PocketPC solutions, the Tablet Kiosk agent in the UK and Europe have a special offer that they are running through August on the eo 7110 UMPC.
The eo 7110 is being offered for a discounted price of £699.99.

We've tested the 7110 (actually we tested the Paceblade Easybook P7 which is the same device.) and didn't really want to give it back. The mouse pointer and docking capability mark this as the workhorse of the UMPC market as it stands. A great device which will become even more useful when the docking station becomes available.

UK and European readers should pop over to PocketPC Solutions for more info and ordering details.

Carrypad Tablet Kiosk Eo 7110 data sheet with news and review links.

Steve / Chippy.

I've just got back from a week away in the UK where I was worried about keeping up with the UMPC news. There wasn't much news though was there. I needn't have worried. I think I can sum up last weeks UMPC news with just a few paragraphs.


Founder coming to America.
Firstly, there's a new UMPC coming to America and it turns out that it's the Founder which, in fact, isn't new at all! UMPC core specs were announced at the beginning of March and 5 months later, the Founder Mininote dissapoints a little as it uses the Celeron processor. Granted, it has some good accesories, especially the docking station. The big question is, who is going to brand it? Frank seems to think that its going to be a Tablet Kiosk brand but with a Celeron processor, its going to cut right across the same performance bracket as the eo. If the founder had a different processor however, it could make a nice high-end brother to the eo 7110.
Tablet Kiosk said that they'd be making an announcement in July so maybe we'll hear something next week.

Founder Mininote datasheet and news links

DualCor cPc
The second and final piece of real news this week was about the DualCor cPc. Judie Hughes of 'The Gadgeteer' decided to take up an offer to buy a pre-release model and received it last week.
As expected, the first versions have no wifi or bluetooth built in but Judie says:

future shipping versions will include built-in WiFi and Bluetooth. Even better, I was told that I would be able to upgrade my device to the shipping model once they are ready. YAY!

The ongoing blog by Judie is available here.

So it seems that my little story about the cPc shipping was partly true. It looks like its available by invite only. Final versions are said to be shipping in the 90-120 day period. Thats past the Christmas sales period so I'd say Jan 2007 for this one.

DualCor cPc preview.

And thats it for now. Here's hoping that next week is going to be a bit busier!

Steve / Chippy.

Hugo Ortega of Ubertablet PC. has done a really good and detailed video review of some of the core features of the Tablet Kiosk eo and Samsung Q1 origami-based UMPC's.

I found Hugo's comments about the 'xyz factor' very interesting. He talks about the difference between active and passive touchscreens, using your 'pinky' and the advantages of the eo's mouse pointer. In fact he goes as far as to say that the eo is a 'productivity winner.' and that 'handwriting is a much better experience on the eo.'

Its not only Pommies that winge becuase Hugo has a good old Aussie moan about the Samsung pen and the eo speakers.

In summary, he thinks that the Samsung is the better multimedia player and the eo is the productivity tool.

Thanks Hugo. These videos are going to help a lot of new users with their UMPC choices.

Part 1

• Ergonomics


• Ports, buttons and stands


• The XYZ Factor (chapter 1)

Part 2

• Touchscreen weight (pressure sensitivity) and DialKeys


• The XYZ Factor (chapter 2)


• The speakers
• The Pen – ouch!


• Interpolation of pixels
• The verdict

Samsung Q1 data sheet and news links.
Tablet Kiosk eo data sheet and news links.

Steve / Chippy.

PocketPc solutions in the UK and Flybook in Germany have both contacted us in the last few days to tell us that the V33 is now available in Europe.

This is possibly one of the sexiest UMPCs around (Yes. We're calling it an Ultra Mobile PC. - Its not an Origami/Microsoft UMPC tho.) and has a top-notch specification to match the looks.

Apart from the convertable touchscreen design (note that the Flybook is only shipped with either Windows XP home or Pro versions - not Tablet Edition.) the GPRS/EDGE cellular modem, TV-out, 1024 x 600 8.9" widescreen and ATI RADEON XPRESS 200 M GPU make it really stand out from the crowd.

Its priced starting at £1700 in the UK.
U.S. availability is unknown at the moment.

We've lined a Flybook up for testing soon so keep an eye on Carrypad for further news.

Flybook V33 data sheet
Flybook V33 news links.

Following-up on Franks post yesterday about the T700/eo/easybook battery, port replicator and dock (UltraMobilePC-Tips,) we've managed to get hold of a picture of the Amtek port replicator. Although we're told that this is the real item, its not yet confirmed from Amtek/Tablet Kiosk/Paceblade.


It enables VGA-out, Ethernet and it looks like there's a SD slot there which I assume is connected via the USB bus. Frank reported yesterday that the port replicator also has 2 USB ports. If this doesn't cost too much it will make a nice portable solution. As yet, there is no release date available.

Regards
Steve / Chippy.

There have been a lot of reviews about the Sony UX series UMPC's but this one is worth making a journal entry about.

MobileTechReview have posted their full review here.

The UX consistently exceeded 3 hours on a charge with the WiFi radio on

Some good pics, good detail about the single-sign-in software and lots of detail about the display.

Sony UX series data sheet.
Sony UX news links.

Regards
Steve/Chippy.

I suspect that this is more of a move to catch up with HTC and smartphones in general rather than anything else but it is an example of what I expect to happen more and more over the next 2 years. RIM want to add media capabilities to their devices. In doing so, they are migrating up the chain towards smartphone land.

PDA, PocketPC and Smartphone manufacturers will be doing the same soon (keep your eyes on HTC!) They only need to re-package their high-end devices with bigger screens and keyboards and they've got themselves a low-end UMPC for minimal cost. They won't run windows XP (yet!) but they will offer almost all of the functionality that 'average users' will need.

I'm wondering more and more that if UMPC marketing doesnt get off the ground soon (It appears that there has been no marketing funding from Microsoft since the Origami project finished), the market will split in two. There will be low-end UMPC's sold in big numbers under discounts and subsidies by HTC, RIM and Nokia through mobile carriers, and high-end UMPC's that will be full desktops, probably running Vista and staying above the $1000 mark. The low-end will capture the mass-market and the high-end will capture business users, verticals and those looking at a dual-purpose mobile desktop replacement.

If you were offered a feature phone and a UMPC-format PC-phone in one package with two SIM cards for half the price of a UMPC when you go to renew your phone, would you take it?

Regards
Steve / Chippy.

Labels: Report

Slowly but surely, UMPC owners are trying Linux on their devices. First we saw John Tokash succesfuly boot Damn Small Linux on the eo/easybook/t700 and we even had some success ourselves with it on the Easybook P7.


Then we saw Mozy.org report success with Linux on the Sony UX series and now, Linux on the Samsung Q1. But there are problems. In our report, we discuss some of the issues and put questions to Sascha Pallenberg, founder and MD of the VIA-focused Linux distribution epiOS.

Linux-based UMPCs. Update and epiOS interview.

Steve / Chippy.

Labels: Report

According to Akihabaranews, New Launches.com and a lot of other sites, there's new info about the Lucoms Solo M1 UMPC available. I'm struggling to find the new news myself as most of this has been reported before. It looks like Daewoo just announced 'availbility' and Telekoms Korea picked up on it.

As a refresh, the Daewoo Lucoms device is also sold under the Founder Mininote and ECS H70 brands which were shown back in March.
The specifications are standard UMPC fayre apart from the S-Video out on its useful looking docking cradle (enables use as a PVR), a 1.3Mp camera (enables use as a videophone), SD card reader (good for photographers) and a DMB TV receiver (good for selling the device with a TV contract where coverage exists.) The new pictures on some of the reports also show the docking solution (at last) and a sleek design. I like the look of it.

The price in South Korea is reported to be just over $1000.

The news we're really waiting for is that this device will be marketed in the U.S. and Europe. As yet, we're not aware of anyone carrying it or importing it. Not even Dynamism.com who seem to be able to get their hands on most asia-only devices.

Hopefuly, by the time is reaches the U.S. and Europe, it will have a better processor than the Celeron 900 and longer battery life.

Founder/ECS/Lucoms Data sheet.
Founder/ECS/Lucoms livelinks.

Regards
Steve / Chippy.

[update, a comment has been left (from 'DualCor'. See comments below.) saying that the cPc is not shipping yet.]
We had a tip-off yesterday that the DualCor cPc devices are actually starting to ship to resellers in the U.S. There's no way to order the DualCor cPc on the website so we guess there will be a networks of resellers popping out from behind trees very soon. Keep your eyes open for this.

In the meantime, we've done our best to try and write a preview of the DualCor cPc, what it is and who its for. Its an amazing device in terms of technology but its tough to understand where this device is being targeted. You thought the UMPC would be difficult to market? Well the cPc is going to be even tougher!

Take a look at the DualCor cPc preview here.
DualCor cPc data sheet.
DualCor cPc news links.

Steve / Chippy.

In between the last of the World Cup games at the weekend (well done Italy!) I was enhancing the Carrypad portal.

Soon after we launched the product portal, we started adding product-related links to each product page. When an interesting news item or review came up, we added it to the database. Soon after we did that we added an RSS feature so that you could track these important links. The next stage was to bring these links out onto a seperate web-page as a kind of speed-blog. We've now completed that and have enhanced it a little more by adding our comments to new links. In the near future we'll complete the enhancement by adding a search feature.

We've called it 'LiveLinks' and we hope you find it useful.

Regards.
Steve / Chippy.

The Christmas season is obviously a big sales period for electronics equipment and this year there's one more market segment that will be competing for your money. UMPC's.

Over the last few quiet months in the UMPC world, we've been hearing about new products that are going to be launched and it looks like these are all aiming for the Christmas sales period. In the far-east, work will be starting right now on production lines in preparation for production runs in August. Here's an update on the long-awaited devices.

Asus R2H UMPC
The latest news from Asus is that the production and delivery (to resellers) starts in early August. This information is direct via Asus Germany and is their latest information.

Tablet Kiosk UMPC x2
The latest news is that Tablet Kiosk have two devices that will be announced in late July. This information comes from Tablet Kiosk. I assume that production will start soon after the announcement is made.

Mo-bits UMPC
The latest news is that the 7" version of the device is due for launch in September. This information comes direct from Mobits in Taiwan. The reseller for this device is as-yet unknown.

Pepperpad 3
The Pepperpad 3 has already had it's press release and its due to be available through reltailers in August for the Amrericas. There's no news about availability for other regions.

Averatec AHI.
We've had confirmation that the Averatec will be "formally announced in late Q3 and begin shipping shortly thereafter." Once again, that means they're aiming for Christmas sales.

DualCor.
Confirmation has been given through VIA's press release that the DualCor will be launched. "The DualCor cPC is expected to be available in the first half of 2006" was stated in the recent VX700 chipset press release. It's now the second half of the year so we can expect something soon.

Other unconfirmed UMPC's
There's still the Samsung Q2 VIA/AMD rumor to confirm along with rumors of a new Nokia UMPC/mini tablet and, of course, the omni-present Apple UMPC rumor! The Flybook V33i is overdue and the Founder Mininote/ECS H70 still only seems to be available in the far eastern markets.

Regards
Steve / Chippy.

Many of you will have read about Microsofts rumored Ipod-like device. Personaly i'm not really interested in another Ipod as I believe its days are numbered. Mp3 players belong on smart mobile phones or UMPC's where you can connect to the internet and download/stream new music. However, when I read a little footnote comment/rumour on an Engadget posting about Microsoft wanting to launch a virtual mobile operator business using HTC phones, my ears pricked up.

HTC are almost the same company as VIA (family businesses) and we already know that VIA/HTC want to launch the 'OnDemand' media service and that VIA started calling UMPC's 'PC-Phones.' at the Via Technical forum in Taipei last month. We've also had an anonymous comment stating that HTC is indeed trying to get into the UMPC market. Is it possible that Microsoft are thinking about using the OnDemand platform for media distribution?

If Microsoft want to use the 'OnDemand' service then they will need to use VIA's chips (hardware encryption/decryption seems to be a core part of the OnDemand service) and that means building something like the DualCor UMPC device which VIA has been promoting heavly in its press releases this week.

Could all these businesses be getting together to start offering subsidised media devices/UMPC's on a virtual mobile operator network? I tipped this before and it still makes sense to me. The 300,-Euro UMPC on 24 month data contract with unlimited 1Mbps internet access and media download service for 30,-Euro per month is something I think I could find useful!

Steve / Chippy.

Tablet Kiosk resellers PocketPC-solutions in the UK have emailed us to let us know that they have another image of the extended battery for the eo on their eo 7110 web page.

Pictures are good, so here it is!

Click to enlarge.

Steve/Chippy

A few readers emailed in to ask what the availability of the UX50/90/180 devices in Europe is. We double-checked again with Sony UK and there are still no plans to release it in the UK or anywhere alse in Europe.

Its probable that the UK is too small of a market and most of the rest of Europe requires different keyboards, manuals and software. It's just not going to bring returns for Sony which is a real shame. Yesterday we read a really great review of the Sony UX and a head-to-head comparison of the UX and the OQO. We're convinced that you get what you pay for with it. Its a high quality device.

However, there is a solution if you're happy with a U.S. keyboard.
Dynamism.com are able to sell the U.S. model in the UK (shipping starts today!) and it appears from their website that the UX50 and UX90 models are also available. They are still working on getting the flash-disk version of the UX90.

We've contacted Dynamism for confirmation of availability and to find out if they're able to deliver into mainland Europe but they haven't got back to us yet. In the meantime, you can check out their UK website info and our product portal for more info and links.

[update: Dynamism kindly answered our queries. They have stock and are able to ship worldwide. The UX90 with flash drive is expected late July.]

Regards
Steve / Chippy.

In the Origamiportal.com forums, ervetzin has posted a pic and made a few comments about the extended battery for the Samsung Q1 UMPC. [click image to enlarge]

ervetzin paid a rather heafty $164.21 for the part (#BA96-03130A) from samsungparts.com

The battery is about twice the size of the original. It extends about 3/4" below the bottom of the unit. For me this is actually a welcome added space for resting my hand while inking. The added area is black, but not polished like the rest of the front. The Q1 will still fit in the sleeve that came with it, but it is a tight fit. I have to use the "hold" switch to keep it from turning itself back on when I slide it in.

So, how long does it last?

In my initial test (low brightness, moderate browsing via wifi & listening to mp3s) I got approximately 5 1/2 hours out of it.

In my opinion, for 5.5 hours (plus the use of the original as a 2.5hr spare) its worth the money.

Steve/Chippy

Dailytech.com have an article up about the R2H and FCC aproval which means its moving towards release in the U.S. We were told that there would be a July launch for the R2H and it looks like it's on target.

The R2H has some unique features among UMPCs including the fingerprint reader and camera and we're also expecting a a GPS option, single-sign-on software and competitive price,

All the details we have on the R2H are in our product database here.

Steve / Chippy.

Someone has sent me this great animated gif which sums up exactly what I was talking about in my post on the $1500 Carrypad Office Companion. A UMPC, the ultra-mobile PC, can be turned into a home PC just by adding a docking station!



The UMPC is already a great concept as a device in its own right, but with the addition of a docking station, why not use it as your home PC too! The only thing is, is this animation just a concept or a real docking station? We're on the case!

I've been hearing that the extended battery for the eo/easybook/it's/T700 UMPC is nearly available through resellers now (and about time too, this should have been available for review devices on day one.) CTitanic reported that Tablet Kiosk would have it available for order in two weeks and I assume that Paceblade will also have it soon. Price is going to be up to the reseller but I know that PocketPC Solutions/Tablet Kiosk in the UK is offering it for UKP100. Its on offer via Tablet Kiosk in the U.S. for $150.


The design looks good and the weight is reported as 'just noticeable.' 4-5 hours useability is really worth having in my opinion. Given that after you'll buy this you will also be able to use that original battery as a 2 hour spare, the eo v7110/easybook P7/its/T700 is getting more and more attractive every day.

Now as I said the other day, if there was a docking solution, this would just about make the eo irresistable as a home/UMPC for me.

Steve / Chippy

I have been trying to get this article written for a few weeks but it just kept getting pushed to the side as England got further and further into the World Cup.
It appears that I've got time on my hands now after we lost on Saturday!!

At the Computex trade show in Taiwan last month, VIA held a special event known as the VIA Technical Forum2006. Its a series of presentations by experts in VIA's areas of interest and I've gone through all the UMPC-related presentations to try and get a feel for what the big players are planning.

Some highlights:

• Microsofts 'UMPC 2007' will support Vista, have LED backlighting for LCD screens and have WWAN capability.
• Concept UMPC designs were shown by Cre8 Inc.
• VIA calls a UMPC a 'PC-Phone'
• Rob Enderle says that good syncing capability is important.
• VIA presents 'Adaptive Power Saver' technology.

Take a look at the full report on the Carrypad portal.

Regards
Steve / Chippy.

Labels: Report

Digitimes, a news website covering IT in Asia is reporting that the use of LEDs as a screen backlighting technology won't take off until later than expected. Previous forecasts had talked about a late 2006 take-up of the technology but this has now been revised to mid 2007.

Currently most backlighting is done using a power-hungry method with cold-cathode flourescent tubes (CCFT) but using high power LEDS would bring down the power requirements significantly. Having done some analysis, we agree with reports that say that current existing backlights account for 20% of the power-drain in low-useage scenarios. By using a LED backlight at least 1 watt can be saved which is up to 15% of the power useage of a UMPC.

The Extended Battery Life Working group had a meeting about LED backlighting in June and although there are no public documents yet, its clear that its one of the high priority topics for them. More info about the EBL WG is here.

As the power trade-offs with UMPC's are more crtitical than for notebook pc's, I'd except to see these being used sooner than mid-2007 in UMPCs. Companies such as Everlite are ready for mass-production and just waiting for customers now. Our prediction is that we'll see the first LED backlighting in premium UMPC models in the first quarter of 2007 and a general take-up during the rest of 2007.

Steve / Chippy.

Labels: Report

er! where are they? The UMPC's on the market are more than capable of being a main office 'CPU' but without a docking solution, there's no way to do it. Here's 1500,-Euro to the first manufacturer that can meet my specs. Honestly, I will buy it as soon as it becomes available because its exactly what this ultra-mobile working house husband needs!

I still use a 750Mhz desktop at my main office because I'm doing nothing more that writing documents, web browsing, listening to music, some technical drawing work and a bit of low-quality live TV. I'm writing this journal entry on a 900Mhz pentuim III notebook with no problems at all so I don't see any problem replacing these two devices with a more powerful, more portable PC that just happens to have a 7" touchscreen built-in!

Jeffrey Graebner found it was possible to use his Tablet Kiosk eo as a main PC but without the docking solution he found the screen and battery life to be a disadvantage. So if I wanted to buy a UMPC as my main 'CPU' (not storage) today, what would I need and what are my solutions? Lets assume I have $1500

The 'Carrypad concept UMPC' was a specification for a home companion PC which specified a 'reduced' OS and an advanced 600Mhz processor. For full office life, I think the original Carrypad concept (lets call it the Carrypad Home Companion now) needs to be enhanced slightly up to Carrypad Office Companion specification.

Full destop OS capability (x86 architechture)
1Ghz processor (for some photo editing, audio editing, video cutting and full-capability office applications)
Docking station.
512MB ram (for multiple concurrent applications / Microsoft OS)
40Gb disk
5-7" screen
Price (complete with dock) under 1500,- Euro

Now I know that a notebook PC would satisfy all that for around 700,-Euro but I don't need a full keyboard and 12" screen all the time and I really want to be able to leave a monitor, speakers, mic, USB drive, TV, power connected to a central point so that I can drop the device in and out of docked mode instantly. In addition , I want the ultra-mobility that I've already experienced first-hand.

The Microsoft Origami UMPC and the ultra-mobile tablets are the main contenders here so lets look at whats available:

Tablet Kiosk Eo/Paceblade Easybook - No docking solution available
Samsung Q1 - No docking port.
ECS H70 - Not available outside Asia
Asus R2H - Not available yet
Motion Computing LS800 - Over budget
Sony UX - Over budget. Screen too small.
OQO - Over budget. Screen too small.

I think that covers all the possible solutions but i'm open to suggestions.

So, like the original Carrypad 'Home companion' concept, there's nothing that really fits the Carrypad 'Office Companion' concept either.

What I think could be the closest match today is the Paceblade Easybook / TK eo device. We know that there is a dock on the way. We know that there are 6-cell battery solutions on the way and we know that the device can do digital audio and TV-output.

So here's my $1500 quid Paceblade. If you can offer me a black eo, docking station and extended battery for that price, i'll order one tommorrow (unless ASUS or ECS or any of the other rumored UMPC manufacturers beat you to it!)


Regards
Steve / Paine