Archive for September, 2008

While the M912V had an impressive high resolution display, the M912M, with its 1024×600 display seems to be more suitable for the average user. It’s a much brighter screen with great contrast and even brings better battery life. For 50 Euro less than the high resolution model, this seems to be a better choice.

We received the retail-boxed M912M from Mobilx.EU yesterday with the sole intention of checking out the differences between it and the M912X. After 3 hours of live testing, we’ve got the answers. I think the simplest way to summarise is to highlight the changes in the ‘lowlights’ and ‘highlights’ from our M912X testing.

• Screen. M912M has LED backlighting. Brighter, better contrast. Not the best I’ve seen but certainly very good. If you don’t need the high resolution of the M912X, this is a better choice for all-round use.
• Battery life. M912M averages 1-2Watts less (even more at high brightness settings.) 3hrs with the wifi on still requires careful setup but in general there’s a noticeable improvement over the M912X in all situations. An extended battery has been confirmed and will be available in October. (Details not 100% clear yet but the 6-cell battery is expected to be 150% capacity and not much bigger in size.)
• Keyboard. No flex at all. Very good quality. Same keyboard as Eee PC 700,900 etc.
• Heat build-up seems top have been reduced. This could be a result of faster fan.
• Same, very fast 160gb 2.5″ SATA drive. (50MB/s+ read and write speed) This is a surprise highlight (I was expecting an 80GB drive) and makes a noticeable difference when starting up applications when compared to other netbooks and UMPCs.
• Bluetooth is included. (Was previously announced without Bluetooth)
• Fan appears top be on more of the time than with the M912X we tested. Slightly annoying but seems have a noticeable effect on reducing heat build up.
• Optimised windows configuration. Gigabyte have taken the time to optimise window controls. Wider scrollbar, bigger close button. Very useful for users that might not know how to do this themselves.
• Price. At under 500 Euros, which isn’t much more than many netbooks in Europe, you really are getting something different. 160GB of fast drive storage makes this very interesting as a media device. Touchscreen makes this fun as a low-end tablet. PCI-Express make 3G connectivity easy.
• Some play/looseness in the screen pivot is an indication that the build quality may not be as high as on other convertibles.
• Synaptics pointer with scroll area is high quality but the single-bar mouse buttons arent. ‘Squashy’ is the only word I can find that describes them. No worse than on the Medion Akoya though.
• Screen has a matte finish.
• Piano black screen casing looks really great when clean. Has a slight sparkle, not the patterned finish of the M912X that we tested before.
• Crystalmark score: 26500. Impressive. I’m not sure anyone could really squeeze much more out of the Intel netbook platform.

One issue that we have found out about since testing the M912X is that the PCI-Express Mini slot, accessible under the removable panel, is locked by default and its not possible to unlock it through BIOS or software for use with a 3G card. I suspect this will be hacked before long but it makes it difficult for people wanting to upgrade with internal 3G. Using the ExpressCard/34 slot is obviously an easy alternative though.

Overall, the Gigabyte M912M is a nice, no, very nice, mini convertible offering a couple of unique features that are really worth thinking about. Media fans looking to carry around their complete library and use a netbook as a high quality media player should take a very close look at this one. Overall, I find it has better features and a better price than the M912X for the average user.

The M912M was sent for review by Mobilx.EU who have the device in stock now. Full details about the M912M are available in the product page.

Sam, via email, asks:

Hi Chippy. i want to know, after you fried the Everun Note. What is your final
thought of it? Is it worth buying and for the price mark of $900? Would you buy
one yourself?

Yes, I fried the Everun note by plugging in the wrong power cable. Luckily I had two good weeks of solid testing with it as my personal UMPC before I killed it. Here’s my personal (PERSONAL!) thoughts on it right now. 

I am impressed and excited by the Everun Note. It proves that independent manufacturers, free of marketing restraints, can create a device far more powerful than we’re seeing on the market today. If this had an easy docking solution, it would make a very very useful hot-desk / UMPC solution. Even without it, you can do things that just aren’t possible on other devices. Its a reliable power-house.

MORE DETAILS ON THE EVERUN NOTE IN THE DATASHEET.

After using the Note though, I’ve learnt that I don’t need a lot of processing power. I used the device in power saving mode nearly 100% of the time. Why? Because I was always mobile with it and battery life was more important than processing power to me. The second thing that I need is connectivity. Without 3G, a device is useless in mobile situations. With tethering, a device is useful. With a built-in factory fitted reliable and high quality 3G solution, a device is good enough to rely on for productivity work. This is why I’m currently carrying round an old Samsung Q1b. 1.0Ghz 800×480 UMPC. It has long battery life and an excellent built-in 3G solution. So the answer is, no. I won’t be buying a Raon Digital Everun Note until I can see a min 3hr battery life (4-6 with an extended battery) and a good quality 3G solution.

The Everun Note is an awesome little device. Great keyboard, stylish, useful in almost every situation you might yourself in but not quite meeting my personal criteria.

A quick note to all of you waiting for the low-down on the M912M (LED-backlit version of the M912X.) A retail version has arrived here from Mobilx and I’ll be testing it out this evening.

We need to find out.

1) If the screen is brighter and has better contrast. (Likely)

2) How much more battery life we get compared to the M912X (Estimated 10-20%)

3) If it’s cooler than the M912X (probably will be in tablet mode.)

I’ll be live on UMPCPortal.com/live from about 2000 CEST (GMT+2)

Product details available here.

We’ve always tried to keep up with all the UMPC, MID and netbook products by at least entering them into the database but recently there have simply been too many products to handle. It’s a problem that needed attention so we’ve decided to open up the product information platform to partners that can share the load, offer the info as extra value to their visitors and have the option to generate some advertising revenue for their sites. I’m pleased to say that our trial with JKKMobile went very well. JKKMobile will continue to offer the product database and will help with adding information across the range of products. In addition to that, Liliputing is joining us with their netbook expertise and will be entering netbook device information and links to important news items. With the two new websites and UMPCortal working together we’ll be able to continue to offer one of the best resources on the Internet for consumer research in the MID, UMPC and Netbook product categories. About 100,000 people visit the product database every month where they view over 160 devices, a huge database of links to hand-picked news items, links to important videos, pricing information, user feedback and statistical information. With this partnership, the database has already grown to over 200 products and a sharp increase in visitor numbers is expected which will help generate revenue that can be put back into developing even more features for the database. Let us know what features you want to see in the database and we’ll add them to the to-do list.

We’re already talking to other potential partners and expects to make a further announcement soon. Again, product coverage will widen and customers will get even more detail about their favorite products.

If you are interested in setting up a tailored version of the product database for your website or in becoming a partner that takes responsibility for products, please get in touch with us and we’ll work something out with you. We are currently focusing on mobile computing products but are also interested in using the infrastructure to support other product types that can be shown on relevant websites. Advertising revenue sharing is included as part of every partnership so you are able to add value for your customers and value to your earnings.

We doubt that you’ll want to sit through the 90 minutes of recording that JKK, Sascha and myself made yestrday evening in one go so we’ve split it up into two parts. The first part covers the Benq S6, The Fujitsu U2010 and a good discussion about why we should all get behind Ubuntu Mobile. Part 2, to be posted tomorrowon Tuesday, includes some great discussion about netbooks.

Download here, stream now by clicking the play icon or pick the podcast up via the RSS feed below.

Subscribe to the Ultra Mobile Podcast RSS Feed

I don’t usually spend Saturday morning reading investor presentations and I can’t even remember how I got here but it’s interesting to look at the 22 April 2008 investor presentation from Archos. The personal media player company sees a migration to MIDs happening in the next 2 years. They also say that there is only one Internet, it needs a minimum 5″, 800×480 screen, that the MID market will 70M units in size by 2010. They also highlight to trends.  1) 3G is all-over in Western Europe and 2) Ultra Low Power X86 processors are becoming reality and that mobile devices will run standard PC applications in 2009.

There are no presentation notes or audio accompanying the slides here so I’m having trouble putting that last statement into context. Did Archos imply that they will have to follow the ‘reality’ and run standard PC applications? I.e. Go X86? Or did Chief executive Henri Crohas talk about the Archos’ competitive advantage in this X86-based market when he showed that slide? The Archos 5 has just been released and its based on a ARM/Ti platform but this product is probably a result of 18 months dev work. The low power X86 platforms didn’t exist then. They do now though so if Archos believe that the PMP market is evolving to a point where the Internet aspect is more important, would they switch CPU architectures?

Images taken from Archos Investor Presentation. 22 April 2008.(PDF).

I do believe that the X86-based platform has more potential both from the software dev and technology aspects and I’ve made predictions that Archos could move to X86 in the past but there are some changes happening in the market and unpredictable forces out there. An expensive decision like this needs to be low-risk to keep investors happy so I don’t believe that they’ve already made their decision.

Ti are putting a lot of effort into promoting their OMap platform, Nokia are looking to continue with ARM/Linux and there are others important players to consider too. Qualcomm, Apple, Nvidia all have products that could affect the market. On the other hand, Archos have just released a new product and have time before they need to make a decision on a new platform for their next product.

It would be in interesting market indicator if Archos switched to X86 but I guess we’ll have to wait a while before we find out.

A few weeks ago we told you about the VAIO UX280 that was modded with the 1.2GHz U7600 ULV processor and scored an impressive 30,069 in the Crystal Mark benchmark program. This time it is a UX490, the latest UX model, which was modded with the U7600 and the Crystal Mark scores are something to behold. MicroPCTalk forum member Ahn did the modification to another forum member’s UX490 (computercowboy), which involved removing the 1.2GHz Core 2 Solo CPU, and putting in its place the 1.2Ghz Core 2 Duo U7600 ULV. After putting the unit back together, the unit scored an incredible 45,999 in Crystal Mark!

Take a look at the graphs comparing the UX280 U7600 to a factory UX490 and the modded UX490 U7600. The biggest reason that the UX490 U7600 scored a higher total than the UX280 U7600 is the zippy 32GB SSD (compared to the UX280’s 40GB HDD). As you can see in the graphs below, the UX490 U7600 did some serious work in the FPU category and scored much higher than the UX280 U7600. I’m not quite sure what factor caused the large jump in FPU score. The most likely bet seems to be the contrast of SSD vs. HDD, but to my limited knowledge, FPU is all done on the CPU so the SSD shouldn’t have a large affect on the FPU score. Does anyone have any other guesses?

I think I can say for sure that computercowboy’s UX490 is the fastest (non-overclocked, thanks Brett) UMPC out there, and probably has a higher power:volume ratio than many full sized computers out there. Are there any challengers to compete for the throne?

[Micropctalk]

How long, just how long, did we have to wait for this? It feels like years! The first Atom-based MID in the western world finally launches. I’ve been trying to keep in contact with Benq about this since we spoke in depth about it at IDF but where does the information always come from in the end? A UMPCPortal reader of course! We don’t need no stinkin PR people

So what have we got? Via an article at Toms Hardware Italy (translation) we’ve tracked down the product page. It looks like its available NOW! More details after the pic…

(more…)

Fancy an Eee for the kitchen? One for the caravan? Garage? Our friends at Expansys UK are offering Eee PC 701 Surf UMPCs between 11am and 4pm today for, quite frankly, silly prices. The best thing is that if you order through these links today, you also support UMPCPortal as we get a few coins back for the UMPC testing fund!

UMPC Friday: Selected deals between 11am and 4pm, 26th September 2008

ASUS Eee PC 701 Surf (White)
Normally £155.99
Now only £117.99 inc VAT (£99.99 ex VAT)
Save £38

ASUS Eee PC 701 Surf (Black)
Normally £155.99
Now only £139.99 inc VAT (£119.14 ex VAT)
Save £16

These deals are available on Friday the 26th of September 2008 between 11am and 4pm by following the links above only.
Normal pricing will apply outside of these hours.

That’s Ultra Mobile Devices to you and me and it’s a term I rather like. Anyway, back to the story where ABI Research tells us that the UMD market, comprising Netbooks, MIDs and UMPCs. (Don’t ask us which definitions they’re using!) will reach, wait for it, 200 million units by 2013.

The interesting prediction is that by 2013, MIDs (Lets assume they mean small, handheld PMP-style Internet devices) will surge to meet 68% of that figure and netbooks sales will drop back to second place.

I agree with the general underlying opinion that MIDs and Netbooks will be the big sellers with UMPCs (as pro-mobile devices) remaining niche but the big question is ‘when’ and ‘how’ will MIDs take off?

Source: ABIresearch. Via Vunet.

If Intel can prevent OEM’s from using the Dual Core CPU in their netbook and notebook designs, how come they can’t stop Dell using the Z-Series Atom in a notebook? Just as the Dual-core CPU could damage notebook sales, so to could putting a 12" screen on a netbook, even if it didn’t have a dual-core CPU inside.

I was alerted to this misnomer [hmmm wrong word perhaps. Anomaly?] today via a brief news item today from Tony Smith of The Register who draws the conclusion that the name of a leaked Dell device that will go on sale at UK supermarket Tesco,  the Z530, means it will have an Atom Z530 inside. Actually he’s right because if you look back to the early leaks, you find a 12.1" ‘E-Slim’ device based on Silverthorne. Dell are actually going to throw a device right into the middle of the consumer laptop arena and give it netbook-style pricing. This is the danger zone and possibly the beginning of the end for netbooks as we knew them.

Why the Silverthorne CPU and Poulsbo chipset though? Style, Battery life and video. It’s going to be a normal laptop aimed at ‘pro-sumers’ and the ‘Youth social networking/entertainment’ customers. They are aiming for a cheap, super-slim device with ‘all day’ battery life with high-end video playback support and the only way they can do it is to move to the latest Intel MID silicon. I like the idea myself. I have a UMPC (Still haven’t pulled the trigger on a new Q1 U HSDPA yet though) and a stylish, 12" ultralight with long, long battery life and high-end hardware decoded video playback would suit me as a partner device to take to conferences and to use for hot-desking.

Why am I even talking about this 12" notebook on UMPCPortal though? Apart from it further bluring the edges of the, once well-defined, netbook category, there are a number of other reasons. The main one for us is that it will be running XP and that means drivers! Those of us waiting for drivers for the SC3, D4, SX3, M528 and Aigo MID are going to finally have XP drivers for the chipset. One can assume that if Dell is the customer, the device will have working drivers too! The second point is one that I alluded to earlier and one that I’ve just detailed in an email report to UMPCPortal sponsors and donators. The netbook market is going to be damaging because consumers are finding that they can use a netbook in place of a normal laptop. It IS powerful enough for many. Consumers are truly finding peace with netbooks. When devices like this Dell cross over into the larger netbook market, they bring with them the low-cost pricing and that immediately damages the main notebook market. We end up with a pricing war that, in the long run, reduces funds for R&D, quality engineering and niche products. While the 12" Dell netbook device may look good for consumers now, it could cross over into the danger zone and cause real problems for the future.

One good thing about the flood of netbooks is that consumers get lots of choice. Believe it or not, there are a few netbooks that manage to stand out from the others. I feel that the IdeaPad S10 has the potential to stand out; it looks quite attractive, and you’ll see in the unboxing video from Laptop.com that it appears to be slightly smaller than the Asus EEE 1000H, and the MSI Wind. Interestingly, it seems to have 2 RAM slots. I’m really not a fan of the tiny right shift-key, and it seems that the guys at LAPTOP aren’t either. Hopefully the packaging will get an upgrade before consumers get their hand’s on the S10, as the unboxing experience looked pretty weak.

With a sea of netbook choices, one might think something such as a misshapen shift-key could actually be enough to make a netbook significantly less popular than one of its competitors, of course given that battery life and performance were the same.

[Laptop.com] via [Liliputing]

Update: I’m currently live on UMPCPortal.com/live testing this out if you fancy seeing it in action.

Update: Live session summary below.

Today, One of the Canonical mobile team members released details of a new distribution based on Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid) aimed at ‘MIDs’ with screen sizes from 7-9″

After a simple download and copy to a flash drive the Q1 Ultra booted straight into a live linux session running in RAM and everything seems to work out of the box. Touch, brightness, wifi, BT and more. This is exciting. There’s a full software suite withthe Moblin browser (Firefox + grab and drag), on screen keyboard, Open Office, Pidgin, Thunderbird and of course, through the package manager, a whole lot more. [Video after the break]

(more…)

I recall seeing this solution a while back on JKKMobile but Paul from MoDaCo has now got one for testing. Its a 47Wh battery pack for the HTC Shift from Mugen which should allow about 5hrs online time thus solving one of the HTC Shift’s biggest problems. It’s a tidy solution but at nearly $240, it’s a huge amount to pay for 5 hrs of computing time.

Paul is doing further testing and will report back on performance soon.

Jkk has managed to find a short story on the ‘Nebraska Library Commission Blog‘ that mentions a list of libraries in the state that are getting hardware courtesy of the Gates Foundation:

The Nebraska Library Commission is proud to announce that the following 48 Nebraska public libraries have been awarded WiFi Connectivity Grants, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Each library will be receiving a Linksys WiFi Router and a Dell laptop or Samsung Q1 Ultra UMPC.

Interesting to say the least. There isn’t much detail on what the Q1Us will be used for at this point, or specifically which model they received, but I would imagine they would be a good tool for taking to the shelf and referencing books without having to return to a stationary computer to look up Dewey Decimal information. A few pictures of the Q1Us and some other donated hardware can be found at this flikr page.