Phew! I was beginning to think that the bottom had dropped out of the MID launch-effort but it seems that the activity was just hidden behind a mountain of increasingly-difficult-to-get-excited-about netbook news. JKKMobile continued to track UMPC news coming out of Computex while I was away and I also found a nice clutch of photos from Steve at Fortune Fountain, the DialKeys people, in my inbox. Read on for the the full article.
Clarion MIND. This one was also seen at CES and it’s a car-focused device that includes navigation. The price is said to be around $700 which isn’t too bad when you compare it to the cost of other car navigation and computing options but it’s expensive when compared to navigation-only solutions. Source: PCWorld Australia
BenQ S6. Again, not exactly a new device. Benq has re-named their MID the S6 Mobile Device. They’ve also added a 2mp rear-facing cam. Source: CNet Asia (translation link)
Fujitsu U2020. This is the next-generation of the Fujitsu mini convertible devices based on Atom. It’s got an improved keyboard and it’s shown with the docking station in one of the images. I don’t have processor speed info on this one yet but I suspect it’s a 1.6 or 1.8Ghz Atom. Expect longer battery life than on the previous U1010/U810 model. JKKmobile.
Samsung MIDs. Samsung re-affirmed their interest in ultra mobile devices for a second time this month in an interview with TechRadar. "sooner or later we will have some [MID] devices." said Samsung.
Finally, here are some images of various MID devices that appeared on the Intel booth at Computex. Two of them are new. Thanks to Steve for sending them in.
The first is from Yukyung technologies who own the Viliv brand and are a member of MIDA, a mobile Internet organisation in Korea. You will recall that we’ve seen two Viliv devices before (U5 and UMPC) but this one is based on their X5 portable device which currently uses an Alchemy CPU. An upgrade to Atom would turn this into a very nice little tablet. No keyboard unfortunately but despite that, I find it a very interesting device.
X5 Atom at the Intel booth. The X5 from the Viliv website.
The second is the Digifriends MID that we’ve seen before. Digifriends are also a member of MIDA. Again, I find this an intresting device, mainly because of the accessory range that is planned.
Finally, here’s a nice little N810-esque design from Quanta.
What I find a little surprising though is that despite all the MID presence, no-one gave any idea about release dates. In CeBIT everyone was talking about summer but now, it’s gone quiet. I think it’s time to get in touch with Intel’s press office again to find out what’s happening.
June 10th, 2008 at 2:39 pm
sounds like the netbooks are eating up all of intels atom production capacity
and nice to see that digifriends again
June 10th, 2008 at 3:39 pm
Since you mention a “N810-style” MID: are there actually N800/N810-sized MIDs around the corner? And I do mean N800, not OQO-sized, i.e. 8 x 13 x 1.7 cm max.
June 10th, 2008 at 4:02 pm
MID will arrive in 2009
June 10th, 2008 at 4:15 pm
Any news about the Gigabyte m528?
June 10th, 2008 at 4:19 pm
@tal. Nothing on the M528 yet.
Steve.
June 10th, 2008 at 5:06 pm
Isn’t iPhone 3G a MID?
June 10th, 2008 at 5:08 pm
yes. I’d call it a MID.
I should put it in the DB I guess.
Steve.
June 10th, 2008 at 10:30 pm
is there any news abaut asus r50?
June 11th, 2008 at 1:20 am
nothing about R50 yet. sorry.
June 12th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
Hello how are you doing ? How is business going ? Hope it well . Well im really interested in this item so i want to know whether its in perfect condition. Pls reply back . Thanks
franktea007@gmail.com
June 12th, 2008 at 8:28 pm
boring! I see no real difference between these and all the past UMPC’s. They fall in between any real market to me. A small phone gives the same features and these do not have a touch type keyboard so they would not be able to replace a laptop. What they need to do is just make a pocket laptop running full windows, with a touch type keyboard tht will fit in a jacket pocket so under 4.25″ x 7.4″ x 1/3″. Until then these are just more toys that will never sell outside of the geek crowd.
June 13th, 2008 at 1:09 am
What we need/want is an x86 iPhone with a detachable QWERTY keyboard. This thumboard could cover the screen when not in use, and have a full-sized SDHC slot.