If the iPhone 4 piques your interest, you should head on over to our consumer-focused sister site, Carrypad.com. We’ve got the new iPhone 4 and are already putting it through the paces. If you need to get caught up to speed, check out the iPhone 4 tracking page in our product database:

iPhone 4 – specs, news, links, and more

Or you can alternatively click this link for a full list of iPhone 4 coverage from Carrypad.

If you’re the type of person that’s more interested in kicking back in a comfy chair with a coffee and your favorite internet sites and apps rather than looking to get productive with UMPCs, you’ll want to take a look at our sister publication, Carrypad. We’re focusing on consumer media and internet devices and building a database of all that’s interesting.

Here are some of the recent news highlights:

ICD Gemini Official Specs Confirmed. Comes in White Too! – Android-based 11.6” consumer tablet has awesome specs but it’s a Q4 device and there isn’t even a hint of a price.

JooJoo Review Reveals 2.5hr Battery Life. Move along please! – The JooJoo didn’t get a good review. We weren’t surprised.

Typing on the iPad [video] – Ben has an iPad. Here’s one of his videos. Stay tuned to Carrypad for more iPad news.

iPad: What’s Bubbling To The Top? – Looking at the reviews for common threads. How’s the iPad doing? We’re not seeing too much rising up as ‘killer’ features.

Why The CIDs Will Suffer. – A thought about how the iPad could stall the market for consumer internet devices.

More Smart Delays – Dell Mini 5 and Lenovo Skylight get delayed.

It wasn’t an easy decision to make but it made sense. Our iPad (that’s the one that Ben and I have bought for Carrypad) will be spending it’s life over in the capable hands of Ben over in Honolulu. It turned up today and Ben’s already posted some unboxing pics. He’s planning to get rolling with a series of usage articles and we hope that we can offer you a useful perspective on the device. Ben has a lot of experience with UMPCs and netbooks and he’s also an iPhone owner so he should have no trouble getting used to the iPad. We’re also planning to learn from the iPad and to see what elements of the device are missing from other devices and if the iPad has potential as a full, productive mobile device.

Although the iPad carries the soul that the Origami team were searching for back in 2006 we’ve decided to do the coverage at our consumer-focused sister site Carrypad. We might bring some tech thoughts over here in a few special articles (the iPad runs in 2.5w – 10hrs in 700gm! That’s something I want to talk about soon at UMPCPortal) but at the moment, everything is going on over there.

Coverage so far:

(Keep checking the iPad product page for updates and new articles.)

Our iPad Decided to Show up Today – Brief Unboxing

iPad: What’s Bubbling To The Top?

Why The CIDs Will Suffer.

UMPCPortal is where we take mobile devices and hold them up against a template of productivity, technology, battery life and engineering. We try and look deep into the technology to not only see what’s possible today, but what’s possible tomorrow and how it can fit into pro-sumer and productivity scenarios.

If you’re looking for a more consumer-focused ride though, that’s what we do over at Carrypad. There we take mobile devices and focus on the things that are important to the casual user. Price, features, ease of use, style and user interfaces play a huge part her because not everyone needs the Full Internet Experience when lazing around on the couch catching a little YouTube in the advertising breaks on TV.

We’ve Got an iPad on the Way, and You Can Too

In the last week we’ve invested in an iPad. Ben is going to take the reigns on it and see if he can work out where the device fits now and to track it as applications start feeding through. It seems strange to be following Apple into this new segment at such a low price but it looks like they really will have the first 3G-enabled consumer-focused tablet on the market beating the Dell Mini 5, the JooJoo and the IDC ultra by a long margin.

The Top Consumer Internet Devices.

The database has been running for a while now and we’re seeing an interesting Top 5 battle. Consistently at the top is the Dell Mini 5. This 5” Android-based handheld tablet promises to trump the already-popular Archos 5 in two ways. It will not only contain a full 3G and voice radio but it will also be one of the first MIDs (i.e. a device targeted at Internet use as it’s primary function) with a full suite of Google applications. That means marketplace which means a whole new opportunity for developers to work with a huge 800×480 screen.

Also knocking around at the top are the ICD Ultra which should be available later this year. The Notion Ink Adam is a similar device and if they get the promised Pixel-Q1 screen in there it will be a great device for outdoor use.

More significant, I think, it the Archos 7 Home Tablet. This isn’t a powerful device but at $179, it should offer excellent value for the round-the-house experience. It’s claimed to offer a smooth video playback experience at near 720p quality along with a reasonable browsing experience and a good set of Android applications. Archos will be following-up with a whole range of Android-based devices later this year too so they are clearly putting their bets on the Android OS. If Google allows them to use their marketplace, the whole range of Archos devices will get a huge boost.

Of course, the iPad is going to be important but it’s not rising as high in the ‘charts’ as I expected. Maybe that’s still to come!

There’s a lot more news out there in the world of consumer devices but we’re going to be honest; you won’t find everything at Carrypad. There’s a lot of hype out there and a lot of products that just won’t get past stage one – a showing at an exhibition. We’ll be focusing on the cream of the crop and only bringing you the news that you need to hear.

Check out more at Carrypad where you’ll also find the RSS feed and the ability to sign up for the daily email.

I’m not sure how many of you will remember the original Carrypad Journal that I started nearly four years ago. The name was based around a dream device I was looking for at a time when technology was nowhere near ready for me. A consumer-focused 5-7” device with a mobile-focused processor, dedicated software and providing quality web access. ‘Its a device for these locations: Sofa, Bed, Coffee Shop, Car, Train, Plane’ is what I said at the time.

Just days after launching my blog, ‘Origami’ happened and six-months after that I left my job and went ‘pro’. The site evolved into Origamiportal and UMPCPortal and focused on a professional level of mobile computing experience based around desktop operating systems and the ‘FIE’. The site always kept an eye on the consumer mobile internet device segment though and as we reach the end of 2009, the segment is starting to gain serious traction. Momentum is building for low-cost consumer-focused internet-connected hand-held devices. Media tablets, web devices, e-readers, navigation, internet communications and microblogging devices. Prices, technology and mobile-focused operating systems are finally allowing this segment to take off. I’m confident that over the next 5 years we’ll see a new segment of internet-connected hand-held ‘gadgets’ appear and because of this, I have been preparing Carrypad.com as a consumer-focused portal for hand-held internet devices.

Smart, mobile and Internet-connected.

“Carrypad is an independent website about the handheld internet experience and will bring you up-to-date information about devices, accessories, services and applications.”

That about sums it up. The team (including some new members that we’ll welcome in more detail over at Carrypad) will be following the news, writing reviews and attending the important shows. We’ll be running a sub-section of the successful product database hosted at UMPCPortal and rather than setting up a forum, we’ll be testing out a new community section based on ‘BuddyPress.’ Simply join Carrypad and connect and communicate with other like-minded people. You can also set up groups to exchange tips, hacks, help and news around particular products. We’ve even got the ability for people to set-up and run their own blogs, for free!

The site was completely hand-worked by myself between writing articles and there’s still some work going on to skin the member area and enhance the product database. That will happen over the next six months but for the time being, Carrypad is open, stable (i think) and ready to welcome you. Please add Carrypad to your bookmarks and reading lists, join-up, follow Carrypad on Twitter and lets have some fun as this consumer-focused mobile internet ‘thing’ happens.

Thanks to the team, thanks to all the UMPCPortal reader and welcome to a new chapter in Chippy’s mobile world!

More information and questions answered on the next page…

Engadget stumbled across this little Carrypad a short while ago.

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