This will be the last in-depth Everun video for a while. I’ve spent a lot of time on it and although the Everun is an enjoyable UMPC and deserves a lot of time, I really should re-focus on the big UMPCPortal picture. At least for a few days anyway.

Read the full article to see the Raon Digital Everun applications demo.

Hugo Ortega has also got hold of an Everun UMPC and its good news because he’s got one with the HSDPA module installed.

“One of the more revolutionary device to hit the market” he says. I totally agree.  I’m looking forward to his opinions and videos.

Take a look at his first post and intro video here. Superb stuff Hugo.  BIG SMILE!

Today is touch day! The iPhone launches today and consumers will start to learn about mobile Internet. Its a good thing for UMPCs because by the time those 2 year contracts are up (or that battery wears out!) the consumer UMPCs will be ready to sweep up. Possibly! Here’s a video I missed. Its a Midinux demo showing touch scrolling. Its a small part of a complete operating system and yet somehow it feels extremely important. UMPC vendors need to capitalize on the touch elements in their marketing over the next year.

The i7210 has an e-galax touchscreen I believe. That means Midinux could work on all Q1′s (not Ultras), R2H and the ECS/founder/variants. There are probably others using the e-galax screen and a possibility that RedFlag has built in drivers for other devices.

Technorati tags: Midinux, MID, UMPC, touchscreen

Information week have a nice article on the Q1 Ultra. Its simple, well written, easy to understand and importantly, fair. It will give new users a good idea of what a UMPC is and what they should expect from a this device. Well done David. 9/10

Information Week on the Samsung Q1 Ultra.

So the rumor was correct. Samsung USA took out the 600Mhz A100 in the Q1 Ultra, dropped an 800Mhz A110 in and bumped the price up by $100. But that’s not all. One of the early customers is reporting some other differences. The screen frame buttons aren’t implemented on the Q1U-EL and the menu button appears where the shutter button normally is. There’s no included soft case and after 48 hours, the owner still hasn’t been able to find or configure any Bluetooth. He’s waiting for confirmation on this as it could be an error but potential customers might want to keep an eye on the outcome of this situation before they order.

Original information in this thread at Origamiproject.com

Loren at Incremental Blogger did a fun test. At the end of the recent Apple iPhone keyboard demo you see someone (that guy with the flappy arms I assume) typing two-thumbed on an iPhone. It looks really nice. Fast. Loren tried keeping up with an on-screen keyboard and couldn’t quite do it. The demo shows the sentence “I know a great place a couple blocks away. I will make a reservation for three.” being typed in 22 seconds. That’s a nice 218 characters per minute. I couldn’t resist having a go on the Everun.

My first attempt was 33 seconds. Not so good but consider that was after 36 hours of having the device and without any word predictive logic. I was also holding the device unlike in the demo where it seems to be fixed. Lets also assume that this marketing video is only showing the best take. After 5 minutes, my best take was 26 seconds. it doesn’t look like I’m going to get any faster. If you take into consideration that the video is likely to be a ‘good case’ example and that the device is not being held, I think you can say that the iPhone also hits around 50% of normal typing speed. Its certainly faster than any other on-screen method I’ve tried(other UMPC device typing rates here.)

But let me highlight a problem with the iPhone and its on screen keyboard. It might be fast but it takes 40% of the screen space. Its going to be no good for Internet work. Lets ignore the fact that its got no mobile Internet connectivity (WiFi is only good for multiple, pre-configured, fixed locations and EDGE is way too slow) you get only 320 pixels wide and 480 high. It might be enough with the nice auto zooming features but if you ever want to input text into a web site (for example if you’re using an Internet based application or even just entering a forum post or webmail email) you’re going to lose something like 200 pixels from the bottom leaving you with a 320×280 screen. For me, that’s way short of the FIE. Now I’m not saying it should be possible because the iPhone is for consumers – people that read, listen and watch. They generally won’t be interacting with websites. I’m a slightly different mobile Internet user. Its a two-way process with me and a device that’s almost the FIE is no good at all for me. I need the FIE and if I can’t get it on a smartphone, (You cant – look at this) then I’ll stay with my two device strategy. Mini 3G 320×240 feature phone and x86-based UMPC.

The most asked question about the Everun so far is “keyboard keyboard keyboard. What’s the keyboard like?” The best way I know to answer that one is with a video but before the video, here are a few other items on my Everun notes sheet here.

• Built in light sensor. It works! It does a very good job of reducing and increasing the backlight level. Its also possible to offset the auto brightness by +/- 50% (or something that looks like 50%!)
• VGA output – works! I tried it on a 1024×768 monitor this afternoon.
• Lack of SD card slot is still annoying me
• Battery monitoring. As on the Vega, the battery does not supply information to Windows. To windows it looks like an external mains power supply. Raon provide an application which monitors battery and reports on level. More on that another time.
• The Q1 feels HUGE after playing with the Everun. My gadget bag also feels empty! More space in it for other crap now.

If the images that JKK has really are the same keyboard then, according to the CeBIT UMPC get-together we had in March, its the best there is. We all agreed that the V5 had the best feel across all the keyboarded UMPCs we tried, and that included the P1610.

More images at jkkmobile.

Update: Full Everun review is now available.

I feel very privileged to be able to air this introduction video of the Raon Digital Everun that will be on sale next month. Thanks to Raon Digital and a meeting schedule that took them through my neck of the woods I was able to meet up with them, discuss the Everun and take away the device for long-term testing. Not only is this a first showing of the Everun but I believe this is the first time anyone has had an AMD LX900-based device in their hands. A double privilege!

The device you’ll see in the video is a production sample containing a 30GB HDD. Unfortunately there’s some delay in getting the SSD-based version into the production line so I’m guessing there might be some delays on the SSD version being available to customers. That’s a shame of course because for me, one of the appealing features is that, for the first time, you have a consumer-focused UMPC with an SSD for a price that doesn’t break the bank. The device I’m testing doesn’t have the HSDPA module installed either. I did have the chance to test an HSDPA version today and can report that it supports both data and voice.

More thoughts. Introduction video…

Its too early to say if this is just a good consumer UMPC or a fantastic one but there’s one thing that’s for sure, this is an incredible bit of technology. I had a great meeting with Raon Digital today and was lucky enough to come away with an Everun for long term testing. The first outside Asia.

Yes the keyboard is useable. Yes the HSDPA module supports voice. Yes the optical mouse works well. Yes the battery life is amazing. Yes Yes yes!

Look out for a quick hands-on video later, a report tomorrow and a live video and Q&A session tomorrow evening.

MyKohjinsha was correct last week in highlighting that the new Japanese Kohjinsha models would be the SH series. It appears that the K600 and K601 are for the Korean market. Over in Europe and the US, its the SH series that we should be looking at but there’s some details in the specs that don’t match up and with Kohjinsha offering, from today, Vista on a just a 600Mhz processor, I think there’s going to be some problems.

According to the corporate website there will be four models in the SH range based on the Intel McCaslin (A100 / A110) platform. All will have 1024×600 touch enabled LED backlit convertible screens (I will assume that this is the same lovely Samsung-manufactured screen that is in the Q1 Ultra. Possibly the best 7″ finger touchscreen on the market at the moment) and come with a 29W/hr battery for around 3.5 hours of use. On top of that, they’ve produced a 60W/hr batter for a huge 7 hours of productivity. Local Japan pricing is competitive at between 600 and 750 Euros.

All of that will be irrelevant if they try and squeeze Vista into a 40GB disk with 512MB ram on a 600Mhz processor. I really hope Kohjinsha have made an error on their web-page and that we’ll see XP on the low-end version and (if the marketing people must!) Vista on an 800Mhz version.  Stay tuned while I try and get confirmation on the specs.

Kohjinsha announcement. Via Laptopspirit.fr

This is nearly perfect for a 2-device mobile phone / UMPC setup. The Jabra BT8010 Bluetooth headset allows you to go multi-mode with your audio. Use the single earpiece as a traditional headset for your mobile phone or add the second earpiece and go for full A2DP quality audio from either the mobile phone OR a second device such as a UMPC. I can’t see myself using it much for a UMPC. I play all my music from my phone and when I’m watching a video on the UMPC I’ll either be on a plane or train where I’m not likely to get or want any calls anyway. However, the possibility is always there if you need it.

I think I’d rather go for something that looks more like a headphone rather than a headset though. Since reading Thoughtfix’s review I had a quick look round and found these Sony Ericsson headphones and the nice looking BH-501 from Nokia. I just can’t see myself walking round looking like an Estate Agent and so these are probably not for me.

Thoughtfix review and video of the Jabra BT8010.

By the time America is waking up tomorrow, I’ll be feeling up an Everun UMPC. If I’m a lucky boy I’ll even get to take it away which is very very exciting for me as I was just about to order one. To me its just about as close as I think one can get to the ideal consumer UMPC at the moment. For the first time we’re going to see a solid state drive, auto screen rotate and this brand new keyboard layout. Add 6 hours of battery life, docking station capability, sub 500G weight and that great pricing and I think you have a winner. Throw away your MP3 players, your media players and forget about the iPhone. For the ultimate in consumer convergence just go out and buy a very small, very stylish 3G phone with a decent camera, data card slot and mp3 capability and then use the Everun for everything else. Videos, navigation and route planning, Internet applications, IM, Skype, blogging, emails, ebook reader etc etc etc. Lovely. Keep the desktop at home for the high-end gaming and video work. That’s the three-device strategy!

Questions I have at the top of the list:

• Keyboard – Good enough?
• Optical mouse – Does it work?
• Battery life – For real?
• Size – Too big?
• XP on LX900 processor with 1GB and SSD – Fast?
• When will the dock and car mount be available?
• 280 nits screen good enough for outside?
• Mini-PCI. Can I use it for something else? External GPU for example
• Does the Terratec Cynergy Piranha work with it?

For a re-cap, take a look at the video we took at Computex 2007 along with the hands-on comments. Full device line-up here.

But the Fujitsu U1010 does seem to have Bluetooth now.

Tech central have reviewed the Fujitsu UMPC and seem to be impressed with the little whipersnapper. There’s the usual shock at how tiny the device is and a genuine belief that the Fujitsu UMPC is a workable design. Apart from the fact that it runs Vista!

I wonder if vendors are starting to learn now that this is becoming a recurring theme. People get a UMPC, are impressed and then have to battle through the bloated, unoptimised disappointment of Vista. In almost every case, people are turning off Aero and having to start thinking about optimizations and its killing the customers first few minutes experience with the device. Can you imagine what the response to the iPhone would be if the software didn’t actually work out of the box. If you had to wait for an extended time for windows to open and if you had to start searching forums and asking questions to find out if your device was broken and why some other people are happy with the performance? People should be turning on UMPCs in an optimised state with an Origami Experience-style welcome.

As for the rest of the review, there are some concerns about the limitations of the keyboard and a warning that the PPI screen isn’t going to be optimal for many people.

Review: star-techcentral.com.

It looks like Pepper are getting close to releasing Pepper Linux 4 as this demo video has just gone up on YouTube showing three possible interface choices. There’s an improved standard desktop, a carrousel and a Midinux-like interface. All welcome enhancements to the no-frills interface on Pepper Linux 3. But the big enhancement for me is not the UI, its the presence of Skype. There has never been a VoIP app for the Pepper Pad 3 and the IM app’s were also rather limited. What else is in there I wonder? BT DUN? Full uPNP support? PC shared folder browsing?

Don’t ask me why I was doing this but I was taking a very close look at the Eee PC keyboard and it struck me that it’s the same as the new Kohjinsha K600.  I don’t now  if  this is good or bad but if anyone’s played with the Eee PC keyboard, let us know  because it will give a good indication of  how the K600 keyboard is. Remember the keyboard on the Kohjinsha SA1 wasn’t too good.

This is becoming a recurring theme in my UMPC discussions lately. I keep referring to the Full Internet Experience (usually while defending my decision to sideline ARM devices in the portal here) and its time I actually explained, in detail, what I mean.

Let me first separate ‘productivity’ UMPCs from the consumer UMPCs I’m going to talk about. I believe that for productivity, you need 7″, keyboard, mouse-pointer/pad, a desktop-oriented processor platform and a full desktop operating system. Consumer UMPCs are different. Mini keyboards, low-power ‘just enough’ CPU’s and GPUs, small solid-state disk drives and 4-6″ screens bring real challenges and the operating systems that drive them need to be efficient, small-screen friendly and need to contain tailored versions of all the applications a consumer is likely to need, just as you would find on a PMP or consumer navigation device. Take the PepperPad concept as an example. Its a consumer-focused device at a low price with a tightly controlled operating system build, a tailored set of apps and it works quite well. Just like the PepperPad focuses on the Internet as its core feature, so too will the consumer UMPCs, MIDs, Carrypads and Webpads. There will, or course, be specialist applications that will differentiate different devices but through reasons of technology and marketing, UMPC’s will remain fairly thin Internet-focused devices.

Before that can happens, someone needs to develop an Ultra Mobile, finger and Internet-oriented operating system. Windows XP is OK for UMPC’s but Vista is taking over and its far too heavy-weight, un-optimized and finger-unfriendly for a consumer UMPC device. Apart from Vista, there really isn’t any other OS out there yet. Before a new OS is developed we need to lay some ground rules down about the FIE. Without some sort of agreement between the members of a dev team, how can we expect to reach the goal of an Ultra Mobile OS and how can we hope to see the success of UMPC’s in the mainstream? Read on…definition follows.