An N810, a WiBrain, an Everun, an Archos 605 Wifi and a Q1b HSDPA accompanied me for the the longest break I’ve ever had from UMPCPortal over the last 10 days. It was a very relaxing time but it’s over now and its time to get back to work. Many thanks to Kornel, Simon and all the tipsters that helped while I was away. It really was great to know that the site was still living while I was lazing around on holiday 
During my trip, the Q1b HSDPA did very well as the work-horse (using a 3 UK pay as you go 3G broadband connection which cost me just a fiver for the week. Is there any need at all for WiFi hotspots in the UK?) and proved to me that I should keep it. A 7″ 800×480 touchscreen device is useful in so many situations and with the organiser pack, great battery life and HSDPA I still think its one of the best all-round UMPCs I’ve had. The easy-to-use Archos 605 Wifi did a great job with mp3, video playback (car, bed) and photo gallery duties. The Everun was used in the car for navigation, the WiBrain was used as the on-the-go device (mainly due to its 60GB drive) and the N810….well, it just sat there looking good. At the end of it all though, I think I could have done everything with a 60GB Everun with a better HSDPA antenna and my Samsung Q1 keyboard. More processing power would be good but battery life is far more important to me!
But that was then and this is CES build-up week. New devices are on the horizon. The buzz is building. People are already on flights to Las Vegas and the amount of CES-related email in my inbox is almost overwhelming. Tonight I will be getting in touch with Kornel, Simon, JKKMobile and a few other people to work out a game-plan for what I think will be the most significant month so far in the life of the UMPC. Between CES and MacWorld I really think we’re going to see the whole UMPC landscape changed with smaller handheld devices (MIDS), more notebook format devices and the use of UMPC technology in budget and low-end notebooks. Thanks to these developments, more doors into the UMPC market will be opened to consumer and professional customers alike. WiMax, mobile Internet, high quality video and social network will become topics that people speak about in the same sentence as mobile PCs. Intel will re-state their intentions to lead the technology and I even expect Microsoft to show that they haven’t forgotten about the segment with possible announcements from their Origami team, the Windows Mobile team and, hopefully, the desktop operating system teams.
Right now though, I’m about to finish setting up the studio (new heating, new printer, another screen, comfy chair, new microphone, tidy-up cabling) ready for the next few weeks of hard work. I have honestly never been so excited about what could happen in the UMPC space and together with the rest of the team, I’m ready to bring you the best possible UMPC news, information, research, opinion and device information that you can find.
