Contents
Summary
The UMPC market is developing well now and because of the introduction of the low cost Netbooks and the increasing availability of cellular Internet services at consumer prices, millions of people are being introduced to the idea of taking a personal computer with them all the time. While the netbook segment highlights a good balance between portability, features and price, its still a moving market and the constant increase in the numbers of devices prove time and time again that everyone’s ideal device is different. Make you choice by doing the following things.
1) Ask yourself WHY you want a mobile computing device. What do you want to do with it?
2) Look for devices that match your criteria and do some research.
3) Try and get hands-on. If you have never used a device in a mobile scenario before, try-before-you-buy. The easiest way to do this is to buy a second-hand device, use it for a few months and then feed that experience into your choice.
4) Don’t wait! There is ALWAYS a device coming up that will be better but if you’ve already found a device that meets your criteria, don’t waste time in buying it and starting to enjoy it.
UMPCPortal site resources
Further reading and information available on UMPCportal
What started as a little blog in Feb ‘06 has, mainly through the good feedback of readers, matured very quickly into a rich portal that we hope is helping users learn and make decisions about UMPC’s of all types. From the iPod touch to the Flybook V5. During the last 2.5 years, we’ve produced a number of reports. Some you may find helpful are listed below:
Using UMPCs as Mobile thin-client solutions
UMPCPortal’s sales predictions for netbooks
Our definition of the Full Internet Experience (FIE)
UMPC Battery life expectations
UMPCPortal is split into a number of areas so here’s a rundown of the content we’ve got that might help you on your UMPC journey.
Home page.
The home page is where you’ll find all the latest news, detailed reports, reviews and research as they are published. You’ll also see a microblog on the right hand column which is updated regularly by the authors on the site.
Product pages (database)
If you’re looking for more details on specific UMPC products, we have a set of product pages that contain as many specs as we can find (and more that we’ve found out through reviews) on all the UMPC’s we have in the database. In the product pages we also have a detailed comparison engine that will allow you to line-up a shortlist of UMPCs for finer comparison. You’ll are able to leave comments, read the latest newslinks, view related products and even check on a devices popularity. UMPC Product database.
The product database also gets syndicated and shared out to other websites. Partner websites also contribute to the database. Current partners are JKKMobile, Liliputing and Pocketables. If you would like to use the shared version of the database on your blog or website, please contact us.
River of Links
We also include a constantly updating hand-reviewed list of links (River of Links ) to important news and reviews for each product. If you want to track important info about product reviews and sites this is a good way to keep updated.
Gallery
When we review a product we take a lot of pictures that don’t make it into the review itself. You can view all our UMPC photography here in the Gallery. Over 2000 images are available.
Forums
An active forum is available to ask questions and exchange info about all aspects of the UMPC
Reviews
All UMPC reviews are listed on this page .
Podcasts
Our regular, approx .one-per-month podcasts are always listed here.
UMPCPortal Live. Chat and live video sessions.
The unwritten rule is that when a new device arrives, we go live that evening with video and a chat session where you can see a presentation of the device and ask questions. The live video and chat area is always open for you to talk live with other UMPC fans.
Videos on YouTube and Blip.tv
All of our video presentations can be found on Blip.tv and Youtube.
Site authors
The UMPCPortal writing team currently consists of Steve Paine (Aka Chippy), Ben Lang and Kornel Tomasiak.
Chippy on Friendfeed.
I collect all my UMPC related content here so it’s the #1 place to keep up with news and activity on UMPCPortal. View the feed and follow Chippy here.
RSS feeds
A feed for every UMPC hunger!
Recommended! Main feed. . This includes all the news items passing through the front page of UMPCPortal.com- UMPCportal forums . Track new posts in the forums.
- River of product links . Hand-picked product related links and brief info. Mostly external.
- Gallery . Before we report on anything we’re testing or reviewing or even live-blogging, you’ll often find that we post the images into the gallery. Stay a few minutes ahead of the curve here!
Product specific RSS feeds.
As an extension to the River Of Links feeds, you can now track a single product and catch all the hand-picked product news for a single product. These feeds are updated regularly by UMPCPortal and partner websites. The product specific RSS feeds can be found on the product pages.
More background information about the portal is available on this page.
Contents
November 7th, 2008 at 2:38 pm
Hi Chippy, under the “River of Links” section, I’m not sure that the link works correctly. We end on a “nothing found” page with an embedded Error 404.
Reply (threaded)
November 7th, 2008 at 2:59 pm
Fixed. Many thanks.
Reply (threaded)
November 9th, 2008 at 3:35 am
The only addition to the guide is for those who are looking past the standard specs for something else, like battery life, and progressive environmentally friendly technologies.
Here are some videos that address this present, and future that were not part of the overall guide but could be:
Reshaping the Laptop Market
http://www.bigthink.com/business-economics/11931
The Future of Computer Design
http://www.bigthink.com/science-technology/11929
Reply (threaded)
November 9th, 2008 at 7:13 pm
Let’s try to raise the curve on one aspect—ultra mobility—and “help you make informed decisions.”
Ultra mobility should all be about “devices that you can take anywhere,” and in that light we should review “some of the most important parts of the UMPC, starting with the form factors and, possibly the most important aspect of all, the keyboard.” Somebody said “If you want a pocketable PC, grab a smartphone. Nokia’s E-Series has a full QWERTY Keypad.”
In reality, Nokia’s E90 is less typing-friendly than the older Communicator 9300 [History repeating the amnesia it had relative to the Psion 5 keyboard superiority!]: whereas I hold the 9300 with one hand and type with three fingers (1+2), I can use only two fingers on the E90 because the grip (on-the-move) is no longer secure. Further, there is no comparing either of these with the Psion 5 which could eventually be called a “pocketable PC,” because it allowed the requisite speed of input enabled by its touch-typing capabilities. Yes, it was slow (the search function was abysmal), but what actually killed the machine was the flimsy production quality of British industry—the screen connectors kept on falling apart from regular usage, year after year. Their Austrian representative had a simple explanation: “You know, British workers…” [This same complacency could finally spell the end of western supremacy, now that the financial and insurance industries—the only sectors where the West had an edge—are going down the drain.] A good product gone defunct because of the clubbing-and-beer-drinking imperatives of the new, decadent industrial class—“the masters of the universe.”
If you ask “What is Ultra Mobile Computing?, ” another factor you have to consider is shock protection, or “mobility [might not] translate to more fun and flexibility.” We’re not talking of rugged UMPCs that function underwater, but of devices that are mobile enough to get there. I broke two Psion 5 screens—one on the downhill bike, the other on snowboard [tucked in front of my belly, figuring that the chances of landing with the face straight down were minimal!]. Today I always carry a hard case; for the Nokia Communicator I simply use a (free) hard case for sunglasses (Police). I had one for the Psion too, but it added to the bulk and the pocket-size requirements; now, imagine what it will add to a Raon Everun Note—forget the baggy pockets!
The reason I am still considering the Everun is that the [fashion] design industry has come up with these new bags that hang in various setups from the belt [spawned from the Italian "marsupio bags"], and come in sizes that max out at A5 (roughly 21×15cm). I bought two of these leather bags (not to get bored), searched for hard cases to match, and now have to choose the right UMPC. Hope it will work (or I’ll just follow western civilization to where the sun never shines)!
And the “operating system choices!” If the review “takes into account the emerging high-end smartphone market,” and goes on about “Apple OSX [that] is not currently available on mobile productivity devices,” it should also refer to the Symbian operating system that, once upon a time, was the stablest of all. Back then, when it was known as the EPOC operating system, I can’t remember that it ever crashed. After the Symbian syndicate bought EPOC, the first platforms that used it—the Ericsson MC218’s—had still the EPOC stickers on the case. With each successive upgarde, Symbian programmers made it less stable. [Talking of retrograde processes!] Today it does freeze, and often displays the blue screen of death, but I have (as yet) never lost any data to system crashes [when defaults are set to store all data directly on flash memory]. I think that deserves a mention in the overview of operating systems used in Ultra Mobile Devices.
Reply (threaded)
March 24th, 2009 at 5:38 pm
This is the second time I visit your blog and find an interesting article perfectly matching what I was searching for so I decided to add your feed to my RSS Reader. Thanks for you work.
Reply (threaded)