Have you seen the Uren Auto UMPC unboxing video over at UltraMobileLife?

Bjorn Stromberg, who runs this VIA sponsored blog, got hold of the Uren and gave us a good intro to the physicals of the device. The first information on the Uren came out in September (see Navigadget) and it was the first time that a UMPC was offered with dedicated car accessories, a port replicator and remote control.

Personally I think that all UMPC's should offer the car-mount option. There's no reason that a dedicated UMPC needs to made and I don't expect the Uren to ever arrive in the Americas or Europe. Its not worth it. The eo i7200s, and the Raon Digital Vega could make great car PCs if the cradle was available. The Q1 already had a car mount available so just load up the much talked about StreetDeck, RoadRunner or even create a poor-mans CarPC interface using Streets and Trips (Autoroute 2007) WMP with the 800x480 skin and a modified program launcher. Job done.

I think there's something missing on the Uren too. The Cellular data capability. Having used Autoroute with its Windows Live search capability and knowing that live traffic data, weather, audio streaming and messaging is available, the modem is right up there on the top of my CarPC wishlist.  When the HSDPA enabled Q1B hits the floor, (knock knock Samsung. Where the hell is it?) it will make a much better Auto PC (MAPC, Carputer, CarPC) than the Uren V1.

Why didn't I mention the ASUS R2H? because its got a heavy touchscreen. While it reduces palm touch errors, it makes in-car use a pain in the fingernail.

All the known specifications on the Uren V1 are listed in the Carrypad UMPC database.

Steve

A few pounds heavier (thanks Mum.) and with a huge number of emails and feeds marked for attention, Chippys back. I'm quite surprised at how much news there has actually been over the last week and while going through the feed-reader a lot of thoughts and opinions came into my head that I need to write down. Here's a quick run down of things that I want to look in depth at over the next few posts.

There was a news story that Carrypad is taking over Origamiportal.com. Yes, its true. A lot of work will be going into that in the first half of 2007 and I'll give you all the details in a detailed post in the next 24 hours.

I was really excited to see a flurry of posts on the Arima UM650UV1 / Medion RIM 1000. Slashgear's 'in the wild' post made some comments and showed two new pictures but the article doesn't seem to offer much more than we already know. I really really like the specs of that device and I can't wait to read more about it. I'm desperately trying to get info out of Medion in Germany but they are really keeping their cards close to their chest.  Medion are well known in Germany for producing very good value electronics and all I know is that it will be available in 2007.

The UREN got an airing and I need to take a look at the video that came out. Could it make the ultimate carputer?

There's an interesting CES session planned about the 7" screen size. That's one that I really wish I could attend because I have already come to conclusions about how screen sizes will fit into certain target markets. I will follow it closely.

Loads of people have commented on the HTC Athena and have assumed that its the first result of the HTC UMPC effort. I don't think it is. You, me and HTC all know that UMPC means 'PC' and not Smartphone and I tend to agree with many predictions that the HTC UMPC will run a VIA x86 processor. The pricing rumor ($1700) should be taken with a pinch of salt too. It is derived from an unconfirmed source. I've heard a different price and its certainly not that high. 

Vistagami seems to be a buzzword thats knocking about at the moment. Remember, all Intel and VIA-based PC's will run Vista. This has already been proved. It may take a number of months for drivers to appear for some of the specialist components but I feel sure that we'll see many of the 2006 UMPCs re-appear running Vista along with the all the new UMPCs. I don't get too excited about Vista to be honest. There are some nice touch improvements but there's going to be cost, work, and instability until it matures. I will probably stay away from Vista until the 2nd half of 2007.

The Tatung 'UMPC' post got some airtime. I didn't expect anyone to take any notice of it because all we have is an image showing what looks like Windows Mobile running. There's nothing to see there until we get new news.

Other items that caught my eye: A fuel cell for a Samsung notebook. Two great 'intro' articles by Thoughtfix that I hope get pushed way up to the top of Google because they are full of UMPC goodness. A solar powered GPS receiver. News on the Docking Station for the TabletKiosk eo v7110 (about time too!) Lastly there's tiny bit of hope for the Euro Q1B with HSDPA.

I've still got hundreds more news items to go through over the next 24 hours. I'm sure there will be some good snippets in there but I've got one more job to do before I get 100% back into Carrypad. I need to fix my i7210. Its dead. I suspect the power/charging module has broken. There's no response from it at all. No lights. No noises. All very annoying as I was using it as my main PC (data is stored elsewhere) and have been testing a new BIOS which has unlocked the CPU under battery power. She was flying but now she needs Doctor Chippy. Very sad.

Regards for now.

Steve / Chippy.

Look at me. What an embarrassment. This is what I wanted to take to the UK.

 
I need to drastically reduce this mess. Let me try to pare it down a bit....

Look on the right hand side. That's all power-related rubbish. I know what my first project in the new year is. 2 universal 12/110/240v adaptors with multi-voltage and multi-tips. Preferably with an integrated AA battery charger.  How would you reduce that mess?Your suggestions are very very welcome.

On the left are 2 UMPCs, a GPS, PocketPC, Digital Camera and mobile phone. Its a serious road warrior kit. Hehe. 3KG of mobile goodness. I may be a mobile junkie but I'm also a very lucky chap indeed.

• 2 x UMPC's + keyboard case: 2050gm
• Pocket PC + case: 217gm
• Camera: 420gm
• Other bits+bag: 3100gm.

Now I'm ready for the UK. For more UK mobility tips, see Matt Millers Seattle to London report.

Steve.

Here's one that slipped through the net at Computex.

 
I just got a tip-off on these images that were obviously taken at Computex 2006. Its got a UMPC form factor and I had never seen or heard anything about it until now.

 
The original website is here. (This product appears half-way down.)

It says 'UMPC' on the front but it looks like its running WM5

I've tried to find details but I couldn't find anything. Anyone know anything about this one? Tatung are at CES so if someone could go and tap them up for info it would be great.

Tomorrow I'll be getting ready to go to the UK to stay with family for the Christmas week and I'll be pretty much offline until the 29th. Don't expect too much from Carrypad over the next week.

One last thing though. As a blogger, I feel obliged to post one of those 'top 3 best moments retrospective' type posts but I'll keep it short.

My best UMPC moment of 2006 was unboxing the Black Flybook V33i. She was good. Damn good!

Steve.

I saw it high on Tailrank at one point yesterday which means a lot of people must have been talking about it and now i've had time to dry my trousers I can sit down and analyse what we've actually got here.

There seems to be two sets of specifications floating about. One with a 3.5" screen and a 320x240 resolution and the other with a 5" screen and 640x480 resolution. I think we can see from the images that its not a 3.5". I'm going with the VGA specs. This Athena is bigger than a PDA and needs 640x480 otherwise the text is going to look terrible.  

Its not a UMPC. There's no real getting away from that fact. As I've said before, if it's not 800 wide, its not a UMPC. To me the UMPC starts with rich browsing and you just don't get that on anything less that on 800 pixels wide. It smaller and lighter than nearly all UMPCs too. This is something that looks like 400grams. Not 1000.

Is it a smartphone though? Well, to be honest, I think it's to big to be a phone. A mobile phone needs to be with you all the time. This is something that you can't take with you all the time. This is more like one of those personal filofax's. I had one of those and I never put it in a pocket. In fact, I always forgot to take it with me.

Its a damn interesting device, its one that I want its one that I think satifies most of my original Carrypad requirements. Because of that I'm going to go through it in a little detail. Feel free to switch off at any moment readers because this could get a little detailed. Theres a summary of the stats on the datasheet that I've just created for the Athena.

Starting with The screen. 5" diagonal. A nice size but its a 4:3 format, 640x480 job. 640x480 is certainly a lot of screen space. You'll be able to do some office work on pocket Excel and pocket Word. I've used these apps on 320x240 so something that's 4 times the size is going to be really nice. In fact, you'll get someting like 5 times the working space becuase the extra space is all used for working area. Not menus. For videos its going to be OK. Not perfect though. Widescreen format is common now so you'll have to crop DVD's to fit the screen or suffer with black bars top and bottom. Not ideal but there's plently of 4:3 content still out there and your own time-shifted TV content should look very nice on it. What it will be good for though is navigation. The screen is about the perfect size and resolution for that. Its also perfect for emails. No doubt about that. But what about browsing. Well. Its not going to be that good. With Opera installed things will be OK and if you dont mind a little left-right scrolling, I think it could be bareable. Finally, the touchscreen experience will be pretty good. Becuase its going to be so light, you'll easily be able to hold it in one hand and write memos. DOn't expect the Tablet PC experience but I think its going to be muh more useful than a 320x240 touchscreen.

Screen Summary:

• Video: 8/10
• Office: 6/10
• Music: 10/10
• Email: 10/10
• Browsing: 6/10
• Navigation: 10/10

Lets move on to the keyboard. There's two things to consider. The size/feel of it and the positioning of it. Because we can't actually touch this device theres no telling what its going to be like but at that size you won't be getting anything over 40% of your normal typing speed on a table. The positioning is bad. Just like the Samsung SPH-P9000 it looks like it needs a flat surface. This is a problem. Actually quite a major problem. I've learnt that thumbing while standing up is pretty useful. 95% of teens probably do 90% of their writing standing up too. It fits into spare moments on the bus, in a traffic jam and around the house quite nicely so if you need a table with the Athena then you've lost a lot of mobility. From the pictures, I cant see any way that you could have the keyboard flat against the back. Theres a bevel and a raised edge on the keybaord that would prevent that.

Keyboard: 5/10. It needs to be able to slide on to the back to make it really useful. However, the fact that it has one at all is a plus-point.

Processor. Both the Xscale and Samsung processors that have been talked about are high end. Clock-for-clock the Samsungs are more powerful. It really depends on wether a GPU is included to speed up 2D (and 3D gaming!) performance. I think i'd be quite happy with a 624Mhz processor. Multitasking isn't going to be spot on (Ewan at SMS Text News talks about a way to really upset WM5 users for example.) but for things like skype and video playback, its going to be fine.

Layout. It looks like there's dual cameras and a LED flashlight. The main camera is rumored to have 3MP. As long as its got good optics it could make a good happy snapper but its not going to beat the N93. You can see that by just looking at the apperture size. On the front we see the two portait mode WM5 buttons and something that looks like a mouse pointer. I doubt it is though. Note there are no speaker grills but its rumored to have stereo speakers. Its a shame you can't see any details of the ports either but its supposed to have a VGA out (would that support a bigger resolution perhaps. If so, it could be an interesting option for presentations.) and a MiniSD slot. I haven't seen any mention of USB but it has to be in there somewhere. As do the Mic/Line-Out sockets.

Radios + GPS. Apart from the GPS unit, you can pretty much forget the radios at this stage. It will totally depend on the region and provider. Lets assume that its being tested with a number of radios and keep fingers crossed that it supports the highest data rates available today. The GPS receiver is nice. There are some great navigation packages for WM5 and things will really improve. This could make the perfect touring device.

Storage. One report said 8GB. I think this is correct. I don't know if its HDD or flash though. I really hope its flash but there's a mention of G-sensor somewhere. Thats the fall-detection mechanism for hard drives. This could hit battery life quite hard.

Battery life. The rumor is: 2200mah battery. That doesn't really tell us anything. If we assume standard voltages though, its a lot bigger than your average PDA battery. If you lock out the HDD and turn the radios off, it will probably last 9 or 10 hours but thats not exactly a real-life scenario is it. I guess (yes, guess) that its going to hit 4-5 hours useage over a 24hour 'on' period.

Price. This is not going to be cheap. More expensive than the existing HTC Universal so lets say 900-1000 Euro. $1000 perhaps. On a 24 month contract that brings it down to something like 30% of that.

Availability. I heard that its real. On the roadmap and ready for showing in Jan. Its hardly a consumer device so maybe we won't see it it CES but I think we'll see a lot more about the Athena in the new year.

I guess there's more to talk about but this post is gettting redicuously long. Embarrasing even. How can anyone write so much about a silly little rumour! I guess no-one read this far except perhaps my always reliable listener Mr Google. This post is dedicated to him!

For the rest of you, I'll drop a summary in the datasheet because I've decided to put it in the UMPC database. It deserves the place that has just been vacated by the Sharp SL-C1000! (I kicked it out!)

Update: Mobile-review.com report that its 350gm, has TV-out and VGA-out and uses the ATi 2282 Graphic Chip. I'll update the datasheet.

Steve 

Jenn (Pocketables) has already made a post on this but I'd like to follow it up with a little more technical info.

Firstly, can I just say - 3Mbps MPEG-4 performance!

Yup, they updated the mplayer package and its really boosted the performance. I noticed it when I played my favorite 2mbps - Xvid/AC3 encoded "Best of Top Gear" DVD Rip. It was smoother than before. I checked the CPU performance and it was just sitting there picking its nose around the 35% mark. So I ripped a PAL VOB (DVD MPEG2 file) and encoded it into XVID/MP3 with a 2.7mbps bitrate at native PAL resolution. It flew! It was absolutely lovely. Not quite as lovely as the 6mbps WMV-HD sample that I use to demo videos on the i7210 but still, very very good.

And there's a host of other enhancements too. Loads of Keyboard shortcuts for zero arm-movement when browsing on the sofa! An improved right mouse click and support for SSL-based mail protocols (Gmail uses this) are just some of the improvements. To be honest, they've covered all the software issues I had. Not bad for a point upgrade. You can even download the source if you fancy tweaking it further. [Check the Pepper forums out for developer action.]

This clip shows the Pepper playing back through a TV. Its only a composite signal but its very watcheable. Unfortunately the video doesn't do justice to the quality of the playback but you'll get the idea!

Click to download the wmv9 clip. 12MB. 

Well done to the Pepper team.

Steve.

Look!

There's many more pics here.

As Grandpa Joe said in 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory':

'PRAISE THE LORD. We've found the Golden Carrypad. Possibly.'

I have to leave the office now. I'm looking forward to reading what the blogosphere thinks about it.

Many thanks to 'Fragles' who tipped me off.

More Carrypad news about the Athena here and here.

Steve.

I'm still highly skeptical about the transparentness of Three's X-Series service. There's too many marketing words floating around the product for my liking. 'Unlimited Web Browsing' instead in Internet Access. 'Fair Use' and other such warning signs.

Ewan Macleod who runs SMS Text News uses the X-Series product and is really putting it through its paces. He's posted a number of really interesting and honest articles and this one from yesterday is very positive. Ewan quotes the X-series blog (well done to the X-Series team for having the foresight to communicate in this way.) which says:

We have not intentionally blocked access to services or prevented access to, or downloads from, any particular sites.  However, we have not tested the service or the handsets for applications or uses other than those promoted by 3. 

If you can download clients and access websites or web-based services of your choosing, then this access will be included as part of the Unlimited data offer

Ewan is a happy chappy but I can still see a hole. It doesn't say that access to Internet service won't be billed. All it says is that website access or web-based services are included. Mmmm. Now what's a Web-Service when it comes to network access. To me, its TCP port 80 and port 443. (HTTP, HTTPS.) What about FTP or IMAP or POP3 or SSH or VPN use? These aren't 'web' applications, these are Internet applications. These are capabilities that you get with a normal broadband connection.

The question remains. Can I use the X-Series phone as a data modem for a UMPC/Notebook?  Ewan, if you read this, can you put the Q to Three UK for me? Cheers Matey.

Steve

Did anyone see this on DigiTimes?

The stock price of VIA rose nearly 7% to close at NT$27.15 on December 19 due to rumors that the company will partner with High Tech Computer (HTC) on development of a new UMPC. The price reached a three month peak.

HOW MUCH? 7%. To me that seems a huge effect. While I personally think that VIA are best positioned to dominate the x86-based ultra-mobile PC space due to possible partnerships with HTC, Dopod and Microsoft, I had no idea that people buying stock believe that same thing. Was the stock buying actually triggered by this statement perhaps?

The global market for UMPCs will reach 130 million units next year, Chen estimated.

130 Million? Is he joking? That is a number that just can not be reached through the current sales channels. Around 200-300 Million notebooks are sold each year so there's no way that you're going to be able to put UMPC's on shelves and expect them to sell in those figures unless you bubble-pack them and sell them for 20 Dollars next to the chewing gum at the checkout desk.

Is he talking about a different channel I wonder? Where's the biggest sales channel right now? A sales channel that shifts over a billion devices a year? That would be the cellphone sales channel. But even then it seems like a crazy figure. Symbian ships something like 100 million smartphones a year. Looking at a number of stats, it appears to me that HTC themselves 'only' ship around 10 Million smartphones per year so did someone get their maths wrong? 

There is no way that figure is going to be reached. 1.30 million more like it. Remember that In-Stat reported that the market will reach 8 million units by 2011 and ASUS reports that the R2H, one of the most successful UMPCs had only sold 40000 units in 3 months.

Here's my prediction for 2006, based on the stats I've seen (there isn't many) and cross calculating from notebook sales figures and smartphone sales figures, I'd say we're looking at global sales of around 500,000 UMPC units in 2006 using the correct sales channels ad maybe 1 million if they get into cellular carriers hands. VIA's prediction is 130 times bigger than mine. Someone's wrong but I'd rather put my money on my figure than Chen's.

Steve.

The latest HTC Athena specs shown at The Unwired now match closely to the specifications I've seen and I feel quite confident that these are true.

Rather than the 3.5" screen, its got a 5" screen at VGA resolution and there's the 624Mhz Xscale there rather than the Samsung 400Mhz CPU. 5" Screen. Its going to challenge the Nokia Communicator/E90 perhaps?

Shame its not an 800x480 screen but it should make an awesome net-connected PMP. Will HTC offer the VIA Ondemand service on it I wonder?

Here's the Unwired news with full specs and remember that this device is rumored to be just around the corner!

Steve.

Here's an interview that GottaBeMobile did with Rochelle Wheelan of Intel's Ultra Mobility group.

Battery life was the main topic (as always!) and I had to laugh a little at Rochelle's spin on the issue. Do you remember back at IDF, Intel announced that they would have processor components that would dissipate about half the power of 2006 components.

A lot of people got excited and assumed that it meant double the battery life. Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzt! Rochelle talks about 4-5 hours battery life in 2007 along with her explanation about increased battery life but its not quite as simple as 'New Intel CPU doubles UMPC battery life.' Here's why: [and here's my original comment on the subject]

A 50% cut in CPU power brings Intel's processors down to roughly 2.5W power dissipation. Its a nice cut but on its own, it would account for something like a maximum 20% power reduction in today's Origami UMPCs. (Why? See the diagram in this report.) That's an extra 30 minutes at maximum. Not quite a doubling of battery life is it! What she really means is that, when combined with improvements across the board (LED backlighting, flash drives, lower power radios, improved battery tech, better heat dissipation and general improvements in other components) you can probably reduce the average power consumption of an Origami UMPC from 12W down to 6-8 watts. 

What's the first thing that the Mobile PC Extended Battery Life (EBL) Working Group looked at when they wanted to make recommendations to manufacturers?  LCD panels and backlighting. This is the biggest power-drain in nearly all UMPCs and needs to be fixed before we see the benefits of more efficient CPUs.

Look at this real life example. Take the Samsung Q1, remove the Intel processor and Cold Cathode backlit LCD panel. Replace with VIA chipset and LED-backlit panel. You end up with a Q1b and double the battery life! Granted, you've lost a fair bit of processing power and a lot of graphics power but if its battery life you want, then lets focus on that.

I applaud all efforts to get the power consumption down and Intel will probably continue to make great advances in chip technology that enable UMPCs with the most processing and graphics power but I just want to keep it in perspective.

Steve

TabletKiosk have just launched the MP3400 power bank that can be used with  many portable devices including UMPCs.

For $159 you get a 56W/hr battery (more than twice the capacity of the standard battery on the v7110 and i7200 series UMPCs) along with a number of tips for using the battery with different devices. There's also a mains adaptor. The battery is adjustable for voltages between 9 and 19V and from what I can see, you can charge the device through a 12V supply.

Considering a standard 24W/hr battery for the i7210 costs $90, this represents pretty good value for money. Just remember to adjust your power settings because when you plug this in, the UMPC will think it's connected to a mains supply and switch to a less efficient power setting.

I think I might invest in one of these although here is an alternative in the Battery Geek products. jkOnTheRun tested one which has 118W/hr of capacity and  Ctitanic (UltraMobilePC Tips.) has a version of it too. This gives double the capacity of the TK product although it looks really big! Its 1.6lbs in weight too! The price is good though at around $170.

Here's my idea though. Buy either of these power-packs and one of these. (Sunlinq 12W solar panel.)

Or one of these (Reware 12W Solar Juice bag ES100)

Then, get on your bike and do a blogging tour. That's what I'm planning to do next year along the Rhein for a week. With no mains power! The super-efficient UMPC's make this possible. Which UMPC would be the best though? I'll be writing in more detail about the planning for it in 2007.

Steve

The Samsung Q1P is the Pentium version of the Q1 UMPC. In addition to the slightly faster Pentium processor it has 1GB RAM and a 60GB drive (The Q1 has 512/40)

Its been available through some specialist retailers for a while but has only recently appeared on the Samsung website in the U.S. Pocketables have just got hold of one and have published some great images on their site. There isn't much to see on the outside as the Q1 is exactly the same but the images of the organiser are really nice.

What we also haven't seen yet is a side-by-side comparison of the Q1 and Q1P performance. How much difference does it really make to have 10% more clockrate and a dollop of layer 2 cache. From experience I know that the battery life advantages of speed stepping are pretty much lost when you couple it with the power-hungry screen, a spinning hard drive and a WiFi module. I'd also dispute the fact that a Pentium is really that much more powerful than the Celeron. In normal use you wouldn't notice it. The extra memory and hard drive are definitely an advantage but is it worth the extra money?

My choice from the Q1 range is still the Q1B. Its got the brighter screen (good for car use) and the fantastic battery life. If it had the mouse pointer and a docking station it would be perfect. That's why I like the Arima ULV650 / Medion RIM 1000 so much. Its expected in 2007. My guess is March. (CeBit)

Steve

This time next week I'll be celebrating (German) Christmas day and in 2 weeks I'll be drinking in the new year. So here's the last Sunday post of 2006. How sad.

Ctitanic has put up a  repost of his Compact Flash article. If you're a Samsung Q1 owner and you're looking for something to stick in that slot (!) Look no further. Uncle Frank has the answers.

Thoughtfix has got hold of an eo 7110 (Ago7, Easybook P7, Amtek T700) bumpcase and the the 6-cell battery. It looks OK but I think we need to see more pics!

Slash Gear and Judies Gear Diary got a look at the Samsung SPH-P9000. There's a video available but I can't make up my mind about the design. I don't think you'd be able to use it in two-handed mode.

The Observer have published a report saying that Google and Orange are looking at a joint venture that will produce a Google branded HTC phone. This sounds exactly like the X-series from Three in the UK where they offer unlimited mobile Internet surfing at 1/8th of the price of a normal flat rate tariff. The trouble is, on a small screen with browsing.email only, you get exactly that. 1/8th of the Internet.

The Yahoo Go project sounds much more interesting. We've already seen that they want to put it on a UMPC and my guess is that they will show it at CES as a subsidised product that will be available through a number of cellular providers. Its a good way for the carriers to offer what looks like an unlimited Internet access service that is actually a browsing/email service channeled through an ad partner.

Finally, I wanted to say that I'm testing out a point upgrade and bug-fix version of the Pepperpad 3 software. They've put MPlayer 1.0rc1 on it and my golly gosh, it flies as a Video player. a 2Mbps DivX ticks over at 35% CPU util. I'm going to try out some higher bit rates to see what I can get out of it! Oh yes, and they've fixed bugs and added some new functionality. Well done Pepper Computer.

Steve.

GPS Passion is a very very good site for GPS and navigation news and reviews and I follow it every day. They took the ASUS R2H and tested it out with Autoroute 2007 (Streets and Trips 2007 - EU version) and iGuidance V3. (U.S. maps only)

iGuidance V3.0 (I'm confused - I didn't think this was available with European maps. Mabye this is an old map set in the new software?) 

 
Autoroute 2007.

There are some nice pictures and a few valid comments too. For example there's a comment about the R2H having a heavy touchscreen. Its true. You can't use that screen in a car unless you have long fingernails. Its also true that its difficult to find a place to put it but I think that can be remedied with a creative mounting solution.

If you want turn-by-turn directions in a car though, don't go out and buy a UMPC just for that job. Buy a PDA-based system. If you already have a UMPC or are looking for that final element of justification, there are some nice navigation solutions around.

Autoroute (Streets and Trips, Mappoint) iGuidance, CoPilot, Navigon NCK, Alturion, Mapsonic, ViaMichelin, Infomap Navigator, PC Navigator, Touratech QV are all laptop-based navigation software solutions and many of them have touch-screen optimisations.

If you want to take it further and do a bit of tinkering, add some advanced features (reversing cams, audio, secondary screens, streaming services, weather, traffic reports, local info, tracking) then the UMPC is the best platform on which to build it and you've got software like StreetDeck, RoadRunner and InCarTerminal to look at. In fact, you can even do a reasonable job by optimising the program launcher, Windows media player (the Brilliant Black skin has been fixed in Windows Media Player 11 which is now coming through automatic updates on XP TE.) and Microsoft Autoroute 2007.

I'm looking in detail at navigation and carputer software at the moment and hope to have a report before the end of the year but if you have any tips on UMPC navigation, leave them here and I'll write them all up in the report.

In the meantime, take a look at the and eo mount and StreetDeck solution by UltraMobileGeek and the Carrypad Carputer series which starts here.

Steve.

This is a wonderfully consumable UMPC/Carrypad recipe that can be made in the months before a festive occasion. Christmas, CES, CeBit and Computex are the best times. My variation includes some lessons I've learnt from great UMPC cooks such as Mrs ASUS, Jamie OLPC and those great Apple, IBM and PSION recipes of old. Its fun for all the family to make, bake and consume.

This recipe serves one. Approximate preparation time is 4 months. (Re-forming an old preparation is possible to save time but often results in bad tastes, bad consistency and flaky glazing. My recommendation -  cook with fresh ingredients every time.) Cooking time 3 months. Should only be made in batches by experienced cooks.

Ingredients for the case:

1 pre-formed UMPC casing. Colour to suit. Making your own is also possible but the range quality of pre-prepared cases these days is really quite good.
1 matching, thin-style keyboard frame and case.

Filling:

80gm (soft) touchscreen - LED backlit,  1W,  6" 800x600 native resolution.
1Ghz CPU - VIA C7-M ULV + VX700.
8GB of primary flash.
80GB 1.8" rotating secondary drive. (some recipes call for hybrid flash drives. Use one if you can find it in your local market.)
1GB RAM
1 PCI-based SD card reader and CF slot.
Single ultra-low-power WiFi module (not USB) - Under 1W. (Don't buy cheap ingredients here. You'll regret it later.)
1 Bluetooth 2.0 Module (not USB)
Single 3G (HSDPA-capable) module.
Dockable USB GPS module (sirf III) with built-in BT2.0 radio. (optional)
Fingerprint sensor
Key backlighting (LED)
Docking connector.
2 x High Quality speakers. 1-2"
Pinch of capacitors,
Sprinkling of resistors and inductors to taste.
Interconnect cable as needed. 
Selection of flashing, multi colour and pulsing blue leds.(to suit)
Various cable and PCB making equipment.
High quality Li-ion battery. 35W/hr. 250g weight.
DC input module - 8-15V self regulating with overload protection.

Decoration:

1 x Windows XP Tablet Edition for binding and glazing.
Hardware buttons for radio on/off, function keys
2 scroll wheels
Approx 100 full-travel (keyboard type) buttons
1,300,000 highly light sensitive pixels arranged on a camera sensor module. (often best to buy this pre-built - saves prep time.)
1 Magnet
Stylus made from magnetic material.
Mouse pointer and mouse buttons
Selection of 12 multi-use buttons split 6 on each side of frame.(primary function - Function keys)
1 stand - industrial quality.
Glue, tape, RF spray, decals to suit. (CE, FCC etc.)

How to make the casing.

Take the two parts of the case and arrange in a way such that the keyboard unit folds over on to the screen in a book style. Integrate a flexible snap-in docking connector such that the keyboard can be removed at will. Keyboard should not contain any of the filling.

For the filling

Using your layout skills (I find that classes really help here, IBM run some good ones,) arrange the ingredients in a tidy but compact layout within the main casing (not the keyboard) ensuring that the screen is well positioned within the main case. Ensure that the CPU and chipsets are kept away from hard drive and WiFi components. This helps produce a even heat distribution throughout the bake. When interconnecting the components ensure that the flash drive appears as the primary drive and that the rotating HDD is positioned underneath a removable casing window for easy access. Likewise, position the 3G SIM card underneath an access window. Connect one scrollwheel to the volume control and the other on the front of the frame as a middle button mouse scroll wheel.

Try not to make shortcuts. There are variation of the recipe that use USB-based components but these can cause uneven baking and even sour tastes. Your guests might not say anything but you can be sure they'll notice!

When adding the docking connector ensure that as many ports as possible are extended. include digital and analogue audio, USB2.0, digital and analogue video signals. An advanced version of this recipe could include an extension of the PCI bus in order to enable 3rd party 3D graphics cards to be built into the advanced docking module (see below.)

Arrange the 1.3m light sensitive pixels behind a glass lens on a pop-out rotating stalk. (This great little trick appears in the Nokia 870 recipe that is still going through its first bake.) Ensure this is connected to a LED lamp. Sometimes this gets forgotten and results in accidental usage of the 'web cam' which increases the core temperature of the filling. Very embarrassing and messy final product can result.

For the keyboard module, arrange the lightweight keys to local tastes. For example, in the U.S. the $-key is used less than that equivalent £ key in the UK. In the UK arrangement, some like to add the mute button. Germany has a strange tradition of adding more letters than are in the alphabet. While this works in Germany and other European countries, I advise to leave it out if making this recipe in the U.S. or U.K. Your guests will enjoy it so much more. Scroll-lock, caps lock and even the exclamation mark can be left off to save space. Note that in Spain, the pause/break button is compulsory.

Place buttons for radios on keyboard frame and arrange 12 multi-purpose buttons on the lower half of the screen frame (6 each side) with 3 extra buttons for CTRL, ALT and SHIFT. placing a DEL button close to CTRL and ALT is not recommended.

Sprinkle LED lamps and attach to random points on the filling. Play with this to achieve nice effects but don't overdo it. Its so so tempting but my advise is to take it easy with those LEDS - the trash look is not in this season.

Finishing / decoration.

Finishing is a highly specialised art. Often the XP finish tends to spread a little heavily. There are also some reports of it being flaky and thus letting the filling seep out. There are other finishing options. If you are able to get it to bind, the Linux finish can give a very light and fluffy consistency. 

Some tips for the finish.

Use an A2DP capable, and well-tested Bluetooth stack to form a connection to the Bluetooth module. This provides long lasting stability.

Separate the flash and rotating drives and connect as separate drives to the XP finish.

Take time to make adjustable connections to all keys

A trick that often gets forgotten and one that can really help the overall taste - Use the magnet behind the screen frame to provide a temporary 'clamp' for the stylus. I love this little touch.

For the glazing, I don't recommend anything too over the top. A simple style often pleases in the long run. Feel free to experiment but I often find that expectations rise too high when too much colour and glaze (or 'glass' as becoming popular) is present.

After forming the UMPC, try a test bake. I find the first one often catches me by suprise and I either burn it or even forget to put important parts of the filling in. It good idea to try the first run out on friendly guests (bloggers are ideal critics) before serving at any sort of festive occasion. Especially public ones. Oh. One note for those once-in-a-lifetime public festivals, avoid serving too much alcohol. The drunk guest can often be overzealous with comments and so upsetting for the host and other guests.

Complementary food and storage.

Never, never, never serve the UMPC without accompaniment. UMPCs are designed to fit into to many an occasions and you should always prepare something to go with it.

Easy method.
Mini-docks (as I call them) are often served with the UMPC. These mini docks provide the perfect accompaniment and should be served (one per UMPC) close to the UMPC. Mini docks often have a simple filling with a range of external features like LAN ports, extra USB2.0 ports, VGA and power. Variations on the  mini-dock include built-in extended batteries.

Advanced method.
If you are cooking for someone special (or if you are making a large batch) try the Large Dock accompaniment. Let your mind run free and create a number of variations. Some basic rules apply (try and provide the basic features as found in the mini-dock above.) but don't let that stop your creativity. Here are some examples that I find work for certain occasions.

Keyboard dock.
The keyboard dock provides a larger sized keyboard with a fold-out UMPC dock. In the keyboard you find an LCD panel, an integrated mouse pointer and trackball and a dock-extender for adding mini-docks.

Screen Dock.
Save this one for your special guests. It dock base with a portable 12" LCD panel. The UMPC is used in the portrait mode and simply slots into the fold-down holder on the side of the frame. High Quality speakers and a matching keyboard dock, all in the same glaze provides an impressive centerpiece to any festive occasion. This sounds over the top but is surprisingly light and palatable.

Gaming dock.

The gaming dock is a larger version of the Mini-dock that houses a PCI bus (as presented on the docking connector.) Integrated into the bus is a high quality 3D graphics card. Try and get a version that scores over 20,000 on 3DMark 2001SE and that supports DX9 as a minimum. DX10 support would be even better. This helps no-end with the final glazing process. Also included in the gaming dock are the 6 channel outputs required for a surround sound amplifier. The Gaming dock often uses a higher quality DC power brick. For more details on the gaming recipe, see one of the specialised 3D gaming Chefs. I'm a traditional cook and just cant seem to keep up with these new fangled glazes and decorations any more.

Storage.

Presented in a leather-wrap or a neoprene casing is a nice idea. For longer term storage, a hardened case with variable size compartments can prolong the life of the UMPC.

I hope you enjoy the Festive UMPC recipe. If you've tried it and it worked for you, let me know. More importantly, if you have recipe tips that your use in your recipe, lets swap recipes! The best recipes always develop over time. Look at that old PC recipe for example!

Chippy.

TFOT=The Future of Things. I couldn't fit it all on a one line header!

They have a great article on solid state drives. It includes an interview with Samsung and its a, sorry, 'must read.'

the most significant performance advantage comes from its latency feature - less than 1 millisecond; roughly 10-15x faster than a hard disk drive.

UMPC's will have to drop the HDD in 2007 if they're going to meet the battery life challenge. I'd like to see flash drives for the operating system and 1.8 spindles as a second drive for data.

I haven't got any details on pricing but I'd guess that an 8GB drive isn't going to be prohibitively expensive now.

With LED backlighting and low power Wifi, maybe we'll see the first 5w UMPC in 2007.

Steve.

I need to pay more attention. What Judie was alluding to was obviously the Samsung SPH-P9000 Ultra Mobile PC Phone thingy.

She hasn't posted anything yet but Slash Gear have just put some photos out of the device.Vincent Nguyen was at the Samsung party with Judie.

There's a big bunch of photos, a video to come later and I assume there will be comments from all those that are there.

It will be available from Sprint early 2008. 'The price is under $2000.' So that's only 13 Months away then. Enough time to save up.

By my definition its a UMPC and these are the specs I have so far:

Manufacturer: Samsung
Model name:SPH-P9000
CPU type: Transmeta Crusoe
CPU speed: 1000 Mhz
OS: Windows XP
Screen Size: 5 inches
Screen Resolution: 800x480
Hard Disk: 30 GB
Weight: 560 gm

I love the design but as i've said before, this is a device that looks like it will need a a table if you want to type.

Its unique for the time being but 13 months is a long time. Raon Digital are already working on a new device as are DualCor. They will be watching this carefully for feedback.

Carrypad data sheet here.

Steve.

So what does that mean? Your guess is as good as mine but it seems that the Origami team is ready to wind up the marketing machine once again. (Be careful lads!) if this post is anyting to go by.

We already know that there will be a number of new devices but Dustin at Origamiproject is telling us that the all new UMPC is "the best product work my team has ever done."

Reading between the lines I think we're going to see many of the new devices with keyboards. Selling a notebook PC without a keyboard is tough work. In fact, they might have realised that the 7" device is not the sweet spot they hoped for. I think we'll also see a trend towards a consumer device with 5" or 6" screen (think PMP, Navigation, Browsing)and a business device with an 8-11" screen. The 3G modem is also neccesary if anyone wants to see cellular carriers picking up the devices and introducing them to the mass market.

In the coming year we'll see new hardware manufactures enter the market, new designs that offer built in keyboard functionality, and even the reality of "always connected" with integrated 3G access.

UMPC2007 has already been talked about by Microsoft but I'm really interested to see if they still use that Origami word.

Steve.

Josh Bancroft has written and recorded some great info about the R2H over the last month. Yesterday he posted a good set of tips too.

If you own an R2H I recommend reading this along with the tips I published about optimising the R2H. Essential reading!

What I still haven't found out though is what all the ASUS R2H Active DigiPen marketing was all about. Smells like.......looks like.....maybe it is Bulls***

Steve.

I think it had as much to do with the aesthetics than with any other part of the Vega. Jenn of Pocketables wasn't too excited with the Vega in the review posted today.

There are some good point made though. Take this one:

One of its initial selling points, a "low" price, isn't as relevant now that the $820 Kohjinsha SAF100A and erratically priced $799/$899 Samsung Q1b are readily available

Add the PepperPad 3 at $650 and the AGO7 UMPC at $799 to that list and its easy to see what she means. The $650-$800 bracket gives you quite a few choices now.

The review is well worth a read because it gives a slightly different perspective on the device that the review I did. For me, the Vega dropped down a notch when the PepperPad 3 and Kohjinsha came on the scene. Without the keyboard its main purpose is really Carputer, Navigation, PMP, Internet browsing/reading and portable storage device. If you add the keyboard you have a great blogging and email device. But I think for those purposes I'd prefer to have a device with a keyboard.

Steve

Tomorrow is the Summit meeting; I am looking forward to some of the new devices Samsung is set to reveal…including a 5″ screen UMPC with a built-in keyboard. We were told in passing that it is about half the size of the Q1 - I’ve got to get photos of that!

Thats all she said over at Gear Diary. 

She's raised my heart rate!

Steve.

Update: Real photos have been leaked.

Update 2: A new Athena info page has been created to track the latest specs and news.



Via TheUnwired I see that BengalBoy has pictures and specs of the HTC Athena. This is the one with the magnetic keyboard that I was raving about. a few weeks ago. Great stuff.

However, this is not the UMPC that they are working on as far as I know. This is strictly WM5, 640x480. An Uber-Smartphone.

The CPU is a Samsung 400Mhz (not like-for-like comparable with Intel Xscale. Samsung's are more powerful per clock cycle.) Its not the 624Mhz Xscale that I reported but its close enough. Bengal Boy's specs show 'Wireless WAN.' Is that Wi-Max or 3.6Mbps HSDPA?

Bengal Boy says that its a 3.5" screen. My information was that its a 5" screen. I hope it is.

...is clear evidence of the migration from the traditional Pocket PC devices to a larger UMPC form factor.

Specs look great and this will be the device that goes head-to-head with the E90 I reported on yesterday. Or maybe the 5" Samsung UMPC-like device that Judie's talking about. (More later.)

Steve.

Here's a collection of some of the best Ultra Mobile PC photos from Carrypad. Public domain and hosted as a set at Flickr. Enjoy!

More photos in the Carrypad UMPC Gallery.

Taken as part of the typing speed test.

Yes. I know its more girl than device!

i7210

Road warrior kit with Vega UMPC

i7210 and fold-away keyboard

i7210

The Eleksen fabric keyboard.

 

Pepperpad 3 as audio component.

i7210 waiting for a beer.

Size comparison

More size comparisons

The UMPC everywhere girl!

Raon Digital Vega

Raon Digital Vega

6280, iPaq, Vega, Flybook 

Flybook V33i.

Paceblade Easybook P7

Sharp Zaurus.

Pepperpad 3.

What!

Someone claims to have put Mac OS-X on an ASUS R2H UMPC.

I shan't waste any more of your time. Go over to OnlyUMPC for the details.

Steve

Frank (aka Ctitanic) has written another Ink-enabled software package. The "Universal Web Searching tool with Ink Support" - Inkoogle.

Through inkoogle you can search Google and have easy access to language, location and alternative Google search engines.

More details on this freeware are available from Ctitanics site. Good work Frank. Keep that software coming. Just one question though, how on earth do you find the time to write four blogs, post thousands of forum entries, write software and do a full time job? Did you write software to do that too?

Steve.