It's time for me to say goodbye to the Carrypad journal and it's a sad moment. Not because its finishing. No, Its a sad moment because I actually feel emotional about ending the blog that started Carrypad. I need help and that's what's sad ;-)

For you readers, nothing really changes. I'm just moving my reporting over to Origamiportal.com where the posting management is a lot more reliable. There's more room for development, archiving, searching and importantly - comment tracking. I hate the fact that you can't subscribe to comments on a blogger entry.

If you're watching via RSS, don't worry because I've already spliced Origamiportal onto the Carrypad RSS feed. You don't need to do anything. Stand easy. The same feed also appears on the front page of Carrypad so you'll see the news there too. The rest of Carrypad stays the same for the time being. Reports and Reviews. Product portal. Link database. Gallery. Only the journal goes into freeze.

Over the next month there will be some redevelopment work going on and I hope to be able to introduce a combined site under the UMPCportal name before CeBit. In the meantime, here's a summary of the content as it stands today. Click to access:

• UMPC news and 'Chippy's Blog'  (The Journal continues!)
• UMPC Forums
• UMPC Gallery
• UMPC Product information
• UMPC Link database

And for RSS feeds:

• All news, reports and editorial (no forums, links)
• Forum topics
• Product links database (links of interest. Mostly reviews.)

Finally here's a combined search engine that spans Carrypad and Origamiportal. If you can't find the info you need there, drop me a line via the contact page.

Thanks for watching. I'm looking forward to seeing you all over at Origamiportal.

Steve / Chippy

Where's Chippy?

N50 41.230
E7 12.408

321m

-5 degrees.

I was rather hoping for some snow but there's only a light dusting here. I'm in the car at the moment:

...but now its time to go outside ad take a few pics, make a short movie and get this sent.

The Kohji is performing well. As you can see, it's overcast but the screen is easily bright enough. I'm connected via my 3G phone (Bluetooth) and there's nearly 4 hours of battery left at 90% capacity.

So here's a short video clip. (Made on the 500Mhz Kohji with Windows Movie Maker. Who said you nee Direct X 9?)

Snow has started to fall on the screen and I can't feel my fingers any more!!!

At last. VIA have come up with an improved IGP for The C7-M CPUs used in UMPCs. This could really help a lot.

According to a report at Epiacenter the new VN896 will include the Chromotion 3 core which  enables DirectX-9 support. WDDM drivers are already available and you know what that could means don't you - Aero Glass, Movie Maker and DVD maker support.

VIA VN896 with VIA Chrome9 IGP core supporting DirectX® 9.0 and Chromotion™ 3.0 offers rich visual Hi-Def™ experience for notebooks and ultra portable devices

Don't get too excited yet though. Its still to be confirmed when these parts will be available and whether they really will get WDDM drivers but so far its looking highly possible [WDDM is confirmed below] The drivers might even provide support for MPEG-2 decoding which will help digital-TV and DVD playback. Unfortunately there's not MPEG4/WMV9 hardware acceleration but the core should be powerful enough to support that on its own anyway.

But what about performance? This is a big unknown. Its certainly not going to enable gaming and I doubt it will be any better than the Intel 945 chipset.  Another negative point is that its not a combination north/southbridge solution so board designs would be bigger than with the VX700.

There's no availability info and they will probably be used in low-end Vista notebooks before we see them in UMPC's. This leaves time for Intel to get 945-based UMPCs out the door. This is going to be a fun race.

Update: VN896 display drivers are already on the ViaArena website (since the beginning of Jan!) and the inf file specifies WDDM.

S3GRAPHICS = "S3 Graphics Co. Ltd."
S3GDeltaChromeIGP = "VIA Chrome9 HC IGP WDDM "

Akihabara mentioned today that Samsung will be ready for Jan 30th Vista launch. I'm not sure what the source of that info is and what it really means. I've checked the Samsung website again and all I can find is this reference on the UMPC page.

"Samsung recommends Windows Vista Business"

In the specifications on the web page, the Q1 is still listed as having XP Tablet Edition!

So there's no upgrade program for the Q1's (only Samsung PC's with MCE or XP Pro are eligible apparently) and no HID drivers. I think a lot of Q1 owners would disagree with Samsung being ready for Vista right now. Samsung have 6 days to go!

T-Mobile will sell it as the Ameo. Looks like a Euro release first but no timescale's have been given.

Specs look unchanged from the ones I have on the product portal.

Somehow seeing it in portrait mode makes more sense. There's no pricing info yet but I'm still guessing it will be around 950 Euro despite the rumors of 1200 Euro.

At Pocketinfo.nl (Dutch) Via Engadget

A Chinese review of the Athena has turned up via PocketPcThoughts. The images aren't that great and the translated text might as well have been left in Chinese but you can get an idea of size and usability.

The removable keyboard is a nice idea but its not going to help in 'two hands' mode. The thumbboard would win hands down in this scenario. The other disappointing thing is that the 5" screen is only VGA. Its a waste. Take a look at the N800. 800x480 on a 4.1" screen. The form fact or 4:3 looks so old now too. WVGA might have been better. In fact if the unit was the same LxW of the keyboard section, I think it would look much better. At least HTC is trying some new designs. I was getting bored of all those slide-out keyboard versions looking the same.

Remember that this isn't HTC's UMPC. That's still to come. As is the Omni which is rumored to be an upgrade of the HTC universal and have an 800x480 screen. How that works with Windows Mobile 5 remains to be seen.

Tranlsated source is here.

Steve

Matt Propst got some news about the Origami Experience. An email he got from the Origami team says it will be available for download in......see Matts Blog.

Steve.

Just hours after I commented on JKontheRun that the Q1P didn't have a LED backlit screen, Kevin runs a test and throws a statistic down that proves me wrong. Actually I'm not sure that he's spotted it himself yet ;-)

I knew the Q1P-SSD had the 280nits LED screen (as opposed to the 200 nits on the Q1) but that the Q1P has it too is news to me.

And its important news too because Kevin ran Battery Eater and got 50% more battery life out of the Q1P than with the Q1. Its not because of the speed-stepping of the Pentium (Batter Eater will drive both Celeron and Pentium at max so they will have roughly the same battery drain rate.) Its because of the LED backlight.

But hold on, I'm amazed that we haven't seen this result before. I'm wondering if the early Q1P's had the normal screen. Its possible. Either that or there's an anomaly in the results (captain?)

Now here's a quick calculation.

The battery is the same 29W/hw device in the Q1 and Q1P right (please check that Kevin.) The difference in battery drain between the two devices is about 5W. Its very high. I'd expect 2-3 watts of saving using the LED screen. 5W is not impossible though.

Here's a thought. Under battery power, the BIOS could over-ride the speed-step settings. This is the case on the i7210 in order to get better battery life the BIOS gives you a 600Mhz UMPC! We need to confirm that this is not the case.

I'm a little suspicious of the result at this stage, especially as others have reported only 2.5 hours normal battery life with the Q1P. However, as I said before, the old Q1P might have had the old screen so its not possible. I've asked Kevin to do a few more tests for me so that we can work some more figures out. 

Whatever the other results though, the LED backlit screen is great news.

Steve.

News has just come on from Asus about the new U1F subnotebook (almost UMPC!) that will be shown at CeBit.

While the U1F is an 11.1" notebook and not really a UMPC, the technology used in it is Ultra Mobile focused.

It will use a an Ultra Low Voltage Core Duo chip from Intel which must be the U2400 or U2500 that's used in the Flybook V5 and LG C1

Note how all these devices are very high-end. They have to be. The components used in the core hardware (LED lighting, best-of-class batteries, latest Intel CPU's and chipset's) all cost big money and to charge the right price, you've got to make the whole package look good. This is what I think will happen to Intel UMPC's in 2007. When the Core 2 Solo and new Celeron CPU's come out, they will be good but expensive. I just don't see the price is going to drop below $1000 for most of them.

I look forward to a bit of hands on with this at CeBit (press pass and accommodation is booked now!) The LG C1 drains about 12W with WiFi on so there's a good hint about battery life. Don't expect more than 2.5 hours if you want it to be sub-1Kg.

Also due to be shown at CeBit is the external graphics card, the XG-1.

This is a PCI-express solution that could be of interest in the near future to UMPC owners. PCI-Express is on most, if not all, the Intel chipset's (including the 915) that are used in UMPCs and it would only take a docking port and docking station with PCI-express slot to enable a gaming-capable UMPC station. The i7200 already has PCI Express in its docking station but they didn't provide a slot. What a frustration!

Steve.

Just in tome for the winter weather is the winter-white Kohjinsha SA1F00D. As Jenn at Pocketables points out - there's a F00A and F00B but where is the F00C? Oh. I see now. Maybe that's why.

The specs are the same as the SA1-F00B and the local price is about $770, about $40 more than the base SA1-F00A. The SA1-F00A is also now available with a strange looking stand. I assume its a stand as there is no docking port on the Kohjinsha. (I have one sitting next to me right now - I checked.)

Akihabara.com via Pocketables.

Here's a quick post about mobile blogging with the Kohjinsha SA1 Ultra Mobile PC.

There's four three things that I want to show in this blog.

• How to do a high quality photo post to Flickr in 60 seconds.
• How to do a mobile photo blog using LiveWriter
• The typing experience on the SA1 

In the videos below you will see me write the live section of this post (I will have posted this blog entry live during my video recording.)

----------LIVE SECTION STARTS HERE----------------

 This is the Kohji SA1. I'm using it to demo near-live photo bloging. The keyboard is very small but i've got used to it now and can type with a fair rate of accuracy and a good speed. I also ike this you can thumb the keyboad.

------------END of live blog ----------------------------------

 Here's the Flickr image

The quality of the video (below) is not great because I had to use a web cam to record the video but in it you can see the very quick post to flikr and, what I think is more interesting, the use of the Kohjinsha, the Canon, 3G connection and LiveWriter to edit and post a blog. The technology is nothing new but it demonstrates how low-power mobile computing ties it all together. The total weight of the hardware is about 2Kilos and the power drain is about 8w. The whole thing could be run from lightweight solar panels.

We're forecast some cold weather here in the next week. If it starts snowing in the hills near me I'll try and get out with the Kohji and a hip-flask to do some live work from the hills.

I'm also looking into getting one of these solar kits. Anyone had any experience with them? I'm guessing the 12W one would be good enough. I need it to be able to directly power the Kohji via some sot of regulator. Or is there a regulator built into all notebook charging circuits? More research needed here methinks!

The 9 min 64MB 640x480 wmv file is here

 YouTube version below.

For more info on Digital Photography and blogging with a UMPC, take a look at my previous article about using a UMPC for digital photography.

Labels: Report

What's grimster saying? Who is he and is it a random post?

Free Vista upgrade confirmed for Samsung Q1

There's no reason why not. The R2H runs Vista and it's using the same core hardware (apart from a USB-based E-galax touchscreen which seems to be a common factor amongst UMPCs that don't have HID drivers.)

TabletKiosk i7200-series owners (that's me and about 5 other interested people I think!) should keep an eye on this because if Samsung release a HID-capable driver for the touchscreen, it might work for the i7200's USB connected E-galax touchscreen too.

Via Mark at Ultranauts.

I've received permission to post a set of US700-series images in the gallery. Its an absolute pleasure to have these HQ images of this hi-design UMPC. Thanks to huangtei who is running a (non English) blog on the device.

I've created a datasheet for the US700W (base model) and I'll track all new info and links through it.

Latest info is that it's scheduled for a Q3 release. That's just too long to wait. Too long.

Steve.

It looks like many notebook and early UMPC owners will get blocked out of an unspecified amount of Vista software due to Microsoft's definition of a capable PC.

The man of few words but many images, videos and lots of very good UMPC/Vista info, jkkmobile, has highlighted something very significant. Vista doesn't let you run Movie Maker or DVD Maker on a UMPC when the hardware doesn't meet Microsoft's required specification. After testing it with jkk and others on four different UMPCs I now assume that if you don't have WDDM drivers to achieve Premium Capable status, you don't get the apps. This is what you will get if you run Movie Maker and DVD Maker on most UMPCs today.

Click to enlarge.

"Some features available in the premium editions of Windows Vista—like the new Windows Aero user experience—may require advanced or additional hardware." [Microsoft. ref]

It looks like WMM and DVD maker have been designed for Vista Premium Capable PCs. [definition]  and MS isn't telling anyone. What a load of old &@##$. Just because there are some 3D effects in there it doesn't mean everyone is going to want to use them. My last video was edited with Windows Movie Maker on a 533Mhz Geode processor with no DirectX support at all. Why do I suddenly need a certified DX9-capable graphics co-processor to do exactly the same thing? You can run the XP version of Movie Maker under Vista as a workaround but that's not really the point is it. The problem applies to DVD maker too. When you dock the OQO Model 02 into its DVD dock and try to make and burn a short home video, you probably won't be able to.

How many other programs will get blocked because a PC is not Vista Premium ready? 

Do I still have to pay full price for Vista when there are disabled features in it? Is there a list of disabled features? I'm not asking for much to be honest. I run an Internet portal. I need a browser, ssh terminal, photo editor and a simple video production app. I'd also like to use media center and the excellent looking Origami Experience when i'm not working.  The i7210 UMPC that I used daily as my only PC now won't be able to process my videos after I upgrade. From the choice of 35 or so Ultra Mobile PCs I had yesterday, I'm now reduced to about 3. The Sony UX which I don't like or the Fuji P1610 and Flybook V33i/V5. All of those options will cost cost me over $1500 and in fact none of them really fit my other UMPC requirements. I'm left with a choice of NONE. Not even the ASUS R2H, which looks to be running Vista quite nicely, will get the all-clear by MS so software will be blocked.

What's even more annoying is that the chipset used on many of the Intel based UMPCs, the 915 with GMA900 graphics, supports Direct X 9 which satisfies the standard set by Microsoft. The problem here is that Intel obviously want people to move on and up (slightly) to the 945 chipset. The 915 has been end-of-lifed and what Intel says here pretty much confirms that they're not going to create the drivers. OK, Intel want to move things on but they seem to have forgotten that the 915 chipset is part of Origami 2006 and still being used in new UMPCs. One of them was even announced at CES 2007. The new Samsung Q1P-SSD appears to come with Vista and an Intel 915 chipset (as far as I can tell.) Is this true? Will they release a new UMPC based on old hardware?

The issue of WDDM drivers was mentioned by Kevin Tofel way back when I had no real interest in Vista and it looks like he will never get his driver and will be blocked out of Aero, DVD Maker and Movie Maker. He's spent many many hours testing Vista and getting it to work on his UMPC. I wonder how he feels.

The only ray of hope I've seen so far is a report on Mobility site from Oct '06 that says the Q1 was seen running Aero Glass. I wonder what chipset was in it. 945 perhaps? That already has WDDM drivers. Even Aero glass will work.

Lets not forget VIA in this matter. VIA chipsets are also in an unknown state. They don't support DX9 in hardware at all so we can assume that they will never get WDDM drivers. It also looks like the Vista drivers and Media Center/Player software still don't support the hardware acceleration of MEPG2/4 and WMV9 that's in the VIA chipset. This is still to be confirmed by VIA so we'll talk about that issue another time.

I was really happy to see the ASUS R2H running Vista today but this issue is really taking the shine off it. There is no other OS solution that has the UMPC-support that Vista does but I'm now reluctant to upgrade because I'll loose apps and risk getting blocked from others. What's the answer?

Steve.

Thanks to Matt, jkk and Raoul

Labels: Report

Last August I did a quick overview and a few calculations on the OLPC battery life using some stats that were lying around. I calculated 10 hours battery life.

I was wrong. According to a Linux Today report quoting Michalis Bletsas, Chief Connectivity Officer for the OLPC project, the MAXIMUM drain on the OLPC is 5W. The minimum active-OLPC drain is an incredible 350mw. If you sat down with the OLPC to read an e-book in black and white mode, you'd have a good 24 hours before you'd have to get the Yo-Yo charging unit out. I guess, you could actually put a solar panel on the back of it and it would charge enough during the day to last all night. It would never ever run out of power.

Lets compare this to the what I believe is the most power-efficient notebook PC in the world - The Kohjinsha SA1.

The Kohjinsha uses a 30w/hour battery and will run a pretty impressive 3.5 hours playing a movie and if you use it as an e-book you'll get over 5 hours with the WiFi off. While browsing, you get up to 4 hours which equates to about 8W drain. The OLPC uses about 1/3 of that power in the same scenario.

How?

Well, its using a 377Mhz AMD Geode processor for a start. A slightly lower-performance version of the 533Mhz one that's in the Kohjinsha, the Pepper Pad 3 and the Raon Digital Vega. It also has a very efficient WiFi radio and a flash drive too but the main reason for the low-power drain is the screen. It really is an amazing bit of kit. If you haven't read about it yet, take a look here. In summary its got two modes. An active backlit mode that drains about 1W (compared to 3-5W on a UMPC) and a non-backlit transflective (requires ambient light) mode in black and white that drains about 0.1W (zero point one.)

Its a ray of light for UMPC users and shows just what is possible.

Here's one scenario to ponder. Who's going to be first in line to use some of the technology? What if that organisation creates a slick new design, an efficient 'thin' software layer and tacked on a few million of these onto the production run? What if they dedicated a top bar to contextual advertising? With a life of 5 years, it might just pay for that organisation to give them away free. Did you know that Google are a major partner in the OLPC project? Bring on the Google Switch Mesh!

Via OLPCNews

Steve

Labels: Report

LINK to KIDC blog. Click for more images.

Pocketables have posted a nice detailed piece about DialKeys and the TIP (Touch/Tablet PC input panel.) There are some nice tips in there but what caught my eye were Jenn's typing speed co-efficient's. I know it sounds rather boring but its important. Pay attention please because when I list all the figures in order, it makes interesting reading. To some people. Maybe.

Here are all the typing speed co-efficients that I know about at the moment. Its not many but its a start. What I'd like you all to do is to submit your own if you have time. I'll record the data and create a big list of UMPC-related input mechanisms which will allow potential customers to understand the limits of each input type. I think that's going to be something useful, interesting and a good reference for keyboard designers, software and hardware alike.

Here's what we have already from fastest to slowest.

1. Full size desktop keyboard - CE 1
2. Eleksen Fabric Keyboard - 0.6 (chippy)
3. Kohjinsha SA1 UMPC (keyboard) - 0.55 (chippy)
4. PepperPad 3 (split thumbboard) 0.5 (chippy) 0.54 (jenn)
5. Medion & Gigabyte 0.42 (chippy)
6. Sony UX (keyboard) - 0.37 (jenn)
7. OQO Model 01 (keyboard) - 0.34 (jenn)
8. i7210 + On screen keyboard (TIP) - CE 0.3 (chippy)
9. DialKeys on Samsung Q1 - 0.27 (jenn)

Its certainly not conclusive yet so please contribute. Here's the easy test method I used.

1. Take your normal desktop keyboard and using your fave editor, time yourself typing "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog" 5 times. Its 220 characters long (not including CR/LF) (220/secs*60) = characters per minute (CPS)
2. Do exactly the same with a different input method. Calculate CPS.

Result 2 / Result 1 = speed co-efficient of the alternative input method.

Other methods will work as long as you do the same for test 1 and test 2.

Repeat with another device (to fade!) and publish the results or times on your blog. Place the link in the comments for that threaded SEO effect that we all like so so much! I'll also place your link in the results table when I create the page/database table of results. Alternatively, post the results directly on the comments or via the contact form.

Please state whether you have trained or not on the alternative input method.

What I'd like to see are Blackberries, PDA's, Speech input and handwriting recognition (that one will vary wildly!) and any other method you can think off. When I have enough results I'll publish a nice table and graphic.

Get typing, tapping and talking!

Here's a mobilitybeat and digg link as this post is probably worth promoting to get as much feedback as possible.

Labels: Report

Many thanks to Thoughtfix who, on my behalf, recorded an interview with Len Kawell, CEO of Pepper Computer while he was at CES 2007. Pepper Computer are responsible for the software architecture and user interface on the PepperPad 3 and a number of other optimised Web devices.

In the audio interview, Len explains why the Pepper Pad exists, the differences between a Pepper Pad and a UMPC and how the first Pepper Pad was initially developed for kids. Parallels with the OLPC project there and one of the reasons they also demonstrated the Pepper experience on the OLPC. Thoughtfix asks a great question - What features do you want that didn't make it to the current version of the Pepper software? I know what I would like on my PP3. BT DUN so that I can break it free of its WiFi hotspot shackles.

Finally, Len talks a little about the Nokia Internet tablet which, in software architecture terms, is very similar - Linux Kernel, tailored distro and optimised GUI.

I couldn't agree more with Lens line 'Some of the most interesting application development is on the web.' Thin-client web computing is important for mobility right now. There are still physical heat and size issues associated with creating a UMPC device with enough processing power to run a full desktop operating system. Like we saw yesterday with the Google Switch rumor, thin client computing is one answer and it gets easier every day with Web2.0 applications.

Pepper at CES 2007 Gallery.

Interview. Mp3 download.

Thanks again to Thoughtfix who runs the UltraMobileGeek and ThoughtFix on Nokia Internet Tablets blogs.

Steve.

Check out Engadget for a nice rumor about a WebPad from Google.

Something like this has to be on the cards doesn't it.  And just imagine for a moment if it was real. Its a fantastic(al?) thought. Free web pads for all with the OLPC daylight screens!

I use the Pepper Pad as my Google life pad and its damn good at it. I wouldn't like a device without the keyboard though and I know that in 20 years time my kids are going to point to this post and laugh at me for being one of those old fuddy duddy keyboard users!

Steve

Update: Specifications now in the database.

This is a great video. This is an awesome looking product. The US700W UMPC running Vista.

I have a new image too.

Its a strange angle on the picture. Because of the beveled edges it looks really thick. Its not. Its very thin. We've got to track down the company that's developing this. I've had one tip that I'm following up at the moment.

JKK also sent me the specs as a summary. Look! 1024 x 600. Look! 560g. Look! 20.5mm. Goooosfraba. Goooosfraba.

There's no indication if its running an Intel 915 or 945 chipset which is a shame. The 945 would be enough to enable aero as you can get the WDDM drivers for it. I'm not sure if the 1.06G Celeron could handle that. Maybe that 1.6Ghz ULV Core 2 Solo based Celeron will be ready in time! 

US702   High resolution Convertible

OS - Microsoft Windows Vista Business/Ultimate
Processor - Intel Celeron M 1.06G MHz
LCD - 1024 x 600 Pixels
Memory -- 1G MB SODIMM
HD-1.8"20G/30G/40G/60G
Bluetooth-V2.0+EDR
Wireless LAN-802g/b
USB 2.0
*1VGA OUT
*1WebCam 1.3M
Keyboard
Memory Expansion- SD/MMC or CF
Battery- L-Polymer 1,800 Mah(IN) /3,400 Mah(OUT)/5,400 Mah(OUT)
Size-198 (L) x 125 (W) x 26 (H) mm (Max.)
Weight-650g

US701   High resolution Tablet with GPS, webcam, +still cam

OS - Microsoft Windows Vista Business/Ultimate
Processor - Intel Celeron M 1.06G MHz
LCD - 1024 x 600 Pixels
Memory -- 1G MB SODIMM
HD-1.8"20G/30G/40G/60G
Bluetooth-V2.0+EDR
Wireless LAN-802.11b/g
USB 2.0
*1VGA OUT
*1WebCam 1.3M
Camera 2.0M
GPS SIRF III
Memory Expansion- SD/MMC
Battery- L-Polymer 1,800 Mah(IN) /3,400 Mah(OUT)
Size-198 (L) x 118 (W) x 20.5 (H) mm (Max.)
Weight-600g

US700W   Tablet

OS - Microsoft Windows Vista Business/Ultimate
Processor - Intel Celeron M 1.06G MHz
Display - 7", TFT-LCD,WVGA
LCD - 800 x 480 Pixels
Memory -- 1G MB SODIMM
HD-1.8"20G/30G/40G/60G
Bluetooth-V2.0+EDR
Wireless LAN-802.11b/g
USB 2.0 *1
VGA OUT *1
WebCam 1.3M
Memory Expansion- SD/MMC
Battery- L-Polymer 1,800 Mah(IN) /3,400 Mah(OUT)
Size-198 (L) x 114 (W) x 20.5 (H) mm (Max.)
Weight-560g

More images in this previous post and this previous post.

Theres a discussion going on in the Origamiproject forums too.

Catchplay is a re-launch...no. Its a re-brand of VIA's yet-to-be launched OnDemand P2P gaming and media platform that was presented at Computex last year.

Digitimes reports a one-liner here and sure enough, there's a new website teaser up.

Architecture and market wise its very similar to Joost (was The Venice project. Run by Niklas Zennstrom of Kazaa, Skype fame.)

Why am I mentioning this on a UMPC blog? Well its all to do with VIA, HTC, a possible UMPC from HTC, a virtual provider network from Microsoft and ...oh just read this post. I had a mad theory back in June last year.

Steve.

TabletKiosk UK have contacted me to report that an i7209 was stolen from them and could I put the word out. Sure no problem TK. I'm impressed with your faith in the circulation of my journal. I suppose it beats a note on the door of the vilage hall though! 

Details: 

Stolen = TabletKiosk eo i7209. Fully boxed. All accessories included.

Stolen from = Frankfurt Airport or Slovenia.

TabletKiosk eo i7209 serial number = 98R01000028Q63300062.

If anyone gets offered this please could they email sales@tabletkiosk.co.uk

My new estimate for 2007 UMPC sales: 700,000 units.

Yesterday in the Computex website I read that ASUS were expecting to ship 10,000 R2H units per month in 2007. The R2H is currently one of, if not the, most popular UMPC on the planet so that gives us a big hint about sector-wide sales in 2007.

Now consider this statistic from DigiTimes:

VIA's shipments of the CPUs and chipsets to OQO this year will allow the US vendor to roll out 40,000 UMPCs

That doesn't quite mean that 40,000 OQO's will be sold this year but its close. We're starting to get a picture of the market. I previously estimated a max 500,000 UMPC units to ship in 2007.

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 current sales channels ad maybe 1 million if they get into cellular carriers hands.

I don't think that's far off the mark. Here's another rough/guesstimate calculation based on all that I've read, studied and heard. (UMPC = all devices on the Carrypad product portal.)

• ASUS R2H. 120,000
• Samsung Q1 all models 120,000
• Medion UMPC (including Arima OEM sales under other brands) 120,000 [guess. Could be a big seller.]
• OQO 02 30,000
• Sony UX 80,000
• Nokia N800 50,000
• Others (through VARS, vertical markets) 150,000

Total in 2007 - approx 700,000 units.

Sounds quite a lot doesn't it? Its not. Its about 0.35 of one percent of the global notebook PC market if I got my maths correct. (assumption: 200 million notebooksPCs are sold every year.)

This doesn't include hi-end smartphones such as the Athena, Omni, E90 rumors.

Instat said 8M by 2011 so that would indicate that the market will just about double every year.

As I see stats during 2007 I'll try and update the figures. It would be fun to split that 700,000 units across Intel and VIA. Gut feeling is that Intel will take the majority in the early part of the year but VIA will take the majority in the second half. Depends on weather the VIA-based Asus UMPC rumor is true and whether Intel get their finger out and start shipping the new ULV processors. [report on Intel low power CPU's here.]

Any UMPC product/marketing/sales managers watching? Don't use these figures. They are my guestimates. On the other hand, if you get a big bonus because of my stats, drop me a line and i'll give you my PayPal details!

Steve.

Labels: Report

I've read in forums that people are dissapointed with the Kohjinsha SA1 keyboard. Its time to do some testing!

The Kohjinsha SA1 is so small that the keyboard could almost be called a a thumbboard. In some respects it's an advantage because one of the great things about the SA1is that you can flip the screen flat, in line with the keyboard, and use it on a sofa in two-handed browsing and thumb-keyboard mode. In other respects its a disadvantage and to be honest, its not just the size of the keys that's a problem, its the quality. The travel is 'thick' and unpredictable which, if you use your normal keyboard typing style, is likely to end up with the Kohji in pieces on the other side of the room! The keyboard, even at this size, could be a lot better. Its disappointing.

I've put the keyboard through a test that I used a while back to test the Eleksen fabric keyboard, the Pepperpad and the i7210 with an on-screen keyboard to see how it really compares. Here's the detail of the test and the result from the SA1.

Test 1 - Starting with an open browser [assumption: already logged into a Google account], type the URL www.Google.com, open docs and spreadsheets through the 'more' and 'even more' menu, start a new document and type "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog." rename the file [using the menu option] and press return.

Result: (average of 3)

1. i7210 + full size USB keyboard - 34 seconds
2. i7210 + Eleksen fabric keyboard - 45 seconds
3. Kohjinsha - 47 seconds.
4. Pepperpad 3 (thumbboard) - 50 seconds
5. i7210 + On screen keyboard - 70 seconds.

Test 2 - Type "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog" 5 times. [220 characters]

Result: (CPM=Characters per minute) (CE = Speed coefficient)

1. i7210 + full size USB keyboard - 40 seconds (330 CPM) (CE 1)
2. i7210 + mystery portable keyboard - 63 seconds (209 CPM [CE 0.6 - Corrected from a previous calculation error. Its faster that I had previously reported.] 
3. Kohjinsha - 73 seconds (180 CPM) [CE 0.55]
4. Pepperpad 3 (thumbboard) - 81 seconds (162 CPM) [CE 0.5]
5. i7210 + On screen keyboard - 118 seconds (111 CPM) [CE 0.3]

Here's another speed co-efficient from someone else's test of the Sony UX.
Sony UX series: 0.37 - 0.4 (from comments in this blog)

For these tests I gave myself about 10 minutes practice. On the first attempts I was using my normal typing style which is close to touch typing. It was terrible. Although the keys look like normal keys they aren't. But by trying out different methods and adjusting my style, it got a lot better. Granted, I can type on a fabric keyboard faster than on the SA1 but its more functional than a fabric keyboard, way faster than the Sony UX and nearly twice as fast as a standard on-screen keyboard.

But how much of a disadvantage is it to be typing at 50% of normal typing speed?  How much more would you pay for a better keyboard? Take the P1510 and P1610 from Fujitsu as a comparison. They are a comparable size and have a better keyboard but you'll have to pay a lot more and if you don't need the relatively high spec of those UMPCs, why pay so much more for the keyboard?

The Kohjinsha SA1 has almost exactly the same size as the P1610. In fact, its slightly smaller.

According to the specs it's only 27mm thick but that's a bit misleading. At its thickest point its as thick as the P1610. 36mm. The battery life is much better and its a tad lighter.

The P1610 will be in my mind as I go through the Kohjinsha testing along with the Flybook range of convertible tablets. Again these are bigger and much more expensive. The other device I keep thinking of is the still wonderful JVC XP741. It was end-of-life'd (just as Origami was launched in 2006) but a few days ago, one was sold on EBay in Germany for a bargain 780 Euros.

Full report will be available in a few weeks.

Steve.

It looks very very nice indeed. I like the way they've beveled the edges to be able to keep the frame thin and yet provide enough surface area for a mouse pointer. This is an incredibly stylish UMPC. There's still no word on supplier, price or availability.

Hardware specs look very 2006 and look at the battery. Its Lithium Polymer. This is a very bad sign that the Sony Li-ion problems last year have caused a backwards step. Li-Polymer is more stable but less dense. This could really cause problems for designers. Intel have higher drain components than VIA but Intel supports more Vista functionality. This set-back couldn't happen at a worse time I'll be investigating it further. But back to the main feature:

Images: (click to enlarge)

Specs:

OS - Microsoft Windows Vista Business/Ultimate
Processor - Intel Celeron M 1.06G MHz
Display - 7", TFT-LCD,WVGA
LCD - 800 x 480 Pixels
Memory -- 1G MB SODIMM
HD-1.8"20G/30G/40G/60G
Bluetooth-V2.0+EDR
Wireless LAN-802.11b/g
USB 2.0 *1
VGA OUT *1
WebCam 1.3M
Memory Expansion- SD/MMC
Battery- L-Polymer 1,800 Mah(IN) /3,400 Mah(OUT)(6 hours)
Size-198 L x 114 W x 20.5 H mm (Max.)
Weight-560g ... (more) (less)

Source: Mobile-01 Thanks to the anonymous tipster.

Update: New images. Specs.

Found on YouTube, this is a set of unknown ultra mobile PCs labeled US700, US701 and 702.

They are a set of designs based on an Intel Celeron M 1.06Ghz with a 7" display and from what I can see of the rest of the specs, there's nothing too exiting or new about the internals.

What is very interesting though are the externals (Very slick. Reminds me of Philips,) the very thin screen frame which includes a mouse pointer, the thin LCD on the convertible tablet version and the remote control. It looks like there's a web cam and an interesting looking magnetically attaching battery. Its only 560gms in weight too.

The brand is just visible on a few of the frames but I can't work it out.

I guess these are prototypes as that shiny screen would not work in the real world. Someone out there must know something about this. Let the world know please.

Steve.

Nokia Europe is now showing a carrying case for the N800.

No price. No availability info and no keyboard. Shame. I'd like to see an Orgamiser case with integrated keybard just like the Q1.

Via Internet Tablet Talk.

Jenn at Pocketables was kind enough to email me to let me know about new Sony UX ultra mobile devices that have been announced in Japan.

The updates include Vista installations, rotating and flash hard drives and a metallic blue model which looks even nicer that the black ones. I expect these will replace the XP-based models in the range for the Japanese market.

The top end device, the UX91NS, uses the 1.3Ghz Intel Core Solo (not Core 2 Solo ULV CPUs that I was talking about yesterday) and includes 32Gb flash drive, extended battery, 1-seg digital TV receiver and Windows Vista Business.

Currently, the only Vista-based model sold outside Japan is the UX380P.

More details at Pocketables and discussion at MicroPCTalk forums.

Hugo at Ubertablet blog has another great set of videos. This time he explains why he chose the Q1 as his main PC.

You'll see good tips on programmable buttons, a detailed overview of the organiser pack and a cellular data connectivity demo. I agree, its a nice solution. Accessories are very very important and the Q1 is one of the few choices of UMPC with an relatively easily available accessory range.

If the Q1 had a mouse pointer button and a docking station I would probably buy a Q1B. Unfortunately it doesn't and those are two important requirements for me. I use the i7210 with the docking station and find that it fits into the desktop scenario much better. A UMPC without a docking station is an opportunity missed.

If you're considering the Q1 (or any of the Q1 range which now includes Pentium and flash drive options.) then I recommend watching these videos.

More Samsung Q1 links here and info an the whole range of Q1 UMPCs in the product portal.

I respect Rob Enderle's experience in product development and marketing but it doesn't mean I have to agree with him does it. This article that compares the iPhone launch to the Origami launch is something I don't agree with. The title has a question mark in it for a start (always a bad sign,) and the content is just too fuzzy. 'Link bait' comes to mind when I look at it.

Rob says that iPhone is "the Origami done right?" and he goes one to talk about what appears to be marketing/PR related issues and what Origami did wrong (which is interesting because I thought that the Enderle group was involved with the Origami product before it launched. I could be wrong though.) 

There's nothing that really justifies the comparison of the Origami and iPhone products, marketing or launches that Rob has made. Sure, people can learn a lot from the iPhone launch but its nothing to do with Origami.

• iPhone: In-house controlled design, development and marketing of a voice and PMP product that you keep with you all the time. Development of an existing product group with historical sales figures. 1st year (2007-2008) sales targets: about 10 million? Subsidised sales model. Highly targeted audience. (Non business. iPod-generation.)
• Origami: Specifications and guidelines for a mini-PC that's mobile. Completely new product group. First year (2006) sales target: about 0.5? No subsidy. Multiple models. Multiple designs. Multiple manufacturers. Multiple user types. (Consumer and business)

These are two completely separate processes, products and markets. No comparison of launches is really possible.

OK Let me go back and read it again just in case I'm getting all emotional about someone attacking UMPCs...

No. I still think he's wrong. And the article doesn't really provide any decent arguments either.

This paragraph doesn't make sense at all...

The iPhone, in concept, hits on almost all of the notes that Origami missed. It prices in at under $600 (granted with a 2 year cell phone commitment), is relatively small, has integrated WAN, and they figured out that by using Synaptics’ technology they could make a touch screen keyboard work. The iPhone’s interface is simple (even though the OS is based on OSX) and they did a great job of eliminating the complexity (in effect they completed where Microsoft didn’t).

The iPhone is probably more expensive than an Origami device (the iPhone is subsidised.) WAN was never part of Origami spec probably because during 2005 everything was 2.5G and technically WWAN was quite an expensive thing to do. Subsidising it through a carrier would have been impossible too. Try to convince Vodafone to subsidise a suite of UMPC products when the worldwide target market for all products is under 1 million. They will probably laugh at you. And what the *&%^$ does 'relatively small' mean. UMPCs are far smaller 'relative' to PCs than the iPhone is 'relative' to a normal mobile phone. Regarding the interface - The Origami interface was never meant to be simple  - Windows XP was the specification. The target market wouldn't have wanted a new interface. Quick learning curve and interface familiarity were important.

Nobody knows if Origami was wrong yet. Even if everyone in the world has an iPhone I still believe that the Origami concept would be a sound one. The game is not over for Origami just because iPhone is here and playing on Center Court against HTC, Moto and Nokia. Origami is playing a different game in a different place to a different crowd.

This diagram might help to explain what I mean. Its something I made in Feb 2006 to prove to myself that there is no possibility of converging everything on one device. You see that the iPhone (lets put it in the 4" bracket) and UMPC (I called it a Carrypad back then) fit into two different categories. See how the functionality differs. There's quite a number of differentiators there. Browsing, quality video, TV/IP, video conferencing, games, note creation, emails. (Click to get PDF)

If Jobs had launched this...

Credit: Engadget

...then the Rob Enderle comparison would be valid. But he didn't. So maybe MS weren't so stupid after all. I think Rob spotted that at the end of his article. There's a new opportunity forming.

Microsoft probably made a good choice to pull back on Origami marketing when they got the feedback from Amtek and Samsung that the 7", keyboardless, 2 hour UMPC was a bit difficult to sell and when they realised that perhaps the hardware was not mature enough.  Apple are going to throw a lot of money into convincing people that they need the mobile Internet. When people start to get get pissed off with trying to browse ad-rich Web2.0 sites on a 480-wide screen with no keyboard there will be space and a chance for someone to step in with 5-7" keyboarded modular PC's (Rob already identified that modular computing is a winner) with super-efficient x86 processors, better graphics processors and the huge choice of application that Vista, Linux or even OSX will offer. It might just be that Jobs does that in 12 months time of course and then MS will be in trouble but they still have a little time. And Vista.

Steve.

Labels: Report

I counted 8 new UMPCs over the last week. That's not bad is it.

Sony UX 380P Premium. SSD version of the existing UX.

Samsung Q1P-SSD. SSD version of the existing Q1P

OQO Model 02. New high-end UMPC

Medion MD RIm 1000. New consumer UMPC

Tablet Kiosk 'rugged' EO v7112XT / VX3. New industrial UMPC

Flybook V5. New high-end UMPC

Amtek T770. New UMPC. Details not yet clear.

Nokia N800. Maemo/Linux Internet Tablet.

So the final score is:

VIA 4 : Intel 3 : Linux 1

Although I'm going to take two goals away from Intel as the Sony and Samsung where just upgrades of existing models.

VIA 4 : Intel 1 : Linux 1

Highlight of CES for me was the Origami Experience software and as this and all the new UMPCs were running Microsoft software, we know who the real winner is!

One outstanding point I have is: What happened on the UMPC discussion panel. Are there any notes/transcripts of the session? Did Flipstart say anything?

Still on the watchlist and expected in 2007 are: Mobits X15, Flipstart (new teaser campaign), ASUS (via-based R2H rumor), UMEC, HTC Athena, HTC Omni, DualCor V2, Coxion Webbook 3G, Averatec AHI, another Flybook, Arima high-end smartphones, Yahoo Go for UMPCs, Intel prototypes.

Steve / Chippy

Gizmodo got hands on. Its an Amtek T770, will go into production in May and is expected for $800.

Another point for VIA.

This is from DigiTimes.

Initially, the UMPCs are likely to be available at around US$800, with the price expected to go down to or even below US$700 by the end of 2007, said other company sources.

As I thought, It will go head to head with the ASUS R2H and be marketed as a consumer product.

Arima are expected to ship to Medion in Q1 as expected. From other news I've heard, that will mean Medion Germany. (HQ) where sales will start first and I expect this will start a few weeks later. They will need to test and build stock before putting it online.

Its still not clear what the Medion UMPC package will include. If the Dock is included then this is a very very significant advance in the UMPC market.

Other Medion UMPC news links.

Source: Digitimes news.

Engadget said:

At Via's booth at ShowStoppers, there were about seven different UMPCs

Lets count. Easybook P7 (Amtek), P8, VX-3 (Mobits), X-15 (Mobits), X17 (Mobits), Q1b, OQO, Medion, Dualcor, Uren. There's quite a lot of VIA solutions. Why didn't anyone spot them and report on them?  I'm sure if the DualCor had been there someone would have reported it.

Take a look at this:

Its a selection of cuts from Engadget's Medion video. Bjorn Bjorn Bjorn. What's going on there? (It was Bjorn from UltraMobilelife in the video)

It doesn't look like anything I know about and yet somehow it looks strangely familiar. Amtek T700 / Eo v7110-like. Its even got the little orange mouse pointer. So its a VIA C7-M based device with a cam. Looks like 7" and it's possibly from Amtek. T800?

Can someone spill the beans?

If you're not convinced, check this video out. It appears at +15seconds.

Steve + a little birdie.

Loads of pics of the Intel UMPC stand at CES on this Engadget gallery.

There's a new one labeled 'WINGMAN' and the swivel-screen one we've seen before. 

Click to enlarge.

But what about this:  "...Intel exec demonstrating "Yahoo! Go for UMPC" to Yahoo's CFO"

So Yahoo GO for UMPCs is on the cards now is it? If its all optimized for touch it could be fun to create your own UMPC desktop. Shame that the Origami Experience isn't a browser too. You could throw some Yahoo gadgets on to it!

Engadget really didn't like the Medion UMPC.

The Medion? Forget it, the keyboard is plain and simply, unusable and the device felt poorly engineered

Like I said before. Either you believe Engadget, the seen-everything gadget guys, or Kevin Tofel the Ultra Mobile PC expert? Or you wait until I've got hold of one and I'll give you the low-down!

Engadget. UMPC v2 roundup

Steve.

Did I hear him say 'well under a thousand dollars.'

Yup. Check out the video.

On battery life: "Getting 4 hours."

On availability: "Out in Europe first." Europe will be getting it '1st quarter' so I'm thinking March/April for the US. Probably without the DVB-T too. Maybe I should start exporting them!

Engadget said the keyboard was 'crap'. That's not what Kevin said. I think I'll trust the guy who uses mobile PC's all the time.

Steve.

You have no idea how frustrating it's been to sit here in Europe knowing that the Medion UMPC was at CES and no-one had reported on it. Our man Kevin came up trumps at the last minute though and I'm really happy to hear that he liked the keyboard. I've had a few discussions with people about the Medion, made cardboard cut-outs and have been trying hard hard hard to get more info out of Medion. Its nice to get so real info.

Image: JkOnTheRun.

Kevin says:

The keys have a nice feel and travel; just like a standard keyboard, only much smaller

If I can confirm somehow that the Vista drivers for the VIA UniChrome integrated GPU support the hardware MPEG2/4/WMV9 decoding then I'm sure that this is going to be a real winner. Can you imagine having this in your sideshow bag and using your sideshow equipped mobile phone to operate it! Great integration.

Price is still unknown. If it sells with the docking station and navigation software I think its worth around 900 Euro. ($1000 approx) based on the ASUS R2H pricing.

Availability in Germany is 1st quarter (latest from Medion) and you'll probably ony find it online to start with.

Steve.

Great news from SMSTextNews today. The X-Series data plan from UK's 3 network is really an unlimited data plan for 5 pounds ($10) a month. I was extremely skeptical about the phrase "unlimited web browsing" but Evan received his bill and it was....Zero. He's used a number of non X-series apps and all have been covered buy the data plan. Interestingly, he used Shozu. Shozu does not use web ports or protocols. It uses port 110 (POP3) which has nothing to do with Web Browsing. But there's a bizarre twist here somewhere...

For example. What does this mean?

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, other than where we separately offer that same service with a client we have provided (such as Sling and Orb).

And this:

3Mail is not included in X-Series as it is a different non-web based email service.

These are quotes from the X-Series blog. The single point I'd like to highlight is that it looks like 3 will charge for access via the IMAP protocol (that's what 3Mail uses.)  It still appears that there are restrictions.

I had a few other questions that I've managed to find the answers to though.

1) Can you use X-Series on a non X-Series phone.

You can use  X-series on another phone. There are people that are running it on non X-Series phones. A laptop with a SIM card slot would work too. Its not permitted though. It would be regarded as an unauthorized device. Its not clear what they would do if they found you in a cafe with your FlyBook V33i I guess if you use it reasonably, no-one is going to fuss. The key point is that its 'fair use.' A mobile phone is more than capable of loading the network just as much as a notebook.

2) Can you tether the X-Series to a PC? Its almost the same as moving the SIM to a notebook I guess.

Here's the same question and a fuzzy answer on the xseries blog:

Using the X-Series as a modem
Question from Anda: Will it be possible to use X-Series phones as bluetooth modems for a laptop? Will accessing this way also be unlimited? Any idea of speeds?

 Answer from 3 UK: The X-Series services are not intended for use as a modem. As an alternative, we'd suggest purchasing a DataCard from http://three.co.uk.

My translation is that they don't want you to use it as a modem but there's no way they can tell. When a port is open (e.g. port 80) they have no way of telling whether the data came from an app on your phone or a laptop connected via Bluetooth.

And here it is in the T&C's

Please remember that the X-Series services are for your personal use only and do not include using your mobile as a modem with your PC or laptop.

Terms and Conditions state this:

Using the X-Services to exploit the unlimited offers

We will also consider your use unfair if you use the X-Series services in any way designed to unfairly exploit the unlimited usage or cause us loss, for example, by using the services for commercial purposes, accessing services that are not included or using an unauthorized device.

I'd say that the N800 makes a pretty good X-Series browsing partner. If you can live with breaking their rules and relying on a web-based existence (and lets face it, Google is making is easier every day to do everything via a browser.) everything should work. Its not permitted but I really can't see how they can police it. Can you?

Steve.

Thoughtfix covers some really interesting ground in his interview with Ari Jaaksi of Nokia.

The N800 is discussed of course, some generic tablet/umpc questions and a lot of other stuff.

See his blog for details.

At the same time I've been working with John Tokash to try and determine that video playback performance. It looks like the current software is not optimised for the N800 hardware because the performance with a couple of sub 1mbps Xvid files wasn't very good. Johns doing some more tests and promised to post results in his blog.

Nokia N800 specs, images, links are here.

CNET have posted a video of the Black Diamond rugged UMPC. David Berlind of CNET actually drops the running UMPC on the floor from about three feet to test it. It shuts off during the drop, they turn it on again afterwards and we see windows boot prompts.

Justin Dyster, President of Black Diamond, goes over the device, shows some options and gives the price. Starting at $4500.

Steve.

Just read this

Cisco is suing Apple Computer for trademark infringement, for using the iPhone name for its new phone.

Breaking news that Cisco is suing Apple over the use of 'iPhone'

Why isn't it on CNN, Google news, Techmeme, anywhere?

update: bloggers picked it up 20 minutes before BBC. loads of blogs already. Still not on CNN. I think the blogosphere will do its work now. I can almost hear the CES chit-chat from here in Germany!

Steve.

5" touchscreen, 800x480, BT 2.0, WiFi, built in GPS. Sounds like it could be a UMPC to me.

The complete specs aren't available yet but I assume its going to be based on a RISC processor of some sort. Its also got USB host support, built in FM tuner and TV-out.

Unfortunately its WinCE based so what you see is what you get in terms of software but if it includes navigation software, a nice user interface and a half-decent browser, it could satisfy the mobile Internet and media desire for many consumers.

$600 is the local price in Korea which, by the time you've added the cost of introducing and supporting it in another market is going to bring it up to $750 if we're honest. At that price there are a few other options to consider including the iPhone and the Nokia N800.

via DapReview.

Steve

 One of the things that's missing on the Pepper Pad 3 is a VOIP and multi-protocol IM solution. It looks like at least part of that situation will change before mid 2007. Pepper Computer have just announced that Skype will be supported on the Pepper 3 hardware.

Its not clear if its just IM and VOIP or whether video will be included. Currently video is not supported under the Linux version of Skype. I'll get the answer to that question as soon as I can.

Here's the important part of the press release:

-cut-

Software Upgrade Brings Skype Support in mid-2007

LAS VEGAS --(Business Wire)-- Jan. 10, 2007 Hanbit Electronics Co., Ltd. and Pepper Computer, Inc. today announce an upgrade to Pepper Linux that will offer Pepper Pad 3 users Skype support in mid-2007. Designed to be both maintenance-free and virus and spyware resistant, the integrated Pepper Pad 3 handheld Web computer allows users to browse the Web, e-mail and instant message, edit and share photos, download and stream music, and watch videos and more - right out of the box. The Pepper Pad 3 with Skype will be demonstrated at CES 2007, Sands Expo booth #69623.

"The introduction of the Pepper Pad 3 has been wildly successful and our customers are very excited about these new applications," said Mark Phillips, Director of Business Development at Hanbit America. "The integration of Skype will provide customers with an even more complete experience when using their Pepper Pad 3."

Skype will be available to all Pepper Pad 3 users through an automatic update in the first half of 2007. Skype customers will be able to travel anywhere in the world and make and receive Skype calls with their Pepper Pad 3.

-cut-

Steve

Yes, it appears that you'll be able to purchase an OLPC in 2008. Actually you'll have to buy two and you'll receive one. The other will be shipped off somewhere else on your behalf. Its a great idea and EBay are involved. Sounds like the best way to control the black market on EBay too.

Lots more info about this at OLPCNews. Exciting.

Engadget has a video demo of the OLPC available too. Worth looking at.

This has popped up. "The Edge."

It certainly doesn't look like the iPhone does it! TGDaily didn't have any specs but I've managed to track something down for you.

If its this device (it certainly looks like it and I'm told that it probably is) then Its simply a screen and keyboard running browser software and it connects to the Internet via Bluetooth through your mobile phone. It pulls pages through a proxy server to reduce the bandwidth required and improve the formatting for the 640x240 transflective screen. As a concept, this is pretty good. Mobile access to the Internet is possible today on your mobile phone and Yahoo and Google are doing good things to help the very small screen Internet experience, but you can't beat a decent sized display and QWERTY keyboard to access full-sized websites.

The PocketSurfer model I'm looking at costs $200 which, when you consider that a Bluetooth folding keyboard is $100, isn't bad. It weighs under 100g and is only 15mm thick.

I doubt if it can handle Web2.0 style client-side processing very well and admittedly it could do with a styling job. If it really is monochrome as in the image above then its going to feel somewhat retro too but I tip my hat to this thin-client effort. How about a super-thin 800x480 version with firefox on Linux, OLPC style dual-mode screen and 10 hours battery life. Brand it with Google or Yahoo and give it away for free with every [insert non-Cingular carrier name here] mobile phone purchase. It could be a way to keep people from jumping onto Jobs' virtual network.

More of my thin-client thoughts here.

Steve

Via Engadget.

The Medion UMPC could have DOUBLE the battery life of 2006 UMPCs...

But first, the images. These come from the OEM's website.

That's a good looking docking station. If the Medion UMPC is shipped with it, it will enable grab-and-go home PC use.

In my quality mock-up (!) I proved that thumbing could be possible.

Note the touchpad on the bottom right of the frame. This is an update to the design. There was a mouse button before.

The specifications have been updated. They now reflect the fact that we've seen it promoted as a Windows Vista machine. Note too that it has the LED backlit screen and they quote a battery life of 4-5 hours. That's believable due to the fact the h/w spec is similar to the Samsung Q1B which has been proven to reach 4 hours battery life. I like the idea of a touch pad rather than a mouse pointer too. This opens up the possibility of little thumb gestures. It might be too small though. We'll have to see.

A word about the processor. Its the VIA C7-M. I know this doesn't support Direct-X 9 in hardware so there will be limitations. Gaming will be a problem. I've also seen problems in Vista's media center but this could be due to beta s/w and drivers. On the positive side, the quality of screen-scaling, TV out, audio (I hope there's a digital audio output on the dock) and, if supported in the drivers, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 and WMV9 hardware acceleration will be very good. My guess is that the hardware video acceleration IS supported. Why? Well to support DVB-T MPEG-2 rates on the C7, you need to be doing something in hardware. Having tested it myself, DVB-T on the VIA C7-M based Paceblade Easybook P7 without hardware acceleration support is a jittery experience.

These are OEM specs and could change slightly for the Medion version of this device.

• OS: Microsoft Windows Vista
• CPU: VIA C7-M 770 (5.0W 1.0GHz ULV @400MHz FSB)
• Chipset & GPU: VX700 (UniChrome GPU)
• Memory: 512MB/768MB DDR2
• Storage: 30GB or above PATA 4200rpm
• LCD:6.5" WVGA (800 X 480 LED B/L)
• Web Cam: 300K for VOIP
• Input Device
  Touch Screen
  Stylus
  Touch Pad
  Keyboard
  4-way buttons
  Enter button
  Mouse select buttons
• Connectivity:
  802.11b/g
  Bluetooth® V2.0
• I/O Port
  VGA out x 1
  USB 2.0 x 2
  Media slot (SD/SD-IO/MMC) x 1
  Headphone jack x 1
  Microphone jack x 1
  DC-In x 1
  Hot Key Buttons
  WiFi on/off
  Bluetooth on/off
  Web Cam on/off
  TV/GPS on/off
  Show or hide windows Mobility Center
  Display enlarge
• Dimension (w/Battery Pack)
  190 x 120.8 x 28.3 mm
• Weight (w/Battery Pack): 720g
• Battery Life: 4 ~ 5 hrs

I liked this device when I first saw it back in Nov and I like it even more now. Engadget dismissed it as a non-starter then (guys, you have to trust my tips!) but I'd like to see what they say now. Personally, I find it much more exciting than the iPhone and want one NOW!

I'll update the Carrypad datasheet for this later today.

Steve / Chippy

The first thing I did this morning was check the Flipstart forum at Handtops.com for any thoughts and updates. Unfortunately there's nothing new to be said. The teaser campaign continues.

Kevin Tofel (jkOnTheRun) got a hands-on demo of the Origami Experience and was impressed. I agree. Its a significant and impressive bit of software even from where I'm sitting. Its good to know that the Samsung Q1 is running Vista too. If you look in the comments you'll see a hint that Samsung might be ready with Vista on the Q1. I hope this doesn't mean more confusing model numbers. Q1-V Q1-VP Q1-VB Q1-VSSD Q1-VPSSD?

Someone finally reported from the Intel UMPC display and took some images. Warner reports that they will have a video up soon.

This is the UMPC that got a bit of buzz last year when it was associated with Yahoo and Yahoo GO. [news] This one has still got the Intel logo on the screen frame and its being called a concept UMPC as before. Maybe developers are working with Intel's Santa Rosa platform which won't appear until mid 2007. That's good news for VIA and as the Yahoo Desktop site appears to be offline now, (its here but unlinked) maybe there are delays.

Dell didn't come up with any UMPC-related announcements in the Keynote speech so unless someone squeezes news out of the people on the Dell stand, this one is off the list.

One last note, not CES related for a change, is that Arima have announced their intention to roll out 8 PDA-based smartphones in 2007. It looks like (link) they will mostly be 3.5G devices and there will be some focus in 'niche' markets. Arima already produce devices for O2 (The Flame, above, is a VGA screen high-end smartphone) and Sony-Ericsson. If anyone wants to go head-to-head with Apples iPhone or HTC's Athena or Omni, they will have Already considered Arima. Arima also designed the the Medion MD 1000 UMPC which was shown on the CES keynote video so there's a definate UMPC feel to this news.

Steve.

I've been watching my RSS feeed for abnormalities like a hawk. The Flipstart teaser sent the screen red earlier and i've still got a Flybook V5 on my radar...

Yesterday, MobilitySite reported a brief 'here's something that could be new' from the Flybook stand and after a bit of research, It turned out to be the V5. Gottabemobile posted some more images today and reported that it has an 8.9" touch screen and 1.2 ghz Core Duo (U2500) processor.

I still don't have the full specs but it looks like the LG C1 Express/Xnote might have a little competition. They're both , 3G enabled and looking gorgeous!

Credit: GottaBeMobile.

Steve / Chippy

I'm sitting here watching lots of people having a lot of fun in Vegas. I'm also on the phone the JKKMobile. We're both watching TabletPCguy-cam and sending emails to see who can be bothered to respond to their push email! So far we've seen the GBM team, JK team,  the TabletKiosk team and many others that we can't put a name too. Here's the GBM team getting over excited at 5pm in the afternoon! From the lest thats Dennis, Warner, Matt and Rob

A short time after this shot was taken the camera went blank and we haven't heard from anyone since!

I wonder if TabletPCGuy is going to the clubs with a low-light cam later.

Steve.

As spotted by  Maxin in the Origamiproject.com forums, there is a new Flipstart teaser site live at Flipstartpc.com

Flipstart is a company that has been talking about UMPC's for a long time. In fact most people have/had written the device off as vaporware. I even categorised it as an almost UMPC myself!

The really interesting thing is that Vulcan (the parent company) are sitting down at a meeting about NOW (3pm CES local time)to discuss the small screen form factor. Details here.

The panel includes Averatec so maybe we'll hear something new very shortly.

• Moderator: Mark Spoonauer, Editor in Chief, Laptop Magazine
• Panelist: Keith Amodt, Senior Product Manager, Vulcan, Inc.
• Panelist: Otto Berkes, General Manager, Microsoft
• Panelist: Bob Rosin, Senior Vice President, OQO, Inc.
• Panelist: Saeed Shahbazi, President, Averatec
• Panelist: Martin Smekal, President, TabletKiosk

Steve.

The new UMPC touch-pack looks good.

That's what its all about isn't it? The killer app. Or at least a convincing bundle of apps.

Having just seen the Origami Experience video, I finally have enough desire for Vista to make me want to buy it for my UMPC. Unfortunately, as an early adopter, I have to pay for this upgrade but for others that have just bought UMPCs, the Vista upgrade and Experience pack is a real and valuable bonus. For those that are considering a UMPC for the first time, the Vista solution with Origami Experience pack will be much much more attractive than the XP-based touch-pack solution which many commentators agreed, was a little weak on real features.

It's not ideal to have to overlay an existing GUI with another GUI, but this software will give all Vista UMPC users a great way to experience an important facet of the Ultra Mobile PCs capabilities without the trouble of badly touch-optimised software. With WMP11 integration, accessing video or audio content will be easier than ever. Can you imagine how cool it is going to be when we get 5" Vista-capable UMPC's with 5 hour battery life. This really isn't far away. The VIA 'John' CoreFusion or Intel Santa Rosa solutions could enable the smaller designs and when combined with better engineering and the LED-backlit screens that are already appearing on new UMPCs, the battery life will rise dramatically. Take the VIA-based Q1B for example. Its been on the market for some months now and its already proven that its capable of VIsta and 3.5 video-watching battery life.

There are still a few question of course. How far can I go with customisation? Is there an API? Can I throw some 'gadgets' onto it? Are security issues going to be covered in Windows Updates and are you going to carry on working with this project because there's a lot more that could be done.

How about working with the Streets and Trips team to produce a navigation plug-in thus providing people with one of the first (and one of the cheapest) out-of-the box Carputer solutions. How about remote controller integration (or will the Xbox controller work already?) and instant messenger, quick mail, weather, and RSS integration. Text to voice technology? Bluetooth phone control? Remote control support? I'm sure these are ideas that are still on the whiteboard under 'prio 2' in the Origami team office but I really hope the team gets the feedback and support it deserves for this product and that MS put a bit more resource into getting those items off the board and into the next version.

For me, this is the app that's broken the camels wallet. Well done to the Origami team.

Steve.

The Tablet guys will love this:

"Who wants a stylus!" - Steve Jobs. 09 Jan 2007.

I give you the finger. Oh Sorry. That sounded rude!

It looks awesome and will do great things to promote the use of the mobile Internet but with a 480 wide screen. (I'm guessing from the 160ppi figure Jobs gave.) and no keyboard the consumer UMPC, uber-PMP and Uber-Smartphone manufacturers have a little breathing space. They could even position themselves to catch all the people that buy one and need:

• faster throughput (its GPRS only)
  
• less latency
  
• keyboard
  
• 800 pixels wide for real browsing
  

Apple have created anew opportunity today. But only for about 12 months because next year it will be the 4.5" 800x480 iThing!

Back to UMPCs now. Hopefully all the UMPC resellers and manufacturers will make their product announcements now that they now how to pitch them.

Move along please... Hey, where have you all gone?... Apple store what?

Steve.

P.S. Watch out for a lot of fuss from Mac fan Blogger.com users. The service was down for maintenance for the whole keynote!

We're at half-time with CES now. All the CES crowd are waking up from their over-indulgence last night, thinking of an excuse to miss the AMD press conference and taking their places for the second half. Its time to look at the scores.

VIA 3 : 2 Intel

Early goals for Intel from Sony UX 380P Premium and Samsung Q1P-SSD put them ahead in the very early stages but a quality fight from VIA ensued with what could be goal of the match from OQO Model 02. It was immediately followed by a tasty one from Medion MD RIm 1000. It brought back a winning desire we haven't seen for a while. The text-book Tablet Kiosk 'rugged' EO v7112XT / VX3 sealed the deal for VIA just before the half-time whistle went.

But seriously, the only really new UMPCs are the VIA ones. The Intel UMPCs are just updates. So i'd call it:

VIA 3 : 0 Intel

Still hiding in the tunnel is the Flybook V5 which i'm trying to get info on. Could this be another VIA device or will Intel score their opening UMPC point of 2007?

The OLPC deserves a mention too. Well done AMD. Its on their stand at CES and the AMD press conference is scheduled for first thing today.

Still on my checklist are Averatec (AHI), ASUS (Via-based UMPC and Sub 1KG notebook rumour) and some long-shots like Dell, Tatung, iRiver,LG,  Amtek and ECS.

Yes, I left out the S-Xgen. Its not on may radar. Sorry Seamless.

Steve.

Just after I went to bed last night, (just before my wife woke up!) the jkOnTheRun team came up with this.

Credit

Its a demo/prototype of TabletKiosk's new rugged UMPC, previously spotted as the VX3 from OEM Mo-Bits. (preview here.) I don't care much for the design personally but that's not important. This is a device for industry, not the consumer. As is the new new eo v7110 docking station. Its a basic device that will do the job intended. I do have to ask myself why it took nearly a year to get a docking station out. I guess they waited until the demand was there. UMPCs are still a big unknown for VARs.

 
Credit

UltraMobileGeek Thoughtfix got an interview with TK and took a good set of images. You can see details of the bump case and the prototype suction cup mount solution for the eo v7110.

It sounds like TabletKiosk will have an announcement about the rugged UMPC soon but if you can't wait, here's a link to the datasheet for the OEM device.

Now back to the scheduled consumer show...

Steve

Don't forget this video while you're waiting for more info on the Medion UMPC. Its the short video from IFA (2006, Berlin) of the Medion MD RIM 1000 UMPC. This is the one that was shown on the video at the Gates Keynote speech in CES, was previewed by SlashGear and has been lovingly crafted in cardboard by yours truly.

Its yet to be formally announced but I am expecting to hear news today (Wed) at CES.

Take a look at the video. Its only 15 seconds long but its all we have until the unit appears at CES.

Credit: www.planet-sansfil.com [currently down]

Its obviously going to be compared directly with the other sliding form factor devices - the new OQO Model 02, the Sony UX and the delayed Averatec AHI but both the OQO and Sony UX carry a premium price and I think the Medion is aimed at a different market. The Medion will be targeted at consumers. Medion have a reputation for good value and large quantity sales (often through the budget supermarket chain Aldi) so this is an indicator of a competitive price. Sub $1000 is where they need to be of course. In Europe I'd guess at €800 - €850 with Vista Home Basic and GPS navigation software package thrown in. This puts it up against the ASUS R2H which is €850-€950. The details and pricing of the AHI are unknown at this point.

 
Credit: PDAFrance.com

The RIM 1000 is due to launch with Vista in just a few weeks.

Steve.

Update: A bit of research reveals that its the V5.

I'm not sure if this is a re-design of the V33i or a totaly new model.

It certainly looks different. Nicer actually. Is that a built in webcam? Its running Vista according to the report.

Click to enlarge.

Mobility Site reports that its a new V33i with 3.5G. The V33i broadband version has been available for some time but I thought it had the same design as the V33i. This looks different to me.

This is the V33 and it looks very different. Different buttons. No web cam.

I'll see if I can get some info from Flybook UK or DE.

In the meantime, enjoy more images at Mobility Site.

Click to enlarge.

Dynamism are showing off all their wares during CES. There's the line-up above. I can spot the Kohjinsha, Vega and Sony UX in there. No OQO Model 02 though. Oh there's that crazy Flybook notebook with the fold up/out screen. Nice.

If you are at CES and want a demo of this stuff, give them a shout via email and set up a meeting. Contact point: Jason at dynamism point com.

Steve.

The first review of the OQO Model 02 UMPC is in and its good.

PCMag's Cisco Chen has obviously had the OQO for a pre-test and gives it 4 out of 5 points in his review. That's the best result I've seen for a mainstream press review although Chen does seem to understand exactly what we has in his hands. He's not moaning about the lack of gaming or video editing capability! 

Some points from the article:

• Keyboard better than Sony UX.
• Nice screen
• It heats up quite a bit after extensive use, and the noise from the fans gets annoying over long periods of time.
• Built-in accelerometer
• Impressive docking station
• You don't get the Aero, or Vista's 3D interface. (as on all UMPCs - Steve.)
• Not as powerful as the UX.

Full review here at PCMag.      Info and specifications here.

I love the design of this OQO. Not just from the aesthetic point of view (more images here) but also from the tech standpoint. The docking station is so so important and the slide out keyboard not only helps typing but also helps customers understand what the device is all about. Its a PC...that you can move about! With the new OQO I think many more people are going to see and understand that concept.

Would I buy one? No. Why? Because it doesn't have a touch screen. Its got an active digitizer that requires a pen. I've got so used to using my finger on a screen now that I really miss it when its not there. I'm not going to pick up a pen to select an audio track and I rarely do any handwriting. Others will disagree of course and that's fine. We all have our preferences and that's why there's room for many more devices in the UMPC market. Bring 'em on.

The OQO is currently available for International pre order at Dynamism. Estimated delivery time is 4-8 weeks.

Steve

This was the flyer that appeared ont he internet during the IDF back in Sept. I've just been following the Yahoo press conference via Engadgets converage and there was no mention of it or Yahoo Go for the desktop. In fact, I went to go and try out Yahoo Go 2.0 mobile (Beta) and not only was the Beta full but all references to Yahoo Go for the PC desktop have gone.

Is Yahoo Go for the desktop dead? Will we still see that hardware I wonder? Quanta were due to put it into production but if Yahoo were funding some of it, has the plan changed? Its about now that I wish I was at CES!

Steve.

I guess it's no surprise the the LG C1 is at CES (known as LC Xnote C1 in the US, LC C1 Express in Europe) considering its been out for so long. I even spotted it in Germany a few months back and have been laboring over whether its a UMPC or not. At 10.6" its just outside my definition but its so damn cool I always feel like welcoming it into the fold! Anyway, the GottaBeMobile team have just spotted it and taken a video which will be up later apparently. I'll be interested to see what they think of it and I'm wondering whether it has the cellular data capability that the EU version will have.

This is a real contender for the ultimate high-end UMPC. Its got a wonderful screen, Core Duo and Nvidia Go graphics. Quite tasty. I wonder what the price will be though. My guess: 2400 Euro in Europe.

The full specs and a lot more images are in a previous post. Should I bring it into the big house of Carrypad UMPC devices?

Steve

The update to the HTC universal, known as Omni, looks like it might have an 800x480 4" screen. That's about the same as the new Nokia N800, with a keyboard and cellular data. Drool! OK its going to cost at least double what the N800 costs but if the rumor is true, its going to be an awesome Uber-Smartphone. I always loved the Universal so I hope they keey that swivel-screen form factor.

Engadget got the tip off from someone pointing them to Solo Palmari and translation reveals some lovely details like secondary screen, HSDPA, 400Mhz Samsung 400 SC244X (I think that's better than the 520Mhz Xscale and its certainly better than the Nokia N800's CPU.) Memory: RAM 128 MB, ROM 256.

There are no images available unfortunately.

via Engadget. 

There it is. All integrated and nice. It's the Origami Experience pack for UMPCs with Vista.

Its just been announced by the Origami team on the Origamiproject.com website.

"The purpose of Origami Experience™ is to deliver a great device-like media interface on your UMPC. It also allows you to quickly access other applications on your UMPC such as Windows Switcher, Mobility Center, Wireless Connectivity and all your installed programs."

• You can easily create a new music or video playlist right from the UI. Very good news.
• You can also choose from 5 different photo transitions to turn your UMPC into an photo frame.
• Play Controls always at the bottom of the screen

There are some more screen shots on the Origamiproject website and they say that it will be available for download when Vista is available in Jan.

So is the Origami team just doing software now? No one else had mentioned 'Origami' until now.

There it is. All integrated and nice. It's the Origami Experience pack for UMPCs with Vista.

Its just been announced by the Origami team on the Origamiproject.com website.

 

 

 

"The purpose of Origami Experience™ is to deliver a great device-like media interface on your UMPC. It also allows you to quickly access other applications on your UMPC such as Windows Switcher, Mobility Center, Wireless Connectivity and all your installed programs."

 

• You can easily create a new music or video playlist right from the UI. Very good news.
• You can also choose from 5 different photo transitions to turn your UMPC into an photo frame.
• Play Controls always at the bottom of the screen

There are some more screen shots on the Origamiproject website and they say that it will be available for download when Vista is available in Jan.

Remember the Eleksen keyboard? Remember I said that I wanted a messenger bag with a screen on it?

How about that! The coolest bag in town?

The module can receive data from the laptop PC either wirelessly through Bluetooth or via the USB connection depending on the application.
A 2.5 inch LCD display presents the information to the user. Both portrait and landscape configurations can be supported depending on the industrial design requirements.
ElekTex fabric controls allow navigation and access to the information stored in the on-board memory cache. Additional controls can be added for enhanced functionality or to support new applications such as MP3 playback, photo album show, video clips, etc.

There's a PDF available too.

Again, this is a ready-for-manufacture concept like the keyboard so no pricing or availability info.

Eleksen product page.

Steve.

Update: It is!

Click to enlarge.

We'll know for sure in an hour or so when the doors open but the interface shown on the Medion UMPC (via Engadget) looks like a cross between WMP11 and the program launcher. Is it part of the new touch pack? I hope they've integrated WMP11 into it. If they've integrated Streets and Trips it would be cool too but I guess that's hoping for too much.

A new touch pack could actually make me start to think about an upgrade to Vista.

Steve. 

Engadget had a few minutes to play with the OLCP. Its funny, they got a bit stuck with the UI. Hop over to the Pepper stand guys. Check out their version of the UI and let us know what you think?

We dug flipping it into tablet mode, but then the reality set in: we only had a few minutes to play with this thing, and it has an almost entirely symbolic interface.

Engadget article.

Steve / Chippy.

This looks like the VGN-UX1XN that appeared in a UK magazine the other day.

The 32GB SSD Vaio UX Premium Micro PC runs with Vista operating system on a 1.3GHz Intel Core Solo U1500 processor. It has the 4.5-inch, 1024 x 600 pixel display, 1GB of RAM, a 32GB solid state disk, a Bluetooth 2.0, 802.11g, USB 2.0, Firewire, and Memory Stick Duo memory card slots.

Via Gizmodo.

I posted this on Origamiportal.com recently but it's worth highlighting it again today. I think we'll see it in a few hours. The source was not a TabeltKiosk source so it not 100% confirmed.

TabletKiosk will be announcing a new UMPC at CES. Our source tells us that its probably going to be a re-badged Mo-Bits VX3 UMPC. This is the Ruggedised UMPC that leaked out via a Carrypad report back in August.

Image from Akori website. Obviously not a press image!

Akori are already distributing it in Europe (PDF available here. News tip via UltraMobilePC-Tips.) and they show a number of build options including flash drives and 2 and 4-cell battery options. Its based on a VIA C7 and VX700 chip combo and provides dust and splash resistance. (more specs, CAD images here.) Obviously this is not one for the high street so expect a ruggedised price (Akori themselves have talked about 1400 Euros for this product.) but it should fit well in the TK portfolio and be an attractive option for their vertical market customers.

Steve.

I expect VIA's mobility group are happy this morning. The two new UMPC devices announced yesterday were both based on the VIA C7-M ULV processor with the VN700 chipset. The only disappointment for them was that Samsung announced the new Q1P-SSD and forgot to mention that they have a VIA version of the Q1 in their press release.

Although Intel have the Santa Rosa platform planned (with the Steeley low-power processor.) it obviously not quite ready yet and so it gives VIA a chance to move forward with the C7-ULV and V700 combination (and soon, the John 'Core Fusion' system on chip.) [See the CPU update for more info.]

Over the next 24 hours I expect we'll see a few more devices through the Microsoft Origami team. There's the Yahoo-related (in what way, we don't know) UMPC with he twist-screen and I guess there will be a few other devices that we haven't seen yet. I wonder how many will be VIA and how many will be Intel!

Steve.  

Engadget (again!) have info on the Medion UMPC.

impressive specs list of the MD RIM 1000 -- 6.5-inch touchscreen, 802.11b/g WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0, onboard GPS, DVB-T tuner and webcam -- Medion's first UMPC is to be made available on Jan 30

This is a VIA C7 based device (VIA are doing very well out of CES)

The fact that they mention a DVB-T module makes me think that its a European model.

Steve.

Update: Datasheet is available.

Update2: Dynamism made an availablilty announcement.

Amazing! What a wonderful design.

• Wifi a/b/g
• Via C7-M 1.2 or 1.5Ghz
• 3G support and a wonderful dockng station.

Price starting at $1499 for a 1.2Ghz version.

OQO 02 website.

Here's the dock.

The video is is at engadget here.

John Tokash  - who seems to be putting in 25 hours a day in on the N800 - has posted an update.

The bit that caught my eye was this:

Nokia is launching a Developer Device Program to provide open source developers with Nokia N800 Internet Tablets at a discount. Maemo.org will be providing 500 devices at a price of 99 euros per device to selected open source developers. Eligible developers will be provided a discount code to be used at the Nokia N800 online shop. [MAEMO LINK]

What a great idea. Seed 500 developers. That could be enough to reach critical mass in the Nokia Internet tablet developer community.

There's a load more info at Johns blog. For example, he found out that you can put 4GB cards in. There's two SD slots!

And there's more.....see the blog.

Steve / Chippy

Here's the promised video of the Pepper software running on the OLPC hardware.

Full screen video looks good (I suspect its DivX/XVid via Mplayer optimised for the Geode just as it is on the Pepper Pad 3.)

Although I don't fancy having a green OLPC in my house, I DO want something that uses this technology. Daylight readable screen. 10 hours battery life (my estimate) Wonderful.

As I reported previously, Pepper are demonstrating this at CES Booth: Sands 69623. If anyone manages to get a look, please take videos and send them my way!

Steve / Chippy.

The Nokia N800 has made an appearance on the Nokia Online Shop and is immediately available in Europe.

Prices are:

UK: £269.00

Euro: €399

Sales package content:

• Nokia N800 Internet Tablet
• One extra stylus pen
• Battery (BP-5L)
• Travel charger (AC-4)
• Connectivity cable (DKE-2)
• Headphones (HS-48)
• Pouch (CP-136)
• Nokia 128 MB miniSD Card with extender (MU-17)
• Quick start guide
• Legal leaflet

Sales link.

Availability (as I write.) In Stock.

Unfortunately there is no specification page on the Nokia website yet. All the know specifications are in the Carrypad database.

Thanks to John Tokash, an N800 owner, for the tip.

Just announced at CES - A new Pentium-based Q1 with flash drive. For $1999. This info based on a press release for the US market.

The Q1P SSD UMPC is currently available with an MSRP of $1,999 (U.S. Market). The Q1P model is available with an MSRP of $1,299 (U.S. Market) and the Q1 model will remain in the product line with its new, lower MSRP of $999 (U.S. Market). All of these models can be purchased through a variety of retail and e-tail outlets.

There's no mention of the Q1B! I hope its not EOL'd. Mind you, Samsung were always quite bad at remebering what devices they actually had in the market! The Q1B is still on sale at CDW.

• Model:Q1 Pentium SSD Version
• P/N:NP-Q1-V004/SEA
• Processor:Intel Pentium M ULV 1.0 GHz
• OS:Windows XP tablet
• Core Chipset:Intel i915GMS
• Graphics:GMA900, DVMT 128M
• Memory:1GB DDRII 533
• Display:7" WVGA Touch Screen (280 nits, 800x480) - NOTE THATS THE LED BACKLIT SCREEN FROM THE Q1B
• Audio: Two stereo speakers (4W total), H/P out, Array Microphone and SRS sound
• Storage:32GB SSD
• Communications: 802.11b/g,10/100 Base-TX Ethernet,Bluetooth v2.0
• Multimedia:AVS Now(Multimedia Instant On)
• I/O Port, Two USB 2.0, One Type II CF card. H/P Jack, VGA, DC-In
• User Interface: 8-way Joystick, User Defined Key(four positions), Auto Scaler,Enter Button,Quick Menu Button,Hold,Volume Up/Down,Power,AVS Now,Ctrl/Alt/Delete Button
• Battery:Li-Ion Standard 3 cell (up to 3 hrs.)
• Adapter:60W
• Dimension/Weight:9.0 x 5.5 x 1.0 inch (1.7lbs)
• Remarks:USB 2.0 Data Cable (Included), Pouch (Included)

Now come on Samsung. Don't forget Europe. Where's the flippin Q1b!!

Steve / Chippy

While all the others are away enjoying free goodie bags and parties, we're (that's all you lot too!) stuck here in our homes doing the hard job of reading and digesting the info!

I was chatting with a few Origamiportal admins and we've decided to open up an Origamiportal IRC channel for the week.

If you fancy joining us for UMPC chat through and past Mr Gates speech and at any other time during CES, feel free to join.

IRC server: irc.dal.net
Channel: #origamiportal.

If you don't have an IRC client, try this free web-based IRC interface. (click to go through and enter the details as shown on the image below.)

See you on the Inside!

After a half a bottle of wine last night, I found out why my site has been slow for the last month.

There was a bouncer (called Max Clients) on the door letting only 10 people in at a time. I've sacked him and left the doors wide open. Just in time for CES.

Welcome one and all!

Steve.

I've just been chatting with Matt Propst about this. We both agree that this is not a device we like.

The screen (I talked about it in Dec and then again a few days ago.) is not up to UMPC standards.

Although it might be 4 inches, touch sensitive and transflective there's only 470 x 270 to play with. For $1400 I'd expect 640x480 at least because 470x270 isn't going to be good enough for web browsing.

Still, its a nice carpet and you can read some comments and see the rest of the gallery at Engadget.

Steve.

Come on Charlie. Have you been to too many CES exhibitions?

The Inquirer don't seem to be impressed with CES so far. Can someone tell them that it hasn't started already?

everything seems to be a little more, a little bigger, smaller, lighter, brighter and DRM infected. What it isn't is new

Well I'm having a ball here just watching the news flowing. Its been a great day for UMPC's already with the launch, or should I say, first sales, of the new Nokia N800. There's loads more to look forward to.

Get yourself down to the bar Charlie it will all look a lot better later!

Steve/Chippy.

Is that small enough for you m'lady?

Kohjinsha SA1 unboxing.

Kohjinsha SA1 specifications and resources.

Kohjinsha SA1 gallery.

I've been jotting down notes as I go with the Kohji. Here's the first 24 hours notes.

Build quality average. Keyboard feels cheap. Mouse pad too. Swivel screen is sturdy. Plastics look a little cheap.

Why the convertible format / swivel screen? A 'Tablet' mode is nice but not really useful without a touch screen. You could use this mode for book reading or video watching I guess but not much else. Looks impressive though!

Battery life - Excellent. I've just finished running at test. At 50% screen, No WiFi/BT, watching a 2mbps video (cpu average 70% util, playing from HDD) it shut down at 3hrs 22mins with 5 mins (3%) left on the battery. Pretty darn good. Thats an average 8.3W drain.

Battery capacity is high (for a 3-cell battery) at 28 W/hr.

SD slot performance very good. Both SD and CF devices appear to be PCI devices (rather than USB devices.) SD transfer rate with a cheap 1Gb Extrememory premium card: 6.6Mbps. This would make a great mini laptop for digital photographers and photo journalists.

External display goes up to 1280x1024. Quality was good. No extended screen though. Its either monitor or notebook. Not both. Good for Powerpoint presentations or for connecting to a projector.

Keyboard seems OK but each key has an area on the left side where it is less responsive. You have to be sure to press a little harder than normal. This could be better. More testing needed here.

No fan noise. (fanless)

Very slight HDD noise (near-silent!)

No heat build up. Much cooler than Pepper Pad 3 or Vega (both Geode devices with no fans)

40GB drive is partitioned 50:50. Not optimal for me. Its a 2.5" drive. 160GB drives should be possible if you want to void the warranty.

Bed and Sofa surfing in two hands is possible. You can thumb the keyboard with it fully open. Its not too heavy. Not as good as the Pepper Pad though.

Video performance with Xvid is very good. It passed my 2Mbps Xvid/AC3 test. That's more than enough for that little screen. With WMV things seem to be a bit different. The performance is very poor. Even a 512kbps WMV9 video is too much. Strangely enough, producing the video with Movie Maker was painless. 9 minutes to encode a 2 min video is very slow but OK for clips. Here's the video of Xvid performance:

Speakers adequate. Much better than v7110, i7210. Not as good as PepperPad.

Looks great. Better than Pepper Pad, v7110, i7200s.

Speed of XP is OK. Amazing for such a low-end processor. About the same as the Vega (as expected.) There are some background tasks running that need to be cleared up maybe. Pepper Pad is slightly quicker to get browsing with though.

Screen brightness very good. LED backlit. Good viewing angle. Not quite as good as Vega viewing angle but still very good.

User upgradeable RAM is a good idea. 512MB is probably optimal though.

Hardware buttons for Wifi and BT. Always good.

Mouse pointer is OK. Some might have to get used to LHS mouse pointer. Has tap-to-select function.

My Wife loves the look of it. I think a lot of women will like this device. Any women reading? What do you think?

I keep wondering about the price. $1k is a lot of money. Even $750 (the Japanese local price) is quite high. If it was a Via C7-M 1Ghz in there, it would be, well, more comfortable because you'd have at least some Direct 3D support. Many people won't be able to justify it so it leaves only business, niche and rich customers. Digital photographers, frequent flyers and train commuters and maybe a few middle aged round-the-world trippers.  

WiFi quality is good. Better than the i7210 so far.

I'm finding myself using the 800x600 mode rather than the native 800x480. On the Vega this res. was to high on the 4" screen.

In comparison with the Vega, the big question is - would you swap a touchscreen and some portability for a keyboard, Wifi and Bluetooth?

Skype. Works fine. I don't expect video to work but voice using the built in mic and speakers was OK.

itunes V7.2.0.16 works. This is good news as on the Vega, it crashed. Others had reported that this newer version works on the Vega so I assume they've fixed the bug. You can't view the albums covers in the video and films sections though (this part has a 3D graphics requirement I think.)

Still to test: Linux, Audio quality (first impressions are good,) Streets and Trips/Autoroute and lots lots more. Of course!

Thanks again to Dynamism.com for getting this over the pond in super-quick time. 

Steve / Chippy

update: Full specs on the datasheet.
update2: John Tokash has just bought one. He's unboxing as I type this. Keep an eye on his blog.
update3: John sent me some images.

It didn't take long for someone to pop out to CompUSA, buy one and report back and tell us the good news. more memory and a better processor.

The processor type is unknown at this stage but it looks like its a RISC ARM processor with at least 2 times the processing power of the processor in the 770.(Xscale 266) Could be a Marvel 500Mhz or a Samsung 300Mhz. I guess its irrelevant. The important thing is it has much more power. More power for faster browser rendering and for videos.

And there's more RAM too. 128MB. Twice as much as the 770 but yielding 3 or four times the amount of free RAM once things are running. Superb.

Keep an eye on Thoughtfix's blog for more info. He's tracking it closely.

Here's a mind-boggling factual report on CES costs from the NY Times on the costs of being involved with CES.

$49 for a case of water!!!! I feel almost happy that I'm not there and have my 5-Euro bottle of wine next to me.

I was also thinking about hype. Remember last CeBit? Things have been pickup up this week but I doubt we'll see that level of blogging activity on UMPC's again! Its like one of those stock market crashes where you lose 90% of the value and you have to grow it 100% 9 times over to recover. (Or something like that anyway!) A long climb.

Technorati: Last 360 days. No. of blogs mentioning UMPC per day.

Google trends: UMPC.

 Steve

Via JKontheRun comes news of a new Sony UX model appearing in an English gadget magazine.

Stuff Magazine (Feb 06) shows the Sony VGN-UX1XN.

The specs show that it will come delivered with Vista and a include solid state flash drive.

The price shown is UKP2000 (approx) Its not clear if this model is destined for the UK or whether they are reporting on a new model available elsewhere. Has anyone got a copy of this issue?

Currently the Sony UX is not available in Europe although Sony staff at World of Mobility told me that they are looking at introducing it.

Keep an eye on the Stuff news here. I'll be tracking this model in the database when I get more info.

Steve.

This is mad. The N800 Internet Tablet has just appeared in CompUSA. Just like that.

There's a full set of images at Flickr.

John Tokash has some size analysis but we're all still waiting for those important specs. Will it have more memory and a better processor?

Update: Price is being reported as $399

I guess we'll see this announced by Nokia in the next few day so all will be revealed soon. I'm tracking specs as I find them in the product portal here.

Original story: RingNokia.

Steve.

Sorry everyone. The (new and rather disappointing) server is getting hit more than it can handle at the moment. Response is r-a-t-h-e-r -- s-l-o-w. I'll see if I can do something about before CES traffic kicks in.

Steve / Chippy.

I'm adjusting my German body clock to the CES time-zone by staying up as late as possible at home and keeping myself busy. For the next week I have taken over my wife's office which has a connected guest bedroom. I can literally sleep next to the computer while I wait for news to come in from everyone out in Vegas!

Here I am testing it out. Comfy!

Things are already starting to happen over in Vegas. Warner and Dennis (GottaBeMobile) have met up with James (jkOnTheRun) and it looks like Dennis has already had one too many cocktails.

Don't worry Dennis. I'm sure there will be worse pictures coming out after the Tablet/UMPC meeting on Tuesday!

The S-Xgen is going to be launched at CES in just a few days. They are entering a tough market and although they mention UMPCs in their marketing, its the communicator phone segment that's going to be the battleground for them. I've got a few opinions about devices in that business-user market.

If you had to choose between these two would you choose the S-XGen or the HTC Athena?

I know what I'd choose. its all in the screen size for me. The bigger browsing space wins every time because I'll be accessing most of my applications through it.

On the left you have 4" 470 x 280  on the right 5" 640x480. Its literally a huge difference. Over twice the number of screen pixels.

They both run Windows Mobile and have hard drives (20 vs 8) they both have keyboards and integrated 3G.

There's only the price to consider and guess what, when I walk into a Vodafone shop and see the Athena at 350 Euro on a 2 year contract, I'm probably going to make the final decision there and then.

The S-Xgen will probably only be available in the US too. I can't imagine them going through RoHS and CE certifications, translations and setting up multi-lingual sales and support processes. The market isn't big enough for that. HTC already have it in place.

The other non-windows options are the Nokia E90 (rumor) or the ROAD. These two are in the same segment at the $1200+ mark. The ROAD 'Handy PC' is a German product and may not cross over into the US market.

This sector of the phone market is going to become more important as sensible data contracts start to kick in and browser access becomes more critical for end users. My feeling is that anything under 640 pixels wide in this category doesn't really stand a chance.

Labels: Report

Video and Gallery links below.

When you look up Google for 'worlds smallest laptop' and 'worlds smallest notebook' there's nothing there that beats the Kohji.

 
Samsung M70, Q35 and the Kohji (via Sizeasy.com)

And then take a look for the worlds most energy efficient laptop/notebook. Once again, the Kohji wins. It's so energy efficient that you could run it from an 8W solar panel. It's also one of the lightest too at under 1000gm. Then there's the noise factor. As its fanless (AFAIK,) it's potentially the quietest notebook PC in the world. Unfortunately, all this minaturisation makes it a contender for worlds most expensive notebook - per square cm and unfortunately its also one of the lowest CPU power notebooks available.

Over the next few weeks I'll be living the Kohji mini-life and putting together some thoughts and eventually a full review on this Japanese tot so stay tuned. In the meantime, there's the unboxing video below and over 50 images in the Carrypad Gallery. As is usual with the reviews, I've got a thread going at Origamiportal.com where we can discuss anything we need to about the device. Feel free to join in and fire away with questions.

Thanks to Dynamism.com for shipping it over. I've got a buy option on it and I'll probably take it. Mainly because the tax man hit me for 100 Euros as it came into Germany so I will probably take my time to do all the testing and then sell it on in Europe. If you're interested, drop me a line and i'll put your name on a list.

Click for detailed specifications and further resources

Low bitrate wmv (320x240, 25MB) here

Enjoy!

Steve.

Many of you will have heard about the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) project that is building a surprising amount of steam [ref. news yesterday] and impressing everyone with its frankly, awesome technology. Well here's some very interesting news direct from Pepper Computer who have just let me know that they have been working with the OLPC hardware and will be demonstrating the Pepper software running on an OLPC at CES next week. They've been kind enough to send some images and have promised a video to follow up soon. (I should get that on Friday.)

There are a lot of parallels between OLPC and Pepper. Pepper have been working for a long time on a similar approach to computing products and interfaces. Their first Pepper Pad product was aimed at teens and the current incarnation, the Pepper Pad 3, uses similar AMD Geode hardware and the same open-source (an important OLPC project aim) approach to writing the software on the same Red Hat/Linux OS. It makes a whole lot of sense for them to be demonstrating their skills in this area.

As far as I know, the currently planned GUI is 'Sugar' [ news] but there's a lot that sits between the GUI and the OS that also needs work. I'm talking about package building, security and upgrade distribution (which Pepper Computer have done a good job on if my Pepper Pad 3 is anything to go by) , bug reporting and state control through standby cycles. If the Sugar and Pepper teams got together it could mean (apart from a lot of bad Sugar/Pepper puns!) improvements for the OLPC software architecture, commercial advantages for Pepper Computer and as consumers we could even see the technology and UI feed back through Pepper hardware projects of the future.

I can't help having a little selfish thought about a new Pepper Pad 4 with that awesome OLPC screen, LinuxBIOS, a flash drive with a suite of offline capable Google app's. I've already called the Pepper Pad 3 a 'Google life companion' and with Google being a sponsor of the OLPC project, maybe the Google-OS WebPad isn't such a wild dream. Guys, if you need a brand name, 'Carrypad' has a certain ring to it don't you think?

Pepper Computer are at CES Booth: Sands 69623

Recommended OLPC reading: OLPC News.

PepperPad 3 review.

I completely missed all this tagging lark going on over Christmas. When I checked my email I had a you've been tagged' message but I marked it as spam (sorry Robyn of sleepyblogger.com.) Then Matt Propst told me I'd been tagged by Kevin Tofel. I better return the favor, even though I'm probably the last blogger in the world to do it!

• I was a part-time Fireman for British Telecom at their research labs in Ipswich, UK. One day we had to remove a leaking Phosphine tank (so toxic that you wouldn't live to get a second breath of it apparently.) from a semiconductor test lab. Not as much fun as the rest of it was.
• I have a long Internet history. I used to admin a full Usenet feed over a 9600 baud link. That included all the alt.binaries branches. I checked them regularly! My first (recorded) Usenet post was in Aug 1989 at which point I was on my 3rd email address.
• I lived in Dublin, Ireland for 4 months and had one of the best times of my life. I cried when I drove away from my apartment to catch the final ferry home. When I got back home I had a digestion problem caused by drinking too much Guinness. I still have an affinity for the black stuff but fortunately it never tastes as good outside Ireland.
• I have an ambition to play the drums in a band. I bought a set two months before Carrypad started and haven't used them since then!
• I have had a crush on Kim Wilde since I was about 13.

My chosen people for tagging are:

Robin Anne Peters. www.robinannpeters.com.

My Wife. www.power-balance.com. Lets cross over into German!

JKKMobile. He's a bit like The Stig from Top Gear. He does some very cool stuff but never says anything much on his blog.

I'd also like to tag Kim Wilde if possible!

Steve.

This will get me used to the late-night CES schedule I have planned. The Kohjinsha SA1 was handed over to me this morning and then promptly and painfully taken away because I got hit for taxes and Mr Fedex Germany doesn't take electronic cash. I'll pick it up later and start the photo-shoot and reviews tonight.

The late nights will continue until he end of CES. Mr Gates keynote speech starts at 0330 local time for example! Where are my ProPlus tabs?

Steve

UMPCBuzz has followed up a post in the Intel community blog pages about home work spaces.

That makes me wonder. The UMPC allows you to work anywhere so where is your favorite spot?

I've put an image of my daytime office and aired my favorite surfing spot on this Origamiportal thread. Feel free to add images of your own home UMPC 'office.' The Coolest setup gets a post on the front page of Origamiportal. Sorry but I don't have cool things to give away like those GottaBeMobile boys. (If you're reading guys, I think he should be called the "prancing porta-pal.")

Steve.

John Tokash makes a lot of sense to me in his recent post about the Nokia 770. He writes about how it fulfils the tasks he requires.

"...the tasks he requires."

That's the important bit. He analysed his requirements and found a device to suit. He didn't do what most people do and dream about high-end gaming or whine about the lack of 3.6mbps cellular data connectivity because he knows that its not part of his requirements.

I really wish more people would be honest with themselves and analyse exactly how they use their computing devices. Do you really need a web-cam when you don't have anyone to talk to. (For example!) and do you really need Vista to browse websites and read email? Do you really need MS Office to create simple documents? Being honest allows you focus on the capability you really require and potentially save money too.

John's requirements is very similar to mine and breaks down into three parts. I quote:

The Mobile Phone/Email device (LG CU320, no email, now, but hopefully a smartphone soon) is something I need to have with me at all times to keep track of projects while away from the office and while in meetings. The Mobile Internet Tablet is something that I like to carry with me throughout the day to meetings, errands, etc, but the required screen size makes it something I can’t have with me ALL the time (was Palm TX, then TK eo UMPC, now: Nokia 770). The Mobile Workstation (Dell Inspiron 6000d) is with me at work and at home, carried to some meetings.

I agree. The mobile phone is with you all the time. If you can handle having a PDA-sized device on your belt then that's even better. The mobile Internet tablet (I'd call this the ultra-mobile PC class.) is the middle ground and the workstation is a semi-permanent installation. This could be a desktop PC for most people.

Read Johns blog entry to find out why his chosen device was the 770 Internet Tablet and remember - be honest with yourself or the marketing machine will get you!

Steve.

Labels: Report

I'm sure there are going to be many more of these shiny bits of marketing in the next week so lets call this one #1 and keep a tally. 

Autonet mobile promises to put a WiFi hotspot into your car and connect it to the Internet for $45 per month. Read the webpage. Its:

Everyone AND families too!

we can connect devices ranging from laptop computers to mobile media players like the Fujitsu P1610.

Oooh the GottaBeMobile team won't like them calling the P1610 a mobile media player. You know what, this Autonet product sounds like a roaming cellular data contract and a WiFi bridge to me. Something that a P1610 can do on its own!

Similar to this product perhaps? The WiFi Cisco/Lynksys hotspot and cellular data modem combo. (info here.)

Or even a 3G-capable phone connected to a UMPC and then connected to the Internet and shared via WiFi.  Something like this guy was talking about over a year ago.

Such a device could be used in the car, turning it into a mobile hotspot

Something many of us know is possible with UMPCs and others are building on smartphones.

I'll be honest. I don't really know what's behind this product of Autonet's but it sounds suspiciously like what I described above. I mean, lets face it, there's no other network that has 95% coverage and automatic hand-off other than a cellular network is there? Or has Starbucks really expanded since I was last in the U.S.?

Autonet. If you have managed to negotiate a truly roamable unlimited data contract for $45 its great news and extremely significant for the mobile data market. If you have a hardware product that's almost a drop-in solution, that's superb too but tell your marketing people not to get too excited won't you!

Ctitanic posted an entry on Origamiproject.com forums about a new Intel driver that has fixed a WiFi disconnection problem for him.

The original blog post is here and it refers to USB drivers. The Wifi on the Q1, R2H and on the i7200 series is on the USB bus so that might explain why there are reports of it fixing the disconnection problems.

I would try it on my i7210 (I had some WiFi disconnection issues that i thought were due to my home WiFi setup) but the damn thing died on me over the holidays.

Steve

No I haven't got any news on it. Its just an observation about the blogosphere.

Engadget picked up the Tatung UMPC images that I posted a week ago (via a huge chain of websites.) The funny thing is that its really no news at all. I don't know why they even bothered.

You can see a product with the label 'UMPC' on it showing a screen image of something that looks like WM5 with a logo. The images are months old and just not even worth getting excited about. There's not a single fact to be talked about. I must have seen over 50 blogs on this so far. Stop it and focus on CES!

Thanks for JKKMobile for the original tip.

Steve.

I just want to air a few observations on UMPC products in the Euro market.

It looks like Samsung have repositioned the Q1. The original Samsung Q1-900 Ceegoo (NP-Q1-V000)with 512MB and 30GB drive is only available from a few retailers now and instead, the Cassomi (1024MB  / 60GB - part number NP-Q1-M000) version is being offered by most online retailers. The most probable explanation is that they need to reposition the Q1 to make way for the Q1b. Remember that Samsung said the Q1b would come in at the same price as the Q1 (Euro 1099) meaning that in order to compete with the Asus R2H they would have had to drop the price of the basic Q1. By moving it up the chain slightly they've avoided that. It will probably sit above the Q1b. There's a navigation bundle available too. NP-Q1-M000/SEG_Navigationsbundle is the part number and you get the organiser pack, car mount, GPS unit, and Map & Guide navi software. Its not clear weather the TMC receiver is included. (TMC allows you to receive live traffic info over an FM receiver.)

I've spotted that the Sony UX280 is available in Germany. One enterprising online retailer now has it for the scary price of Euro 2000. This is obviously an import from somewhere. Who on earth is buying them?

Q1 car mount is available now. I've seen it on a number of Euro websites.

ASUS R2H port bar NGVPB1000P is starting to appear on distributor and reseller books. For about $120 or 120 Euros you can order it now. There are no images available anywhere though so I guess no-one has one in their hands.

The Fujitsu P1610 appears on a number of online retailers websites now. The 512 MB RAM 60 GB HDD version (that's the only version available at the moment, note that it's without the cellular data modem.) costs around 2100 Euro minimum.

That's it for now. I hope that I can report news on the Q1B soon. Its well overdue.

Steve.

You might have to be quick for this.

PocketPCSolutions have some ex-demo UMPCs that they are selling off. Delivery is avaible to UK and Europe.

Tablet Kiosk Eo i7210 SOLD

TableKiosk Eo i7209 - £599 (1 off)

TabeltKiosk Eo v7110 - £449 (1 off)

The Raon Digital Vega is also on sale at a reduced price while stocks last.

Raon Digital Vega - £549

More details on their web page.

As announced in the Origamiportal.com podcast, Carrypad will be taking over Origamiportal.com. Here are the details of the deal and some thoughts about the future for the two portals.

Roy and Matt have done a brilliant job over the last 10 months to set-up, operate and grow what is now the biggest independent UMPC forum on the 'net. They've put in a lot of time on their podcasts, work on backgrounds for Origami UMPCs and a huge amount of effort to help people in the forums. Well done lads. I know they were keen to push Origamiportal further but just don't have the time to do that so we have agreed on a way to hand over Origamiportal so that I can put the effort required into it while Matt and Roy can continue to be associated and help with the site when they have time.
For the time being, there won't be many changes but you will see me start to move news reporting on to Origamiportal while I keep the Carrypad blog/journal as my personal UMPC-related blog. During CES, Origamiportal will be the first place that I will report news as it happens so make sure you have the news feed configured in your rss reader. I will also cross-link to the Carrypad product database so that readers can instantly get specifications on products as I report on them.
I am also going to open up the scope of Origamiportal to cover the same definition of UMPC as on Carrypad. That is, Ultra Mobile PC's from 5" to 10" screen size regardless of whether they are Origami related or not. I think it's important that potential customers see all options open to them and that means reporting on all of the products throughout the range. To reflect this, there will be a name change in early 2007 to UMPCportal.com

One element I will be spending a lot of time on is the forum. This is the most important element of UMPCportal.com and I want to make sure we enhance this and continue to welcome anyone interested in learning and sharing information about Ultra Mobile PC's. The members there have been really good in helping others and I know this will continue.

I've been running Carrypad on my own for 10 months now and its been a busy time. With UMPCportal and other projects coming  up (yes there's more coming up in the near future that I can't talk about at the moment.) I'll be looking for news contributors, reviewers and support people during 2007 so if you'd like to get involved with what I believe will be the biggest and best UMPC-focused information portal, drop me a line.

Finally, thanks to the incredible number of visitors to both Carrypad and Origamiportal during 2006. Considering that UMPC didn't exactly hit big-time during the year, its been encouraging to see so many people wanting to read and share information about them. Thanks to everyone who sent tips in, everyone participating in comments and forums and to all the manufacturers, distributors and resellers that sent news or products.

2006 saw the start of an important new segment in computing. I know I'm one of the few people that believe this at the moment but I have no hesitation in saying that I think the home notebook PC market is going to give a lot of ground to this new class of device. The Multi-use Ultra Mobile and modular PC. Highly personalised mini-PCs with always on cellular Internet capability, multiple input/output options and grab-and-go docking capability make so much sense and in 5 years time we'll wonder why we ever carried 2kg of keyboard-tethered non-touchscreen PC around!

Good luck to all players in this market. Keep driving forward for your customers.

Steve.

I want to follow-up on the SlashGear news about the Medion RIM 1000 UMPC.

 
Take a look at the SlashGear image above and then the Arima ULV650 below. We already knew that the Arima was the OEM but as you can see, the product has had a few modifications since the original CAD images came out. The most interesting is that the mouse button has gone from the keyboard and is now a thumbpad on the bottom right of the frame. Personally I like mouse buttons more that thumb pads but the positioning on the frame is much better. I could get used to that with no problem I think and if its possible to use gestures on the pad, that would be even better.

But what about the keyboard? Is it going to be any better than the Sony UX? Well its bigger and as you can see below with my high-quality, life-size mock-up, its possible to thumb the keyboard but its really tight. The Y, H and N keys are a stretch too. The other possibility is to peck the keyboard with one hand. As its only 680g, it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

Specification-wise I think its great. For standard browsing, emailing, PMP functions and Navigator functions its got enough power. I love the fact that there's a docking station shown on the Arima website and I really hope this makes it through as part of the package. 4-5 hours battery life is much better than the 2 that I get out of the i7210 and we know it's possible as the Q1b has no problem with that.

Unanswered questions? Yes I have a few. The main one being, does it have a light or heavy touch screen. I prefer the light touch as I don't see this being used much as a tablet PC. The other question is about the GPS and DVB-T options. Are they really built in? There was a report that they were but I don't see any mention of it on the Arima website.

Anything missing?  Yes. A built-in cellular data modem and as it's based on the VIA Unichrome Pro graphics, there's no hardware support for Direct-X 9. That means problems with certain programs, games and in the Vista media center. Not a problem for me as I rarely do anything that requires DirectX-9 support but it could be an issue for others.

Price? I can't see Medion attempting to charge more than 1000 Euros for this. They have to hit the same mark as the R2H and Q1 consumer UMPCs which means a price closer to 900 Euro. Fingers crossed for something even more competitive than that!