The last few weeks have been relatively exciting for the world of UMPCs. Shortly after CeBIT, we had Computex, and the show has revealed some interesting things, and showed us that we are getting ever closer to the exciting Moorestown based devices. To see all of our Computex 2009 coverage, just browse posts as sorted by the Computex 2009 tag, and voila!

Jkk has tons of video coverage of the now finished Computex 2009. Here he has an interesting 17 minute video of a Q&A with Intel’s General Manager of the Ultra Mobility Group, Anand Chandrasekher. Jkk also rounded up a list of all the people in attendance, as follows:

• Our very own Steve ‘Chippy’ Paine
• Joanna from LAPTOP
• Johannes from NewGadgets.de
• Frank from SomewhatFrank
• Charbax from TechVideoBlog.com
• JKK from jkkmobile.com (working the camera)

An interesting watch if you want to understand how Intel is handling the upcoming Moorestown platform and have a chance to see and hear from some prominent members of our blogging community.

A few days ago I showed you how the new EB MID reference design has been updated from the one that we saw in 2007. Up until this point I had only  seen renders of the device, but it looks like they were showing it off at Computex, and jkk got some hands-on time with it. Have a look at the video below. The reference device has a capacitive touchscreen and a UI that looks like it will be well optimized for touch use once it is completed. Let me note again that the EB MID reference is based on Moorestown and is voice-capable, meaning that you’ll be able to use it as a smartphone as well as a media and web device.

Jkk seems to have gotten his hands on many of the MIDs shown at Computex this year. Here you can see him checking out the Dmedia M0, which is a MID that looks pretty nice on the outside, but is unfortunately running Windows CE. One surprising thing is that there seems to be a decent 5MP camera on the back of the unit. There is also WiMAX and GPS. Though it looks like the touchscreen is resistive, and there is a very apparent iPhone UI ripoff as the top layer of the devices interface. I’m doubting that this think will go to international market in this form. Jump over to jkk’s site to catch the specs list.

Jkk seems to be getting his hands on all of the cool stuff at Computex. Another short video showing a very solid looking Moorestown based MID. It seems to have a very sizable screen which covers much of the real estate on the front of the unit. It looks thin and well designed. Though the unit that jkk got to check out was just a prototype, I have to say that it is looking quite nice. I can’t wait for Moorestown devices to hit the market; we’ll be seeing great devices like this providing a wonderful FIE to users… as long as they nail the software, and I’m hoping that screen is capacitive!

Earlier you may have seen the DigiCube MIDPhone, and the idea behind the XPPhone is not much different. Take a look at the video and you’ll see jkk looking at another slider device which runs Windows XP, and also has voice capability. While I somewhat lambasted the DigiCube MIDPhone for its 2 hours of battery life, the 5 hours that the XPPhone purportedly provides is just barely starting to reach a level of practicality as a phone. Of course these devices are probably best served as concepts of even ultra-early adopter devices, but once Moorestown hits, we’ll have good battery life such that a device (hopefully smaller than this) can be viably always-on and in-pocket, functioning not only as a phone, but a computer as well.

An interesting hybrid device has cropped up at Computex. Combining a netbook with a Slate UMPC and running both XP and Android at the same time might sound complicated, but it looks like there is a semi-functional unit on display already.

At the M-Taiwan both there is an HP Mini 1000 [Portal page] which has been fitted to use a VIA C7-M processor, and then fitted with a display which actually has its own 533MHz ARM CPU and runs Android. Essentially the Android Slate device functions as the display for the Mini 1000 (running Windows XP) while it is attached, but then can be removed an will function on its own, running Android, as a Slate UMPC.

A pretty cool concept definitely, but without any information sharing between the Mini 1000 base and the ARM based slate, I don’t know how productive one could be with this. What might be interesting is if it would be possible to remote control the Mini 1000 base from the ARM based slate. That way you could take some standing notes with the display, then plug it in to the base and switch over to directly controlling XP.

[How to be Mobile]

After seeing the unit get ripped apart by the FCC and go hands on with plenty of people, Asus has just officially announced it via a press release on their site. While the usual marketing mumbo jumbo is present (they are really pushing it by claiming to have 82GB of total* storage space), we are still left without a price or release date. It seems that Asus is trying to push their touch oriented software hard; we’ll see if it is really useful or just shows off the touchscreen, eventually. At least they were kind enough to leave us a nice table of specs, but unfortunately I’m not seeing anything that we didn’t already know about the T91, maybe with the exception of a “well-designed stylus”… I hope they aren’t talking about the same one we saw in a hands on video a few weeks ago. Hopefully the 5 hour battery life statement is accurate (fingers crossed!).

Asus Eee T91:

Model
Eee PC™ T91

Operating System
Genuine Windows® XP Home

Display
8.9″ LED-backlit / Resistive Touch Panel

CPU
Intel® Atom Z520

Chipset
Intel® US15W

LAN
Onboard 10/100 Mbps Fast Ethernet controller

Wireless Data Networking
WLAN: 802.11b/g/n
Bluetooth V2.1

Memory
1GB (DDR2)

Storage
Total 82GB (16GB Solid State Drive + 16GB SD Card + 30GB Portable Hard Disk Drive* + 20GB Eee Storage)

Interface
1 x VGA port (D-sub 15-pin for external monitor)
2 x USB 2.0 ports
1 x LAN RJ-45
2 x audio jacks: Headphone / Mic-in

Camera
0.3 M Pixel

Reader
3-in-1 MMC, SD, SDHC flash card slot

Audio
Hi-definition audio CODEC
Built-in high quality stereo speakers
Digital Array Mic

Battery Life
Li-Polymer battery, 5hrs**

Dimensions
225mm (W) x 164mm (D) x 25.2 ~ 28.4mm (H)

Weight
0.96kg

Optional
GPS, TV Tuner, 3G plus (HSUPA)

Casing Colors / Infusion
White, Black

Miscellaneous
Comes with a well-designed stylus

There has been a lot of discussion lately about the prospect of Android being employed full time as a netbook OS. It looks like Acer is taking one of the first big steps and officially stating that they will bring an Android running netbook to market in Q3 according to Acer’s head of IT products, Jim Wong. Acer has been showing an Acer Aspire One D250 [Portal page] around at Computex with Android as the OS. They are saying that this isn’t the actual product, but just a test platform. And that of course would leave one to believe that they won’t just be releasing one of their previous netbooks with Android as an OS option, but instead be developing a new netbook specifically for the inclusion of Android.

I still can’t quite see the major appeal to running Android on a netbook instead of a more mature computer OS. I’m sure costs factor into the equation; maybe Android is cheap and requires little configuration from the selling companies end, but then again, wasn’t that what they were trying for with Linux? Would you buy an Android powered netbook given the choice between Android and XP (or even Linux)? Let’s say that choosing Android saves $100….

[Register Hardware] [Engadget] (additional pics and video through the Engadget read link)

Jkk has a short video from the show floor of Computex showing the DigiCube MIDPhone-50. As you might have guessed from the name, it is a MID that also functions as a phone. The unit has a sliding/tilting HTC Shift [Portal page] style form-factor and runs Windows XP. It also boasts 3G connectivity and full voice capability. An interesting idea, sure, but with 2 hours of battery life, I don’t think you’d be using the phone function of the device for much more than emergencies. In addition to the battery life restraint, the device seems quite big for a phone, and I’m doubting that many would like to be seen holding the device to their head in public. An interesting idea, but I think we’ll need to wait for Moorestown to get devices with a reasonable size/battery life that will be used as full time phones.