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The Audrey web appliance by 3Com

The Audrey is a delightful web appliance made and sold by 3Com in the 2000-2001 time frame of the immediate post dotcom crash era. Meant to be the proverbial "kitchen computer" the Audrey is easy to use, comes on by touching anything (keyboard, screen, knobs) and is instantly on the net. Despite an auspicious introduction to the world on the Oprah Winfrey show by 2001 the Audrey was discontinued. From the Wikipedia's entry on the Audrey:

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 name Audrey was given to this first product to honor Audrey Hepburn. It was meant to deliver the elegance that she exuded. The project codename was "Kojak", named after the Telly Savalas character. The follow-on product targeted for the family room was code named "Mannix".

We hope that someone will be brave enough to create an Audrey for the rest of use sometime in this century!

Thanks to Greg Gavutis for this wonderful donation (of the white Audrey) and all of your efforts in getting it up and running on our network! Thanks Greg Miller and Terry Beaubois for the donation of the black Audrey below.


Our Audrey all in White!

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A "jetscons" design
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The clear pen is used to touch screen
surfing the DigiBarn site!
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Knobs on the side make for easy
access to services
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Main splash screen
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Web surfing mode
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Datebook
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Address book
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Audrey book.. all you need!
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Pen with book

Our Audrey in Black with Documentation!

Thanks to Greg Miller and Terry Beaubois this lovely pristine black Audrey in its original box with all the cool documenation!

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Know anything more about the Audrey? Contact Us!

Also on the Audrey:


Greg Gavutis gives us a quick start video tour
of how to set up and run the Audrey

See other shows
on DigiBarn TV!
 

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Audron

Kiel Bryant Hosier's whimsical treatment of the Audrey and other Compubots

More on Audrey:

Audrey Hacking

Audrey Discussions

OM Audrey - The Unofficial Hack FAQ

The Group's review of the 3Com Audrey ergo

Wikipedia's entry on the Audrey


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