Review: PepperPad Amazes, But What Is It?

I guarantee the first minute you see the PepperPad you will be captivated. It weighs just 2.3 pounds and it's got a beautiful 8.4-inch, 800-by-600 touchscreen, built-in Wi-Fi, and a 20GB hard drive. But whether that's enough for true love or just infatuation you'll have to decide after you get to know it better.

It's almost easier to say what the PepperPad is not than what it is. It is not an overgrown PDA, for example. Even though it handles e-mail well -- and even includes an AOL IM client -- it lacks the address book and calendar apps that would make it a personal information manager.

It's not a pared-down laptop, either. The 800-by-600 screen is enough for great Web browsing and the hard disk is great storage. But its set of software applications is definitely MP3, not MBA. There's no word processor, no spreadsheet, and even though the PepperPad runs Linux, it does it on an Intel XScale processor and custom chipset which limit compatibility with existing productivity software and the driver libraries they would need.

If you find this a little confusing, the problem is yours, not the PepperPad's. The people who run the company that makes have a very clear idea of what it is and what it's going to be good for, even if you (and, I admit, I) don't.

First and foremost, it's a consumer device. It's not for the enterprise. And it's for a global marketplace, not just the North American computing culture -- a marketplace that already has more widespread access to broadband than we do in the United States.

The Pad has three primary distribution channels, says Jon Melamut, VP of Sales and Business Development for Pepper: North American retail, Broadband ISPs and MSOs, and OEMs. The current primary interest in the OEM sector is for home automation in Korea, says Melamut -- what Americans think of as home control; turning lights on and off remotely, adjusting thermostats, seeing who's at the front door by checking the doorcam that sits on the house intranet. "That sort of thing is much bigger in other countries, particularly in Asia, than it is here," says Melamut, which is why the PepperPad is available in two versions, English and Hangul (Korean).

All Media, All The Time

North American consumers will see the PepperPad as a media manager. You can't really say it's a PDA or a laptop, but you can certainly say it's a giant iPod. Like Apple's musicbox, the PepperPad has a companion desktop application (Windows only). The Pad can load music files and videos from the desktop, the Web, or USB devices, and photos and videos from a built-in SD/MMC card reader. Its application set may not include a word processor, but it's got a well thought-out album applications for managing and sharing collections of photos, tunes and videos. The photo album, for example, lets you collaborate with other PepperPad users via e-mail to contribute to shared albums.

The media frenzy doesn't stop there. There's another album for building your own collection of links to streaming Web feeds from radio stations -- and of course you can play them through the stereo speakers built into the lower corners of the 12-inch-wide PepperPad, or plug into the headphone jack. The PepperPad can also emulate a basketful of infrared remote controls. It's equipped with two different infrared emitters and a receiver, and the software and code libraries to allow it to "learn" your TV, DVD, VCR and CD remotes, then group them onscreen and give you a convenient couch-top multi-device control center. Put all these things together and what do they spell? T-E-E-N-A-G-E-R. The Pad is a 12-by-6 1/2-by-3/4-inch life-support device for Gen-M(edia)ers. It's price tag is hefty -- $849 list; Amazon is taking pre-orders for $799. First units ship June 28. By next Christmas it could be the hottest thing since Tickle Me Elmo.

"Could be" is the operative term. The form factor puts the PepperPad into unknown territory. It's breaking new ground the same way the Palm Pilot broke new ground. It solves a lot of problems that we're beginning to recognize about digital media. We don't print our photos anymore, for example, we collect them on a laptop, but a laptop isn't good for sharing photos because it's just too fragile to pass from hand to hand. The PepperPad, however, is a carry-around, pass-around device much better suited to what we want to do with our digital images.

The Pad obviously wasn't designed to be text-centric, and e-mail and IM r smday going 2 be blamed 4 the illiteracy of generations of kids, but even 4 IM the Pad's split "thumbboard" was a challenge on short acquaintance. Still, a set of tiny buttons has proven itself to be a surprisingly usable way to enter text on small devices -- at least on the Blackberry. And even if the Pad doesn't run MS Word, it does have a Journal application built on the Mozilla text editor, sufficient for creating and sharing text entries like recipes. If you want to enter a lot of text -- to completely annotate your day-by-day photo diary of your bicycle trip through Thailand, say -- you can set the Pad up on its built-in stand and aim any Bluetooth keyboard and mouse at it.

The Software Shows Real Strength

While the hardware is important, gizmos like this one rise or fall on their software, and here the PepperPad seems to have real strength. If you like the tabbed interface of Firefox, you'll love browsing with the PepperPad -- it uses a tabbed screen to help you navigate through both its built-in applications and the Internet without opening multiple Windows, which many less-than-proficient computer users find confusing.

The individual applications have neat, thoughtful features that make them more useful. And if something needs to be changed, it can be: the Pad is designed to be a managed device and all the software that comprises the operating system and the user interface can be patched or updated by Pepper Computing through its Web sites and servers. The Web software is clearly intended to support a high-quality browsing experience -- it includes a Mozilla browser, Java 2 and Flash, along with the AIM client.

What Do You Want It To Be?

The PepperPad hardware is nearly as flexible as its software. The device runs on 624MHz Intel XScale processor (a family of chips designed for low power consumption, and used mostly in handheld devices and automotive telematics) with a hardware video accelerator and 256MB of SDRAM, and I/O that includes, in addition to everything mentioned above, a built-in microphone and microphone jack, stereo line out and composite video out.

In a world where Furbys are networked and MailStations are turned into network servers the PepperPad might just as well have a sign on it that says, "Hack me." Expect to see Web sites devoted to morphing the Pad into whatever you might like it to be, and Pepper Computing is well aware of the Pad's potential: the company is working with OEM clients who see the Pad as everything from an HVAC console to the ultimately portable blogging tool, says Pepper's Melamut. If a Web-browsing PDA or a desktop presentation station is what you see in the PepperPad, then stay tuned.

But then, with all it's got to offer, once you get to know it maybe you'll decide you'd like it to be a PepperPad.