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Kohjinsha SK3. Netbook or UMPC?

Chippy — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:57:13 +0000

The Kohjinsha SK3, the high-end 7″ convertible with a 3mp auto-focus cam (a first) and the smallest and lightest 7” convertible form factor we’ve seen to date has just turned up. In a short while I’ll be recording an unboxing for YouTube but it will be live at http://www.umpcportal.com/live where you can watch ‘behind the scenes’, discuss and ask questions.

Update: Live session over. Unboxing post with video is here.

Specifications here. I see Conics already have it listed for $775 which , for these specs, isn’t bad. The only forewarning I’d give at this stage is about the battery life. At 17wh, the included battery isn’t going to return amazing battery life.

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Archos 9 UMPC gets some hands-on time

Ben — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 04:59:02 +0000

Update: Archos 9 is now in the database with all the specs and links to the important news and videos.
Looks like some of the folks over at Cnet.uk had some time to ‘finger’ (their words, not mine) the recently unveiled Archos 9 UMPC. As you’ll recall, the Archos 9 is Archos’ first foray into the world of UMPCs, though they seem to have not realized that there have already been many device like this, and think they are being ‘innovative’ by removing the keyboard from the ‘netbook’ (am I the only one that can’t help but laugh at that?). Actually, let me quote directly from their press release before we move on:

What better innovation for a Netbook than to get rid of keyboards?

Ok, I’ll give you a minute to recover from you inevitable laughter. Got it? Good.

Well then, as I was saying, the folks at Cnet.uk seem to have gotten their hands on an early sample of the Archos 9 and while they didn’t have much time to test the unit for performance, they did snap some pictures for us to examine.

These are the good sides of the device. Be sure to check out the Cnet article for a few more images. After checking out the others, you may agree with me that it appears to be decidedly pre-production. I’m hoping the device will clean up nicely before launch.

One interesting thing to note is that the resistive touchscreen on the Archos 9 is apparently so responsive that the people playing with the unit actually mistook it for a capacitive screen, which is about the best news we can hear without it actually being capacitive. Cnet is actually checking for verification just to be sure that it is resistive as stated in the press release (linked above).

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Early Always Innovating Touchbook demo

Ben — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 03:17:53 +0000

As we await news of the supposed imminent release of the Always Innovating Touchbook [Portal page], I wanted to bring attention to a demo of the forthcoming Touchbook from a product launch conference called Demo. The demonstration itself is actually a few months old, and maybe it was just me, but it seems like this video demonstration of the hardware didn’t get much notice. Below we can watch the Touchbook being demonstrated by the founder of Always Innovating, Grégoire Gentil.

It is interesting to note that although this seems to be somewhat early hardware, it has the same red top that is purportedly going to accompany the first batch of units that are due to be released this month.

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Always Innovating Touchbook coming next month, full specs

Ben — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 17:52:11 +0000

The Always Innovating Touchbook, which made a decent amount of buzz several months ago, should be seeing its first batch of devices released next month, in July. The device is quite unique as the screen can be removed from the keyboard and run as a standalone slate tablet.

Always Innovating just released some new info stating that the first batch would be out in July, however the software isn’t yet finalized:

We are very excited to have nearly finalized the Touch Book hardware. As you know, we are at the cutting edge of innovation with a new processor, a new architecture, a new design and new applications. The Touch Book Operating System will continue to be a work-in-progress over the next few months. As beta software (and not beta à la Google News), you should not expect a flawless experience by July. But don’t worry, we will be here to provide support, and we intend to push frequent updates so as to continue improving the user experience. With your feedback, we will be able to test, refine, and prepare for a final software release later this year.

It is an interesting situation that they have essentially finished the hardware before the software and will now be pushing units out to get feedback from early-adopters. We should be receiving a Touchbook from the July batch, so stay tuned for coverage. Full device specs below:

Texas Instruments OMAP3530 with Micron 256MB (RAM) + 256MB (NAND) Memory
8.9” 1024×600 A+ screen
Main storage: 8GB SD card — we decided to change from Micro SD to standard SD, so that you can easily upgrade it
Internal USB wifi 802.11 b/g/n powered by a Ralink 3070 chipset
Internal USB bluetooth class 2.1
FCC, CE, UL-certified, 5V, 3.5A power adapter
8.9 inch pressure sensitive touch screen
US Qwerty 24cm-large keyboard — around 95% of the size of a standard keyboard
Cirque Touchpad
Two Owolff high-quality internal stereo speakers
3D accelerometer
Two internal batteries 6000 and 12000mAh — it can be replaced with a screw driver
7 USB ports: three external, four internal, three of them may be reserved for wifi, bluetooth and keyboard
Bi-color silver/black case — see photos — with a beautiful dark-red back cover (we decided to go only for red for the first batch as it really jumps out, you won’t regret it).
Secured attachment system of tablet into keyboard
Independent magnet system for the tablet — we don’t want your Touch Book to un-magnetize all your credit cards while carrying it in your bag!

I bolded ‘pressure sensitive’ in the touchscreen spec above as I’m not 100% sure what they are trying to imply. One could say that all resistive touchscreens are ‘pressure sensitive’ because they sense a certain pressure on the screen and translate that to input. However, the specific denotation of ‘pressure sensitivity’ in these specs almost seems to imply that it will have several layers of pressure sensitivity, like that of a graphics tablet. While I think it is unlikely that is the case, it would be quite interesting to have several levels of pressure sensitivity in a small slate unit.

The new info also lists the software that will be shipping with the early units as well as software that is on its way:

Linux 2.6.29 with all the required drivers
Xfce 4.4 desktop environment
A unique 3D interface for starting applications with your finger
Firefox 3.0 and Fennec beta 2
Youtube and daily motion support
A video and music player
Abiword and Gnumeric
A chat manager, Pidgin
Mypaint 5.1
An ebook reader, Fbreader
A printer manager, Cups
All usual accessories (zip, picture viewer, dictionary…)
Support for most standard USB accessories
Java support

Good to see that Fennec is going to be on the device. If you’ll recall, Fennec is a mobile version of Mozilla’s Firefox which focuses on touch input. See our short video demo of it here.

There is also some upcoming software improvements which they hope to bring to the 1.0 release. Those include the following:

Skype compatible application
OpenOffice 3.1
A full Adobe Flash solution
Recognition of the Touch Book by iTunes to synchronize your music and video
A Google-maps-based application with GPS support (GPS USB not included)
Some 3D accelerometer-based iPhone games

The ‘iPhone’ games mention is a bit iffy. I’m doubting that they are talking about having actual iPhone games on the phone, but instead probably some accelerometer based games, and maybe some based on existing iPhone games.

I suppose we’ll find out the answer to our questions in July when we get our hands on one.

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Clevo TN70M Hands-on Surprises.

Chippy — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 09:57:08 +0000

When you read about the TN70 in the umpc and netbook community you’re likely to hear references to the T91 and the Sony Vaio P along with words like ‘ugly’ and ‘cheap.’ You probably won’t hear much mention of mobility but if you’re thinking about mobility, umpcs and tablet PCs I encourage you to pause for a moment and take a closer look because this bargain basement device (that I’m calling a UMPC) has surprised me by turning out to be well designed and very, very usable. If you think back to the Wibrain B1/i1 you’ll remember a similar story. It certainly didn’t look attractive and the reason was that Wibrain designed something to be usable rather than marketable. The same is true of the TN70. It’s a very usable and very good value device.

The TN70N has been supplied for review by Mobilx. Their information and ordering page is available here.

Our TN70N product page which includes links, images and videos.

Before I get my first impressions down though I have to do a comparison to Kohjinsha SA1. When I bought it 2.5 years ago it cost me over 1000 Euro, ran on the Geode LX500 CPU and served me well until I ran out of patience with the slow processor. The TN70M costs less than half and brings a swivel touchscreen, way over double the processing power, hd video decoding, a fingerprint reader, rotation sensor, optical mouse, web cam, expresscard/34 slot and a much much better keyboard. It even has the same, great battery life. If you’re buying pre-tax, you’ll pay just 337 Euros today. That’s without an operating system but if Windows 7 release candidate runs, (i’ll be testing that today) then why bother with the OS. 405 euro is the price including tax. Seriously, if you’re thinking about a cheap netbook for mobile duties, stop! This Clevo is more mobile, more flexible, more usable than any netbook in almost all mobile scenarios except long-term desktop use.

Let’s put a few things in perspective though. It only has an 800×480 resolution screen so you’ll be experiencing dialog box problems. You’ll also hit problems with some software installs until you switch to a higher, non-native resolution. It’s also pretty ugly. A large screen frame houses useable controls but makes it look like a toy, especially in the white coloring.

In our 1hr live evaluation last night (video here) we discovered the following:

The keyboard is good. Better than the Kohinsha SC3. Not as good as most netbook. It only has 1 shift key.
The fingerprint reader works and the software captures password too.
The mouse pointer on the frame is a very good optical type which gives you great control in two-handed or tablet mode.
Has strong Wifi reception. (b/g modes)
Appears to have about 5hrs battery life (although the battery indicator doesn’t show times)
Has a soft touchscreen with a good level of palm rejection. The screen is matt but has a typical milky appearance in sunlight.
Includes a rotation sensor (although the drive software appears to be broken on this model)
Is as fast as any 1.3Ghz Menlow device for browsing. Sub 10-second average page load times.
Includes a hard drive with a max throughput of 28MB/s
Was silent for the whole 1hr testing session
Has a removable back allowing RAM, HDD and PCI-express mini slot.
Speakers are of acceptable quality.
Microphone level seems low (tested with Skype)

Initial CrystalMark test result:

The graphics driver is extremely old and causes crashes on flash full-screen so i’ll leave you with some images and run down to the studio to install Windows 7. Wish me luck!

Thanks to Mobilx for the TN70M review device.

Check our product page for the latest info and links.

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Kohjinsha SK3 Launched. Chippy’s Thoughts.

Chippy — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 10:05:51 +0000

The Kohjinsha SK3 that we reported on yesterday has been formally launched for the Japanese market at a local price, including taxes, of about $730. Before I put some thoughts down though, here are the full specs:

Model id SK3KX06GA
CPU type Intel Atom (Silverthorne)
CPU speed 1330 Mhz
Graphics Intel GMA 500
OS Windows XP Home
Display Size 7″ 1024 X 600
RAM 1024 MB
Hard Disk 60 GB, 1.8”, 4200RPM
Battery capacity 17 (Wh)
Claimed battery life 3.2hrs (Jeita test)
Weight 720g
Size (w/h/d mm) 193/132/30 mm

Physical Interfaces

ExpressCard/34
Ethernet 10/100
VGA
Line-out / Headphone
Multi-format card reader
MIC-in
Micro SD slot
USB2.0 (x2)

Wireless Interfaces

802.11b/g/n
BT2.0

Additional Specs

WebCam
WebCam 3.0mp
GPS

We’re clearly looking at the evolution of a good quality UMPC here. The SC3 was well built and had an excellent (arguably the best in the market) screen making it downright stunning for 720p playback and very useful for high-end navigation duties. The SK3 will be just as good if it has the same screen. The size reductions are quite considerable considering it’s got a swivel screen and the weight reduction to 720g is class-leading for a 7” ‘laptop.’ It will be noticeable if you’re using it with one hand. The local price of $733 seems reasonable considering the huge array of connectivity options that the SK3 offers. Finally, it looks Kohjinsha might have changed the keyboard slightly. If i’m not mistaken it’s taken cues from the Everun Note keyboard and enlarged the main character keys. This will help a lot.

On the negative side we can’t ignore the extremely disappointing battery life figures. 3.2hrs battery life on a Jeita-based test is nothing exciting at all and will translate to between 2 and 2.5 hours, possibly less under heavy load. The battery pack is a tiny 17wh and there’s no indication of an extended battery option. This alone is going to be the deal breaker for many. Add the fact that it’s running a 4200 1.8” 60GB hard drive too and you’ve got too very significant reasons not to buy this and to wait for the Viliv S7 (much much bigger battery and battery life, bigger keyboard, ssd options) or even to go for the Viliv X70 and buy a portable keyboard.

Kohjinsha have a habit of creating impressive designs but losing focus on battery life. Two years ago when the SH8 was released I expressed disappointment at the 2hr battery life. That was 2 generations of device ago. Then, the SC3 was released and it was at that point we decided to run a poll. Under 3% of people found 2hrs to be an acceptable battery life. It looks like the SK3 won’t be much better and with new UMPCs turning in 5hr+ battery life, it appears worse than ever before.

We’ll be tracking specs, links and details in the SK3 information page. There’ are already a set of images in the gallery.

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Kohjinsha SK3 UMPC Info Coming Through

Chippy — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 11:30:42 +0000

We’ve just had an unofficial tip-off that Kohjinsha will be launching a new 7” UMPC this week. It will be an improved version of the SC3, one of the few remaining 7” UMPCs with a keyboard. The changes look to be fairly subtle with differences in appearance, size and weight (down to 720gm) and the same 1.3Ghz Menlow platform with similar specifications. The GPS and SD card slot remain along with the PCI-Express, VGA-out and LAN connection that other 7” UMPCs don’t have. Wifi is upgraded with 802.11n support which is a good sign that they’ve dumped the horrible inefficient WiFi module that was in the SC3. Windows 7 support is also being mentioned in the information that we’ve got. The only significant new feature seems to be a dual camera but from the fuzzy Japanese-language info we have here, we can’t work out the resolutions. The letters ‘AF’ give an indication that the quality could be fairly high. There’s no information on the screen touch technology but the pen in the images indicates that its resistive.

Nice case. Looks much less deep than the SC3. No rear battery.

My immediate thoughts are that this is a good improvement over the SC3 and a better choice than the Raon Digital Everun Note if the battery life and disk speed is improved. The SC3 is hampered by a slow HDD so an SSD option on the SK3 is a must. Battery life also needs to be improved over the SC3. Notice that the there’s no rear battery on the SK3 indicating that Kohjinsha have switched to the Li-Poly battery technology. That means they can design the battery into the casing which reduces the depth and provides a bit more flexibility. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that its a 30wh module that can drive the device for 4hrs but only a hands-on and price will reveal the truth and tell us whether this is a truly all-round UMPC that will compete with the ‘7hr’ Viliv S7 that we are also expecting to hear about soon.

It’s confidence-inspiring to see that Kohjinsha are continuing to push forward in the UMPC market. With Windows 7 on the horizon, we hope that others will follow the lead and we look forward to a busy Q4!

Update: Some new info is coming in. (See and thank Larry in the comments) “First the Screen is 1024 x 600 and it is a touch screen. It will be on sale from June 26th in Japan and should be in the 7-800 USD range with the current strong YEN. Same Intel Atom Z520(1.33GHz)CPU and Intel US15W Chipset. Sadly the battery is only rated at 2.3 hours. It will be selling with Windows XP Home SP3.”

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Viliv X70 EX Special Offers at Dynamism. July 6th.

Chippy — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 20:42:55 +0000

Dynamism have just announced a special pre-ordering offer for all three of the Viliv X70 EX models.

Express Model Pre-Order Special:

Free Upgrade to 1.3GHz from 1.2GHz
Free Car Kit
Free Leather Pouch
Free Matte Filter

Premium Models Pre-Order Special:

Free Spare Standard Battery
Free Car Kit
Free Leather Pouch
Free Matte Filter

To be honest, the X70 was good value without this special offer but this makes it even more irresistible. The car kit and leather pouch are excellent quality. I haven’t tried the matte filter but as the X70 has a glossy screen I’d say its going to be worth having too.

The offer is valid for the first 777 orders from Dynamism on June 6th 1pm Eastern Time. Get more details from the product page at Dynamism.

Shipment expected July 28th

Our full review.

Our product page with links to many other X70 related articles.

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Mobile Reporting Kit V6 Adds Live Video Streaming Capability.

Chippy — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 09:59:01 +0000

The Viliv X70 EX Premium Air has a long battery life, reasonable processing power and built in 3G so it didn’t take me long to start messing about with it as a mobile broadcasting solution and that’s the focus of Version 6 of my mobile reporting kit. Live video.

I spent some time testing different webcams, microphones and configurations and have come up with a 2KG setup that will allow you to do live, mobile broadcasting over Ustream with reasonable quality. The total cost of the solution is under $1000 and the setup can not only be used for live streaming but can be used as a complete Ultra Mobile live blogging solution.

Hardware

What I’ve done is taken the X70 EX and the car kit. I’ve mounted part of the car kit onto the leg of the tripod so that the UMPC can be clamped in. It provides a sturdy screen at a good height when sitting on a chair in, say, a conference room. The X70 EX has Wifi and 3G included. The 3G is HSUPA capable which puts it in the 1Mbps max upload class (assuming you have the right coverage)

I’ve added a 4-way USB hub to the X70 and then plugged in a Philips SPC900 webcam (manual focus) and Samson USB mic. The Philips cam has been chosen because the drivers seems to be very efficient and can produce 20fps VGA framerate while still doing automatic white-balance. Many other solutions I’ve tried including the built-in cam, drop to below 10fps and lower when using the automatic white balance features. Auto-focus would be nice, as would optical zoom and a quality sensor and optics but for the price, the Philips cam does well.

Software

One of the ‘tricks’ I use on the live video sessions is to avoid the use of the browser-embedded video capture software in the ‘flash’ control panel. The CPU requirement is high, the quality is poor and there’s very little control. Instead I use the standalone Flash Media Encoder (FME). It’s an application that takes audio and video inputs and allows you to stream to a media ‘relay.’ More details on this can be found here. On a desktop machine it can be used to broadcast very high quality VP6 or H.264 encoded video but on a UMPC is can be used to fine tune the broadcast for a good balance between quality and CPU load.

Unfortunately you can’t control the end-user stream with the FME so you still have to run the Ustream Broadcast Console. The wonderful advantage of this is that you don’t have to run the broadcast console on the same PC so you have three options.

1) Run the broadcast console on the same PC – Not recommended as it takes a lot of valuable CPU and doesn’t do much except start and stop the broadcast (unless you want to add text and links overlays.)

2) Run the broadcast console on another PC. This could be on another laptop that you have with you or on a remote desktop machine that you access via a remote desktop solution.

3) Get someone else to handle the broadcast console on a remote machine, anywhere on the internet.

The Ustream broadcast console automatically detects that you’re streaming via the FME and allows you to switch directly to that stream. If the stream drops out it gives you the option to drop back to a local video source. It takes some playing with to understand the architecture but its very flexible once set-up.

Settings

After doing some testing with various settings I settled for a total 550kbps average broadcast bandwidth by using the VP6 encoder at 500kbps with a 20fps VGA (640×480) frame rate and size. For audio I used a 48kbps MP3 audio track. If you’re broadcasting music, you’ll want to pump this up to 96kbps or more.

550kbps is a good rate for 3G broadcast on HSUPA. 50% utilisation is a reasonable expectation although you must expect to get some frame loss as the quality of 3G services varies wildly based on usage and position.

Example broadcast.

This broadcast was recorded by Ustream at their servers (not at the source) while broadcasting over Wifi. It gives you a good idea of what the end user will see.

It’s re-sized to 80% of full frame size.

Once again, this is not recorded at source, it’s what the end user is likely to see. I hope it streams OK for you for the Ustream server and apologies for my appearance!

640 x 480 is arguably too big for web-embedded broadcasting but if possible it’s worth doing as when you ask Ustream to record the stream (a single button press on the broadcast console) they’ll be capturing better quality that you can use and post-process later. If you find the upload bandwidth isn’t available though, switching to QVGA and dropping the bitrate to under 300kbps, 15fps, is going to work in most situations.

Using the solution for one-man live photo / text blogging.

To do live video and live photo and text blogging on the X70 EX might be asking a little too much but if you’re not into doing live video, here’s another possible arrangement. Using a Canon Digital Camera (possibly others too) you can replace the video camera and then use the Canon Remote Capture software from the PC. Doing this forces an immediate transfer of the image to the PC where you can drag it into LiveWriter or your favourite blogging software (I prefer LiveWriter as it does some nice image re-sizing) and update a live blog. With a USB keyboard plugged in you can type your text as you go along too.

Other thoughts

The X70 EX will run for about 4 hours over 3G in this setup. That’s one 30wh battery powering the cam, mic, 3G and PC. It’s amazingly efficient. If you need more power though, get the X70 EX car kit which has a car adaptor in it. You can then run the solution from a 12V car battery or general purpose Li-Ion battery. You can even use a 24w solar panel to keep the whole system topped up for a whole day’s broadcasting. If you’re using 3G, make sure its a true flat-rate connection!

The solution is very mobile when in use. By grabbing the neck of the tripod, the unit stays well balanced when walking. You’d need to find a good USB mic solution that could be mounted to the tripod but this shouldn’t be very difficult. I can see myself having some fun with this a IFA in Sept as I walk around the booths!

I’d like to find a higher-quality USB web camera with, if possible, built-in white balance, auto focus, brightness etc. Maybe even zoom and an LCD preview screen. I’m wondering if there are any digital cameras or digital video cameras that can be used in this way. If anyone has any information on this, please let me know.

I need a new keyboard. My Samsung Ultra Mobile USB keyboard appears to be broken so I’m looking at the Aisonic 800M right now. The integrated mouse control is a must-have but can I find one anywhere? Nope. I’ve written to the manufacturer to see if I can buy some samples.

The Ultimate Live Reporting Setup?

While I was thinking about keyboards, I thought about just using my netbook with Synergy keyboard and mouse sharing over a Bluetooth PAN. The advantage of this setup is that you have one keyboard, two PC’s, two screens and the ability to live stream, run the broadcast console AND live blog using a USB-connected camera. It would add 1-2KG to the setup (netbook + cam) but wow, you’d be the ultimate one-man band live blogger!

Alternative solutions.

As an alternative to using the X70 EX on it’s own, you could use a netbook or, for more processing power and the ability to connect a web-cam, a digital cam and to do live video and simultaneous live blogging, a full power laptop. You won’t be able to mount the netbook on the tripod so you’ll lose a lot of mobility but as a laptop solution it should work fine. Choose a 3G-capable laptop with a good keyboard. Something like the Samsung NC10 3G or Eee PC 1000 GO range which offer good battery life too. Overall though, with the car mount, the 12V charger, the built-in 3G and light weight, I think the X70 offers one of the best solutions for mobile use.

As for streaming platforms, Ustream works well but I’m looking to try out Livestream.com soon. They have been working in the Ultra Mobile space recently (and demonstrated a mobile internet streaming solution at Computex) so maybe they have some good ideas. Their basic ad-supported streaming service is, like Ustream, free.

Previous versions of the ultra mobile reporting kit.

V5 (March 2009) is here.

V4 (Sept 2009) is here.

V3 (Feb 2008) is here.

V2 (Sept 2007) is here

V1 (March 2007) is here.

Have you done any live mobile streaming? Maybe you’ve used the QIK solution? Livestream? Let me know

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Viliv S5 UMPC Now Available for Pre-order with SSD (32, 128GB) and 3G

Chippy — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 10:20:28 +0000

We’ve been slightly distracted by the X70 EX over the last week but next in line for some tender love and testing is the ViliV S5 Premium Air. The 32GB SSD version with the built-in 3G HSPA (high speed upload + download) modem. Where the Viliv S5 with HDD was good, the SSD is even better. The change to SSD is very noticeable and if you an stretch to finding the extra $50, we thoroughly recommend it not just for speed but for additional ruggedness too. Built-in 3G is a matter of taste. Personally I’m still a fan of built in 3G as it’s far more reliable than tethering but you have to pay for it. Another $150 in this case. Considering you can build a 4-6hours personal server/hotspot for all your other Wifi devices though, I’d say it’s worth it for people looking for the smallest tablet UMPC solution.

Dynamism are first up with pre-orders and there’s a little surprise offering in store. Not only do they have the 32GB SSD Premiums-S version and the 32GB SSD+3G Premium 3G version but there’s a mind boggling 128GB SSD+3G version too.

Viliv S5 Premium-S - Intel Atom Z520 1.33GHz, 1GB Ram, 32GB HD Solid State HD, GPS, Windows XP Home
- $649

Viliv S5 Premium 3G - Intel Atom Z520 1.33GHz, 1GB Ram, 32GB HD Solid State HD, GPS, Windows XP Home, Built in HSPA modem - $799

Viliv S5 Premium 3G (128gb) - Intel Atom Z520 1.33GHz, 1GB Ram, 128GB HD Solid State HD, GPS, Windows XP Home, Built in HSPA modem - $1299

Our full review of the Viliv S5 (HDD version)

Dynamism Pre-order page. Availability information not available yet.

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Archos 9 Demonstrated on Video

Chippy — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 09:34:27 +0000

Charbax has posted a very good video of a working Archos 9. A couple of points to highlight are the optical mouse and the width which would create a heavy lever-effect when holding in one hand; a problem i experienced with Pepperpad 3 a few years ago. I’m also surprised that there is no HDMI output.

Via Archosfans and @charbax

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Check out all of our Computex 2009 coverage

Ben — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 05:09:19 +0000

The last few weeks have been relatively exciting for the world of UMPCs. Shortly after CeBIT, we had Computex, and the show has revealed some interesting things, and showed us that we are getting ever closer to the exciting Moorestown based devices. To see all of our Computex 2009 coverage, just browse posts as sorted by the Computex 2009 tag, and voila!

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Intel Moorestown Q&A video from jkkmobile

Ben — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 04:13:52 +0000

Jkk has tons of video coverage of the now finished Computex 2009. Here he has an interesting 17 minute video of a Q&A with Intel’s General Manager of the Ultra Mobility Group, Anand Chandrasekher. Jkk also rounded up a list of all the people in attendance, as follows:

Our very own Steve ‘Chippy’ Paine
Joanna from LAPTOP
Johannes from NewGadgets.de
Frank from SomewhatFrank
Charbax from TechVideoBlog.com
JKK from jkkmobile.com (working the camera)

An interesting watch if you want to understand how Intel is handling the upcoming Moorestown platform and have a chance to see and hear from some prominent members of our blogging community.

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Viliv X70 + Streetdeck = great navigation [video]

Ben — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 22:53:23 +0000

You may have seen the Viliv S5 navigation demo from the guys over at Streetdeck recently; now it’s the Viliv X70’s turn. The X70 [Portal page] is larger than the S5 [Portal page], and has integrated GPS as well as 3G data. That means that everything needed to run the great looking Streetdeck software is already under the hood. With the car kit that Viliv has made for the X70 and the Streetdeck software, it looks like the X70 could work wonders as a navigation device. The power of using a full fledged PC as your navigation unit really shows over that of a simple dedicated GPS device. As you watch the demo below, take a look at the map as Chuck drives the car around. You can practically watch the map turn in real time as the car turns. Most of us using dedicated GPS devices are probably used to seeing the screen update every one or two seconds. With the X70’s relatively huge screen, you can bet that it will be easy to operate the Streetdeck interface and see all of the necessary navigational information. Take a look at the video below, the first few mins are a short overview of the device and car kit; the in-car demo starts at 6:30.

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Archos launch 9” Windows 7 Tablet UMPC

Chippy — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 16:40:33 +0000

The Archos 9

[This post is updating with info from the live press conference. There's a live discussion going on from the event here. Thanks to @charbax and ArchosFans for the live feed. Charbax will be posting video from the event and archosfans.com later.]

More updates below but one final update needs to go up here before I lock this post. We’re hearing that this could be a multi-touch device. Unconfirmed at the moment.

Windows 7 with the Intel Atom Z515 (800/1200Mz CPU), 16mm thick. 800gm, BT2.1, 802.11b/g, webcam, 120GB. Diversity (dual) tuner. 3G Option, 9″ 1024×600 screen, ethernet 10/100, external mic, stereo speakers, vga out, 1.3mp webcam, 256mm x 134mm x 16mm

It looks extremely thin. Viliv have a challenger!

Target pricing 450 Euro. Update: Looks like 500 Euro. Availability in Autumn. (Sept/Oct)

Windows 7 delivers a great media experience with the Menlow platform so this makes sense for Archos although I wonder if they’re adding a user interface layer.

I’m worried about the hard drive though. That could be a bottlekneck for Windows 7 as it has been in the past on UMPCs.

What better innovation for a MiniPC than to get rid of keyboards?
ARCHOS once again is leading the way in innovation, with the introduction of the MiniPC of the future, the ARCHOS 9PCtablet. The ARCHOS design team has coupled groundbreaking design with the most advanced technologies, by leveraging their expertise from the design of the Internet Media Tablets. The new PC combines the performance of a high end PC with breathtaking aesthetics, excellent ergonomics and a tactile interface that ARCHOS has built their reputation on. Pure lines, extreme thinness (0.63”), less than 800g and a stunning black finish, the ARCHOS 9 pushes the boundaries of elegance and simplicity on a MiniPC, fulfilling all expectations of the most mobile users.
Intuitive and easy to use, the ARCHOS 9 delivers an unrivalled user experience, and is set to replace the traditional computer. Without a physical keyboard, it provides a virtual keyboard, very easy to use on the the resistive touchscreen, and has an optical trackpoint to let you surf the web, communicate, work and entertain anywhere.
The ARCHOS 9 incorporates the new Intel® ATOM™ Z515 processor, an 80 GB¹ hard disk, Bluetooth to tether wireless accessories, and 2 antennas to receive DVBT TV with diversity reception.
And what’s more, the ARCHOS 9 is running Microsoft® Windows 7, the latest version of the most commonly used operating system in the world.
The ARCHOS 9 provides all the power and comfort needed for daily usage.
It combines an impressive performance and a rich multimedia experience to deliver the most advanced PC in the world. Be ready to discover it.

Looks like more products are being launched too:

http://www.archos.com/products/nb/index.html?country=de&lang=en

Update: There’s a press release in French.

Update: More specs (French)

Update: More pics.

Full specifications:

PROCESSOR : Intel ATOM 1.2 GHz Z515 with video chipset US15W
OPERATING SYSTEM : Microsoft Windows 7
RAM : 1GB (DDR2 400/533)
SCREEN : 8.9 inch touch screen is almost 23 inches diagonal
RESOLUTION : 1024 x 600 pixels
HARD DRIVE : Up to 2.5-inch 120GB Format
COMMUNICATION : 10/100 Ethernet card
WiFi: PCI-E, 2 antennas, manages the IEEE 802.11b / g
Bluetooth 2.1
AUDIO : Card Realtek ALC269, 2 stereo speakers and microphone
CONNECTORS FRONT AND SIDE
USB 2.0
Headphone Jack - Audio Output
Additional ports via an optional port replicator:
- 2 USB 2.0 ports
- 10/100 Ethernet Port
- External Microphon
- Audio output / headphone
- VGA output
BATTERY : Lithium Polymer
WEBCAM : Integrated 1.3MP camera
Tuner TNT (diversity reception) recording (depending on model)
3.5G HSUPA (depending on model)
DIMENSIONS : 256mm x 134mm x 16mm (approximately)
WEIGHT : Less than 800gr
Box Contents : ARCHOS 9PCtablet, battery, adapter / charger, quick start guide.

Update: Archosfans have their Ustream video available and will post the high quality footage soon.

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