I’m out on a little tour today and I’m testing out some Geotagging and Google map software. UsingRoboGeoo, a Samsung Q1, a Nokia 6820, a Canon S2IS, and a Garmin Etrex GPS tracker I’ve been able to cycle round Bonn taking pictures and tracking my journey. I’m now sitting in a Biergarten (as you do) and I’ve just downloaded the track, the images and using RoboGeo, have created a Google Maps mashup of the event with embedded photos. Its something I plan to use on the Solar UMPC tour.

Later I’ll edit up the video and post it along with a better explanation of the process. In the meantime, enjoy the map.

Everything is possible! UMPC Geotagging images on maps from a Biergarten.

Now its time for me to finish my beer and head back up the hill. More photos, tracking and tagging on the way.

Samsung have created an in-dash UMPC concept device which looks like its running Windows XP Tablet Edition. This will get CarPC’s completely banned from the highways for sure.

This is not something for you’re likely to see in your local auto shop as its probably part of a tailored solution to be offered to car manufacturers. Note the number of buttons on it compared to a standard UMPC, the web cam and the Intel Core 2 Duo sticker!!!

Aving.net via JKKMobile

Hugo Ortega unboxes the OQO Model 02.

Hugo Ortega has posted a video of his unboxing of the OQO Model 02 UMPC. This is the ultra-tiny 5″ 800×480 screen VIA 1.5Ghz device.  Not only is it one of the smallest UMPCs out there (AND its available with Windows Vista) but its got a very nice, very cool docking station. A video review of the OQO is promised and I’m looking forward to it.

It looks like Hugo has an XP version of the OQO. When will that Vista version be ready? I’m guessing soon because the first ever VIA / Vista UMPC is due here in just a matter of days. The Medion Shop in Germany is showing a delivery time of 7 days.

I’m working on a review of the Q1P but in the meantime, I’ve put together a video overview of the highlights and lowlights of the Q1P. The Q1P is the Pentium version of the Q1, had a 60GB HDD and 1GB RAM. In the video I highlight the CF performance (poor), the ‘mouse’ button, the Bluetooth stack (nice), and some other points that I think its important to point out. Overall I like the Q1P but I really question its value for money. You’ll hear that at the end of the video.

High-Q WMV version available here or watch the Stage6 version below. (You might be asked to install a Divx plugin.) There are also some new gallery images available.

jkOnTheRun have just served up their 6 millionth plate of mobile goodness and are celebrating. Why not! That’s a huge amount of text. At about 240 words per page that’s over 1 billion words served! [maths check someone?]

Enough of the celebrations now. Get over there and grab something because its contest time. ‘Geekapalooza’ is the name of the game. Dynamism, Microsoft, iCube, Verizon Wireless and Vaja Cases are sponsoring the event.

I have no idea how many pages have been served on UMPCPortal but I know one thing, your (pushed) emails are killing the vibrator on my mobile phone. Let it burn!

This project has been in my mind for months now and I’m really happy that its now going ahead. Its a challenge. Its going to be fun and its going to test UMPCs to the limits. How mobile and power-efficient are they? Can you really use one for a week without charging it from the mains? How much energy can you get from the sun? That’s what I’m planning to find out on the Solar UMPC Tour with my sponsor VIA Technologies and my energy-advising solar fanatics, Select Solar UK.

Bike, Tent, UMPC, mobile phone, camera, GPS, UMPC and hopefully, sun, will join me down in south Germany some time in the next 8 weeks for an on-the-road real-life test. During the tour I’ll be continuing to run my business and will be journaling the whole event, flat batteries and all, on a new blog.

The new blog - Solar UMPC - will have all the information about the project and will also be the place where I detail all my planning, research, testing and problems along with photos, videos, maps and Solar UMPC related information and news. I hope to see you over there and as I mentioned in my first post, if you have advise, please let me know. Now if you’ll excuse me for a while, I need to go and buy a bike!

Steve Litchfield, a man who knows a fair few things about Smartphones, has put the Nokia E90 and HTC Advantage together and written up a very good comparison table that should help anyone looking at these two devices.

 
Nokia E90 and HTC Advantage

For me, its all about the keyboard, the PPI (pixels per inch) and the browsing experience. Steve gives both keyboards 6/10 (although I’d give the E90 an extra point because it looks like it would make a better sofa and bed-surfer,) he doesn’t mention the PPI and on browsers, he says that both devices cant handle flash. I dare say they’d have some problems with many other rich web sites too. Client side processing load is getting heavier these days and nothing in the ARM-processor world seems to be catching up.

Which one would I take? Neither. Both clash with my 3 device strategy of small smartphone (for 24/7 use) UMPC (for rich browsing, video, better text entry, meeting, sofa, bed and mobile desktop duties) and a desktop PC (for data storage, photo/video work, static office, fast text input and content creation.) No space for an uber-smartphone or notebook in my strategy.

Are you using a 2, 3, 4 or even 5 device strategy? Would these devices fit into it?

I recently sold my Kohjinsha SA1 UMPC that had been my mobile companion for about 3 months. It was really an amazing little machine. Fast SD card slot, Excellent WiFi sensitivity, one of the brightest screens I’ve seen on a UMPC and that class-leading battery life of over 4 hours. The keyboard wasn’t perfect and the swivel screen is a bit of a novelty considering it wasn’t a touch screen model but overall it was a fantastic companion.

Data Evolution obviously think so too and have taken it into their product line as the Cathena UMPC. (Is everyone happy that it’s a UMPC now or are we still arguing over that touchscreen element?) I was wondering where I’d heard that name before and when I took a look at the other products I realised why. They are the owners of the very nice Clio NXT design and also recently bought the rights to the AMD PIC, a low cost desktop computing solution. I don’t have the Cathena in the database but you’ll find the same specifications in the Kohjinsha SA1 page along with a gallery and my review.

One other thing to note about the Cathena - they’ve brought the entry level price down significantly. The base model is apparently now a good-value $799 making it the third sub $800 Windows-based UMPC on the US market. If you’re in Europe, the only place I know of to get it is either via Dynamism.com or import from Sarutek via the MyKohjinsha blog.

YahooFinance Via GottaBeMobile.

PMPInside have a review of the Tango Wings UMPC which, although near-impossible to de-cipher, gives us some nice images

There are some things I noted from the review. The first is that the GPS is definitely a module that clips onto the back. The second is that the media player shown in some of the images doesn’t look like Windows Media player and lastly, the only mention of battery life comes in the same sentence as ‘2hrs’ and ‘2.5hrs’ I hope that’s not right. This news came via Lazion.com who also teases us with a local price of just 550 Euros. Argh! That’s nearly half of the European price of the Euro/US version, the Medion RIM 1000 due for availability within weeks.

PMPInsde review.
Sungju Computer website.

Move over Intel…

Taipei, Taiwan, 26 April 2007 - VIA Technologies, Inc, a leading innovator and developer of silicon chip technologies and PC platform solutions, today announced that the eighth annual VIA Technology Forum will take place in Taipei on Wednesday 6 June, during Computex 2007, with the theme of “Ultra Mobility”.

Last years VTF was excellent news for UMPCs and this years looks even better. And I’m not just talking about the banner. Ultra Mobility will be HEADLINING! That means something. If someone was to ask to guess what will happen I’d say CoreFusion, DirectX9, small design prototypes and new devices. Its VIA best chance to hit back at Intel this year and if they get it right they really have the possibility to be presenting 5-hour small form factor UMPCs that could launch well before Intel’s Menlow comes out. To be honest though, I have no idea what’s going to happen except that I won’t be getting much sleep on June 5th and 6th and 7th.

VTF info and registration page here.
VIA’s Ultra Mobile blog here.

Haier UMPC. 1.6Gz Dual Core or 600Mhz Single Core?

[Unfortunately, the large-format images got corrupted. Take a look at the originals here and here.] Are there two Haier UMPCs? The Register reported that the Haier X6 will be released with a 1.6Ghz Dual Core processor and yet these images of another Haier (photographed at IDF) have just surfaced showing a similar (not the exact same - different logo positions) device that is definitely not running a dual core processor. Its not even running an 800Mhz Stealey processor either. Its running the 600Mhz version. (A100)

It proves that Vista doesn’t need too many clock cycles to keep it going long enough for a photo shoot! In fact the Vista performance score isn’t bad compared to 2006 designed UMPCs - 1.7. This is probably due to the i945 (GMA950 graphic ) chipset.

Thanks to site member Stevy for highlighting the images over at Chip.de

I’m happy to announce that the UMPCPortal UMPC buyers guide is now available.

The buyers guide has been written for readers both new to the UMPC segment and for those looking to buy or learn more about UMPCs. Its explains what a UMPC is, why they exists, why you might want to buy one, It covers the types of UMPC that are available and includes details about all technical elements of UMPCs. From screen sizes, keyboards, battery life and connectivity through to consideration like weight, cost, and accessories.

Also included are plenty of images, videos, links to more detailed articles and of course, links to details, reviews, specifications, images and even more links on every known UMPC device! That’s over 50 Ultra Mobile devices as I write this.

I hope you enjoy the UMPCPortal UMPC Buyers Guide 2007. Don’t forget to feed back your thoughts on the guide in this forum thread so I can make it even better for next time round.

The UK will soon have three well-priced unlimited Internet access via cellphone plans following this news that Orange are to introduce an all-you-can-eat package. Users will be able to take Internet ’snacks’ [all this food talk is making me hungry, I need breakfast...] or pay �8 and get unlimited monthly usage. unfortunately, there are no T&C’s available at the moment so its not clear what the Bluetooth /USB tethering policy will be. Hopefully it will be different to X-Series and allow PC’s to be tethered - its important for UMPC users. Info from The Times Online:

OrangeContract: Internet ’snacks’� @ 30p for 15mins with daily cap of �1.50 or a ‘bundle’� priced at �1 per day or �5 monthly for evening/ weekends or �8 monthly ‘anytime’
Pay-as-you-go: Internet snacks @ 40p for 15 mins with daily cap of �2 or a daily �1 bundle

3Contract: �5 per month unlimited usage

T-Mobile Contract: �7.50 per month unlimited browsing on ‘WebnWalk’� or capped at �1 day for other customers
Pay-as-you-go: Capped daily at �1

It was only three or four months ago that Three UK announced their X-Series service which offered a breakthrough unlimited access package for �5 and its nice to see others follow. I hope the trend spills over into mainland Europe because I’ve just had to pay �20 for 200MB per month in Germany. Best offer here in Germany is 02’s 5GB access for 25 Euro. What’s the best offer in your country?

VIA SMS Text News.

Since the launch of ‘Origami’ in March 2006, there have been many varying reports about what an Ultra Mobile PC is and why someone might buy one. This guide has been written to help those looking at ultra-mobile PC’s with a view to buying one. Its a long report but we guess that if you’re considering spending over $500 on a UMPC, you’ll want to read and learn as much as you can.

[summary]

A new Steve Ballmer interview has been published on the Microsoft Germany website. In it he talks (in English) about technology trends.

In Part 3, the ultimate question is asked - Is there going to be one total convergence device? He talks about it being possible and then gets asked ‘How close are we.’ Steve then picks up an HTC shift.! I agree with what he says - that a convergence device will be possible but people wont necessarily choose one device. Marketing departments won’t let that happen either. As Malcolm Gladwell might say, there’s no perfect convergence device, only perfect convergent devices. (Watch this excellent video for an explanation.)

Steve also confirms that it will be available ‘later this year in Germany and around the world.’ YouTube conversion of part of the video below: