Archive for July, 2006

PocketPC solutions, the Tablet Kiosk agent in the UK and Europe have a special offer that they are running through August on the eo 7110 UMPC.

The eo 7110 is being offered for a discounted price of £699.99.

We’ve tested the 7110 (actually we tested the Paceblade Easybook P7 which is the same device.) and didn’t really want to give it back. The mouse pointer and docking capability mark this as the workhorse of the UMPC market as it stands. A great device which will become even more useful when the docking station becomes available.

UK and European readers should pop over to PocketPC Solutions for more info and ordering details.

Carrypad Tablet Kiosk Eo 7110 data sheet with news and review links.

Steve / Chippy.

I’ve just got back from a week away in the UK where I was worried about keeping up with the UMPC news. There wasn’t much news though was there. I needn’t have worried. I think I can sum up last weeks UMPC news with just a few paragraphs.

Founder coming to America.
Firstly, there’s a new UMPC coming to America and it turns out that it’s the Founder which, in fact, isn’t new at all! UMPC core specs were announced at the beginning of March and 5 months later, the Founder Mininote dissapoints a little as it uses the Celeron processor. Granted, it has some good accesories, especially the docking station. The big question is, who is going to brand it? Frank seems to think that its going to be a Tablet Kiosk brand but with a Celeron processor, its going to cut right across the same performance bracket as the eo. If the founder had a different processor however, it could make a nice high-end brother to the eo 7110.
Tablet Kiosk said that they’d be making an announcement in July so maybe we’ll hear something next week.

Founder Mininote datasheet and news links

DualCor cPc
The second and final piece of real news this week was about the DualCor cPc. Judie Hughes of ‘The Gadgeteer‘ decided to take up an offer to buy a pre-release model and received it last week.
As expected, the first versions have no wifi or bluetooth built in but Judie says:

future shipping versions will include built-in WiFi and Bluetooth. Even better, I was told that I would be able to upgrade my device to the shipping model once they are ready. YAY!

The ongoing blog by Judie is available here.

So it seems that my little story about the cPc shipping was partly true. It looks like its available by invite only. Final versions are said to be shipping in the 90-120 day period. Thats past the Christmas sales period so I’d say Jan 2007 for this one.

DualCor cPc preview.

And thats it for now. Here’s hoping that next week is going to be a bit busier!

Steve / Chippy.

Cnet is running an article comparing the
[url=http://digitalliving.cnet.co.uk/specials/0,39030785,49282099,00.htm]Apple Newton against the Samsung Q1[/url].

Pitting a new machine against one that was released 10 years ago seems a little strange. However, CNet claims that the Apple Newton comes out on top.

After going through 10 grueling stages between the two devices the winning claims that won it all was the price, ($100 for the Newton and $1000 for the Q1) and the battery life where obviously the Newton lasts longer with an impressive 30 hour battery life while the Q1 doesn’t quite reach that mark and falls about 27 hours short.

So if you want a fat PDA from the late 90s I think you should seriously consider the Newton. if you want a fat new machine that runs new software consider the Q1.

Source: [url=http://hardware.slashdot.org/hardware/06/07/28/137207.shtml]Slashdot[/url] (more…)

In an effort to report news a week after it happens, here is some news on a Founder type UMPC being released in Korea called the Daewoo Lucoms Solo M1.

According to the website the Lucoms features a Celeron 900, a 7″ touch Screen, MS Tablet PC, Bluetooth & Wifi, a 1.3Mpix Video camera, DMB TV Tuner, and a S-VIDEO out on its cradle station.　

Another important feature is the enjoyable message printed on the front of the device making sure that you always remember to “enjoy mobility”

[img]http://www.origamiportal.com/umpc/images/lucoms_enjoy.jpg[/img]

[url=http://www.lucoms.co.kr/]Lucoms Website[/url]
Source: [url=http://www.akihabaranews.com/en/news-12135-Solo+M1+the+new+Made+in+Korea+UMPC.html]akihabaranews.com[/url] (more…)

Hugo Ortega from [url=http://ubertablet.blogspot.com]ubertablet.blogspot.com[/url] just released a nice video review showing the differences between the eo and the Samsung Q1.

The videos go into the features of both devices and talk about the differences between each of them.

Once again a great watch if you are trying to decide which one to get between the two.

Check it out [url=http://ubertablet.blogspot.com/2006/07/ultra-mobile-pc-australian-story.html]here[/url] (more…)

Top prize is a Samsung Q1 UMPC!

NS BASIC Corporation is pleased to announce our 7th Programming Contest. We’re expecting some cool entries which take advantage of the new capabilities of devices and NS Basic. In the past contests we have seen great improvement of entries in quality, performance and sophistication: we expect to see more this time.

We have three categories: Windows CE, Palm OS and Desktop. All registered NS Basic users are welcome to participate in the contest. Prizes are $100 USD in each category, plus a special prize in the NS Basic/Desktop category.

You may enter more than one program. Judging will be by NS Basic’s experts. All judging is arbitrary and final. We will be looking for quality, performance, ease of use, sophistication and overall coolness. Apps can be whatever you use NS Basic for: Enterprise, business, commercial, education, games or even something whimsical.

All programs must be written using NS Basic/CE, NS Basic/Desktop or NS Basic/Palm. Entries may be commercial, shareware or freeware. Please indicate with your entry whether we can share your program or screenshots with the public.

Send your questions and entries to contest@nsbasic.com.

The deadline for entries is September 01 at 12:00 midnite EST.

more info below…
(more…)

Hugo Ortega of Ubertablet PC. has done a really good and detailed video review of some of the core features of the Tablet Kiosk eo and Samsung Q1 origami-based UMPC’s.

I found Hugo’s comments about the ‘xyz factor’ very interesting. He talks about the difference between active and passive touchscreens, using your ‘pinky’ and the advantages of the eo’s mouse pointer. In fact he goes as far as to say that the eo is a ‘productivity winner.’ and that ‘handwriting is a much better experience on the eo.’

Its not only Pommies that winge becuase Hugo has a good old Aussie moan about the Samsung pen and the eo speakers.

In summary, he thinks that the Samsung is the better multimedia player and the eo is the productivity tool.

Thanks Hugo. These videos are going to help a lot of new users with their UMPC choices.

Part 1

• Ergonomics
• Ports, buttons and stands
• The XYZ Factor (chapter 1)

Part 2

• Touchscreen weight (pressure sensitivity) and DialKeys
• The XYZ Factor (chapter 2)
• The speakers
• The Pen – ouch!
• Interpolation of pixels
• The verdict

Samsung Q1 data sheet and news links.
Tablet Kiosk eo data sheet and news links.

Steve / Chippy.

An image of the soon-to-be-released Tablet Kiosk port replicator is now available.

[img]http://www.carrypad.com/images/amtek-portrep-small.jpg[/img]

The replicator enables VGA-out and Ethernet and it looks like there’s a SD slot there too. The replicator also has 2 USB ports. If this doesn’t cost too much it will make a very nice portable solution. As yet, there is no release date or price available.

via [url=http://www.carrypad.com/journal]Carrypad[/url] (more…)

PocketPc solutions in the UK and Flybook in Germany have both contacted us in the last few days to tell us that the V33 is now available in Europe.

This is possibly one of the sexiest UMPCs around (Yes. We’re calling it an Ultra Mobile PC. - Its not an Origami/Microsoft UMPC tho.) and has a top-notch specification to match the looks.

Apart from the convertable touchscreen design (note that the Flybook is only shipped with either Windows XP home or Pro versions - not Tablet Edition.) the GPRS/EDGE cellular modem, TV-out, 1024 x 600 8.9″ widescreen and ATI RADEON XPRESS 200 M GPU make it really stand out from the crowd.

Its priced starting at £1700 in the UK.
U.S. availability is unknown at the moment.

We’ve lined a Flybook up for testing soon so keep an eye on Carrypad for further news.

Flybook V33 data sheet
Flybook V33 news links.

Following-up on Franks post yesterday about the T700/eo/easybook battery, port replicator and dock (UltraMobilePC-Tips,) we’ve managed to get hold of a picture of the Amtek port replicator. Although we’re told that this is the real item, its not yet confirmed from Amtek/Tablet Kiosk/Paceblade.

It enables VGA-out, Ethernet and it looks like there’s a SD slot there which I assume is connected via the USB bus. Frank reported yesterday that the port replicator also has 2 USB ports. If this doesn’t cost too much it will make a nice portable solution. As yet, there is no release date available.

Regards
Steve / Chippy.

There have been a lot of reviews about the Sony UX series UMPC’s but this one is worth making a journal entry about.

MobileTechReview have posted their full review here.

The UX consistently exceeded 3 hours on a charge with the WiFi radio on

Some good pics, good detail about the single-sign-in software and lots of detail about the display.

Sony UX series data sheet.
Sony UX news links.

Regards
Steve/Chippy.

I suspect that this is more of a move to catch up with HTC and smartphones in general rather than anything else but it is an example of what I expect to happen more and more over the next 2 years. RIM want to add media capabilities to their devices. In doing so, they are migrating up the chain towards smartphone land.

PDA, PocketPC and Smartphone manufacturers will be doing the same soon (keep your eyes on HTC!) They only need to re-package their high-end devices with bigger screens and keyboards and they’ve got themselves a low-end UMPC for minimal cost. They won’t run windows XP (yet!) but they will offer almost all of the functionality that ‘average users’ will need.

I’m wondering more and more that if UMPC marketing doesnt get off the ground soon (It appears that there has been no marketing funding from Microsoft since the Origami project finished), the market will split in two. There will be low-end UMPC’s sold in big numbers under discounts and subsidies by HTC, RIM and Nokia through mobile carriers, and high-end UMPC’s that will be full desktops, probably running Vista and staying above the $1000 mark. The low-end will capture the mass-market and the high-end will capture business users, verticals and those looking at a dual-purpose mobile desktop replacement.

If you were offered a feature phone and a UMPC-format PC-phone in one package with two SIM cards for half the price of a UMPC when you go to renew your phone, would you take it?

Regards
Steve / Chippy.

Slowly but surely, UMPC owners are trying Linux on their devices. First we saw John Tokash succesfuly boot Damn Small Linux on the eo/easybook/t700 and we even had some success ourselves with it on the Easybook P7.

Then we saw Mozy.org report success with Linux on the Sony UX series and now, Linux on the Samsung Q1. But there are problems. In our report, we discuss some of the issues and put questions to Sascha Pallenberg, founder and MD of the VIA-focused Linux distribution epiOS.

Linux-based UMPCs. Update and epiOS interview.

Steve / Chippy.

According to Akihabaranews, New Launches.com and a lot of other sites, there’s new info about the Lucoms Solo M1 UMPC available. I’m struggling to find the new news myself as most of this has been reported before. It looks like Daewoo just announced ‘availbility’ and Telekoms Korea picked up on it.

As a refresh, the Daewoo Lucoms device is also sold under the Founder Mininote and ECS H70 brands which were shown back in March.
The specifications are standard UMPC fayre apart from the S-Video out on its useful looking docking cradle (enables use as a PVR), a 1.3Mp camera (enables use as a videophone), SD card reader (good for photographers) and a DMB TV receiver (good for selling the device with a TV contract where coverage exists.) The new pictures on some of the reports also show the docking solution (at last) and a sleek design. I like the look of it.

The price in South Korea is reported to be just over $1000.

The news we’re really waiting for is that this device will be marketed in the U.S. and Europe. As yet, we’re not aware of anyone carrying it or importing it. Not even Dynamism.com who seem to be able to get their hands on most asia-only devices.

Hopefuly, by the time is reaches the U.S. and Europe, it will have a better processor than the Celeron 900 and longer battery life.

Founder/ECS/Lucoms Data sheet.
Founder/ECS/Lucoms livelinks.

Regards
Steve / Chippy.

Slowly but surely, UMPC owners are trying Linux on their devices. First we saw John Tokash succesfuly boot Damn Small Linux on the eo/easybook/t700 and we even had some success ourselves with it on the Easybook P7. Then we saw Mozy.org report success with Linux on the Sony UX series and now, Linux on the Samsung Q1. But there are problems. Here we discuss some of the issues and put some questions to Sascha Pallenberg, founder and MD of the VIA-focused Linux distribution epiOS . (more…)