We were expecting (a beta release of) Moblin 2.1 for handhelds before end of 2009 but it didn’t turn up. In a search this morning, however, found this. It’s a month old but it’s a build of Moblin for the Poulsbo chipset. Specifically for the Congatec In-Vehicle Infotainment board based on the Z530/Poulsbo. This could be useful for those looking for a slim Linux build for Menlow-based devices.

Sure enough, on my Kohjinsha SK3 it booted but it ended up with a messed up screen resolution. I’m heading out of the door for DevMob 2010 now so don’t have time to test on other devices so if any of you out there have time, let us know how it goes for your Menlow-based device.

The article mentions a full release in early Q1. So right about NOW then!

Any Moblin team members out there care to update us on final release details?

2.1 IVI FC release | moblin.org.

On previous MIDMoves adventures you saw me in San Fransisco and Taipei and at each of those events I got hands on with a new 5” Intel-based MID. I’m expecting both of these new devices to launch while I’m in Vegas for CES in a few weeks so here’s a quick rundown of what I know so far.

As you can see, both devices have an extremely similar design. On the left, the Viliv N5 that was announced just a short while ago. On the right, the UMID M2 that we’ve already had time with.

Both devices will be based on the Menlow platform, have a 1024×600 touchscreen and an integrated mouse pointer. Wifi and Bluetooth too. Questions remain over the battery life but based on what I’ve seen with the forerunner to the UMID M2, the M1, battery life on the M2 should be good. If Viliv continue their run of high-quality UMPCs, the battery life on the N5 is going to be good too.

XP, Windows 7, 3G and SSD options should be available so the only real difference in basic specifications I can see is the GPS on the N5. That’s not a deal-breaker for most so it really leaves two differentiators; pricing and the all-important hands-on testing!

That’s what we’re planning to do at CES in a few weeks starting on the 6th of Jan so stay tuned for this interesting battle of the 5” Clamshells because these two could be great mobile computing options.

(We might get some N5 specs and pics soon so again, stay tuned!)

Two items of news related to Linux support on the Menlow platorm  have caught my attention in the last 24 hours. Both news items are related to the Ubuntu Linux distribution.

Menlow is the Intel platform that many MIDs, UMPCs and even netbooks and laptops have been built around in the last 12 months. It’s focused towards very low power consumption, video playback acceleration and 3D support in the smallest possible size.

Up until now, the only official operating systems that have supported the platform have been Moblin 1 (via Intel. Largely a static project now) and Windows XP, Vista and 7. Trying to use any of the latest popular Linux distributions on any of these devices results in problems.

Ubuntu, the Linux distribution run by Canonical, has always had a close relationship with UMPCs and MIDs. They did some work on Moblin 1 with the Ubuntu-MID distribution but that project is now static. Then there was Ubuntu-Mobile which turned into Ubuntu UMPC. Again, this project stopped. The Ubuntu Netbook Remix project also started and this is the one that has been focused on over the last 12 months. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have any support for the graphics/video part on Menlow known as ‘Poulsbo’. The same is true of Moblin 2. Intel dropped support for the MID platform.

The good news is that there are people out there working to fix the problem. The latest information is that one  ‘lucazade’ has rolled up everything that is needed into a few scripts and has even set up a repository that can be used to pick up the correct drivers. Full information at the bottom of this post.

The second bit of good news is that Jolicloud, the Ubuntu-based distribution targeted at netbooks, is also checking out support for GMA500. This message went out yesterday:

team is testing internally the poulsbo (gma 500) support in the next jolicloud release, we will look soon for testers.

Naturally we’ve already been in contact with the Jolicloud team about this and plan to bring you some more information shortly.

Despite all this third-party activity and end-user requirement (about 30 Menlow-based devices exist in the market right now) Intel has never really talked about Menlow support. We’ve seen Moblin 2.1 for handhelds running on Menlow and seen the Linux Foundation demonstrating it but I can’t get any statement out of them on the subject.

Based on what we’ve seen and heard I would put money on being able to run the open source beta release of Moblin 2.1 for handhelds on Menlow (purely because there’s no other platform available for developers to test on) and that is supposed to be coming within the next month. I’m also convinced that Moorestown will use the GMA500 so there’s another reason to have drivers available.

Finally, check out some of the emails in the Moblin Developer mailing list. This is an interesting one for example. (from 15th Nov.)

If you know of other Linux distributions that either work with or are planning GMA500 support (I hear rumors that Mandriva supports GMA500?) let everyone know in the comments. Likewise, if you’re running Linux on a Menlow platform, let us know what you think.

Update: 18th Nov 2009. Jolicloud have announced out-of-the-box support for the GMA500.

An interesting device popped up at JKKMobile yesterday. A new Kohjinsha device that, according to JKK, could be based on the existing UMID M1. It looks a lot deeper than the UMID, about the same size as a netwalker. Should perform faster than the netwalker too. It’s based on the Menlow platform and will be running XP.

4.8 inch convertible touch screen
Intel Atom Z520 (1.33Ghz) with 512MB RAM
32GB SSD
Wifi and bluetooth
One-Seg TV tuner
1.3 mpix web cam
Micro SD
1 x USB
7 hour battery life ( forget it .. 4 hours is real )
161 × 111 × 10 ~ 26mm 400g
XP Home

We’re trying to get detailed info right now so stay tuned.

jkkmobile: Meet new Kohjinsha UMPC, PA series convertible.

Source: PC Watch

I took MIDMoves to the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco last week with a focus on the three M’s of MIDs, Moblin and Moorestown. IDF is the highlight of my mobile computing year and I was hoping to see Moorestown MIDs being demonstrated, the launch of Moblin 2.0 and a bunch of new products. As it happens, we got the expected Moblin 2.0 launch but didn’t see much in terms of hardware. We did get a few surprises though and as usual, in-depth information that helps us predict what is going to happen in 2010 and 2011. Here’s a summary of the Intel Developer Forum 2009 for a mobile computing perspective.

Read the full story

I’m just a few posts away from completing my Intel Developer Forum 2009 related work now and it’s time to round-up and summarize the news and to try and work out what it means for 2010 and 2011. Power-gating, Mobiln 2.1 and the App Store are just three very important elements but for the full overview, check out an article I’ve just posted at UMPCPortal which goes over everything I learned. I can not deny that it was disappointing not to see more Moorestown prototypes but the news is more than enough to keep my excitement going until the next big event. See you at CES 2010 in January.

IDF round-up at UMPCPortal.

Image via. Intel

Many thanks to Intel and the Intel Insider program for the sponsorship of my MIDMoves work at IDF.

Discovered by the great Pocketables community last week, the Tainell is a new 5″ MID/UMPC based on the Intel Menlow platform that is due in Sept or October.

Looking very similar to the Viliv S5 and Inkia 500 and with similar specs too.

• Intel Atom (Silverthorne) 1.1Ghz
• 1GB RAM
• 32GB SSD
• 5″ 1024×600 screen
• Webcam
• GPS
• 3G, Wifi and BT.

One thing i’m immediately missing are details about the on screen keyboard. Cleary a device without a physical keyboard needs an on screen keyboard and the one on Windows XP isn’t going to impress anyone. Even the floating input panel on Windows XP Tablet edition isn’t going to be interesting to most. Windows 7 could be the answer here but how much is a tablet-enabled version of that going to set people back? The licence cost could really impact the retail cost. Tainell need to look at high quality 3rd party solutions that include word completion and other must-have features.

We’ll keep an eye out for this at IDF in Sept.

All details are in the product database over at UMPCPortal now.

Source: Pocketables.

As Sumocat has already pointed out, the results are hardly surprising. If you want to buy a MID in the US, you have to search very hard indeed.

ARS Technica took a list (supplied by Intel Marketing) of MIDs available in the U.S.  and went on a search. The list of device list was hardly complete…

• Archos: 9″ Tablet
• Clarion: MiND
• Fujitsu: U820
• Panasonic: U1 Toughbook, H1 Toughbook
• UMID: m1
• Yukyung Viliv: S5, X70EX

There’s only one place on the internet you’ll find a complete list of all UMPCs and MIDs so it’s easy to find the ones that were missing [Full list below] but that’s not the point of the story. The point of the ARS Technica article is that you can’t find many devices in normal channels. It’s true and it won’t change until distributors get some confidence that they can actually sell stock. This is an incredibly niche market we’re working in here and until better products reach the market with better operating systems and some marketing support from Intel, I don’t think anyone is going to be throwing thousands of dollars at marketing themselves and buying large amounts of stock.

I was speaking to Mobilx today and they have the same worry. There’s no point buying 500 MIDs until you see a no-risk demand that means you can shift stock in a reasonable amount of time. With companies like OQO, Raon Digital and Wibrain going out of business, that risk of being left with a shelf full of products that aren’t going to get marketing or after-sales support is way too high. We agreed that despite Windows XP being useful and productive, XP is boring is becoming a hurdle in the consumer market. That needs to change and that the time is running out. Intel needs to get Moblin/Moorestown products out ASAP because Android, Maemo and ARM have already reached the MID market.

On the bright side, don’t forget that US is not the primary market for MIDs and we’re very close to the main IDF event of the year which means all the news and marketing has already tailed off in preparation for the next wave. In just 6 weeks we should be getting updates on products, platforms and software and with voice-enabled Moorestown and Moblin, it’s a very different proposition this time round.

List of MIDs on next page…

Be careful how you read this story. Some people are taking it as meaning there will be no more Z-Series; possibly forgeting that there is a Z-series market outside the netbook market.

Only last month, Intel told me that Menlow (the platform that uses the Z-Series CPUs) will continue alongside Moorestown. I understand that this is because Moorestown won’t initially support Windows products and Intel need an offering for the Windows-based ultra mobile market. A small market, yes, but a growing one.

There’s one aspect that we need to consider though. PineTrail could be so close in architecture, size and power requirements to Menlow that PineTrail becomes the platform used for Windows-based ultra mobile devices until Windows-capable Moorestown variants come along in 2010. It seems unlikely though based on what we’ve heard.

All will be answered when I go to  IDF is September though so you don’ t need to worry for too long.

Intel to suspend Atom Z sales to netbook makers, say sources.

I wrote an update on Moorestown last week over at MIDMoves.com but I want to expand on that here on UMPCPortal today because I really think that the new information we have now is extremely significant for the core audience here. Moorestown is the first computing platform that covers my definition of ultra mobile computing. From high-end smartphones, through targeted, Ultra Mobile ‘desktops’ , super-mobile laptops and the whole range of internet-connected opportunities that exist in the mobile internet space.

Read the full story

I’ve been careful to point out in the past that Moorestown and Menlow will overlap and continue to be available as two separate platforms in the MID space. While a version of Moorestown will support XP, it won’t be the version that we’re seeing touted for smartphones. Even Intel were careful to point out that you won’t see the same power envelope with Microsoft products so clearly, Moorestown is initiall a cut-down or special ‘crafted’ platform that only works with Moblin.

Menlow is that platform that continues to be offered for use in UMPCs and note here that Intel appear to accept now that Moblin V1 isn’t going to be the primary OS for Menlow based systems. I think it’s fair to say that Menlow and Moblin V1 failed and even distracted the market for ultra mobile solutions until it got back on course recently with XP versions of the original MIDs. I’m even hearing and seeing Windows 7 being promoted for UMPCs and if OEMs can keep the licensing costs low and ssd speeds high, it will make a great solution.

So that brings us to the Compal KAX-15, the only Menlow-based device that was announced within the Intel meetings. It was shown in the Ultra Mobility keynote and JKK got straight over to the demo device and gave us the full details in a video. (below) Before that, the specs.

It has a sliding/tilting keyboard that is similar to the HTC Shift but on a smaller scale. It’s a bit bigger than the original Compal MID that Aigo and Gigabyte used but that is probably due to a bigger battery. Compal will be aware that the battery life on their JAX-10/KAX-10 is no longer competitive in the UMPC space.

• Screen size: 4.8”, 800×480
• CPU: Z515 with 800Mhz and 1.2Ghz bursting. (Which I think means that designers can build around the TDP of the 800Mhz part but i’m not 100% sure. Sounds just like speed stepping to me)
• No mouse controller
• Dual web cams

I think it’s fair to say that this is in the running to be the next Aigo MID. Personally I find it a better form factor than the UMID M1 but we’ll have to see about battery life.

This just in from a meeting I had with Intel this evening.

At the Ultra Mobility Event at Computex tomorrow, we’re going to see live demonstrations of 2 or 3 Moorestown devices.

Clearly this is going to affect Menlow but it sounds like Intel have accelerated the Moorestown program. I don’t have any info as to whether Microsoft products will run on the platform so that will be one of my questions tomorrow.

More information over at the MIDMoves project blog that I’m working on this week.

You’ve seen the Inventec Mediaphone, the Moorestown-based MID already but we’re in for an even better treat tomorrow. At about 2pm here in Taiwan, Intel will be showing 3 working Moorestown products running Moblin V2 and if all goes well you should see a video of me making a phone call from one to the other proving that Intel are entering the smartphone market. It’s hard to believe that the PC architecture can be optimised and enhanced to the point where it defines a new category of smartphones.

In a discussion with the Ultra Mobility Group today I learnt that we’re going to be seeing demonstrations of working products. No timescales were given but based on what I saw of the product today and the fact that Moblin 2.0 will only be targeting the Netbook and Moorestown platforms, the Moorestown program has been accelerated and that we could be seeing product launches in 2009 rather than 2010.

We won’t be seeing low-cost smartphones of course and there will be products based on Moorestown that won’t include voice (think of the existing MID markets – PMP, Full Internet, Navigation, Social networking) and voice-enabled products that you might not even want to put in your trouser pocket but this is Phase 1 of a multi-year rollout of ever-improving platforms that can go from deep in the feature-phone territory right up to grab-and-go UMPCs. Intel is serious about this. They see themselves picking up every customer in the mobile phone ecosystem in this program.

My prediction for tomorrow.

• You will see 3-4 Moorestown designs.
• You will see future concepts based around Medfield specs
• You will see devices that idle, connected, at 100-300mw with the screen off (The official line is that devices will idle at 1/50th of what we see on Menlow-based MIDs today)
• The low idle and system power will allow battery sizes to be slashed in half. 8-10hrs online. 3hrs working.
• You will see voice calls being made.
• You will see 720p video recording being done in hardware.
• You will hear that LG and others have committed to products in 2010
• You will hear about new software partners

The Ultra Mobility Event starts at 1345 here in Taiwan 0645 London. 1:45am New York, 10:45am San Francisco and I’ll do my best to live blog it here on MIDMoves.com

For many, tommorrow will be a day to go down in computing history.

After many months of wondering if the S5 was going to be as good as we first imagined it to be, it’s time to review the final retail version and make some conclusions. The Viliv S5 is one of the smallest tablet PC’s in the world. It includes a full PC hardware architecture and Windows XP software. The manufacturer has used a mature design from it’s PMP range and the end result is a solid, well-built pocketable device aimed at media, web browsing and, due to the built-in GPS, navigation.

Vilis S5 specifications, discussion, links, videos and images in the community specifications page.

Read the full story

With twice the battery life, half the weight and half the price of UMPCs of 2006, the advances in UMPC technology have been amazing. Here’s a video summary of what’s happened in the last 3 years.

Just imagine what’s possible with Intel’s Morestown platform and ARM-based platforms from Ti, Qualcom and Nvidia. In 2010 we’ll be seeing devices hit 250gm with slimmer designs and true, all-day on battery life.

The Palm Pre will probably be the most powerful smartphone ever when it launches and browsing is likely to be significantly faster than any other smartphone before it. The browser is built on Webkit so there’s likely to be a good degree of accuracy and the connectivity options look good too so in many respects, this is going to be a great mobile Internet device.

Read the full story

Jenn spotted that T-swivel UMPC. It’s still doing the rounds. First hands-on was nearly 2 years ago now. Will someone just sell it, please?

T-swivel UMPC concept at Marvell booth.