Matt Propst has posted a review of the Samsung Q1b, VIA-based UMPC. There are some nice stats too. Minimum 3 hours battery life. That is really fantastic. Most UMPC device have a minimum battery life of around 1:30-1:45. Average battery life: 3.5 hours. No indications of max battery life but in the real world, you don’t need them. There are some images which show that it only has a mono [...]

Dapreview has news about the Maxian PMP. Its got the same form factor as the Raon Digital Vega. However, I think its more of an advanced PMP like the I-Station Netforce. Its probably not an x86 (PC) device.  It runs Windows CE and has Wifi, DMB and an SD slot. Strangely enough it has no hard disk. Maybe they are expecting 16GB SD cards to come down in price a lot. [...]

From Akihabara News this morning comes a rather cool dictionary. Hold on. I’ll start that again….. From Akihabara News this morning comes a rather cool electronic device. What its running is not important to me but look at the design. Here’s another pic. There’s more at Akihabara News. Just like the Sharp Zaurus its a mini-convertible. I really think that if you could push the screen right out to the [...]

A car mounting solution is being talked about at UMPCBuzz, Origamiproject, UltraMobile PC Tips and at the local bring-a-bun coffee morning today.  more images at ToDoUMPC Its a rather tidy homemade car mounting solution actually and has got me thinking. Could the very sturdy metal stand in the i7210 be used with my universal PDA mount?  It looks like there’s a Dremel project coming up! Steve /Chippy Technorati tags: umpc, carputer View details of all Ultra [...]

The positively pornographic Proportable people have emailed me to say that they finally have stock on the R2H having just filled all their back orders. Proportable are shipping worldwide apparently so this post also applies to my reader in Azerbaijan! Engadget were rather nasty about the R2H the other day weren’t they? They recommended that if you want better battery life you might look at the Dell D420. Er. Hold on. [...]

A quick McBlog with coffee and the i7210 while I wait for someone… Hugo ‘Ubertablet’ Ortega has received one of the first R2Hs in Australia. News here Hugo has a nice technical understanding of the issues that are important to the customer and so I’m looking forward to hearing more. A couple of questions though Hugo. Does it feel slow and overloaded with software? This is something I’ve seen reported a [...]

RSS feed sources are changing. New site-wide Feed: [updated: Watchlist link now works!] I’ve removed unconfirmed and rumored UMPC devices from the product portal now (along with end-of-life devices) and now made a Watchlist page here. There’s nothing in there that I haven’t already reported on but its good as a reference (and a nice reminder for me to keep hassling the product managers for information.) I’ve refrained from putting [...]

Every few weeks we seem to get a flurry of blogs about keyboards. Despite UMPCs being touch-capable devices with handwriting recognition, dialkeys, on screen keyboard and speech input, you still need a keyboard. We all need a keyboard. Ideally you’ll get a UMPC which has a packaged keyboard (ASUS R2H for example) but if not (and if you haven’t fallen for the very practical convertible notebook design) you need to [...]

Apparently, you’re doing the best job of promoting UMPCs – according to all 59 of my readers! I’m surprised at the number of votes for Samsung and the lack of votes for Motion Computing. The LS800 was around (with DialKeys if I’m not mistakenIt was the P1510 that had dialkeys. Thanks Rob.) before the Origami UMPC. More interesting though was the conversation that kicked off on the journal comments. Here [...]

The VIA-sponsored UMPC site – UltraMobileLife has another of the lovely UMPC concepts shown by Cre8 Inc at the VTF 2006. This one is the ‘Butler.’ A super slim Ultra Mobile device with touch, printing and Voip capabilities. Estimated battery life on an x86 UMPC that slim. Mmmm, about 3.5 minutes? There are more images over at Ultramobilelife. View details of all Ultra Mobile devices in the UMPC product database. From [...]

These very cool Eleksen fabric keyboard concepts were talked about back at Origami launch time. Unfortunately there’s still no-one that’s taken the concept and put it into production. Glyn Evans of PocketPC-Solutions in the UK has one for testing and seems happy with it so why are we still waiting? You could easily make one that works with all UMPC devices. I’d buy one if it was in a messenger bag style [...]

Pepper computer have just let me know that the Pepperpad 3 is now shipping and is currently available for $649 at ecost. (33 hours left on the offer price as I write this.) If you’ve been thinking about the Pepperpad, now could be a good time to buy. I will be getting back to playing around with mine again soon as the Wife has just finished watching the 24 episodes [...]

Part 1 is here.Part 2 is here. Which UMPC makes a good carputer? My immediate thought is the ASUS R2H. Its got the built-in GPS and is the most likely to get a good set of in-car accessories for it due to the way its being sold. However, its got a heavy-touch screen that might not be the best for in-car use. I prefer the lightweight touch of the i7200 series for [...]

As I write Part 3 of the Carputer Day on Carrypad series, JKK has posted info on Origamiproject.com about a very interesting device. Its got exchangeable screens. This is a concept that would be great if applied to ultra mobile PCs. Imagine a core processing unit about the size of a DualCor or Vega that plugs into a 5″ screen, an ultra-thin notebook casing and that also docks into a full-size screen, a [...]

A short intermission from the Carputer day at Carrypad. Hugo has posted a nice ‘surgery’ video. He repairs a smashed tablet PC screen. I was just about to ‘move on’ when something happened. You know how people always say ‘must have’ in reviews on the Internet? Well this is a ‘must watch.’ Even if its the three seconds starting at 6:50. I’ve watched it 10 times already. Apologies in advance [...]

Part 1 is here. The UMPC as a Carputer So will the UMPC make a good carputer? Has it got all the elements of design, aftermarket support, software and value to make it the ideal candidate or are there other, better, cheaper options? Lists are always good so here’s a brain dump of requirements for a Carputer. 5-7″ light-touch screen. (8″ and more gets too big for in and on-dash [...]

To compliment the Carputer day on Carrypad, I’ve just spotted that GottaBeMobile have a post about the Streetdeck carputer software. Actually I’ll be honest. It looks like they posted it before I even woke up this morning. We’re on the same track today chaps. “StreetDeck Will Get You Down The Road” Steve /Chippy. View details of all Ultra Mobile devices in the UMPC product database. From N800 to Flybook V5, [...]