After a short break from UMPC news and journaling, Carrypad is back with a round-up of the UMPC news from the last week.

Eo faulty UMPC update.
Some of the Faulty Tablet Kiosk Eo's that were sent back have now been received by their owners. The indications are that the power problem has been fixed and that the Eo's are running as expected at around 2 hours with wifi. The C3 state problem still exists though. The Amtek variants can not fully utilise the VIA C7 yet. which is dissapointing considering this is a problem that has been known about for at least two months now. Unfortunately I don't have the design skill to know exactly who's fault it is other wise i'd be pointing a fat finger at them right now!

Xscale sold.
Intel sold off Xscale! I find this interesting. The chips cover smartphone and PDA devices. Do they want to pull out of RISC-based architecture altogether and concentrate on x86? Its exactly what AMD did a few weeks ago.

ARM, the developer of the ARM architectures that Xscale used, haven't suffered too much on share price (a few % less than the FTSE-100 over the last days) so I guess the show will go on on for people like Samsung, ATMEL, Ti and the others that have paid for ARM licenses.

We wrote up a short article about x86 and RISC processors not so long ago which will give you more info if you need it.

Sodiff UMPC.
Interesting. If you haven't seen the news, check out the info at MobileMag. This is the forth slide-screen UMPC that we've seen so far. The OQO, Averatec and Sony UX being the other three. All have very small screens (around 5 inches) and at this screen size, the keyboard can be used with the thumbs. The design wouldn't really work for 6 or 7 inch screens which is a shame because it's a nice space-efficient bit of engineering.

As for the specs, I guess its a WinCE-based device that is just a small step up from a personal media player but it would be interesting to see how much of the Sony UX50 functionality it has and to work out the price premium for the additional features!

Dell UMPC rumor.
Ultranauts reported that Dell would be producing a UMPC. Its no suprise really. They have already talked about stopping work on PocketPC's and the X51v is such an advanced PocketPC that if you put it in a new casing with a bigger screen, you could call it an Ultra Mobile PC with no problem. A $500 price point would make it very attractive and a major problem for Nokia.
One other thought on that one though. Isn't it HTC that are the ODM (Original Designer/Manufacturer) for the Dell PocketPC's? HTC are the sister company to VIA and are in a very good position to be able to produce a UMPC. We speculated on HTC and UMPC's before.

Tablet Kiosk rumor.
More rumors via Ultranauts. They appear to have contacts! This time about new Tablet Kiosk devices. There's no detail at all about what they might be. We're only told that 6-8 weeks is the timescale until the announcement. Could we be looking at the first devices with LED backlights? Keyboards? Could they be distributing the 5.6" Mo-Bits device we talked about recently? We'll have to wait and see.

Interesting conversations.
During my time off over the last 6 days, I had some great conversations with a guy who has nothing to do with UMPC's but has a very clear head when it comes to analysing a new idea. We talked at length about why UMPC's are needed and why we don't just wait for smartphones to evolve with fold-out screens and fold-out keyboards. Its an interesting point. How long have we got until paper/foldable/rollable screens are available? My guess is 5-7 years before we can integrate touch, lighting and get to efficient production costs. When that happens, we might see the death of the UMPC, just like we're seeing it with the PDA.


Sony UMPC flash drive option - Speed or space.
I like the way that Sony have introduced the flash drive option on the UX. With minimal aditional cost and lower storage space, the user gets faster response and better battery life. It's a trade-off I think i'd make myself. Most of my storage is moving to a centralised model so why do I need a 60GB disk? For the last 12 months i've been streaming my MP3's to my devices and with products like the Slingbox, who needs to take videos with them? 8Gb seems about the right balance to me.

Regards
Steve / Chippy.

[update March 8th 2007: The Q2 appears to be real now: Samsung Q2 information here.]

A German news site has just reported about new UMPC's that will be launched later this year. It looks like a copy of information thats already been available apart from one line - 'Das Modell Q2 von Samsung wird knapp unter 1000 Dollar landen'.
Translated - 'The Model Q2 from Samsung will land at just under $1000.'

There's no other info available anywhere. Does anyone know anything about this? Is this the VIA or AMD-based device that was rumored?

Steve.

Ctitanic has been keeping us well updated on the recall of his Tablet Kiosk eo. We're waiting to see what difference its going to make after they admitted there was a battery life problem and promised to fix devices that were sent back. Is it going to be better that the battery life we saw on the Paceblade Easybook P7 we tested?

He's just reported that his eo is on it's way back to him so keep an eye on his blog because I know he'll be one of the first to report on it.

Regards
Steve / Chippy.

Stephen Manes of PCWorld.com wants more keyboards.

Many people have written about it and I too, strongly believe that UMPC's need keyboards. Take the Psion 5 and Sharp S-CL3200 designs as examples.

However, unlike Stephen Manes, Stephen Paine wants keyboards, touch-screen input, speech input, configurable buttons and a mouse pointer on his UMPC. A device that allows freedom from a desk, should also allow freedom of choice for input mechanisms.

Regards
Steve / Chippy

I've just read the ChannelInsider article about the 'second-chance' that Microsoft is giving its UMPC's. I was going to call it a headline-grabbing article but thats maybe a bit too heavy. Since when is a 'second wave' a 'second chance' though?

'Second chance' would imply that a first-attempt has been, gone and failed. I'm not the biggest Microsoft fan but come on guys, give them a break.

The Origami project team completed its first deliverable - a standard for the partner manufacturers to work to - and since then it's been up to the manufacturers to make devices and market them as they want within this specification. We've only seen two Origami UMPC devices hit the market so far but we're only 3 months on from the launch and we've known for a while that there are already other things in the pipeline. Anyway, its no wonder thats there's been a pause in the product releases, the mainstream press gave the project such a knock-down that it would make any product manager postpone a launch and double-check the marketing plan.

One other point that continues to crop up is that people believe that 'Haiku' is a new project. Its not. Its the name given by Otto Berks, the Origami project manager, to an early concept. This concept was (and probably still is) the main target of the Origami project. I'm not sure of the current status of the Origami project team but if they are still together, one of their tasks will be to continue to promote the Haiku concept to the partners.

So, in summary, it seems to be business as usual with project Origami and its UMPC's.

Article found through GottabeMobile

Regards
Steve / Chippy

Here's the reason I haven't posted much this week. Its the buyers guide that I've been working on. There's too much confusion about what is and what isn't a UMPC and what a UMPC can and can't do. For that reason, I've put together as much info as I can in order to help those that are new into the UMPC market, those that might be looking at the devices for the first time and those that might be considering one for purchase. Maybe a few mainstream journalist might want to take a look too! (Maybe not, they'll moan at all my grammatical errors!)

Its not deeply technical (you can read some of the other articles for the really technical stuff) and its a long article, but as I mentioned in it, if you're looking to buy a UMPC, you'll probably want to understand as much as you can of the UMPC category. For those that don't already have a mobile PC, its available as a PDF version to printout and read on the bus!

Anyway, to all the readers that know exactly what a UMPC is, I invite you to take a look and comment if you've got the time. To all those discovering this post while on your google learning journey through the zillions of UMPC-related web-pages, I hope it helps you make the right decision and if you have any further questions, don't hesitate to email me at info@carrypad.com. If I can get through the spam that that email address is now going to attract having published it on a web page, i'll answer all your queries as quickly and as well as I can.

One extra point, the Wikipedia definition of Ultra Mobile PC is Microsoft focused and could do with a re-write (in my opinion.) If I get enough positive feedback, i'll re-format some of the article for Wikipedia.

Regards
Steve /Chippy.

Labels: Report

A brief rundown of important UMPC market news this for this week.

HTC own brand
We commented on the strength of HTC earlier this week in our Via OnDemand report. It seems that HTC are now moving into distributing their devices under their own brand. This is a good indication of the strength and direction of the company. If they do move into the UMPC market as predicted, we expect to see some strong marketing and high quailty industrial designs. HTC re-iterated their commitement to mobile carriers so maybe the UMPC's could be sold both direct and through carriers with subsidies.
VIA, being a closely related company, stands to do well out of this if it happens.

Averatec AHI. late Q3 launch
We got in touch with Averatec this week regarding the AHI to see if there was any new news. All they could tell us is that they plan to formally announce the AHI at the end of Q3 and begin shipping 'shortly thereafter.' We'll keep hounding them for new information.

Another Amtek T700 product.
The Amtek T700 original design has been used by at least 4 resellers now. SmartCaddie, Easybook, Eo, It's and now the Dreambook. Its sold by Pioneer Computers in Australia. Info via GottaBeMobile

UMPC definition.
Following a few posts this week about the real definition of the acronym 'UMPC', no-one seems to have challenged my final comment. I'm assuming that other people feel the same. If not, let me know! If Samsung put an AMD processor in the Q1 case, would it still be a UMPC?
[update: Craig Pringle has now replied in his blog here.]
Following up on that theme though, i've decided to write a Buyers Guide to UMPC's which i'll post on the main portal very soon. I hope this helps people that are taking a first-look at UMPCs understand exactly what Ultra-Mobile PC's are.

Mobits availability Sept. 7" only for now.
We got some more info back from Mobits about the 'X15'. Although they didn't answer our specific questions about product name, screen res and reseller, they did say that the production line for the 7" version is being prepared and they expect the first run in September. I'm trying to find out exactly who is going to resell this device.

UMPC Linux.
Speaking to Sasch Pallenberg, founder and MD of Epios, the company that produces via-optimised Linux distributions, he said that he's considering developing a UMPC version of the distribution. When asked about touch screen and hardware specifics he told us that it should be no problem. They've already produced and demonstrated an embedded version for touch panels so I guess he knows whats what! We've agreed to stay closely in touch on the issue of Linux on UMPC's as its something both Carrypad and Epios feel positive about.

Apple Rumors.
And finally, what week wouldn't be complete without an Apple rumor? This time it's the re-surfacing of the Apple UMPC rumor. Timescale: Jan 2007. We'll report on it when we hear concrete details.

Have a nice weekend everyone.
Steve / Chippy.

What an apt situation for post number 101. Being teased into responding and giving my comments on what UMPC means! Craig Pringle responded with his version of the definition of 'UMPC.' Its the very confusing microsoft product definition previously known as 'Origami.'

Don't think about Microsoft's definition Craig, think for a minute about how a potential customer will try to understand the term 'UMPC'. The first thing they will hear is that its an acronym for Ultra-Mobile PC. If you then try to create two definitions of the same term just because one Ultra Mobile PC doesnt have touch-pack software then the customer will end up confused, will buy a notebook and we've all failed to push the mobile PC sector forward. Clarity for Microsoft UMPC product managers and partners is one thing. Clarity for customers in another thing altogether.

Regards
Steve / Chippy.

[update: Craig's response. My response. Craigs latest response. ]

I just read Craig Pringle' latest post. In it, he says the that Motion Computing LS800 is not a UMPC. I think it is!

Craig is a Microsoft 'Most Valuable Profesional' (MVP) so I can see why he might say that but I don't think its going to be good for anyone in the 'Ultra Mobile PC' market, customers or resellers, that we draw a line between the Origami-derived UMPC's and other UMPC's

Here's a question. If Samsung put an AMD processor in the Q1 casing, should it be called a UMPC? I think for the customers sake, if it performs the same tasks and looks the same as an Ultra Mobile PC, its a UMPC.

Here's my first attempt at the definition of an UMPC.

A highly portable computing device with 5-10" screen, wired and wireless connectivity that is able to load and run common internet, office, media and pim applications operated through a graphical user interface.

And thats why our UMPC product database contains more than just Origami-derived UMPC's. What do you think?

Regards
Steve / Chippy.

Labels: Report

Its not quite an Origami UMPC but the Nova 5000 is nonetheless an ultra-mobile PC and one that we've had interesting discussions about with Fourier Systems recently.

Fourier systems have been specialising in data-logging systems for educational markets for over 15 years and have just started to offer an ARM-based windows CE device as a base system for its existing data logging software and probes.

The NOVA5000 is a ruggedised tablet running Windows CE5.0 on an Xscale PXA255 (400Mhz) processor with GPU supporting a 7" 800x480 touch screen and a good range of interface ports including VGA-out and ethernet. The specs won't impress anyone used to looking at Origami based UMPC's but its what we consider to be a good baseline spec for a home 'web-pad' device. What is also very interesting is that Fourier already have strong relationships in the U.S. educational system and could very easily reach high volume sales of this device. High volumes mean low prices of course and it wouldn't take much to re-package this into a very low price home web-pad/tv-pad of the kind that Pepperpad, Coxion, Nokia and Sharp have on the market.

Fourier seem to be well-aware of this and tell us that they will be considering a consumer device as a further development project.
We think that if a re-design includes a PXA27x Xscale processor, wifi, a consumer IR module, the Intel 2700G graphics co-processor, comes with a stowaway wireless mini keyboard, a good multimedia software package and hits a price of around 350 Euros, it could be a great buy.

Its good to see manufacturers currently in the 'vertical markets' considering moving into consumer markets rather than the other way round for a change. Its a good sign that the consumer Ultra-Mobile PC market is maturing.

If you have any (sensible!) wishes i'm sure that they'd be happy to hear them so drop them on the comments and we'll let them know what they need to achieve.

Regards
Steve / Chippy

Back in March we broke some news about Mobitia (also trading as Mobits) and their UMPC developments. Its seems that they are making progress as the 7" and 5.6" UMPC's (previously shown as 'Bebos' devices) look to be moving towards production. Pictures and specifications are now available on their website along with a 'coming soon' teaser.

The UMPC's are both VIA-C7-M based devices with the new VIA CX700 integrated north/southbridge chipset with hardware MPEG-4 and WMV-9 decoding support. (not just mpeg-2 as in the eo and Easybook UMPC's.)
Also very interesting is the LAN port, the TV-out port and the SD card slot. These are three things that a lot of people wanted on the Tablet Kiosk Eo / Paceblade Easybook P7 devices.

The synaptics mouse pointer is included (a proven advantage on the eo and Easybook) along with fingerprint sensor and options for Camera/GPS/DVB-T/DVB-H modules on board. DVB-T would be great in Europe for the World Cup right now!

The images show a product very similar to the eo/easybook although the casing looks like its a pre-production mould. It certainly could do with a bit of colour and trimming. In our opinion, the thin-framed version shown at the top of this article looks the best of the two. The image name (X15-5) suggests that it's the 5.6" version although its difficult to tell which one actually has the bigger screen.

Confusingly the web page title is called 'ADAM 8.9' but the images are titled 'X15' so we'll call it the 'X15' for now. (The 'ADAM' name is from a different, but also interesting UMPC-like product range.) The Mobits website has been updated slightly and now shows a few more images including the Beacon 5.6 and 7 products with keyboards that we find very interesting. These could be variants of the Bebos but there isn't any detail available on these.

In a previous email from Mobits (a trading name of Mobitia) we were told that production is planned for August. It is more than likely that the devices will not be sold under the Mobits brand. Like the Amtek 700, they will probably be sold through resellers. We're trying to get an update from Mobits and will, of course, report as soon as we know.

Latest product specs will go into our database here (X15 5.6") and here (X15 7")

Regards
Steve / Chippy.

Andrew Diller of The Syncing Apple contacted us last week to rave about the beta software update on the Nokia 770 internet tablet. I've read a number of positive posts about it and it appears Nokia are really putting some good effort into the Maemo development and making headway with the optimisations.

New features include google talk, better memory management and a full-screen thumboard.

I like what Nokia are doing with the 770. They have developed a low-end device and made it possible to do many of the functions that you'd normally use a larger UMPC for. It's also clear that Nokia are commited to RISC-based CPU's while companies like Pepperpad are moving to x86 architectures with their Pepperpad 3. We recently published a short report on the x86/RISC battle in our main portal.

As we've said before, we're looking forward to the next-gen Nokia and hoping for a flip-down keyboard, a slightly more powerful processor (to enable full-screen mpeg-4 video) and a memory upgrade.

For some good pics and comments, see Andrews blog.

Regards
Steve / Chippy

On the 8th June, VIA held a press conference to announce something called 'VIA OnDemand', a joint developement with HTC and Acegain.

The 'something' is a secure P2P-based system based on Acegain's DRAMA grid architecture. According to this PDF from VIA (2005), 'OnDemand' will be a complete media distribution system including encryption, trust and DRM capabilities. This next-generation media distribution system would be able to offer music, games, games network, videos, voice over IP, video conferencing and live-update features.

The Drama platform has been developed for multiple operating systems including Linux, Windows XP and Windows CE and appears to utilise the 'padlock' hardware encryption features found in VIA chipsets. The DRM component is not detailed but 'flexible licensing' is mentioned.

Timothy Chen will run the new business having moved from Dopod after its purchase by HTC. Chen is the nephew of Cher Wang who started VIA Technoliges in 1992 and HTC in 1997.

The question is, why are HTC in the mix? HTC and VIA are closely related family companies but at this time, I don't see HTC using the VIA chips that seem to be part of this OnDemand architecture. One likely scenario is that HTC will start moving efforts into the UMPC business. It would certainly make sense for HTC and VIA. HTC's PDA business is probably in decline. HTC have a powerful set of business relationships including very close ties with Microsoft. UMPC products make great phone companions and VIA have a good set of processing hardware to enable it all.

I can envisage that the OnDemand platform would be made available to mobile network operators and the software is built into new UMPC's. UMPC users would then use their 3G or Wifi data plans to connect their HTC UMPC's (with VIA chips of course) to the internet where the full range of media services would be available.

The really great thing about this scenario is that UMPC's can be sold subsidised by mobile phone operators with data and content contracts and that's exactly the kick-start that UMPC's need. The customer would be buying a cheap (HTC/Windows 5) smartphone with data plan and then, a few months later perhaps, the customer goes back to the mobile operator and buys a cheap (HTC/Windows XP) UMPC with a content plan.

Although many mobile operators already have content deals and media distribution systems, if it means being able to sell a new line of products that can generate demand for data contracts, the advantages of moving the content onto this new platform (assuming the content contracts permit it) could be worthwhile.

So, following the press conference of OnDemand, I haven't seen any news reports. We'll keep our eyes open and try and tie-up the loose ends as soon as we can. If anyone was at the VIA OnDemand conference on the 8th, please let us know how it went and if anyone knows anything about HTC producing UMPCs, please spill the beans!

Story leads from the freitasm blog.

Regards
Steve / Chippy

Its 20 minutes until the world cup starts here in Germany. Its 27 degrees, the roads are quite and the smell of Barbecues the sound of TV and garden parties fill the air.

So, here goes for a speed-post. Please ignore spelling mistakes!

VIA CoreFusion
President an CEO Wenchi Chen announced that the next in the Core-Fusion range of single chip CPU/Chipsets (Codenamed 'John') will be available before the end of the year. This is a great step for minaturisation as it combines the C7-ULV and the VX700 chipset (combined north/southbridge) on one package.

ASUS R2H in July.
Asus confirmed that they are aiming for a July launch for the R2H. No further confirmation (or denial) of pricing and specs. This will bring some competition in at the 900-1100 Euro mark.

Intel sub 1-watt processors.
Intel senior vice president Anand Chandrasekher said that Intel will have a new Ultra-Low Voltage Core Duo CPU ready during the second half of this year that will consume "a median average" of just 0.75 watts. He also reported that HP, Dell and other vendors are already developing PCs which will use the chip. 'Median average' is a strange term to use and kind of gives the game away that the real average utilisation will be something above that 0.75Watt figure.

Epios development.
The Epios linux team showcased low-power VIA-based low-power PC's. Significant is that they now have support for C7 and the related chipsets. I'm interested to know if they are working on small-screen GUI's. If so, it could give via-based UMPC users a great alternative to Windows.

LCD power-reductions
The news came through that backlight technology on LCD's could change by the end of the year bringing 30 minutes more to the battery life of existing UMPC's. Anything that gives an extra 20% battery life is a good thing!

Pepperpad 3
Pepper computer announced the AMD-based Pepper Pad3 multimedia web-pad.

Averatec.
Averatec announced more details of the AHI UMPC including a challenging price-point. The device looks great and most other people seem to have made the same comment.

ECS H70
The ECS H70 (AKA Founder mininote) was displayed with a Pentium M CPU option. This would make it the first Origami UMPC to have a Pentium processor. Its an expensive part but ECS say they are aiming for a $900-$1100 price point.

And thats it! Kick off in 10 minutes.
Good luck to all teams taking part.
Fingers crossed for England of course!!

Steve / Chippy.

The inquirer has an interesting comment on UMPC battery life today.

They talk about the 7" screens from the automotive world and they say that the backlight on these LCD screens is responsible for 30 minutes of battery life.

That equates to 2-3 watts which is about right I think based on our tests and predictions. In fact, in an idle UMPC (lets say for example, while e-book reading) the backlight would account for 30-40% of the power drain and would lengthen the battery life of the device by over an hour to 4 hours.

The best bit of the story is that they think that the power-hungry 'Cold Cathode Fluorescent' backlight, will be replaced by very low power LEDs before the end of the year. Sounds good to me! Every little bit helps to keep the 'Carrypad's Law' of battery life on track.

power requirements of mobile devices will reduce by 20% a year - Carrypad.

This equates to the following max battery life figures:

• 2006 - Average UMPC life 4 hours
• 2007 - Average UMPC life 4.8 hours
• 2008 - Average UMPC life 5.75 hours
• 2009 - Average UMPC life 6.9 hours
• 2010 - Average UMPC life 8.3 hours.

For more info on the predictions (and more LCD power-saving technology), see this article.

Regards
Steve / Chippy.

We've just posted our latest review - the Sharp Zaurus S-CL3200/CL1000 - here on the Carrypad main page.



Yes, its been around for a while, but its an Ultra-Mobile PC we've been wanting to test and it was interesting to use this device directly after the using Paceblade Easybook P7. It proves how useful a keyboard option can be.

The review is here.
We've also put up a gallery here.

Thanks to Trisoft for the loan of the device and the great support.



Steve / Chippy.

Engadget have some new info on the Averatec AHI UMPC that was rumored.

There's a tempting list of specs including the $800 price!

"optimized for VoIP, videoconferencing, viewing live TV and VOD, and apparently even gaming" - Engadget.

Like engadget say, its hard to believe the specs but we keep our fingers crossed.
We've changed the status of this device from 'rumor' to 'planned'

Steve / Chippy.

At last i've managed to get some translation skills together (not mine!) and put together the bare bones of a German version of the Carrypad website.

If you're English speaking, you can stop reading now!

Wenn sie Deutsch sind, probiermal das Carrypad Portal auf ihre sprache! Alle unser 'reviews' werde auf Deutsch ubersetzt und wir wollen auch anderer reports ubersetzen. Keep watching!

MFG.
Steve / Chippy.

[Update:- Its Official! Available for Pre-order now at Amazon.com. Available Aug 15th for $699. (Not $599) Check out the Pepperpad homepage for more info. Press release is here. Carrypad product page has been updated.]

Following up on some Pepperpad and AMD searches today, I think I might have stumbled across a little gem at Hanbits website.

Pepperpad licensed the design to Hanbit in South Korea earlier this year and it seems that Hanbit are nearly ready with something.

The PDF on their website show some new pictures and confirms that a smaller Pepperpad 'pad 3' is being planned with a 7" 800X480 screen and a price target of $599.

There is a technical specification page too which confirms the use of an AMD LX800 processor. The list also shows support for Voice over IP, Windows DRM, consumer IR, instant message clients, and a whole lot more. Hardware includes Bluetooth 2, composite video out, 20 or 30Gb disks and b/g variants of Wifi.

It looks like the design will be marketed both through a Pepperpad brand and also via other branding. Samsung are one of their partners and they were also rumored to be looking at an AMD-based design. Could this be it?

Lets hope we hear from Pepperpad soon about where and when this device is going to be sold becuase if all this info is correct, the price-point and specs look very good for the home-user. [edit: We just heard from them! European distribution details are not finalised at the moment.]

Hanbit also look to be busy in the UMPC market. It looks like they already have UMPC's in development.

I guess Hanbit are at the Computex exhibition in Taipei this week so we'll see if we can get someone to fly-by the Hanbit stand.

Regards
Steve / Chippy

I've just published a short report on the Carrypad main portal about the AMD low-power processors with my opinion about how they could be utilised in UMPC devices. You can find the report here.

Regards
Steve / Chippy.

[update: 06.06.06 - CTitanic has done some good work and tested out some possible fixes. Check out the results over at his blog.]

My love of the VIA C7 processor and chipset took a downturn over the last 48hours. I was prepared to wait for the USB/C3 sleep state fix but now another problem has cropped up.

When we tested the Easybook P7, we found, surprisingly, that watching DVB-T (digital TV over terrestrial) using a USB stick resulted in a high load on the processor. It was my understanding that the chipset (VN800) should be able to decode MPEG-2 in hardware and the processor should be dozing off while all the DVB-T activity was going on.

Looking back at CTitanic's test results on media players and CPU utilisation, it appears that he saw the same thing with DVD content (MPEG-2.) and that's even with the PowerDVD and WinDVD software which is supposed to be VIA-aware and be able to use the chipset.

Over the last 48hours I've been researching the VIA chip-sets and the MPEG-2 decoding capabilities and its becoming clear to me now that there's no software under windows that actually supports MPEG-2 hardware decoding apart from WinDVD and PowerDVD and we've already seen that neither of these solutions works for the VIA-based UMPC's.

If you move to Linux though, its a different matter. There are a number of efforts to get Unichrome drivers working and the Epios Linux distribution is highly optimised for the VIA chips. I've even spoken to the developer and he seems to be getting quite a bit of support from VIA.

So why would VIA create a chipset that can't be fully utilised under Windows? Is it because the largest percentage of their sales is for embedded devices running Linux? I suggest that they need to put a bit more effort into getting C7/VN800 drivers and/or code out to software developers ASAP otherwise the VIA-based UMPC's are going to continue to look half-finished. We haven't even started to test the encryption capabilities (AES, SHA, RSA acceleration) of the chipset which are hugely superior to Intel-based processors. If the same issue occurs with encryption, I'm buying a Q1!

For the time being though, lets keep an eye on EPIOS which seems to be the most advanced operating system for VIA-based PC's today. If we could convince them to include all the touch screen drivers and if the C3 sleep-state issue doesn't occur, I think you'd be looking at EPIOS as the most advanced operating system for VIA-based UMPC's.

If you're interested in trying out hardware encryption on the VIA-based UMPC's, check out VIA's free security software which runs under windows and should support the VN800. Particularly useful is the encrypted drive package 'Strongbox' which is downloadable here. Please feed back if you try this out.

Steve / Chippy.

John Tokash has spent so many hours on his Eo that it's starting to look unhealthy!

He's just posted a great set of tips for Origami-based (Tablet Kiosk, Paceblade, Smart-Caddie, itslabel and Samsung) UMPC's on his blog.

The Remote-Desktop tip is a good one. I had trouble instaling a few bits of software directly onto the 1024x600 screen but if i'd have used 1024x768 via remote desktop, it might have been succesful in my tests on the Easybook P7.

Re-locating the taskbar is a great one too. Don't waste pixels on the vertical plane!

The Carrypad umpc case tip rounds off a damn good post. 'Chuffing good' as they say in London.

Steve / Chippy

Someone mentioned running a web server on a UMPC the other day. This morning I mentioned the same to Kevin Tofel of JKOnTheRun and then this afternoon, Linuxdevices.com ran a story about mobile phones becoming web servers.

Running a server on a portable device (be it a smartphone, a UMPC or whatever) seems a bit strange to me becuase I can't think of many apps where you would need to run a server component. The problem is, you really don't want to be running services on consumer devices that are moving and exposed to constantly changing environment and connectivity levels. You would normally use the data collector as the client so that it could collect and store all data and then send bulk updates in regular intervals to a more reliable store, not the other way round. The only application I can think of is robotics or some other live remote control. The war scenario comes to mind but then you wouldn't be relying on a 2G Nokia to take out Sadam would you?.

Now if you were to take UMPC technology (which itself is derived from existing low-power embedded PC technology) and use it in a fixed server environment, then I can see advantages. The eo, easybook and Q1 run at around 10watts with wifi on and screen off. If you were to take all the webservers in the world and replace them with UMPC's (you can run clusters for the big server requirements) can you imagine how much energy would be saved? Then you replace the desktops and home PC's (offering two UMPCs for each home PC to stop people moaning about their precious unused clockrates) and you're talking hundreds and hundreds of millions of watts of power.

...or I guess, we could all turn a light bulb off. It might be a bit simpler come to think of it!

But going back to servers on mobile devices, its just sounds like a fun research project with no real application. Am I wrong?

Steve / Chippy.

Since we started tracking UMPC sites in our link list we've built up a collection of 34 sites that are related to UMPC's.

Check out the list at the links page. There's some really high quality sites in the list. If i've missed you out, like a forgotten Christmas card, let me know and i'll get you on the list faster than an Eo can run out of battery power.

In the last week we've seen quite a few new sites which is a great sign. I'm only tracking English language websites but if anyone wants any Japanese sites I can give you a few links as I seem to have been linked in a big way from Japan today. I guess thats something like being ninjadotted?

Steve / Chippy

There's a lot of news today about the Asus R2H UMPC being listed at WinHEC with a Core Duo CPU.

ASUS Germany have contacted me to say "NEIN" The story is not true.

It makes sense. The CoreDuo is 1) a higher power part and 2) very very expensive.

As far as I know, the Asus is due out with GPS (option I think), fingerprint reader, single sign-on software, camera and lower price which will make it a great UMPC.

There is a new version of the Celeron though thats based on the Yonah 65nm architecture (used in Core Due and Solo parts.) I wonder....

Steve / Chippy.

According to a report (German/Deutsch) the Samsung Q1 is nearly sold out in Germany after 24 hours. The UMPC went on Sale in the 'Saturn' high-street electronics outlet on the 1st June and "including reservations, the device is nearly sold out" [translation]

Again, like the reports of 'sold out' Tablet Kiosks, the actual number is unknown. It could be 5000, it could be just 2.

Samsung have already said that they want to sell 300,000 Q1's worldwide in the first year and regard Germany as a very important market. The target is to sell 40,000 extra 'notebooks' in Germany this year.

It sounds like a slice of Samsung PR to me but at least they're in a fighting mood! If you're feeling bullish then Samsung, why dont you give us some real stats? How many have you really sold?

Steve / Chippy.

On Tuesday next week (6th June) the Computex trade show opens in Taipei.

There's a few things to watch out for at the show that could be relevant to UMPC's including devices based on the new Intel ultra-low voltage processors with Yonah (65nm) core. (Celeron-M and Core Solo 1.06Ghz CPU's.) The VIA VX700 integrated north/southbridge chipset which is perfect for UMPC's should get a showing too.

Expect to see new UMPC's announced in Taipei too. Not only becuase its an important trade show and there will be over 1200 exhibitors there, but because of what was written at the Enquirer last week:

[Daniel Robinson] cites VIA as predicting designs half the thickness of the ill-fated Samsung Q1 at Computex in Taipei next month.

There's a strong UMPC flavour at the Via technology Forum too with the Ultra mobility track. Speakers at the forum will include Otto Berks, GM Mobile Plaforms division at Microsoft, Rob Enderle from the Enderle group advisory company, Phil Hester CTO at AMD and Dennis Luo project manager for UMPC's at Microsoft.

All-in-all it could be a significant week for UMPC's. We'll be following closely.

Steve /Chippy.