Vulcan’s entry into the burgeoning mini PC, micro PC really-small-thing-running-a-full-PC-OS-almost market has a lot about it that's small. You can see just how small in the photos of the unit next to my fat hands that ran in my March 8 preview. Unfortunately, the smallest thing about the FlipStart is its reason to live. I think it's Klingons who leave the no-purpose runts of their litters on rocks as otherworld Vulcan’s entry into the burgeoning mini PC, micro PC really-small-thing-running-a-full-PC-OS-almost market has a lot about it that’s small. You can see just how small in the photos of the unit next to my fat hands that ran in my March 8 preview. Unfortunately, the smallest thing about the FlipStart is its reason to live. I think it’s Klingons who leave the no-purpose runts of their litters on rocks as otherworldly snacks for predators. That way, the kid can go back to Sto-Vo-Kor and try again. (Yeah, I looked that up and probably still got it wrong.)Vulcan needs to try again, too. Because I’m nuking the FlipStart itself, not the micro PC concept — though I have yet to see one I respect. For me, respect requires purpose. And so far, while colorful little dwarven PCs certainly look cool, they can’t sing “hi ho hi ho off to work we go” because, well, they’re too small for work. Sony’s UX, OQO’s 02, and the FlipStart are all too small to serve as effective work machines. And it’s not about horsepower, or even the display: it’s all about the keyboard. I’ve only seen the OQO’s annoying keyboard, but I’ve handled both the Sony’s and the FlipStart’s, and they’re impossible for more than a few SMS-style taps. Writing a report — hell, even just editing a report — will put you in a church tower waving an AK-47 in less than an hour. And it’s not just my fat male fingers that are troubled by FlipStart’s keyboard. I lent the device to a dainty-digited female acquaintance (hey, it could happen) and she couldn’t work it accurately either. But let’s put that aside for a moment. Let’s pretend you can work on a FlipStart. And not only that, let’s pretend there’s an application out there that’s not only specifically designed for a micro PC, but it’s even useful. I would still drop the FlipStart for the following reasons:Anemic hardware. A 1.1GHz CPU and 256MB of RAM? That’s going to have to jump to 2GHz and 1GB of RAM. I didn’t just play Cheers videos on my FlipStart. I loaded Office documents and a 1.84GB Outlook mailbox downloaded from my backup machine. The Flipper hiccupped a bunch during standard Office duties, but it choked hard after loading that mega-Inbox. Scant disk storage. I actually rubbed my eyes when I read 30GB hard disk. Are they kidding? My Archos handheld media player has 60GB for crying out loud. Since media playing is really the main thing this little thing is good for, sticking a tiny disk in there truly doesn’t make sense. No broadband wireless pre-installed. The boys at Vulcan really stepped on their hoopas in that department. Web surfing is the only other thing the Flipper might do well, so limiting connectivity is kooky.A mere 8MB of video RAM. Where are we? 1998? Short on battery life. Small things are supposed to run for longer peri-ods. At full media-playing blast, this thing gave me three Cheers episodes and a third of Inside Man before it died hard. That would have been okay for the native battery, but that was with the long-life battery attached.I did have a few fun experiences with the Flipstart. The integrated 1.3MP Webcam turns the Flipper into a decent Skype video phone. The bundled port replicator gives you two USB ports and a video port, though the latter failed to drive any of my flat panel displays, which Vulcan says is a beta bug. Though with 8MB of video RAM, I’m not eager to see this thing drive a big screen anyway.The Flipper also proved useful at a trade show at which I was doing long-term coverage. Since I wasn’t responsible for reporting breaking news, I only needed e-mail access during the day — just enough to type “Thanks, I’ll get back to you tomorrow” to the really important messages. For that, the FlipStart is great, since hauling even a 15-inch MacBook around a trade show all day is lethal for the lumbar. Had I really been covering the show, however, with an article or two due from the show floor, I’d never have taken the little thing. In sum, the Flipstart isn’t too late, but it is too little. Except for one aspect: Its price tag. An oversized PDA running a full copy of Windows sounds cool on paper, but it just isn’t worth $1,999 in the checkout line. Fix the problems above; maybe add an expandable keyboard that wouldn’t have me going Hannibal Lecter on the passenger next to me in less than 15 minutes; add a stacked optical drive; some cell phone on-demand action; GPS and tablet functionality… now for that I’d pay two grand. Maybe FlipStart 2.0. FlipStart 1.0 Price: $1,999 Verdict: Vulcan’s FlipStart makes a push into the ultra-cool world of full-featured micro PCs. Too bad it’s neither cool enough nor full featured enough to make us think the price tag is worth it. Technology Industry