I had a visit from a good friend from England this weekend and stepped back from news and articles but it’s time to catch up now and prepare for another big ultra mobile PC week.
The main news was about the 2Ghz Fujitsu Loox (FMVLUC50N) that JKK posted about on Saturday. Since the announcement of the Z550 2Ghz part I have been wondering whether we might slip into a mini Ghz war for mobile PCs but I guess the option was a drop-in no-brainer for Fujitsu. Having tested Vista on the OQO 2+ at 1.8Ghz I can tell you that it comes very close to being transparent (no noticeable lag that would slow productivity down) as a desktop and as the Loox comes with a very nice docking station, its going to be one of the best grab-and-go desktop PCs available. Especially if you take the XP and SSD options that Conics.net are offering. Its expensive but its a really top quality solution.
The UMID MBook M1 and the Gigabyte Touchnote were the only two PCs I used all weekend and the only reason I fired the Touchnote up was to transfer 80Gb of files from an iPod. The UMID was the house-PC all weekend for emails, checking timetables, events and youtube. I even made a 20 minute Skype call using the built-in mid and speaker and the quality was excellent. Its fitting into my usage scenario far better than the Viliv S5 despite the shorter battery life. I’m really close to buying one to complete my three device strategy.
A Samsung Q1EX turned up on Saturday thanks to VIA and I’ve kept it tightly boxed all weekend. I’ve read the review at LaptopMag and put the details into the database. Tomorrow, after I’ve caught up with some paperwork ,I’ll unbox it and go over it. In the evening i’ll be joining JKK on a live session so we’ll test the Q1 EX in more detail. We’ll also do some work with the Viliv S5 devices we have. JKK has the SSD version with 3G. Join us at UMPCPortal.com/live at about 2030 CEST and get busy with the questions.
Thanks to everyone that commented on the ultra mobile PC 2006-2009 video. A lot of people questioned why I didn’t show certain devices though so maybe I didn’t quite make it clear enough in the video that I wanted to show how technology had moved on and the devices I had were simply there to demonstrate that. The OQO, Everun and similar groundbreaking devices would definitely have been mentioned if had been running through a complete history. When I look at the UMID and S5 and think about the power consumption, screen, speed of the platform, its quite amazing. We’re moving into a part of the ultra mobile PC story where designers can really trust that the platform will be able to deliver the performance and battery life that people want in far more exciting form factors than were ever possible before.
Speaking of the S5, Jenn of Pocketables.net published her full and very positive review and James Kendrick of jkOnTheRun was so impressed that he bought it. Check out all his Viliv content and don’t miss Mobile Tech Roundup Podcast 170 where there’s an interesting discussion about UMPCs. Mobile Barbarian has some comments about the S5 too. As for my full review, it’s coming soon so stay tuned.
The OQO story continues. Last week I tweeted news that I got from Build Your ultra mobile PC and a lot of people picked up on it and relayed it as a rumor. OQO finally updated Boing Boing gadgets though and said that yes, it was ‘unlikely’ that the 2+ would be produced. Our news story has 91 detailed comments on it at the moment so don’t forget to take a look through some of them for additional views on the matter. My one-week hands-on with the 2+ is also available.
Other interesting news items:
OLPC to move to VIA C7. If it’s true, it’s a good win for VIA. The most important part of the story is that they will partner with C7 with the new VX855 chipset which will bring interesting media capabilities due to the onboard video and 3D hardware. Far better than that tired old Geode CPU and chipset.
There’s some interesting news going about relating to Android on netbooks. It’s going to happen and i’m sure it’s going to be big but it might not happen on a big scale in Europe and the U.S. At least that’s my opinion based on the fact that we seem to be interested in bigger and more expensive netbooks. What we could see is Android move into a more ‘productive’ direction which will make the software interesting for low-cost ARM-based MIDs and UMPCs.
Ubuntu 9.04 is out and people are saying good things about it. There’s a ‘netbook remix’ version (it appears they stopped work on the ubuntu-umpc version) and tucked away on the image server is the latest MID version. Anyone tested 9.04 out yet?
There seems to be some confidence that Apple will release a tablet but the big question is, what form will it take? Will it be a 12 inch coffee-table device, a 7 inch armrest device or, as I think is likely, something in the 5 inch range. Have a look through these articles on Google Blogsearch and let me know what you think
That’s about it for the moment. I’ll be back up to speed on Monday so stay tuned for the Samsung Q1EX unboxing and that live session with JKKMobile.
New article: While I Was Away (26 April 2009) http://cli.gs/4emX9a
Do you mean the UMID M1 would replace the Aigo in your 3-device picture? Or would it become 4 device? Do you feel you would lose anything by not having a tablet-ish format? I’ve always assumed that for reading/viewing tasks the keyboard and weight distribution of a laptop/netbook becomes a bit unwieldy. Whereas something in the SC3 to Touchnote scale/format gives you a powerful eBook/MID/Video device with a sort of small keyboarding laptop transformation.
I’m starting to think even more that we need a more complex model for defining and describing what everything from a smartphone via MID/UMPC/tablet/netbook to a laptop/desktop can do (properly?!). And some devices have quirks and limitations which blur the simple use of the acronyms. A MID nows seems to be a smartphone that cannot make (native?) calls, although some MIDs do have better screens. Some devices can play and download video but not stream or fully browse for it – which seems a fairly arbitrary limitation affecting some/all Archos (eg. no web+MJPEG) and some smartphones. The newer tablets and netbooks push other distinctions. The main defining feature of a UMPC – as said in the OQO thread – is a high possibly excessive price.
Am I the only one confused and feeling this?
The early eee’s did something unique, definable, sellable: cheap, small, web, worked.
The early mid’s did the same: small, web, mobile, affordable when laptops were big and expensive or had no 3G.
Smartphones did enhanced SMS, contact management, email and then limited browsing.
Now all those lines have moved a long way. The eee gets bigger each release, some mids/viewers get more confused (archos) others become shrinkable netbooks or replacements for the discontinued eee’s. For £205 you can get a PAYG smartphone that does all the old MIDs did and more, limited only by a (say) 2.8″ VGA screen so it still fits a big-ish pocket.
No wonder the contents of your “power of three” keeps changing.
Hi Kevin.
The UMID would replace the Aigo, yes although I know what you’re saying about tablets. To me, the slider would be the best compromise giving a nice tidy reader format and the keyboard too but when I compare battery life and processing power between the Aigo and UMID, there’s no competition. The UMID is ahead.
As for a ‘model’ describing the differences, it’s difficult. Recently the term ‘UMPC’ has gained more traction so you might find more marketing departments using it. The mix between the general press, technical press,.marketing teams and users is not going to sort itself out for a few years yet.
I like that blogsearch – I’ve not used that one before
First blog I read had a rumour about an Apple ereader- twice the size of the ipod touch.
That makes sense to me – as it gets Apple into the ebook market, another revenue stream for itunes. And they get to take Amazon on in the book market.
http://www.lorenheiny.com/2009/04/24/one-more-for-the-apple-tablet-rumor-category/
Good post, Chippy…and I also agree with KevinR that things seem to be getting a bit murkier on the UMPC/MID/whatever front…think I’ve gotten a bit confused myself…. hmmm, looks like I have a 6 device strategy at the moment:
-MacBook C2D (use it mainly at home now…have dock for it connected to 21″ CRT)
-Fujitsu P1610 (take it with me to work & mtgs…)
-Sony Vaio 90/1.86/64GB SSD (will be here in a few days,hope this was smart move)
-HP 2710p (provided at work, but using it mainly at desk in dock w/22″ LCD)
-Blackberry 8830 (provided at work, mainly email & some phone calls)
-Pantech PG-C300 (tiny cellphone, personal use, in my pocket)
Hmmm….seems like somethings wrong with this picture…maybe the 6 device ‘non-strategy’ is why I feel a bit confused about my device usage lately…
;-)
As long as you can afford them all (or work can) its not too mad. If like chippy its “your hobby” as well as your living its probably survivable! But looking at your set of devices if the functionality was clearer, or just “more functional” its unlikely you’d have so much kit. You actually have 6 portable devices, no stationary desktop ones, and 2 laptops docked permanently to big screens.
I can even start to guess how each quirk occurred but it shows the weakness and confusion in the market and on the desk. Smallest devices struggle to interface sensibly with big screens, mini-laptops and phone, personal phone, mini-phone and email-phone. They are all so busy defending their niche or leaving something out to protect their other niche, its all quite silly.
Let us know how the Vaio with big SSD works out.
You’ve got it pretty close, Kevin….so, here’s the story:
My HP2710p tabletPC is docked most of the time, but occasionally is taken with me to meetigs, so that I can take notes in OneNote….however, since I have my little P1610 which can do the same thing at 2.2#’s instead of lugging around about 3.6#’s, I find myself wondering why bother taking the HP, which is a shame as the HP is a very nice tablet.
As for MacBook, until a few years ago, I had my own biz and used the MacBook for meetings and presentations out of the office and used a Mac desktop tower as my ‘daily driver’ in the office as it had more horsepower….but with my biz closed, I couldn’t justify getting another tower when it started to have problems, so, decided to just use the MacBook as it hardly been used…works OK…
The P1610 I got so that I’d have a more portable personal computing device…works well overall and use it both for personal and business use during the day at work….however, lately even lugging it around outside the office started to bother me, so, started looking for a smaller device, but not too small, as I’ve had a few already and each time realize that they’re just too small for my ol’ eyes and specific computing usage. It seems like the Vaio P might be OK for me, smaller/lighter than the P1610, but not too small, very light, and still reasonably large display and keyboard…only thing I’ll miss with P is touchscreen…
So it goes….will let you know how it goes after I receive P soon….