessible (even to law enforcement or insurance) the same as any of the other black box data.
December 21st, 2005 at 8:53 am
MissingFrame says:
Commodore is only a name at this point, the name has more relevance to Lionel Richie at this point.
Somebody could take the original Amiga architecture and use it for embedded devices, but even that is slowly becoming too outdated as interfaces such as USB and Bluetooth are what devices are being built around.
December 21st, 2005 at 11:38 am
Mikey says:
Hooray! Now I can dust off my ‘64. What? What new stuff?
You,..you mean it’s *not* a computer? ..sniff..
What a let down, I was all ready to start soapboxing all the PC/MAC geeks out there with a “You aint seen nothing yet” rant, but I’ll shut up now. Commodore had the vision, and the skills (sort of) but the common interchangability of PC parts was the poke in the eye for Commodore. They never recovered. There was a huge market for innovation and Commodore never really stepped up to the plate like IBM did.
December 21st, 2005 at 1:52 pm
Aidle says:
Welcome back Commodore, right move to grap long time ago innovation market on car navigation system, although there are few computer company making these type gadgets already. Nowadays electronic market is like super mega market so many choices.
December 23rd, 2005 at 7:30 am
scott says:
Commodore is nothing as it once was. Just a name as said before. People just trying to cash in on the title of this once great company. Sadly it is no more… as for the joystick legal action is being taken by the creator for not being paid for the design!
What a waste of time an energy, and reducing commodore’s name even further to just idiot boxes for idiots… weee
December 23rd, 2005 at 9:27 am
c64 fan says:
C64 was an outstanding legend beyond many peoples ability to realize, i agree with those who say it’s waste of such a historically glamorous name on something less than say an ultimate gaming maching of the coming century!! what a pitty!
C64 makers and programmers you where the real deal of our time!! i’ll always respect u and be greatful for your contributions.. go C64 fans…
August 28th, 2006 at 1:30 pm
Brian says:
I had both a C64 and an Apple II+ and just loved both of them. But I for one would like to see the older computers, like them, rest in peace. In this age of Core 2 Duo level technology I think hyping the old 8 bit technology is kind of sad. (My C64 could do 20 cosines a second. My old Pentium 2, which sits gatheing dust, tested at 15 million! I haven’t tested more modern chips.) There is no comparison if you like Wintel or not.
May 11th, 2007 at 4:05 pm