Last week I posted some tips on how to squeeze 3 hrs browsing time out of the Kohjinsha SC3. The method was a bit of a trick as it utilised a mobile phone data connection over Bluetooth but it was the only way to achieve 3 hours on the 20wh battery. It equates to an average 7W drain which is, even in UMPC terms, very efficient but it’s not as [...]

Jenn, now a Willcom D4 owner as well as an SC3 owner, has her first impressions up. As expected, the battery life isn’t good at all with the tiny standard battery returning 1.5 hours of use. Its efficient of course, but that’s not really enough is it. I really don’t understand how any OEM could convince themselves that it’s acceptable to expect people to buy a second battery. Apart from [...]

Meet the Vye S41 (Portal page for full specs). This is a mini-tablet / UMPC touting a 7” screen. Some of you may notice that it looks an awful lot like the Kohjinsha SR8. You would be correct in that observation; the S41 and SR8 are actually the same computer, Vye has adapted the S41 to be sold outside of Japan. The S41′s most unique feature is its built in [...]

I’m going camping over the next four days. Here’s the kit that’s going to keep me productive. [The Wife and little-one have planned a last-minute camping trip together and I was due to stay home and work but I've decided to go along and make a working holiday of it. Dads - this is the beauty of Ultra Mobile PC's!!!]   That’s a Samsung Q1 Ultra being charged from a [...]

Many of us have been anxiously waiting for news about the VIA Nano (formerly Isaiah) processor from VIA. Previous leaked info indicated a 2-4x improvement in processing power for a similar power drain over the older VIA C7 processors and with the Atom processors barely improving on the previous platform in terms of processing power, pro-mobile users were looking for something to fill the high-end gap. Eeepcnews.de have been testing, [...]

Check this out. Engadget received a photo of an ASUS presentation slide showing 23 Eee models. Note the ‘Touch’ and ‘Slim and Light’ expressions. Also note that the ASUS R50 and R70 aren’t part of the range. Looks like they still see tablets as niche devices that don’t fit into the EEE profile. New models to look out for are the S101, S91, T101. I wonder if we’ll finally see [...]

Yesterday was fantastic. I had no idea that so many people would support the IDF effort. I feel honoured! We’ve raised over $700 so far. I can hardly believe it. It gets me almost to San Fransisco….but not back ;-( I’ve doubled my efforts in order to support all those that have sent money. I want to make sure we reach the target and don’t disappoint you so this morning [...]

As JKK says, this could mean that the device is moving towards availability in the U.S. I haven’t heard anything from ASUS in Germany yet but I’ve sent them a message to see if we can have a status update. Remember that the R50 is the smaller of the two tablets that ASUS will be launching and it will run on the Silverthorne processor with SSD and 3G included. I [...]

A clear message to UMPC OEM’s {democracy:4} If it wasn’t clear before, it is now. [If the results are not showing, make your vote and you'll see them.] While some people will accept 3-hours battery life for an Ultra Mobile PC, 85% of people want 4 or more hours. 50% of people here see 5 hours as minimum battery life for a UMPC.

In the Gigabyte M912X unboxing last week, the second thing I mentioned was the washed-out screen. The following morning, in my tests,  it was clear that the screen was taking too much power. Ding! Of course, it was a CCFL-backlit screen. I sent an email to Gigabyte who have confirmed that the (production) 1280×768 screen is CCFL backlit. They also told me that the 1024×600 screened version is LED-backlit. The [...]

It seems like half a year since I added the HSDPA-capable CMXP version of the Q1 Ultra to the database. Oh, it was! Samsung have finally announced it in the US but unfortunately the price seems to have risen to $1449 which I find a little but over the top for a year-old, $1000 device that many people have already retro-fitted with a $150 HSDPA card. It’s almost the same [...]

Just like the Kohjinsha SC3, the Fujitsu U2010 is a mini, no, tiny notebook PC running on the new Intel Menlow platform. JKKMobile and UMPCFever have reported the specifications (now in the database) and I’ve been looking over them. Firstly, the screen is an amazing 1280×800 which is the same pixel density as a Sony UX UMPC. It’s high, but useful. You can always bump the font sizes up if [...]

Thoughtfix brings us the news (from The Register) that Moblin will be moving to a Fedora-based distribution. Thats quite a core change in architecture that is bound to upset Canonical and Xandros who have been working on Atom-optimised distributions and have also committed to make a Moblin-based version for netbooks. I suspect that Moblin will run the two builds side-by-side for a while. Dirk Hondel told The Register that "there [...]

Update: It’s the I1 (i1) not the L1. My mistake. Sorry Wibrain! Detailed specifications and links are now in the database. This, just in from Wibrain. We had news from UMPCfever that Wibrain were working on an Atom-based UMPC and I can now bring you some details in English. The L1 i1 will be based on the B1 design, will have an updated casing design and will include variants of [...]

For the last two years I’ve been trying to find a way to get UMPCPortal to Intel’s Developer Forum. It’s Intel’s premier event and comprises conferences, speeches and training sessions. It also includes product demonstrations and a chance to ask questions and get hands on. For our beloved UMPC’s and MIDs its a hotbed of activity with a lot of focus recently on Menlow and Moorestown. The next one is [...]

As you might have read, I have been very disappointed with the battery life figures on the Kohjinsha SC3. I was expecting a lot lot more from an Ultra Mobile PC built on Intel’s latest battery-optimised Menlow platform but it turns out that under normal use, this device is just as bad as many devices based on the previous platform. Over the last 24 hours I’ve spent a lot of [...]

Looking for a convenient place to spent a few hundred dollars? Look no further! The iPod vending machine will suck your money away and replace it with a shiny new Apple flavored gadget! So this may be old news, but it was certainly the first I’ve ever seen. I was recently on vacation for a few days in Colorado. At a large mall in Denver there is a Macy’s which [...]